1/72 Heller SAAB J-21R

by Jim Sullivan

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Hi everybody!  Greetings from Delaware.  I have recently discovered ARC and am already hooked.  Here is my first contribution: Heller's 1/72 Saab J-21 converted to a J-21R.  The original J-21 was a single seat, twin-boom, rear prop-driven fighter for the Swedish Air Force (Flygvapnet).  It was first flown in 1943.  The J-21R was later developed, first with a British DeHavilland Goblin III jet engine to meet the Flygvapnet's expectations, then with a Swedish made engine. 

The J-21R first flew on March 10, 1947 and was the first Swedish built jet.  "J" stands for jakt (fighter), and the "R" stands for rea (jet).  Only two aircraft in history began as propeller driven, were mass produced, converted to jet power, and then massed produced again. One was the Yak-3, which became the Yak-15, and the other was the J-21. 

After visiting the Flygvapnet's museum in Linköping, Sweden, I was inspired to finish my J-21.  I used Broplan's vacuform conversion kit MS-06 (It was my first vacuform).  I am a Flygvapnet nut, but I haven't built the propeller version of the J-21.  So, I of course started with a difficult conversion.  Makes sense, right?  Anyways, up to this point, I didn't use aftermarket accessories, other than resin ejection seats.  With
a lot of patience and putty, I was happy with the result.   Fortunately, I have a lot of great reference photos from my collection of Swedish books on the Flygvapnet, most of which were donated from my friend Tommy (a captain in the Swedish army).

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The kit was painted using Model Master paints.  After studying the wonderful museum aircraft at Linköping, I realized how dark the paint was on the J-21 and J-21R exhibit aircraft.  I painted the top of the model Medium Green, and the bottom of the fuselage Medium Gray.  I split the canopy to open it up, but it was very brittle.  Other modifications included the shortening of the main gear struts, adding the new vertical
stabilizers, raising the elevator out of the way of the jet exhaust, adding the wingtip fuel tanks, and removing the back half of the fuselage behind the canopy and replacing it with the vacuform fuselage (all of these items provided by the Broplan kit).  The tip tanks, rear fuselage, and belly mounted gun pod were provided in two halves split horizontally. 
The vacuform kit came with spars for the gunpod slung underneath, but they were too thick.  My own modifications included inserting a brass tube to better represent the jet exhaust, replacing the gunpod support spars and airspeed indicator with fine brass rod, and I filled in the air coolers for the piston engine with putty.

I used the kit decals which provided for different versions, and combined them to show an aircraft based out of F10 Ängelholm, Sweden in 1950.  Overall the kit was fun to build.  The Heller pieces went together well, and the Broplan directions were good.  Surprisingly, there were not that many fit issues or nasty seams (unlike my second attempt at a vacuform with a 1/48 F-101A conversion, but that's another story).

Take care, 
Jim

Click on images below to see larger images

Photos and text © by Jim Sullivan