Swedish Jas-39A/C Gripen 1/48 Kitty Hawk

[Scaleman]

Im entering this little thing hoping to finnish rather later than sooner but with almost 2 months left I think I have a chance to finnish it. At least Im participating. I started the kit this weekend and here comes some of the pictures. Its a ok kit I got it fairly cheap, it has a little PE the sprues have some flash but the parts look fairly clean, some of the location pins and instructions are a bit off but nothing major so, not a big deal. After a few H today I have managed to get the large parts test fitted and put the tub together.

[TommyKillander]

Awesome, lovely aircraft and great kit!

Good luck with the build!

Cheers

[Scaleman]

Thank you Tommy

[patrickroos]

More Swedish goodies!!

Will look closely, have this kit waiting for a C version build with all the resin money can buy!

Good luck!
Lycka till!!

[Scaleman]

Heres some more photos of the build. I shuld really keep notes cause I have a memory of a goldfish. Anyway the overall build is quite easy the details are pretty bad in some areas, if your old school you can do it, if your used to top notch eduard kits you will think its Brad Pitt, honestly the fit was 70% most of the fuselage had gaps. Anyway this is not where im confortable im shure others wuld do a better job it defenetly deserves some extras.

So after checking some reference pictures as to were im going with this build Iwe noticed that the weel housing/compartments are lightgrey and very near to the underside, so I put everything together weels and all . This will help me to not knock off the delicate parts of the aircraft as it will stand firm on its own. I used CA glue to place the PE then diluted white glue and water to keep them from popping off, this is apparently a old ship builders trick, anyway it always worked for me. The seams are filled with fine wood filler for its used for trimmings around doors inside and wood details, its a very tough acrylic filler, that will sink slightly wich is perfect cause you keep the panel line, and you dont have to sand, just wipe it off with a cotton bud. So Im now finnished with the building stage, exept the lights wich I will add last. I have decided what loadout I picked it simply cause I liked it, the kit did provide one extra fuletank and lots of weapons but not all for JAS , the JAS has at least 2 different fuletanks from what iwe seen luckily the one for mirage thats in the kit seems to be the same. I also got a recon pod from the spare parts bin I was really lucky there sence I only have spareparts from one modern aircraft . Anyway here comes more pics and its time for primer.

Mold shifts.



Holes straight thrugh to nowhere.

Thats a first

You have to cut out the whole lining to get it to fit right.

Filler and more filler







Ready for primer

[Scaleman]

Thank you Patrik

[mincemeat]

Wow, I've been eying this kit for a while. A bit disappointed with all the fit issues you've had. You're doing a great job here and it looks like it will come out pretty splendidly with all the care and attention.

[martin57]

nice work so far looking good

[Scaleman]

So I have struggled a bit for various reasons, first modern aircraft, working alot and some fit issues and misstakes, the weapons have been falling off alot too Anyway its the participation that matters and it was quite fun to try some new stuff, in the end Iwe lernt alot. Here is the rest of the build pictures, the final model will be posted in finnished builds. I recomend you buy this kits with some extras and if you can get it cheap.

[mincemeat]

That's an awesome paint scheme! I love it.