Pilot Replicas SAAB J21 A-3

[JonMW]

I couldn't wait any longer to start this thing. Started working a bit on the cockpit, it looks good out of the box and everything fits well. Only thing is that the holes for the control sticks are a bit small so they need to be drilled out, but rather that then having too big holes. After looking at some reference pictures I noticed that the right side of the cockpit are missing some details, the rest looks really good. I've started playing with the idea of scratch building a new cockpit side wall that looks more correct. Not sure if I'll use it or make a new better one, or just build this with the kit part and do something more detailed for the next build as I'll definitely get at least one more of these.









Since the cockpit side wall has a curve to it I started by vacuum forming a thin sheet of plastic over the kit part. All the recesses on the kit part was filled with a sculpting clay to get a smooth area. I cut that out and started adding small parts of plastic that loosely represents the parts on the real plane. There is still a panel with two gauges missing in the upper front corner and some wires and smaller details.

[patrickroos]

Great start!

[JonMW]

Think I'm done with the cockpit side wall, it's not completely correct but I think it's a better representation then the kit part. I have added a few left over PE parts for levers and small details, still have a few more to add after everything is painted.



Also done some test fitting of the rest of the plane. There are a few tight spots that will need a bit of a push to go in, like where the booms attach to the wings. I think you can almost get away with no filler on the fuselage and the booms and very little sanding.





Landing gear assembled, the supplied PE adds some nice detials.

[TommyKillander]

Great start I will follow this with interest.

Tommy

[JonMW]

Finally getting some where with this, I didn't like the paint job on the cockpit so I had to strip it and redo it. Am pretty happy now, just a simple coat of XF-61, detailed, dry brushed with silver and finally given a oil wash using Mig 502 engine oil. Still need to add the belts and some fishing weight in front of the cockpit.







Also put the booms and wings together, the fit is really nice almost no filler is needed.



This is all the filler I used, one small spot on each boom where the sprue attachment was.

[patrickroos]

Nice going!!!
Cockpit turned out great.
Glad to see that the fit seems good.

[tferedo]

I agree with the others. Great start and its a nice aircraft subject.

[JonMW]

This thing has slowed down a little bit mostly due to other projects but also I wasn't happy with the first painting so I re did that. I had a bit of a fit problem on the fuselage that needed to be filled using 1 mm sheet. I think this is because I scratch build the cockpit sidewall and that doesn't fit perfect but it's not too bad.



I used the recommended Tamiya paints for the outside followed by Alclad gloss, decals and a final coat of Alclad gloss. The decals went on really well as you would expect with Cartograf decals. conforms perfectly to all the really small rivet details and panel lines.





Next up will be a bit of weathering and a final flat coat.

[patrickroos]

Looked at the first pic and went, yeah yeah good progress...
And then BOOM! done!

Very nice Jon, looking great!
And the Tamiya XF-61 looks ok as KFF325H Olivgrön (Olive green)

[JonMW]

Time for a small update, added some Ultimate dark dirt followed by a coat of flat and added the landing gear. Next up is the final bit of weathering and paint the prop.

[patrickroos]

Looks awesome!!!

[Avgas]

Unusual a/c and looking like a great build. Those decals look enormous!