Saab 35 Draken MikroMir-kit

1
February 26, 2024
Aligning parts is tricky.
2
February 26, 2024
Left one is from Hasegawa, right one from MikroMir.
3
February 26, 2024
I need to get the cockpit fit between the fuselage halves before painting anything.
4
February 27, 2024
More dry-fitting
5
February 27, 2024
6
February 27, 2024
More dry-fitting.
7
February 27, 2024
I had to add one missing part from scratch. The white one.
8
February 28, 2024
Cockpit painting ongoing. I'm also building Hasegawa's kit in the same time.
9
March 3, 2024
Afterburner was really a challenge. I managed it by using Ammo's Ultra Glue an thin black CA-glue.
10
March 3, 2024
11
March 3, 2024
12
March 3, 2024
13
March 3, 2024
14
March 3, 2024
Afterburner completed.
15
March 3, 2024
Cockpit painted and ready.
16
March 3, 2024
Comparing Hasegawa and MikroMir
17
March 3, 2024
18
March 3, 2024
19
March 3, 2024
20
March 4, 2024
One of the most interesting and rare details: the air intake.
21
March 4, 2024
Comparison of Hasegawa's and MikroMir's afterburners.
22
April 1, 2024
Fuselage details need a lot of fitting. Here i one of the lower airbrakes.
23
April 1, 2024
The air intake painted.
24
April 3, 2024
This kit requires a lot of dry fitting and fixing. Just noticed that the front wheel bay and the cockpit couldn't be put in place the way suggested in the instructions.
25
April 3, 2024
Placing of the parts is very complicated.
26
April 3, 2024
27
April 5, 2024
Wing root was very challenging.
28
April 5, 2024
Opposing to instructions it was better to glue wing roots to the upper frame.
29
April 5, 2024
Frame halfs help aligning wing roots.
30
April 6, 2024
Air scoop comparison: from left Quickboost, Hasegawa and MikroMir.
31
April 6, 2024
MikroMir's IRST was a disappointment. It has clear parts and one PE-part, but the body of the IRST is too bulky and lacks panel lines.
32
April 7, 2024
33
April 7, 2024
34
April 16, 2024
500- and 1500-surfacers applied. Tape protects the small opening.
35
April 16, 2024
36
April 23, 2024
The insides should be ready for joining the fuselage halfes.
37
April 23, 2024
38
April 23, 2024
39
April 23, 2024
40
April 23, 2024
Front landing gear bay glued to the nose part.
41
April 23, 2024
Notice the alignment pin in the nose part joined to the air intake.
42
April 23, 2024
Lot of pressing.
43
April 23, 2024
The canopy still shows a good fit although there is a big gap between the nose and the fuselage. Dryfitting!!
44
April 23, 2024
Nice progress. Next is filling gaps and smoothing joints.
45
April 23, 2024
Gaps filled with styrene sheets.
46
April 23, 2024
The air intake was damaged so it needed fixing.
47
June 2, 2024
48
June 2, 2024
The inlet fix is okay-ish.
49
June 2, 2024
Rudder in place!
50
June 5, 2024
I'm making a late Finnish J35XS Draken so it needs chaff and flare dispensers. Maestro Models' resin parts needed some uppgrade . That's why I made this easy hole punching tool in about 15 minutes just to get 0,8mm diameter plastic circles. Just some leftover wood, a toothpick and 0,8mm drill bit.
51
June 10, 2024
Left one is a Falcon missile from MikroMir kit. The right one is RB27 AIM-26B Falcon by Maestro Models. Just for comparison, because I'm not going to arm this kit with missiles.
52
June 27, 2024
I used Sketchup for estimating the cutting lines for the flaps.
53
June 27, 2024
Marks measured and tape limits the area that will be removed.
54
June 27, 2024
Cutting was success and now the flaps can nicely droop.
55
June 27, 2024
I made a lot of mistakes with the canopy parts but now they should be ready with additions.
56
June 27, 2024
Canopy in place masked with the kit's own masks.
57
July 1, 2024
58
July 1, 2024
Back antenna added. Now the model could be ready for painting.
59
July 4, 2024
White base with Mr.Surfacer white finishing primer 1500 with some pink preshading...
60
July 4, 2024
H4 yellow added a few times. The yellow is awfully transparent so the preshading with pink was a bad idea 🙁
61
July 4, 2024
Removed most of the paint for a redo.
62
July 8, 2024
Now much better without preshading.
63
July 8, 2024
Underside is Revell Aqua Acrylic paint 7 black gloss airbrushed.
64
July 12, 2024
I lost the wheel guard so I had to remade that part from white styrene.
65
July 12, 2024
All the details painted.
66
July 12, 2024
To test how the decals work I put first the underside decals.
67
July 12, 2024
The wisent decal is designed for Hasegawa kit so there are some fit issues.
68
July 12, 2024
69
July 12, 2024
Milla's turbine wings were very difficult to add.
70
July 12, 2024
Landing gears started.
71
July 15, 2024
Flaps, ailerons, rudder and upper air brakes in place.
72
July 15, 2024
Finishing varnish added and canopy masks removed.
73
July 16, 2024
Tail wheel in place. I have an annoying dust problem...
74
July 16, 2024
Main landing gear painted, washed, varnished and ready
75
July 16, 2024
Out of curiosity I assembled fast one of the kit's Sidewinder missiles and one of the droptanks. The missile is not perfectly round and it is missing panel lines.
76
July 16, 2024
Main landing gears in place
77
July 16, 2024
78
July 16, 2024
Nose undercarriage and milla ready.
79
July 16, 2024
Bay doors added.
80
July 16, 2024
My original idea was to have the canopy be able to open and close, but the Micro Liquitape wasn't strong enough to keep the canopy up. The canopy is now fixed to open position. I also added one plastic rod between the canopy and the cockpit wall.
81
July 16, 2024
All the Drakens in the cabinet.
82
July 17, 2024
83
July 17, 2024
84
July 17, 2024
85
July 17, 2024
86
July 17, 2024
87
July 17, 2024
88
July 17, 2024
89
July 17, 2024
90
July 17, 2024
91
July 17, 2024
Comparing to Hasegawa's kit
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July 17, 2024
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July 17, 2024
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July 17, 2024
95
July 17, 2024
96
July 17, 2024
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July 17, 2024
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July 17, 2024
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July 17, 2024
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July 17, 2024
101
July 17, 2024

Komentáre

62 26 February, 21:28

Rando
Very cool, I'm getting the Mikro Mir kit, interested to hear how it goes together

27 February, 00:22

Patrick Hagelstein
True! Joining in as well to see how this builds up. Enjoy the build! 👍🏼

28 February, 00:28

J35J
Joining, have one in my stash waiting, watching with intrest👍🏻

28 February, 07:06

Robert Podkoński
Taking a seat, of course 🙂

28 February, 07:22

Łukasz Gliński
Following too

28 February, 09:29

Martin von Schreckenstein
joining in. looking good so far

28 February, 09:56

Robin (WhiteGlint)
A Draken 👀

28 February, 11:14

Dave Flitton
Watching.

28 February, 23:13

S M
Welcome, mates! I'm building also a Hasegawa kit alongside with this for comparison and for testing painting.

29 February, 06:24

Oleg Bogolei
Following! Very interesting comparing!

29 February, 07:59

S M
Welcome, Oleg! I just got Afterburner assembled, and the cockpit is ready.

3 March, 20:14

Łukasz Gliński
Seems like Hasegawa is not that bad after all 😄

4 March, 08:49

Finn
Following

4 March, 09:17

Patrick Hagelstein
Łukasz, I was thinking the same. That 'old' Hasegawa kit isn't that bad after all. The MikroMir kit is only marginally more refined as it seems.

4 March, 14:38

S M
Hasegawa has only 60 grey parts and 3 clear parts, but it is pretty smartly made and easy to build. MikroMir has 150 grey parts, 5 clear parts and 67 mandatory PE-parts. Being a short-run kit its parts need more work to fit. Still MikroMir contains more details (and Falcon missiles) than Hasegawa so it's comparatively cheaper.

4 March, 16:18

Patrick Hagelstein
OK, so you do think the MikroMir kit is the more detailed one? Good to know when I get to my Austrian Draken project (sometimes this century.... )! Following your build with interest! 👍

4 March, 21:00

S M
Well my background research is still going on, but atleast the cockpit is more detailed.

4 March, 21:19

Patrick Hagelstein
That's good to know already! ☺️👍🏼

4 March, 21:41

S M
I have to update that MikroMir's IRST is not as good as Hasegawa's. The seeker head is a clear part and there is one PE-part fin, but the two-part frame is bulky and doesn't have panel lines. Luckyly the Draken version I'm goingt to make doesn't have an IRST so I used the clear part and the PE-part to improve my Hasegawa-Draken's IRST.

7 April, 15:44

S M
New photos starting from 36. The airframe is assembled.

23 April, 20:50

J35J
Progressing nicely👍🏻

23 April, 21:54

Mirko Römer
Interesting model kit, following

26 April, 15:06

Urban Gardini
Intresting mate!

1 June, 08:15

S M
Slow progress, but I'm very proud of this simple tool that I made in 15 min to make 0,8mm diameter styrene circles.

5 June, 17:38

Guy Rump
Looking good, following. 👍

5 June, 18:19

J35J
Great work with setup of tool and outcome of the chaff & flare dispensers👍🏻

5 June, 18:36

S M
Thanks, J35J!

6 June, 19:49

Rando
Amazing idea with that tool you made! Gonna remember that

10 June, 19:48

Michael Kohl
Following

11 June, 01:27

Rando
Man. Struggling away with the clear parts on my RF-8 right now. Toughest part of modeling probably. Nice work on your canopy!

28 June, 03:30

J35J
Progressing great S M!

28 June, 05:16

S M
Thanks! @Rando I agree it is one of the most tough and riskiest parts. They took me 3 days because I wanted to make them pretty shiny with Humbrol Clear, but it takes lots of time to dry and it has become too thick. Next day when I check the clear parts they have some ugly residues and unevenness +hair. On the other part I just sanded and polished some minor points, but the other part I cleaned the varnish away with isopropanol and tried to dip it in varnish again. Next day still unevenness so I just sanded and polished them avay and dipped it in my more reliable floor polish that also dries faster.

28 June, 17:31

Rando
Yeah I've always had that with dipping parts in the floor polish, it doesn't dry evenly for me so I just polish with Tamiya and Novus compound. Good to get over the hump and onto painting and decals!

28 June, 23:59

S M
Bad luck with painting. I have to redo the top surface by removing most of the paint. It was a bad idea to preshade yellow with pink.

4 July, 23:05

Clement
I've had better luck using tamiya XF-3 or any other flat yellow and following with a gloss varnish.
Gunze gloss yellow, orange, white etc are virtually useless to cover anything.

5 July, 06:32

S M
Yeah my choice of paints haven't been perfect, but I have settled for them and now the decals have been added. The big wisent needs some fixing.

12 July, 22:22

J35J
Final strech, good job with fixing the paintwork and decals👍🏻

13 July, 01:03

Clement
Looking good! Given how short lived that scheme was, no preshading is probably the right call anyway 🙂

13 July, 10:47

S M
I hope this gets finished in one day, because only landing gears are missing. I almost ruined this model with bad painting and bad choise of gloss varnish.

15 July, 21:39

Robert Podkoński
Looks fantastic already! Keep it up, S M!

16 July, 05:59

Thomas Kolb
I love the detailed build log! The Draken looks amazing too!

16 July, 11:06

S M
Thanks J35J, Clement, Podkon and Mimoid! The model is now ready, but I will take better photos tomorrow.

16 July, 20:43

S M
Now the final photos are taken

17 July, 17:35

Guy Rump
Great job and interesting livery. 👍

17 July, 18:02

Łukasz Gliński
Great job on this unusual livery indeed 👍

17 July, 19:51

CaptGPF
Interesting techniques on building up the afterburner can. Outside of metallics, yellow is a hard color to paint IMHO, and you pulled it off perfectly I. This build! ❤️

27 July, 15:30

S M
Thanks, Captain! 😄

27 July, 17:19