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Revell/Hasegawa J-35J „Draken“ in 72nd scale


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Finally, Revell’s release of the Hasegawa J-35J Draken has hit the shops. :thumbsup: What you get is the very nice Hasegawa kit in white styrene (probably to ease painting of the red and white bird) and decal options for two Austrian and one Swedish Draken.

DrakenReview01.jpg

Although the kit may be well-known, I’ll post some sprue shots anyway. The detail is engraved.

DrakenReview02.jpg

DrakenReview03.jpg

DrakenReview04.jpg

Circled in red are the Sidewinder rails. The left-hand part of the sprue is included twice. Revell indicates these rails as “parts not usedâ€. In the Hasegawa double-feature boxing of the Austrian Specials these were missing. There are no missiles supplied, though.

DrakenReview05.jpg

DrakenReview06.jpg

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The decals

DrakenReview07.jpg

The marking options (sadly, no Finnish or grey/green Swedish options)

DrakenReview08.jpg

DrakenReview09.jpg

EDIT: As Stefan noted and xv107 validated later on in this thread, the Revell instructions for the serials on the Swedish Draken option on the wing are the wrong way round. They should have the "5" on the port wing and the "0" on the starboard wing. PHOTOGRAPHIC EVIDENCE As can be seen on the pic, the serial on the starboard wing is the "0" rather than the "5"! END OF EDIT

DrakenReview10.jpg

Revell has been honest and called the kit J-35J. Thus it is accurate for a Swedish Johan. The Austrian Draken, on the other hand, were dubbed J-35Oe (Oe for Österreich=Austria) and re-built J-35D airframes. That change did not only involve the name, but parts of the airframe as well.

One notable difference lies with the airscoops just aft of the cockpit hood. On the Austrian version only the port side has this scoop, the starboard side has a small air exhaust. The Revell instructions hint at that. The Hasegawa instructions want you to fill the holes on both sides, so watch out!

Revell correctly hints at the deletion of the blade antenna just to the rear of the front landing gear bay on the Austrian version. However, a small, square portion should be retained. LIKE THIS.

Although Revell tells you not to use the AAM rails, these can be used. Not only for the operational jets, but for the red/white Draken as well. Some pics on AIRLINERS.NET show their use under the outer portions of the double-delta wings, which, AFAIK, was the standard place for Austrian Drakens. Regarding the use of pylons, seek reference pics. Apparently, the Austrian rails were an amalgamation of parts C3('winder rail) and C3 (just below circle in pic above).

Then there should be an RWR on the tip of the rudder. That stems from Danish Drakens and was never carried by Swedish Drakens. These were installed in 1992.

The J-35Oe had chaff/flare-dispensers (also installed in 1992) on the rear fuselage, next to the tailwheel housing on either side. With these changes (carried out by Valmet of Finland), the J-35Oe was now dubbed the J-35Oe Mk.II.

Hope this review was at least a little informative or helpful! :thumbsup:

Edited by ChernayaAkula
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WOW!

Is that a full and thorough review or what?

I have never been able to lay my hands on one of those beauties, so all the pics and hints are very much appreciated.

Thanks a lot, ChernayaAkula!

:thumbsup:

Jorge.

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That is a perfect review Moritz!

Please let me add that to do an Austrian Mk.II Draken the best way is to buy the IMPS Austria conversion set.

This set come with both resin and PE parts for all the modification needed: airscoop, chaff, RWR etc..it also gives you a couple more of those Sidewinders lounchers that could become handy to build a J-35J with 4 missiles.

The set can be ordered directly from IMPS Austria web page or from LHS in Holland or Rebeel Hobby in Sweden.

Paolo

6ak2xz4.jpg

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Would it be possible to do a Finnish Air Force bird from this kit?

Yes, all you need is to change the decals.

Finnish Air force flew 4 versions of Drakens: B, CS, FS, and XS.

All were to the same standard as Swedish ones.

The latest Finnish XS (or just S) were upgraded to a standard very similar to the J-35J you can find in the Hasegawa/Revell box. You can also build a FS with few modification.

Unfortunately there is no way to build an early J-35BS or a twin seater CS.

Hope this helps

PAolo

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Thanks for the review and information.

One question about the sprue shots, did Hasegawa ever to a two seat version as it seems it was made to do so.

Thanks

Robert

I have an old Hasegawa catalogue from early '90 and a photo of a Sk-35C is there along the J-35F. Unfortunately they never made it!

The only way to go is to got the old Heller kit, now it is produced in Argentina under the Modelex name.

Paolo

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Thank you for the review, Moritz.

I'm not an expert on Swedish markings and codes.

Could anyone explain why the Swedish aircraft (decal option No 3) has the number "50" on the tail and a huge "05" on top of the wing?

Is that just a mix-up in the Revell instructions or was it really so?

Cheers, Stefan.

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Thanks for the kind words everybody! :cheers:

Please let me add that to do an Austrian Mk.II Draken the best way is to buy the IMPS Austria conversion set. <...>

Cool! I didn't know that. May have to look for that...

Can someone now make a resin detail set for the Draken? :coolio:

There was an article in a German modeling magazine, ModellFan, by an exceptional Danish modeler, Albert M. Tureczek. He says he made a detail set for Danish Drakens, which also had some differences, very large drop tanks for example. He also made a resin nose for Danish recce Drakens.

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Thanks for the review and information.

One question about the sprue shots, did Hasegawa ever to a two seat version as it seems it was made to do so.

Thanks

Robert

Ya, I was kidda disappointed when Hasegawa made the mold so a twin-seat looked like it was coming, but never did. Will Revell step up?

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Could anyone explain why the Swedish aircraft (decal option No 3) has the number "50" on the tail and a huge "05" on top of the wing?

Is that just a mix-up in the Revell instructions or was it really so?

If you look at the decal sheet, you'll see that the number "50" is actually 5,0

I don't know the exact answer, but I wonder if someone painting the real thing got the 0 and the 5 the wrong way round? In which case, to make it aircraft 5, the enterprising ground crew simply added a decimal point (not sure if that's the correct term for the comma used in most European countries while we Brits resolutely stick to a ".")?

You'll see that the decimal was there for real in 1995 - http://www.airliners.net/open.file/1085060/M/

But, hard to say though it is, could the number barely visible on the starboard wing surface be a 0 rather than a 5? In which case, the mystery deepens...

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You'll see that the decimal was there for real in 1995 - http://www.airliners.net/open.file/1085060/M/

But, hard to say though it is, could the number barely visible on the starboard wing surface be a 0 rather than a 5? In which case, the mystery deepens...

In the above photo I can clearly recognize the O (zero) number on the right wing, so Revell just made a mistake in printing the istruction sheet/painting guide. :salute:

Paolo

Edited by Paolo Maglio
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In the above photo I can clearly recognize the O (zero) number on the right wing, so Revell just made a mistake in printing the istruction sheet/painting guide. :rolleyes:

Paolo

Exactly. It should read 50 from above.

The aircraft has call sign 50, the decimal comma was done either as a copycat of the 4,0 aircraft aready present at the wing, or for the same reason the decimal point was put in on 40 - it was a replacement for an older 40, and as a joke the ground crew put it the decimal point to honor the old workhorse 40. Like retiring a hockey jersey.

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Ya, I was kidda disappointed when Hasegawa made the mold so a twin-seat looked like it was coming, but never did. Will Revell step up?

I for one think they won't. They didn't even fix the existing differences of the J to make it an Oe, so I think they won't release a two-seater. Would have been nice though. Maybe this can be fixed by taking parts from the Heller Draken, which, AFAIK, supplies parts for both single- and dual-seater in their kit.

In the above photo I can clearly recognize the O (zero) number on the right wing, so Revell just made a mistake in printing the istruction sheet/painting guide. :whistle:

Paolo

I'm also with Paolo on this one. The serial is most certainly a "0". I edited the review accordingly.

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