| The Hasegawa J-35 Draken |
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The SAAB J-35F Draken from Hasegawa (Kit no BP1) is their first release in their
Swedish Airforce series. It is molded in their usual gray plastic which is
quite workable. The panels are very nicely recessed.
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The model checks out very well with most available scale plans, and with
the real aircraft. The only fault in the kit is the fuselage behind the wing,
between the wing and the exhaust. The kit and all plans show this as a
straight line but the real aircraft has a slight inward curve here. This
fault is very difficult to remedy so I left it as is.
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Step 1.
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Part A14 is far too long and should be half its size. That part is the visor
for the radar screen and as you cut it make a shallow recess at the pilots
end. Glue the instrument panel decals BEFORE gluing A14 to B11. Add
seat belts to the ejection seat A6. Seat belts are in Humbrol 94. The whole
interior is Humbrol 30 except for the side panels and the instrument panel
which is Humbrol 33.
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Step 2
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In step 2 you are to cement part A2 to the upper fuselage. The way Hasegawa
has split these parts indicates that they are going to release other J-35s
like the SK-35 (trainer).
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Step 3
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Dont forget to open up the holes in the lower fuselage. These are used in
step 7 and 8. Blank of the fuselage somewhere between the air intakes and the
wheel wells. Paint the interior flat black.
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Step 4
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Glue B9 after gluing E1 and D3 together. Paint it black on both sides. B9
will not be seen after the kit has been finished. Blank off the side intakes
on E1 and D3. Do not glue part A15 until after painting and finishing. The
engine opening makes a great place to put a stick in to hold the model while
painting.
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Step 5
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Here you will have to put some lead shots in the nose cone. You probably don't
need it but I used it anyway. Better safe than sorry. The engine from step 4
will NOT fit snugly to the fuselage. I glued the part flush at the top and
used putty on the underside. Its less difficult to sand at the lower fuselage
rather than around the fin. Part E7 has a small antenna pointing forward from
the small fairing on top.
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If you didn't blank the fuselage of in step 3 you still have the chance to do
this as you glue the front air intakes E2&3.
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There will be some filler needed around the nose cone and the air intakes.
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Step 6
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The parts B4 and B6 are for the auxiliary power unit. The APU is not normally
deployed on parked aircraft so you get to choose here. The landing gear is
not silver as Hasegawa says but is painted in Humbrol 30. The rest of the
wheel wells are flat aluminum as the inside of the doors. The wheel hub is
silver. Part E6 is a IR-indicator and has the front part dark red.
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Step 7
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Same as step 6 regarding the colors. The J-35 has the wheels parallel with
the gear strut so it looks a bit odd.
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Step 8
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All parts here are in aluminum. This tail wheel was fitted to all J-35s as
the pilots often were prone to drag their mounts tail along the runway making
a nice fireworks display at take-off and landings. The tail wheel was deployed
at the same time as the wheels so its always open on the ground.
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Step 9
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Fuel tanks. Its up to you to fit them or not.
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Step 10
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Fitting the fuel tanks and the mountings for the Sidewinders. Hasegawa has
for unknown reasons deleted the rails for the Sidewinders and even gone so far
as to cut them from the sprue. They are indicated on the plans.
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Step 11
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C2 is to blank of the left gun port. Its too small so filler will still be
needed to make it invisible. Don't use part B5 as it is far to big for the
small pitot tube it is supposed to be. Make a new one from stretched sprue the
same length.
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Painting.
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The J-35 has a two color camouflage pattern. Hasegawa's colors makes a fair
representation of the Swedish colors. The green color usually fades rather
quick and takes on a lighter pea green color with a brown tint. The darker
blue green turns more bluish.
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Xtra color has the correct colors for the Swedish airforce (X775, X776,
X777).
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The demarcation line between the three colors are very soft. In some cases I
have seen the light gray from the underside over spraying the green on the
upper wing with as much as 2 feet.!!!
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The underside has the middle unpainted flat aluminum. Here you have a sharp
edge between the paint and the metal.
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The air intakes are made from carbon fiber and are best painted in a mixture
of 1 part 86 and 1 part 81 to get the right color. They are NOT steel as
Hasegawa says.
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Decals.
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You have the option to make one of two planes. One aircraft is from F10
and the other from F16. The aircraft from F10 has a small swordfish in
yellow on the fin and is the one on the box art.
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Decals no 28 to 34 are for the sealing on the canopy. They are in the wrong
color as the real plan has these in 1 part 82 and 1 part 24, anyway they are
to small to be seen in this scale so I left mine out.
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Paint the pitot black and yellow. You cant use the kit decal as it is to
wide.
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J-35J
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All steps from the F are the same.
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In this kit you get the rails for the sidewinder.
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In step 10 you will have to mount the pylons for the rails on the intakes.
This is what externally distinguish the J from the F.
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Painting
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In this kit you don't get the painting guide you got in the F. Here you can
choose between a camouflaged or air superiority gray aircraft.
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The colors for the gray aircraft is Extra color X779 and X780. Hasegawa says
FS 36320 and FS 36495 who looks quite ok to me.
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Conclusion.
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Two very nice models who will enlighten your growing collection of Swedish
aircraft. And you can even make them in over all flat black as the hostile
aircraft in a movie I saw with AH-64s (cant remember its name).
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/Erik Lind
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