Tarangus 1/72 SAAB J32B/E Lansen

[TommyKillander]

Hey Guys!

It's time for some more Swedish stuff; this time I will take on the Tarangus 1/72 scale SAAB J32B/E Lansen.



I made a review of this kit a while ago, so I will not go through the sprues and details.
See this link for more details: http://www.intscalemodeller.com/viewtop ... 52&t=16727

Ok... This is a short-run kit, which means that a lot of shortcuts where made in tooling manufacturing in order to keep down the cost. Stuff like guide pins/holes for the fuselage- and wing-halves are missing. There are stuff in the instructions that are missing on the plastic parts and the instructions are not very clear on how parts go together. There are loads of ejection pin marks, some placed very inconvenient and will need some major surgery to be removed. This is not a kit for a novice builder or someone looking for a quick weekend build - it's no "Tamiya Honeymoon"

But there are surprisingly lots of detail especially in the cockpit and on external surfaces and the shapes of the aircraft is accurate.

Ok 'nuff waffling and let's start with the build:

I will add the Eduards zoomkit made for the Heller Lansen, so some modifications is need for that as well. Why make things easy ?


Even the ugly ejection pinmark in the center of the cockpit tub can be removed with some TLC...


Parts have been cleaned up and prepared for assembly. The front wheel bay is made up of separate parts and is fitted under the cockpit tubs. I like the approach that Tarangus chosen here...


Panel have been cleaned from all details and the tubs have been assembled. I needed to add some plasticard for the rudderpedals.


Dryfitting. It's very important wth this kit to double-check everything.


The kit needs a lot of help - be prepared to add plasticard to support the fitting of parts.


The front wheelbay does not fit together without modification. Instructions are very vague and support details are missing.


More dryfitting...


Cockpit assembled and ready for paint.


Metal paint on wheelbay and ejection seats.



Tommy

[gustavlekstal]

No honeymoon you said. Good luck on this marriage! If it doesn't work you can always have an affair with tamiya!

[TommyKillander]

No honeymoon you said. Good luck on this marriage! If it doesn't work you can always have an affair with tamiya!

Haha...
Maybe I need a "vacation" with a Tamiya-kit after this build is done

Did some dryfitting of the fuselage and wing earlier today... It doesn't look too bad actually, so I think I can put it together without too much filler (hopefully none).


Tommy

[StarFar]

Very interesting subject to build. Good luck!

[TommyKillander]

Very interesting subject to build. Good luck!

Thank you, StarFar!

I'm working on the cockpit right now... This is my result sofar with the tubs:


I ran into a small problem with the ejection seat; I couldn't find any good references for the seats, so this is the best I could find:




After some consideration I decided to use that as a starting point. There are PE belts and transparent parts that I will add too.


Spekaing of clear parts - I unfortunately broke on of the screens that sits behind the headrest of each seat. I forgot that the plastic is very brittle

Well, I didn't like those parts anyway. I was already planning to scratchbuild them using a PET sheet.


Tommy

[JonMW]

Nice progress, really makes me want to get started on my 1/48 A32A.

On the seats, I'm not sure how different the seats between the the J32 and A32 are. Comparing the Tarangus kit parts, both look the same except the J32 seats have the parachute molded in it. The 1/72 J32 seats looks like the 1/48 A32 ones and not the 1/48 J32 ones. Anyway the website you got the reference pictures from has a lot of nice pictures of the A32 seats and I can't tell the difference between them except for the parachute that is (maybe) missing from the 1/72 kit parts.

[TommyKillander]

Nice progress, really makes me want to get started on my 1/48 A32A.

On the seats, I'm not sure how different the seats between the the J32 and A32 are. Comparing the Tarangus kit parts, both look the same except the J32 seats have the parachute molded in it. The 1/72 J32 seats looks like the 1/48 A32 ones and not the 1/48 J32 ones. Anyway the website you got the reference pictures from has a lot of nice pictures of the A32 seats and I can't tell the difference between them except for the parachute that is (maybe) missing from the 1/72 kit parts.

Thanks Jon

Yes, that is my conclusion also sofar. I bought the Nordic Airpower book about Lansen, but there are not any photos showing the seats... but it's a nice book though.

I will ask one of the guys at IPMS Göteborg that have access to these aircrafs at SwAFHF http://www.swafhf.se/ to take some photos of the seats.

Meanwhile I will carry on with the build in other areas.


Tommy

[TommyKillander]

Hey Guys!

I've been working on the Lansen yesterday and today and actually got some work done. I had a very nice (but sober) Swedish Midsummer so I actually had an early start this morning at the bench.

Note: If you are unfamiliar with the Swedish Midsummer festivity; this short clip will brief you on that
[youtube]u8ZLpGOOA1Q[/youtube]

Ok... Let's continue with the engine.

The jet exhaust - picture says it all; The correlation between the plastic parts and the instruction needs a lot of imagination to work


I will leave the flash on the inside so I can glue the PE onto something. But the exhaust needs to be fixed with some dissolved styrene.


The rear part of the "engine" fits so bad to the reheat-chamber that some plasticard is needed, but this will also serve as a holder for the PE part.


Like that.


Sinkmarks.... more dissolved styrene.


The wheels look rather ugly, but they are actually quite easy to fix once they are assembled.


Like this.


Whoa. This build is practically falling together by itself; let's do some detailing of the air intakes to slow things down a bit....







After a couple of hours och sanding and adjusting the ribs, the result is like this. I'm happy with that.



Tommy

[demarcation]

Nice work so far Tommy! Interesting build, actually I had never heard about Tarangus kits until I saw this thread.

[TommyKillander]

Nice work so far Tommy! Interesting build, actually I had never heard about Tarangus kits until I saw this thread.

Thank you, Anders

Ultimate Retail carries some of the Tarangus kits like the 1/48 Viggen and Lansen kits. The 1/72 J29 Tunnan is a great little kit too.
Check out Pauls Viggen on this forum, It's such a beautiful build.


Tommy

[TommyKillander]

Hey Guys,

I've been working on the engine and main gear wheelbay today. I have to admit, that the kit is growing on me; the extra work that this kit gives me the needed kick in the rear to make something extra out of the build. I need to invest a lot of time and effort to cover up for the shortcomings of this kit, but doing so makes it easy to put in a little mer effort and make something that I never would have done with a "shake-n-bake"-kit. Hope that makes sense...

Let's start with the engine. I started by priming it with Ultimate Primer.


After that I coated everything with Tamiya X-1 to get a gloss base for the Vallejo Metal Colours. I used White Alu, Exhaust Manifold and Burnt Pale Metal to get some variation. After that I assembled it (sorry for the bad picture).


Tarangus have excluded everything that can be used to fixate the engine, so I have to build something myself.


This is WIP; I need to add a frame for the front end of the engine to align it properly. I also need to adjust the walls, since the engine does not fit(!) inside the fuselage


The main wheelbays need a lot of TLC.. The ejection pin marks and destroyed bulkhead needs to be fixed.


Replaced the wall and tried to remove as much as possible of the ejection pin marks.


I decided to add some details and started to surf the web for pictures of details. Now, the Lansen seems to have most of it's hydralic and electrical systems interconnected through the wheelbay, so I soon ended up totally confused






Let's call my attempt "Inspired by various walkthroughs"...



Let's settle with that - otherwise I will never complete this build

Primer on:


Base-coated with Vallejo Dull Aluminium:


I will detail paint it tomorrow.


Tommy

[gustavlekstal]

It looks outstanding. You're not settling! Doing a lot of xtra.

[TommyKillander]

It looks outstanding. You're not settling! Doing a lot of xtra.

Thanks Gustav

Hopefully the extra work will pay off in the end.


Tommy

[TommyKillander]

Hey Guys!

Work is quite intesive right now, so there is not much time to build (or I'm too tired when I get home). Bohooo
But I got some small stuff done anyway.

Main wheel bay have been detail painted and weathered using Tamiya Black Panelline Wash.




I have also painted some more of the main wheelhouse details with Vallejo Dull Aluminium. I will gloss coat and weather them as well.


Cockpit sidewalls have also got some green color. I have also DIYed a support "bulkhead" for the afterburner and exhaust nozzle part of the engine.



Tommy

[TommyKillander]

Hey guys!

The Styrene-torture continues relentlessly - sensitive readers should be advised !

I've done some dry-fitting to check what I'm up against.





To be honest it doesn't look that bad, actually. The bottom side is OK and shouldn't cause any problem. The seams around the wingroot on the top side will probably go away if I press the fuselage against the wing-section when I glue it togehter - atleast I hope so...

Some more detailing; I drilled out the holes for the gunports.



Airbrakes in PE, scale 1/72. Tbh I don't look forward to doing that
But I have already completed the holes in the fuselage, so there is no turning back now...




Tommy

[JonMW]

Nice progress, you are a braver man then me doing those air brakes. I have the 1/48 PE set and have seen that 1/72 set, no way I would use it, those parts are way too small.

It's a bit sad that it seems Tarangus has taken a step in the wrong direction in terms of fit from the Viggen, but I'm still happy they keep doing kits of Swedish things.

[TommyKillander]

Nice progress, you are a braver man then me doing those air brakes. I have the 1/48 PE set and have seen that 1/72 set, no way I would use it, those parts are way too small.

Thanks Jon
I'll give it a go... if I donk it completely I'll have to scratchbuild something out of plasticard instead.

It's a bit sad that it seems Tarangus has taken a step in the wrong direction in terms of fit from the Viggen, but I'm still happy they keep doing kits of Swedish things.

Yeah, I agree. I would love to see Tarangus step up to the same level as Pilot Replicas so we have two local manufacturers that can cover the Swedish aircraft heritage with good kits that are a pleasure to build even for people that are not super-dedicated "swedish"-builders.
The general idea and their intentions with this Lansen kit is good, but it seems to have fallen short with the tooling design and/or tooling manufacturing. The instructions manual seems to depict what they wanted to have, unfortunately the sprues doesn't look like that

But I'm convinced that I can make a decent looking Lansen out of this kit, but the build might take some time - but I'm cool with that.


Tommy

[TommyKillander]

Hey Guys,

Work is crazy right now the final week before my 4-week summer vacation starts

But I have spent some time at the bench doing the cutouts in the fuselage for the airbrakes:





It's time to finalise the cockpit so I can put the fuselage together.


Tommy

[TommyKillander]

Hey guys!

Vacation.... I though that it wound mean that I could relax for a bit, but my sambo (swedish for common-law spouse) went out this morning and bought paint and window putty so we could start renovating a couple of windows
So I had to put on my working clothes and find my paint scrapers, hotair gun and stuff like that

But I got some stuff done this evening:

The inside of the airintakes needed clamps to set correctly.


The detail kit comes with resin wells for the airbrakes.


By adding a small piece of plasticard I will make sure that I dryfit to the same position all the time...


And I have started to clear most of the small parts from flash and burr, making them ready for paint.


Over and out for tonight!

Tommy

[TommyKillander]

Hey Guys,

More stuff done on the Lansen today.

Replaced a plastic link with PE.


I realised that I needed to make a detour and fix the wells for the airbrakes, before I can continue with the fuselage. So I took the opportunity to paint all the small metal stuff in one go.



Tommy

[TommyKillander]

Hey Guys!

It's time to mate the fuselage halves (or atleast do the final assembly of the inside before I do so). The cockpit and front wheelbays didn't fit inside the fuselage - despite med dryfitting the thing 1024 times

I had to break the parts apart and trim the edges once more...


But now it's in place atleast




I also took the opportunity to add some noseweight - no one loves a tailsitter


I finnaly decided to ditch the canopy that comes with the kit. It's atleast 1 mm thick and optical distortion is just crazy




But I still can't make up my mind if I should leave the canopy open or not...


Tommy

[TommyKillander]

Hey Guys!

All that noseweight got me a cold feet after I had a second look at the front landing gear.

The plastic is quite soft and there is not much support either....

So I removed some weight - no one loves an aircraft sitting on it's nose with its *ss up in the air either


Tommy

[JonMW]

no one loves an aircraft sitting on it's nose with its *ss up in the air either

What's wrong with that?



Cockpit looks really nice!

[TommyKillander]

Thanks Jon!

Awesome picture

Definitely too much lead in the nosecone...


Tommy

[ArmouredSprue]

Very good work, mate!

By the looks of it the kit has a good fit and overall is a joy ride.

I'll be following!
Cheers

[NorthernModeller]

Coming along great

[TommyKillander]

Very good work, mate!

By the looks of it the kit has a good fit and overall is a joy ride.

I'll be following!
Cheers

Thanks Paulo!

The fit is good, but it's not an easy build.
But I'm cool with that - the build will just take a little longer time to complete

Coming along great

Thanks mate!


Tommy

[TommyKillander]

Hey Guys

I have dismantled my spraybooth and packed all airbrushes and stuff into boxes, while fixing a better workplace in the basement of my house. Sooo I have to concentrate on building stuff instead.

Honestly I had to think a lot where to continue, I haven't touched this kit for a while - it was time to join the fuselage-halves I believe.

The fuselage halves don't have any guide-pins, so I decided to start in one end (the nose) and adjust the alignment as I went along.



There are no gaps, but the parts didn't fit 100% together, so I tried to make the upper side as good as possible. Issues on the bottom side will hopefully be easier to deal with e.g filling, sanding and rescribing.





I will make a frist pass with a coarse sander and remove ports and flash, after that I will probably continue with filling using liquid sprue (if needed) and CA-glue, before I start working on the finish.

So, what's up next?
A vaccum formed canopy and airbrakes in PE


Tommy

[TommyKillander]

Hey Guys!

I'm soldiering on with the gaps and have done some progress. Hope I don't bore you to death, but this will be a slow and long build (for a 1/72)

Fuselage and main wings have been joined and there is a tiny gap in the wing-roots that I need to take care of.

I have also sanded and buffed the upper side of the fuselage meeting-line and there are only small holes to deal with. I will use CA-glue for that.
The panellines have been reduced to a weak shadow of what they once where, so I will have to rescribe a lot to make it look goood again.





The bottom side has a couple of ugly gaps, but I will fix them to - all that is needed is some patience and work



Well, atleast it's moving forward...


Tommy

[Patrik72]

Looks great!

Very nice to see so much detail on a 1/72 scale bird. Will be a stunning looking Lansen once you finished it.

[TommyKillander]

Looks great!

Very nice to see so much detail on a 1/72 scale bird. Will be a stunning looking Lansen once you finished it.

Thanks for those words, Patrik!

I will take my time with it and I will not rush the build. Right now I'm rebuilding my workarea so there is not much opportunities to build and paint

But I will soon get back to it again...

Cheers

Tommy

[Patrik72]

Looks great!

Very nice to see so much detail on a 1/72 scale bird. Will be a stunning looking Lansen once you finished it.

Thanks for those words, Patrik!

I will take my time with it and I will not rush the build. Right now I'm rebuilding my workarea so there is not much opportunities to build and paint

But I will soon get back to it again...

Cheers

Tommy

Your welcome!

I will follow this build no matter what.

[AndrewSW]

Lovely work thus far! I bought Tarangus' 1/48 scale version of the J32B today, and I'm all the more eager to get started on it now that I've found yours, which is only half of the size of my model but which will probably look twice as good as mine!

[TommyKillander]

Lovely work thus far! I bought Tarangus' 1/48 scale version of the J32B today, and I'm all the more eager to get started on it now that I've found yours, which is only half of the size of my model but which will probably look twice as good as mine!

Thanks AndrewSW

Good luck with your build, that kit will give you a good looking Lansen!


Tommy

[TommyKillander]

Surprise!

Since I have to play the waiting game with my current bui8ld I decided to push this build a little forward...

There are some tiny gaps behind the cockpit compartment that need some filler. I also remembered to fill a dent in the plastic just below the windscreen... This will need to cure for a couple of days now.


Not much, but atleast it is something


Tommy