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Tarangus 1/48 Saab A32A Lansen


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The Tarangus A32 Lansen in 1/48 has hit the shelves. I am posting a short review of my initial impressions of the kit right out of the box.

The kit comes in a sturdy box with beautiful box art. Sprues, decals and clear parts are well protected.

Tarangusboxart.jpg

All parts are ejection moulded except the two ejection seats that come in resin. No photo etch is included.

I have not checked the accuracy of the kit in any depth yet but it seems the capture the beautiful lines of the Lansen very well. The pictures below depicts the different kit parts.

Tarangusfuselages.jpg

TarangusVvinge.jpg

TarangusHvinge.jpg

Tarangusstabbe.jpg

TarangusX-tankmm.jpg

Taranguscanopyejectionseats.jpg

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The parts mostly fit together very well. However, it is a short series kit made by Sword I believe and it does require extra work compared to a new Eduard, Hasegawa or Tamiya kit. Most parts suffer from a little flash but it is easily cleaned up. The scribing on Sword kits is in my opinion less delicate compared to Special Hobby short series kits and it does show on the Lansen too. However, the panel lines still looks the part under a coat of paint.

Tarangusfuselagesnrbild.jpg

TarangusVvingenrbild.jpg

The kits seems to exhibit most prominent panel lines but there is room for improvement. Many of the vents are either missing or can use some work to improve realism. The jet intakes are very well engineered and looks good out of the box but because of the brilliant engineering, they are easily further detailed. The cockpit is fairly basic and can really use some PE. A PE set is coming from Maestro Models soon. The ejection seats are very nicely cast in resin. The canopy is a bit thicker than newer Eduard, Hasegawa and Tamiya bit it is very clear and looks right.

Taranguscockpitfram.jpg

Taranguscockpitbak.jpg

Tarangusinstrumentpaneler.jpg

Taranguscanopyejectionseats.jpg

Tarangusejectionseats.jpg

The instruction book is a gem and closely resembles Eduard's instructions books.

Tarangusritning.jpg

The decal sheet contains markings for two different aircraft from the F17 and F15 wings, both in 325 Olive Green (close to FS 34079 but slightly more yellow). The decal sheet contain a full set of stencilling and it is very well printed and rich in detail. However, the crown markings does not accurately capture the blue color, which should include more green.

Tarangusdecalsheet2.jpg

All in all, a very nice first kit release from Tarangus. It does capture the beautiful lines of the Lansen very well and it will build into a fine replica straight out of the box. Because of its design, it also forms a very good basis for extra detailing without too much effort for those of us who elects to do so. Thumbs up Tarangus!!!

Edited by Martinsson
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It looks like a simple kit, in many ways. It looks like it could benefit from some extra details, either from scratch or in the form of resin after market goodies. Also, I don't feel that either of the crown markings really fits with my recollections of the real deal - but I know better than to pass final judgement on a web image - compared to a fussy memory :-)

The last of the "bad" things is that it would have been nice with some kind of armament included, a set of ARAK´s or a pair of teeny weeny bombs.. just something to hang on it. I don´t know about you, but 50's era Swedish weapons aren´t that abundant in my spares box. But one shall not complain - it´s a Lansen in 1/48 after all, and it really looks like a Lansen.

Anyway, the kit doesn´t look übercomplicated in any way, and ootb it looks like an easy kit - unless the fit is exceptionally poor (which I don´t think). Actually a nice change from all the hasetaminetic-kits where every panel line is a separate piece in order to incorporate as many versions as possible in to a single mould. Anyway, most of the joints looks like they would be easy enough to fix anyway, the only hard to reach spot would be the intakes.

I am looking forward to my first (should arrive this week), of at least two kits - got to build at least two, since I´ve already promised one away. I´ll order the second one with all the maestro goodies that will undoubtedly turn up. If the J32 comes out, I´ll have to build two more, a D and E version (target-tug and jamming aircraft).

Damn, the A32A Lansen and the Hobbyboss Strf 9040C, released all in the same week, almost! 2012 is looking like it´s going to be a nice year :-)

/E

PS Thankyou Martinsson, for the fine in-box review!

Edited by erik_g
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Very nice kit! Excellent review. Thanks for it. It's good to know that at last there is one on the market. We have a Lansen at the Szolnok Hungarian Air Force museum. It was fun last autumn to do some maintenance on the real aircraft so now will have to do the same on the kit. Sorry only after the MiG-21 bis.

Best regards

Gabor

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Hi there

Well I wonder if this kit includes the weapons underwing pylons because I have one Heller in 1/72 in the stash and this one has none or the ventral fuel pack

Maybe by a simple drawing nor I'll be able to know how do it (it´s a pretty simple thing by using 1/48 dimensions to 1/72

best modeling

Armando

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Well I wonder if this kit includes the weapons underwing pylons because I have one Heller in 1/72 in the stash and this one has none or the ventral fuel pack

It includes both the fuel tank and 12 of the type-A pylon, and two bylons I think is B-type pylons (see my review I link to above, it has a picture of the relevant part of the instructions).

But the fuel tank is already available in 1/72 in resin: http://www.rebell.com/saab-32-lansen-belly-tank.html

/E

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I have ordered mine from Rebell.com!! :-)

One small mistake that I can spot is the F-15 Wing badge. The goat should always look to the left, on both sides of the aircraft. Looks like the decals have one mirrored badge and one correct badge.

Jorgen "Troll" Toll

:trolls:

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Jorgen,

The goat should look forward on both sides of the a/c.

Cheers Martinsson

Hi!

So I've been told since my posting.

I did my military service at F15 and grew up in Hälsingland county being an aviation nut my entire life. I have never seen an aircraft with a right facing goat. But evidently there are some pics around showing precisely that... I mean, the goat in the county crest faces left, never right. :-)

But if there are pics of this then it must be true. The Lansen at the F15 museum has left facing crests. But I'm told this was an old F7 bird, and that the museum got it wrong. Well, I guess this could be so. I'm thinking maybe both alternatives existed..?

Jorgen "Troll" Toll

:trolls:

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Hi Jorgen,

The Swedish AF crests should face forward on both sides. The photos I have seen of F15 Lansens, the crest faces forward on both sides. However, there may have been exceptions to the rule - not surprising. So you may very well be right.

Cheers Martinsson

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It makes sense to have a mirrored version of the crest.

In Swedish heraldry the beast within a crest should always be facing right. This is because when the knight wore the shield on his left arm, it should face forward, toward the battle, rather than trying to run away from it. This is why it makes sense to have a mirrored crest on the left side of the A/C. The Griffin, or in this case, the Goat (fearsome creature, the goat!) should follow the pilot in to battle, rather than fleeing.

On the other hand, the city crest of Gothenburg must have been designed by someone left handed, since the brave lion is so bravely running away.. This is however a known heraldic slip up.

I would not however, bet against the possibility that a lazy conscript mechanic somewhere, some day, took the wrong sticker, or used the wrong masking templates. If anything could be done wrong, a conscript would sooner than later do it. :-)

/E

Edited by erik_g
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Hi Jorgen,

The Swedish AF crests should face forward on both sides. The photos I have seen of F15 Lansens, the crest faces forward on both sides. However, there may have been exceptions to the rule - not surprising. So you may very well be right.

Cheers Martinsson

I re-read "Kronmärkt" and there it was! How could I have missed it. The authors say that heraldic crests normally faces left, but the SwAF Wing crests almost always faces forward...

So I guess the crests should face forward on the airframe, but sometimes they didn't..?

Being wrong has its advantages... I get to learn new things! ;-)

Jorgen "Troll" Toll

:trolls:

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It makes sense to have a mirrored version of the crest.

In Swedish heraldry the beast within a crest should always be facing right. This is because when the knight wore the shield on his left arm, it should face forward, toward the battle, rather than trying to run away from it.

Actually, the beast should face left in order to face forward on a shield on a left arm... Which is why most beasts on crests faces this way Think about it... :-)

The SwAF evidently chose to go to war with two shields..! ;-)

Edit: I re-read your post and noted the comment about the Gothenburg Lion.

You are probably talking about "heraldic left", which is when the beast faces right when looking at the shield.

I'm talking about the goat in the F15 crest as "facing left" as in when looking at the shield. This is the heraldic right, which is as viewed by the bearer of the shield.

Jorgen "Troll" Toll

:trolls:

Edited by Troll
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Actually, the beast should face left in order to face forward on a shield on a left arm... Which is why most beasts on crests faces this way Think about it... :-)

Well, you got what I meant, that was the important part.. I initially wrote that the shield was on the right arm, but the left arm is the right arm to wear the shield on.. I´m left handed myself, so this gets complicated, especially in english, where the right way is the left way...right?

The SwAF evidently chose to go to war with two shields..! ;-)

Yeah, the cowards.. in the army we had no shelds at all.. I bet the airforce had them all..

Tur att vi på ärans och hjältarnas språk i alla fall har separata ord för höger och rätt.. ;-)

/E

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Sorry this is not about the Lansen just the question of Squadron and wing badges. There is considerable chaos as far as Squadron and Wing markings go on Hungarian aircraft too. The Hungarian JAS 39 Gripens received in the SAAB paint shop all the markings the only problem is that on the left side the Puma Squadron emblem is facing forward as it should the Wing crest on the tail is facing backwards or to be more precise the eagle holding the crest of the Kecskemet city (home base of the Fighter Wing)is flying backwards. On the right side in the Puma Squadron badge the Puma is looking after just to see that the eagle in the Wing crest is at last flying forward. After painting the first aircraft and the official handing over ceremony in Sweden SAAB was contacted pointing out the problem (which they have also noticed) but since the Hungarian specification for painting showed the Squadron and Wing badge in one form there was nothing they could do to change the mistake. In the end all 14 aircraft were delivered with the same "problem". It has to be said that even people at the Kecsekmet AFB dont realy know what they are doing and one would be in great trouble if he tries to do an authentic MiG-29 with the same Squadron and Wing badges since you could find almost all versions of the badges looking left, right or even the goat in the Kecskemet crest looking to one or the other side. A complete chaos.

So I am not surprised to hear that the badges on the Lansen are looking to one side or the other way and a model producer is in real trouble unless he has photos of one particular aircraft from the same period.

Sorry for the slite off topic

Best regards

Gabor

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I´ll tell my friend who works at SAAB about this, and point the finger at his employer for messing such simple things up... By the way, Puma Sqn is about to receive brand new mouse mats that someone I know designed.. 0:-)

/E

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I´ll tell my friend who works at SAAB about this, and point the finger at his employer for messing such simple things up... By the way, Puma Sqn is about to receive brand new mouse mats that someone I know designed.. 0:-)

/E

It's not SAAB who is to blame but the Hungarians (someone in the ministry putting together the painting specification)!

Best regards

Gabor

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I take it for granted that the wrong facing crests are the ONLY problems you guys had with the Gripen aircraft. ;-)

/E

You have to ask that from the operators, ground and flight crews at Kecskemet AFB. I can only speak as an outsider. The Gripen is an excellent aircraft but I think there was (and there is still) a requirement for a dedicated fighter in the class of the MiG-29. Side by side they could have provided a good backbone to our airforce. This is just like the Polish AF where both the F-16 and the MiG-29 have a role of their own, serving side by side and making an Air Force fully combat capable. It was a serious waste of resources, capabilities, trained personal (and so on) last year when our MiG-29 fleat was unceremoniously retired. But this is a very different story very far from the original Lansen question. Fortunately (due to the extreme generousity of the Swedish Air Force and the Flygvapenmuseum) there is a real Lansen at the Szolnok museum in Hungary which flew in.

When there was the official handover ceremony of the first Gripen I contacted FMV and SAAB to ask them about the problem with the emblems. But as said above it is a problem with the Hungarian side, and the chaos in connection with the crests, badges is clearly shown by the way our Migs were painted.

Best regards

Gabor

Edited by ya-gabor
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