Italeri 1/48 JA-37 Viggen

[Niels]

Hi 

 

How accurate is the Italeri/Esci JA-37 Viggen? Believe there was a review/comparison some time ago, however cannot find it? 
http://www.italeri.com/scheda.asp?idProdotto=2700

 

[DarkKnight]

am I wrong, but you cant build a JA or AJ both unless you have 2 different length fuselages and 2 different tail fins

[Niels]

I've also read that the JA was a little longer than the AJ, but not sure which the Italeri/Esci matches? 

 

 

[Mstor]

2 hours ago, DarkKnight said:

am I wrong, but you cant build a JA or AJ both unless you have 2 different length fuselages and 2 different tail fins

 

Yes the JA is a little bit longer than the AJ. The Tarangus JA kit uses the same mold as the Special Hobby AJ kit but includes a spacer piece to lengthen the fuselage. And, yes the tail fins are different between the two versions.

[RichardL]

37 minutes ago, Niels said:

I've also read that the JA was a little longer than the AJ, but not sure which the Italeri/Esci matches? 

 

Italeri uses the old Airfix/ESCI mold, so the fuselage matches the shorter AJ version.  You will need to make a spacer like I did to lengthen the fuselage to scale:

 

 

 

 

 

[RichardL]

5 hours ago, Niels said:

How accurate is the Italeri/Esci JA-37 Viggen? 

 

It needs many aftermarket resin corrections to make it accurate, such as nose cone:

 

 

Canards:

 

 

Rear tail section:

 

 

Vertical fin to name a few:

 

 

[Niels]

Thanks, wouldn't be spending much on that in the near future then ;)

[Mstor]

What is really a shame is that the Tarangus/Special Hobby kits, while very detailed and more accurate in shape, have problems too. The canards need replacing, the JA version tail is all wrong, it is missing the air turbine which deploys whenever the wheels are down, some of the pylons need replacing and I think some other things I have probably forgotten. So, whichever kit you buy its going to cost more to get an accurate model. At least they got the JA length right. They did just what RichardL did, insert a spacer.

[DarkKnight]

I bought the Tarangus got replacement fin and canards and bought a generator , it seems less work than the esci

[RichardL]

4 hours ago, Niels said:

Thanks, wouldn't be spending much on that in the near future then ;)

 

Making and inserting the plug is neither hard nor time consuming.  What time consuming is getting rid of all the raised panel lines and rescribing.  If you are doing the splinter camo scheme, then you will also devote another big chunk of time in masking the precise and specific pattern.  It took me a while to get to this state:

 

 

I can almost see the light at the end of the tunnel.

[Mstor]

5 hours ago, DarkKnight said:

I bought the Tarangus got replacement fin and canards and bought a generator , it seems less work than the esci

 

Yea, I got the Special Hobby AJ version and got the canards, air turbine, pylons, plus a bunch of other details from Rebell Hobby in Sweden and Hannants.

 

RichardL, Your Viggen looks beautiful. I bought paint mask for mine. You are braver than I am doing it by hand.

 

[Niels]

Agree, very nice scheme 

 

I believe the cannards have been corrected in the new SK-37E Viggen. Seems so from the online pics. 

[RichardL]

10 hours ago, Mstor said:

RichardL, Your Viggen looks beautiful. I bought paint mask for mine. You are braver than I am doing it by hand.

 

Thanks.  I neither trust the aftermarket paint masks nor the splinter scheme shown in the instruction manual.  I found the scheme in the  September 1990 Issue of FineScale Modeler magazine to be the most accurate, so I scaled it up to 1/48 and used it to make masks out of Tamiya masking sheets.

 

 

 

[Mstor]

3 hours ago, RichardL said:

I neither trust the aftermarket paint masks nor the splinter scheme shown in the instruction manual.

 

I'll have to check my masks against photos I have. I don't remember which brand they are. There are 3 or 4 different ones out there.

[RichardL]

20 hours ago, Mstor said:

 

I'll have to check my masks against photos I have.

 

Check your masks for the two camo shapes pointed to by the red arrows in the picture below.  Most masks and painting guides butcher those shapes, and thus most modelers got them wrong.

 

 

[B.Sin]

On 4/8/2018 at 6:55 PM, RichardL said:

 

Making and inserting the plug is neither hard nor time consuming.  What time consuming is getting rid of all the raised panel lines and rescribing.  If you are doing the splinter camo scheme, then you will also devote another big chunk of time in masking the precise and specific pattern.  It took me a while to get to this state:

 

 

I can almost see the light at the end of the tunnel.

Fantastic work!