Jump to content

Recommended Posts

The Angel Models 1/32 JAS-39A/C Gripen is (okay, will be when I'm done with it) the best in any scale.

Full resin kit with comprehensive PE, decals, white metal landing gear, and a vac canopy.

And there's a B/D version in the works to.

Comments, questions, requests, whatever to:

angelmodelsATgmail.com

Other than that the Italeri kit is quite good. Canard shape is off and gear and cockpit detail is spartan. Thee MPM best choice boxing is probably the best currently available. It's the Italeri kit with a load of Eduard PE and CMK resin.

Edited by titan
Link to post
Share on other sites

And the Revell of Germany kit is also the Italeri kit reboxed.

To sum up:

In 1:72 there is only one mainstream Kit, the Italeri, and this is reboxed by Tamiya, Airfix, and Revell.

Buy the one with the best artwork on the box... :banana:

Link to post
Share on other sites
And the Revell of Germany kit is also the Italeri kit reboxed.

To sum up:

In 1:72 there is only one mainstream Kit, the Italeri, and this is reboxed by Tamiya, Airfix, and Revell.

Buy the one with the best artwork on the box... :thumbsup:

Hold on, hold on, I thought Revell had done their own 1/72 Gripen kit? There are Eduard sets out there labeled "for the Revell kit" and sets labeled "for the Italeri kit". I thought the Revell 1/72 was a little older than the Italeri, and a little less accurate. Am I losing it here? :thumbsup:

Anyway, the Tamiya kit is definitely the Italeri kit. If one can find it, the Tally Ho resin detail set for the 1/72 Italeri kit is well worth the money. It works wonders for the cockpit, wheel wells and exhausts. Not to sure about using the resin gear struts though...

Link to post
Share on other sites

@ Lance B:

Believe me, i opened the boxes in my hobbyshop and compared the sprues Airfix vs. Revell of Germany before buying.

The sprues are absolutely identical.

It´s a little time ago, and as far as i can remember, the Rog kit has this "big" missiles as weapon load, while the Airfix kit was a interceptor configuration with Sidewinder / AMRAMM missiles .

That´s the only difference. Fuselage, wings, all the main parts - Same mold, same sprues.

Revell of Germany does rebox a lot of Italeri kit´s, especially the Helicopters. It´s a relationship between both companys since many years.

Usually the Rog kits offer much better decals and not so good painting instructions, compared with Italeri. Where Italeri has FS Colour Numbers, Revell settle for his own colours with this strange :soapbox: mixing instructions...

It´s more curios that Italeri shares the mould with Airfix, that´s uncommon......

Link to post
Share on other sites

Hold on, hold on, I thought Revell had done their own 1/72 Gripen kit? There are Eduard sets out there labeled "for the Revell kit" and sets labeled "for the Italeri kit". I thought the Revell 1/72 was a little older than the Italeri, and a little less accurate. Am I losing it here? :lol:

Don't worry, you're not losing it :)

Revell indeed first sold a Gripen representing a prototype with ladder, lots of weaponry and a separate engine .

Afterwards came the more recent kit . Simply put, if you want a fighter version you go for the Revell . For an attack version you go with Italeri .

Then you go to Twobobs for some decals, buy yourself some PE and resin and ... start building .

:crying:

Stef

Link to post
Share on other sites

But if i bought it, i know i probably ***** it up, and waste all that jazzy stuff. Ive never used resin, PE or even different decals before.

I would like to build 3 Gripens, two single seat and one dual seat.

For the single seats i want one with:

2 Sidewinders

4 AMRAAMS

For the other -39A, i would like ( and probably will never get)

2 Sidewinders

2 Mavericks

2 TAURUS

For the Double seat, id just use what comes to mind as im making it!

Link to post
Share on other sites

The lowdown on the 1/72 Gripens!

The original Revell Gripen kit is from the late 80's (89, IIRC), and was pretty much Matchbox quality (deeply engraved panel lines, etc). The aircraft itself hadn't been accurately surveyed, and thus the shape is way off (as were pretty much all the panel lines). It did come with pretty much all the options ever concieved at the time for the Gripen, including rocket pods, the RB-15F, a rocket-powered relative of same (which never went into production), Mavericks, etc. It also had a very, very basic separate engine, which was basically unusable. The only part of this kit that I still own are the RBS-15F missiles, which at least have the right shape of the nose, though the fins are placed incorrectly. It is easily identifiable by the box, which has a prototype Gripen and a huge spread of armament laid out in front.

The next kit is the 1/72 Italeri version, which has the basic shape right but for a few minor quibbles. The plastic is rather soft, and the panel lines are engraved with someone's elbow rather than anything actually useful, but it looks more like a Gripen when done than the old Revell kit, at any rate. The Italeri version comes with decals for three aircraft, one of which is the 02 bird, and both hi- and low-vis roundels (the paint scheme was pretty flexible in the mid-late 90's - there was a standard, but old aircraft weren't repainted until absolutely neccessary). Armament options are a pair of too-pointy RB-15F missiles, a pair of Mavericks, and wingtip Sidewinders.

The Tamiya kit, like *ALL* their 1/72 aircraft releases, is a straight rebox with the same decal sheet and an instruction in Japanese only.

Next out is the Revell boxing of the Italeri kit. Revell introduced some minor changes in the mold - it is not absolutely certain you'll be able to parts swap between the intakes, at least. Also, the armament is four very crude Amraams and a pair of Sidewinders. Decals are low-vis only (IIRC), and are a little more accurate color-wise than the Italeri ones (darker gray, IIRC). As with the Italeri kit, it's engraved with an elbow and the plastic is very soft.

The Airfix kit is again the same as the Italeri, though I have no clue about the decal sheet or the armament. Considering Airfix' normal track record with decals, I'd avoid this one.

The Italeri twin-seater is roughly equal to the Revell rebox, with the same armament, decals for at least two production B's (one of which the 802, which is used for sales demos and has thus been pretty much everywhere). It features an updated nose gear door that's pretty intricate, otherwise it's the same. The decals are a little too light (they tend to vanish when applied), otherwise it's a good kit.

The 1/48th Italeri single seater has been reviewed extensively. Do a search for it - it's basically accurate, with minor quibbles regarding the dimensions of the canards. I haven't seen the kit myself so I don't know about the decals or armament, but I imagine it's got RBS-15 and Maverick.

The only other option in 1/48 was a static, half-finished display model that Darius Aibara picked up a few years ago - it's in the gallery.

In 1/32, there's so far only one option: The Revell kit. Avoid, avoid, avoid. It is seriously inaccurate, with the nose being much too long, all the panel lines being off, and don't get me started on the small details. I gave this kit away complete to someone I didn't like very much.

There is also, somewhere, a 1/144 kit. I've only seen the box of it, but it was by revell and in the same era as the other first-gen kits, so I imagine it too is to be avoided...

And that's about it. Go bug Twobobs for decals that actually work with these...

SP

Link to post
Share on other sites
The Tamiya kit, like *ALL* their 1/72 aircraft releases, is a straight rebox with the same decal sheet and an instruction in Japanese only.
Not all of them - the Skyray and Thunderjet are their own, maybe one or two others.
The 1/48th Italeri single seater has been reviewed extensively. Do a search for it - it's basically accurate, with minor quibbles regarding the dimensions of the canards. I haven't seen the kit myself so I don't know about the decals or armament, but I imagine it's got RBS-15 and Maverick.
Yup, RBS-15 and Mav.

:blink:

Link to post
Share on other sites
The Tamiya kit, like *ALL* their 1/72 aircraft releases,

Tamiya have a number of their own 1/72 aircraft - F-84, Mosquito, Spitfire, P-51, Corsair, P-47, Skyray... They have re-boxed a lot of Italeri stuff for the domestic market over the years though, so chances are, if you think 'I didn't know Tamiya did that', it's an Italeri kit.

Next out is the Revell boxing of the Italeri kit. Revell introduced some minor changes in the mold - it is not absolutely certain you'll be able to parts swap between the intakes

The sum total of the modifications (apart from the ordnance) is that a missing spacer on one of the intake splitters was added. The initial Italeri release had a smooth port(?) splitter, where it should have (like the stbd. side) had a slight lip where the outer intake shell attached. Parts are all completely interchangeable, the only difference is that you no longer have a slight gap to fill in the intake - and it's entirely possible that Italeri fixed this at the end of their own production run. Also, decals have the correct two-tone lo-vis roundels. And decal instrument panels (for the flat cockpit), where Italeri doesn't give you anything.

The Airfix kit is again the same as the Italeri, though I have no clue about the decal sheet or the armament. Considering Airfix' normal track record with decals, I'd avoid this one.

If memory serves, it's the same plastic as the Revell release (tweaked spliter, AMRAAMs), with decals similar to the Italeri release (inaccurate lo-vis, and hi-vis). Been a while since I looked at mine, though.

The Italeri twin-seater is roughly equal to the Revell rebox.

Interesting to note, the seat in the original single seat release isn't particularly accurate (wonky proportions). The two seat release just adds a second seat, which is more accurate looking. So you get two different ejection seats for the two-seater. :blink:

In 1/32, there's so far only one option: The Revell kit. Avoid, avoid, avoid. It is seriously inaccurate, with the nose being much too long, all the panel lines being off, and don't get me started on the small details. I gave this kit away complete to someone I didn't like very much.

Again, in light of the pasting this kit has taken lately, it's worth mentioning that the kit was actually tooled to drawings supplied to Revell, by Saab. However, Saab was at the time concerned about their design details being leaked, so they actually submitted intentionally inaccurate drawings to base the tooling on. So the kit perfectly matches Saab's factory supplied drawings. It just doesn't match the real thing. Object lesson on the perils of scale drawings, and a philosophical debate on the nature of 'accuracy'. And I wouldn't be surprised if the original RoG kit was based on the same information.

Link to post
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...