Johan C Posted November 18, 2009 Share Posted November 18, 2009 (edited) Hi! I have just started to build the Italeri JAS39D (two seater) in 1:48 and Hawkins build of the same kit inspired me to start my own thread. For this kit I've stacked up a lot of extras too: interior, exterior and undercarriage sets from CMK, exhaust from Aires, decals from Twobobs. The plane I'm building is actually the prototype 39D, serial number 39800, now used by Saab as a test aircraft. This aircraft started out as the first two seater Gripen (the 39B prototype) and was later rebuilt as a 39D. The reason I'm building this AC is that I have had the opportunity to see it live a couple of times, and to studie it up close. I work as a radar engineer at Saab and this is one of the aircrafts we use in flight tests. And I think it looks cool with that big Gripen picture on its fin! This is what I've done so far (not much really...) I have glued the fuselage together. The resin undercarriage bays are in place. This was actually a really tough work because they didn't fit at all... Took me two whole evenings work. I added som extra detail so it would look a little more busy... The nose wheel bay is also in place... And I have started with the cockpit. It is a little bit short in length so I had to add some plastic strip at the back to make it fit. This will lead to some problem later, the space behind the rear seat will be to big. I hope this won't be too noticable. I hope you like it! /Johan C Edited November 27, 2009 by Johan C Quote Link to post Share on other sites
rom Posted November 18, 2009 Share Posted November 18, 2009 wow! nice start with that resin set! bye Quote Link to post Share on other sites
AnthonyWan Posted November 18, 2009 Share Posted November 18, 2009 (edited) Looks good so far Johan. I plan to make the blue-tailed ETPS aircraft off of Twobobs' sheet someday. Following your build closely :) -Awan Edited November 18, 2009 by AnthonyWan Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Hawkins Posted November 18, 2009 Share Posted November 18, 2009 Good to see you, Johan! Glad you decided to make an 'in-progress". I see you made good progress! Don't you think that the CMK cockpit is a tad small for the Italeri kit, or it's just me? I'm gonna use the Eduard PE for the cockpit. By-the-way, since you're working for Saab is there any chance you'd have some close-up pics of the chaff/flare dispensers? I'm building 829 and want to make those as in this pic. http://www.airliners.net/photo/Sweden---Ai...b50c979b3227f50 Thanks and Emil Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Aigore Posted November 19, 2009 Share Posted November 19, 2009 Awesome Johan! :) You and Hawkins are really tempting me to break out my MPM JAS-39C.... But I better stick to the Sufa for now :lol: Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Johan C Posted November 19, 2009 Author Share Posted November 19, 2009 Thanks rom and Awan for your comments! The ETPS A/C has cool markings, I have looked at it a couple of times in the hangar at the Saab factory... :( Good to see you, Johan!Glad you decided to make an 'in-progress". I see you made good progress! Don't you think that the CMK cockpit is a tad small for the Italeri kit, or it's just me? I'm gonna use the Eduard PE for the cockpit. By-the-way, since you're working for Saab is there any chance you'd have some close-up pics of the chaff/flare dispensers? I'm building 829 and want to make those as in this pic. http://www.airliners.net/photo/Sweden---Ai...b50c979b3227f50 Thanks and Emil Thanks Emil! I agree that the CMK cockpit is probably a little small, but I'm going to use it anyway. It sure has a lot of nice details, and with some photos you can add what's missing and correct te errors. I'm sorry, but I don't have any good photos of the chaff/flare dispensers. When I'm near the aircrafts cameras are strictly forbidden . And the test aircrafts usually don't have the chaff/flare dispensers installed. But I can look around and see if I find some pictures of this area. /Johan C Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Johan C Posted November 19, 2009 Author Share Posted November 19, 2009 Awesome Johan! :(You and Hawkins are really tempting me to break out my MPM JAS-39C.... But I better stick to the Sufa for now Thanks Janne! Your Sufa looks really good, but when it is finished we want to see the MPM Gripen on your work bench... Cheers! /Johan C Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Hawkins Posted November 19, 2009 Share Posted November 19, 2009 Thanks Emil! I agree that the CMK cockpit is probably a little small, but I'm going to use it anyway. It sure has a lot of nice details, and with some photos you can add what's missing and correct te errors. I'm sorry, but I don't have any good photos of the chaff/flare dispensers. When I'm near the aircrafts cameras are strictly forbidden . And the test aircrafts usually don't have the chaff/flare dispensers installed. But I can look around and see if I find some pictures of this area. /Johan C Hi Johan! ...and here I was thinking you would walk around at Saab with an SLR 'round your neck all day... :D Definitely, the cmk cockpit can be made to look great, I'll probably gonna use only the seats from the cmk set, Eduard'll take care of the rest. Thanks a lot for the pics!!! Hope to see progress soon! Emil Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Johan C Posted November 21, 2009 Author Share Posted November 21, 2009 Just a small update, I have been working on the APU bulge and done some filling and sanding... But first the vent behind the cockpit. Used some sheet metal to simulate the cooling air exhaust. Looks a little bit rough in the photos, I may have to do some cleaning here. And this is the APU bulge. And last a picture of the cockpit with the pedals installed. Now it's time for painting! Cheera! /Johan Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Aigore Posted November 21, 2009 Share Posted November 21, 2009 Awesome progress Johan! Are you going to do somethig about the panellines on the kit? They are kinda big and deep....so if you´re going to fill and rescribe the lines I wanna see how you do it! Cheers! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Johan C Posted November 21, 2009 Author Share Posted November 21, 2009 Awesome progress Johan!Are you going to do somethig about the panellines on the kit? They are kinda big and deep....so if you´re going to fill and rescribe the lines I wanna see how you do it! Cheers! Thanks Janne! I'm going to rescribe the panel lines, they look like trenches! I haven't decided yet how to do it, but maybe I fill them with cyano glue and sand down. I have done this on a couple of panel lines on my Su-27 and it works but this is going to be much more work because there are so many. Cheers! /Johan Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Hawkins Posted November 21, 2009 Share Posted November 21, 2009 Nice work on the air cooling exhaust, Johan! The APU bulge is coming out nicely, too. Waiting for more progress! Emil Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Aigore Posted November 21, 2009 Share Posted November 21, 2009 Thanks Janne!I'm going to rescribe the panel lines, they look like trenches! I haven't decided yet how to do it, but maybe I fill them with cyano glue and sand down. I have done this on a couple of panel lines on my Su-27 and it works but this is going to be much more work because there are so many. Cheers! /Johan Aha..well I think the CA-glue method might work (my favoured method of filling seams) since you can actually scribe in the glue after it has cured.....that is a tad harder to do if you´d puttied up the panel lines...putty is to soft to scribe in! (I just had to break out my 39C kit and have a look see...very tempting indeed) Cheers! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Johan C Posted November 22, 2009 Author Share Posted November 22, 2009 Hi! Another small update... Holes for the APU resin inserts are cut. Actually they are already installed, but I ran out of battery in the camera so photos of this have to wait until later... Added some more plumbing to the wheel bays. The leading edge of the fin is way to blunt, here I have sanded and shaped the lower leading edge so you can see the difference. On the real A/C the leading edge is very sharp. I may have to sharpen it even more to have a correct look. Cheers! /Johan Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Johan C Posted November 27, 2009 Author Share Posted November 27, 2009 Hello! I have been working a little bit on the Gripen kit. The resin inserts for the APU is in place and everything is sanded. Have to do some rescribing of the panels later. The leading edge of the fin is sanded and the front part of the fin pod has been reshaped. The rear part of the pod I have to scratch build because the pod in the kit is not correct for a JAS39D. I have also been working a little bit on the cockpit. I realized that the rear wall of the rear cockpit was much to steep, the seat didn't fit and it looked terrible. I had to sand away a lot of the resin at the top of the wall and replace the details. The CMK seats look really nice but some of the details at the top didn't match my photos, maybe they used some other variant of the Martin Baker 10 as reference. The incorrect details where sanded away and I did some detailing with plastic strips, lead foil and copper wire. Need to add some more details before it is time for painting. All for now! /Johan Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Aigore Posted November 27, 2009 Share Posted November 27, 2009 Neat detailing Johan Those extra lil´ thingies on the bang seat really enhances the look a couple of notches! Cheers! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Johan C Posted January 6, 2010 Author Share Posted January 6, 2010 Long time since the last update, I apologize for that... But now the bang seats are finished! Added around twenty parts to each seat to spice them up a bit. The weathering may be a little bit overdone compared to the real thing but I'll live with that. Before the weathering the seats looked just like black blobs... So what's next? Think I start the work with the cockpit side walls, they have some serious fit problems and some of the details (for instance the throttle) needs to be reworked. Cheers! /Johan Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Aigore Posted January 6, 2010 Share Posted January 6, 2010 Great bang seats, Johan! I wouldn´t say that the weathering is overdone in any way..... you´ve enhanced the details so that they´ll show in mirky showrooms at IPMS meetings. I´d say that´s a subtle shading rather than weathering and it brings out the contrasts really nice! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Johan C Posted January 7, 2010 Author Share Posted January 7, 2010 Great bang seats, Johan! I wouldn´t say that the weathering is overdone in any way..... you´ve enhanced the details so that they´ll show in mirky showrooms at IPMS meetings. I´d say that´s a subtle shading rather than weathering and it brings out the contrasts really nice! Thanks Janne! I agree the weathering is subtle, but nevertheless it's a bit overdone if you compare to a real Gripen seat. They hardly show any signs of wear at all... But in this case I think it's OK, the seats will look to clean without the weathering. /Johan Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Qian Posted January 10, 2010 Share Posted January 10, 2010 Nice progress so far Johan! :D The bang seats are simply awesome! Keep it up man! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Najk Posted January 10, 2010 Share Posted January 10, 2010 Really nice going there, Johan! Nice to see a good representation of the Gripen, not just an ordinare OOTB build. I've used to work on them at the now disbanded F4 wing, so I'm not sure if I'll ever get around to doing one myself, now that I can spot all that's wrong with the kit.. :D Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Johan C Posted January 10, 2010 Author Share Posted January 10, 2010 Nice progress so far Johan! The bang seats are simply awesome! Keep it up man! Thanks Qian, I'll keep on working! /Johan Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Johan C Posted January 10, 2010 Author Share Posted January 10, 2010 Really nice going there, Johan! Nice to see a good representation of the Gripen,not just an ordinare OOTB build. I've used to work on them at the now disbanded F4 wing, so I'm not sure if I'll ever get around to doing one myself, now that I can spot all that's wrong with the kit.. Thanks Niklas! Yes, this kit is far from perfect, maybe not even "good". But please build it anyway, can't get enough of them! /Johan Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Najk Posted January 10, 2010 Share Posted January 10, 2010 Thanks Niklas! Yes, this kit is far from perfect, maybe not even "good". But please build it anyway, can't get enough of them! :D /Johan Well, mine'll be in 72nd scale, when I get around to building them (several, correct.. ;) ), but of course I will build some. :) Just have to gather some inspiration to take that kind of project on.... :) Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Johan C Posted January 11, 2010 Author Share Posted January 11, 2010 Well, mine'll be in 72nd scale, when I get around to building them (several, correct.. :D ), but of course I will build some. :)Just have to gather some inspiration to take that kind of project on.... :) Don't know if it's of any inspiration, but here are two pictures of a 1:72 Gripen I built several years ago. The plan was to build every paint schemes that swedish Gripen had, but I only managed to build this one... Cheers! /Johan Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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