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).
Click on
images below to see larger images
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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
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