Pilot Replicas SAAB J21 A-3

[JonMW]

Just got the brand new SAAB J21 A-3 from Pilot Replicas. This is the first injection molded kit from PR and it looks good. This is what they write on their website about the kit:

This is a high quality plastic kit model made out of steel molds. Surface details with exquisite rivet details. The kit contains photo etched parts as well as high quality decals including full stencils printed by Cartograf. Full color printed ”colors and markings”instructions included.

A bit of info about the J21 taken from Pilot Replicas site:

In early 1941, Saab and the aircraft designer Frid Wänström accompanied byhis team, started the study of a new fighter for the Swedish Airforce. This new fighter utilized the powerful German engine DB 605B as a pusher mounted between twin booms. The pushing propeller however, created a need for the designers to develop an ejection seat, which made the J21 one of the first fighter aircraft in production to be fitted with an ejection seat.

The J21 was Sweden’s first fighter aircraft with ”tricycle landing gear”. The heavy armament of one 20mm cannon was mounted in the nose together while two 13mm machine guns and two13mm machine guns were mounted in the wings. This provided provided several key advantages.

The first J21A took flight in July 1943 with SAAB chief test pilot Claes Smith at the controls which was followed by operational service into late 1945.

A total of 297 J21 aircrafts fitted with the V-12 engine were delivered from 1945 in 3 versions, 21A-1, A-2 and A-3. This kit depicts the J21A-3 version which utilized updated machine guns and a cannon made from Bofors. The updated J-21 also carried rockets and bombs and included other updates.

The performance on the V-12 powered J21 was generally good with very tight turning circle on low altitudes while featuring heavy and concentrated firepower from the massive guns. Limitations were with poor rearward visibility and heavy controls, making air combat tiring.

The SAAB J 21A was phased out from service after 1954 with most of the airforce aircrafts being replaced with the jet-powered deHavilland J28 Vampire and SAAB J29 Flying barrel.

On to some pictures of what you get.


Nice box art




The four spruce of plastic all individually wrapped.


Decals, clear parts and a small PE fret.


PE parts include window frames, landing gear detail and seat belts. The PE is pretty thin and feels like it will bend well.




The decals are printed by Cartograf so they should be good. And you can even read the stencils, the distance from the top of the top row to the bottom of the bottom row is about 1.1 mm, the letters are about 0.25 mm high. And almost no carrier film, overall really nice decals.






First sprue, will be a bit hard to remove the seam from the two piece wheels due to the tread. Also a couple of the landing gear doors has a tiny amount of flash.










More parts, the cockpit looks nice, it would be nice with either decals or some raised details for the dials. There is a couple of small sink mars on a few parts like the cockpit side panel in the upper left corner. I only found one EPM that is visible when the kit is done, it's in the front landing gear bay. The last picture shows what I guess is a pitot tube that goes on the right wing, it's about 0.5 mm thick but the sprue attachment is huge, so that will be hart to cut off.




The wings looks nice and have both some raised details and are covered in really fine panel lines and rivets. Only downside is that the upper wings have a slight sink mark around the edge.






Fuselage and booms are also covered in the super fine panel lines and rivet detail.


The glass is nice and clear, there is a slight bit if distortion but it's not bad. Only thing is that the frame detail is very fine so it looks in scale. Problem is that it will be hard to cut your own masks so hopefully they will release a mask set for it soon.








The instructions are only three sheets printed on a thick glossy A3 folded ones. A couple of the steps are a bit busy with lots of parts and lines. But it is pretty clear ones you study them a bit. Color call outs are in Tamiya and Humbrol.






Decal placement is also printed on a thick glossy A3 folded ones. Kit comes with three marking options.

It is also nice that they have a lot of good reference pictures on their website.

Final conclusion, I think it looks like a very nice kit that I look forward to building. I'm thinking about getting a second one as it looks like a really fun build. It's hard to tell it's their first kit and I can hardly wait for their next release of the SAAB J29. This is a definitive recommend from me.

[patrickroos]

You beat me to it, nice review that covers this kit very well!
Agree overall nice kit with great detail and to have a J21 in 1/48 is fantastic
Will get one more w the engine kit...

[TommyKillander]

Thanks for the review, very interesting reading!

I will try to get my hands on one kit, hopefully there are still some kits available