Area-88 Saab J35 Draken

I'm building this Hasegawa's kit simultaneously with MikroMir's kit. Left cockpit is Hasegawa's. 

I added seatbelts that are made from aluminium foil. 

 

Tail cone had some gabs that are filled with plastic sheets. 

 

Fixing wing seam lines. 

 

 

 

I hurried a bit with canopy. 

Rudder being prepared. Upper pitot tube needs a tiny hole 

0,2mm brass rod as pitot tube. 

Some vent carving.
 

Fastly added rear lights. 

Shin Kazama's Draken was built from Finnish frames, so this ADF antenna panel didn't have panel line in the middle. 

First light primer (Mr.Surfacer white 1500) and some problem parts fixed with the same primer added with a brush. 

I got an inspiration and wanted to improve navigation lights. 

I had UV-cured nail polisher and Derwent Intense colour pencils. 

Clear tape to keep the liquid stuff in intended place and it lets UV-light through. 

Then just cleaning residues, sanding and polishing. 

Similarly to left side. 

More details! 

 

Air scoop comparison: from left Quickboost (copied from Hasegawa but opened inlet hole and made of resin), Hasegawa and MikroMir. 

MikroMir's IRST was a disappointment. It has a clear part and one PE-part, but the body of the IRST is too bulky and lacks panel lines. But I could use it to improve the Hasegawa's IRST. 

Improved IRST in place 

I had to drill a hole to the nose for Maestro Models' brass pitot tube. The fit is now so good that I could add the pitot tube after painting and everything. 

More details added and the Draken is ready for painting camo. 

Preshading done. 

camo ongoing. I'm using A.MIG Middlestone FS33531 

Camo airbrushed freehand along pencil drawn lines. Darker brown is Vallejo Air's 71.125 USAF Brown FS30219 

Some nasty overspray... 

Few spiders... Needs some fixing. Also A.MIG's paint is shiny but Vallejo's is matt. This doesn't matter much because varnish will even those. 

 

Air intakes painted by hand. 

 

 

I think painting is mostly done. 

 

All decals applied 

Wash applied. I finally decided to try mix a suitable wash color mixing panel liners and oil colors. 

Maestro's pitot tube glued into a sprue with basic thin cement. 

Pitot tube painted. Now I see the radome's failed masking (⋟﹏⋞) 

 

Satin varnish applied and masking removed from the canopy. 

Left one is a Falcon missile from MikroMir kit. The right one is RB27 AIM-26B Falcon by Maestro Models. 

Missiles placed with Micro Liquitape. Landing gear doors are hold in place with blue tack. 

My hastily done setup. 

MiG-23 has a flashy finale 😄 

I had enough Gundam Action Bases for this kind of use. The background is just a TV screen showing Google Earth landscape. 

Next my photos need some heavy editing. I'm using paint.net for this. 

Maybe a bit cartoonish, but lets see, when I get all the action pfotos edited. For these setting I had made one KP's MiG-23 for adversary. 

Front wheel ready. 

Some 0,2mm lead added to the main landing gear.
 

The landing gear fit nicely. 

ex tempore need for a revetment for more action photos that need editing later. 

Photoshoot ongoing.
 

Also some basic photos of the finished model. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I also tried taking photos with my phone camera with a stand holder. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Scramble! 

One MiG hit. Second in sight. 

Dodge! Do the barrel roll! 

Third MiG hit.