The wooden mock-up Viggen, 1/72 SAAB 37-0

Gallery Article by Björn Bäcklund on June 6 2014

Sweden National Day 

 

Before the first prototype was built SAAB made a wooden mock up of the plane. I used the Airfix kit as a base for my model. 

I added a piece of 0,25 mm plastic car under the air intake to get it in line with the fuselage. With a "rivet tool" I make rivets following the raised panel lines. Then I sanded down these raised lines and just have the recessed rivets left.

The 37-0 was built before the prototypes so among the things that are different is the tail. I cut it down a bit and altered the shape of the ailerons.

 

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A little warning about the Airfix 1/72 Viggen (or a tip) As I was trying to make an drop tank for the Viggen's looking at pictures only, I could not get it right. It turned out to be very long. Finally I figured out what is wrong. The centre pylon with the little fin is mounted 11-12 mm to far back. If I move it forward I get the right length on the tank and the pylon fin is in the right place compared to pictures. Here is a pic of the centre pylon. The one at the top is a plane that I built as a kid that has the pylon in the original position. The bottom one is the one that I'm building right now. I filled the holes for the pylon in the fuselage and moved the pylon forward 12 mm. You can see a little bit of one hole at the rear end of the pylon. I think that I should have mounted it so it would just have covered that hole. That would bring the pylon about 11 mm forward. (7/16"). With this fixed I can get back to the problem of the drop tank. 

I found some old wheels that looked OK but they turned out to be to large. 11 mm in diameter when I needed 9,5. I decided to try and file them down to the right size. One is done and I feel it wasn't to hard to do. They are only for the mock-up 37-0 .

New air outlets was made. The originals were a bit soft in the details 

I also added some details inside the tail. 

Doors on forward landing gear altered so that they point outward and got new landing lights. The bulbs under the front wings removed. 

The centre pylon is moved forward and a new longer tank has been made. The round intakes has been made longer I finished the new wheels and a green cockpit is ready to be mounted. I wonder what I have missed. It seems that I see something new every time I study the pictures. 

A new cockpit made of paper, I added a stick from an Heller Draken and a joystick to the side panel. 

I wanted this one more shiny than the rest. So I used a can of Silver Leaf from Tamiya. On this I added some panels of two darker shades of Citadel colours. The markings were a bit odd. The national insignia on the nose looks a bit oversized and the ones under the wings are not at the usual positions. 

I used clear lenses from Resicast for the landing lights.

Björn Bäcklund

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Photos and text © by Björn Bäcklund