Another Draken trainer, but a multirole one: the Sk35M

[Pellson]

Some minor progress, despite having had to work rather than just enjoying myself and doing what I like. All pylons and weapon points are on, as are all antennae and built-in sensors. Hence, I'm ready to paint the underside.

Speaking of pylons - a little heads-up on the Hasegawa Draken kits. The forward Sidewinder pylons on the J35J, which are the ones I'm using for both my Mod 4 Drakens, aren't included in all issues of said kit. Annoyingly, the cheap b*&)@rds have been cutting that part of the sprue out in all issues of Austrian aircraft, plus the Swedish J35F issue. The piece being cut out is on the drop tank sprue and looks like this:

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One can argue that the aren't used in these issues, but at the same time, so isn't the IRST, and that's left in the kit. Well, it's present in all Revell issues of the Hasegawa kit, as far as I can see, and that's at least something. But just so you're aware.

That said, corresponding pylons included in the "modern" issues of the ancient Revell Draken, the one I've used for my J35A, B and Sk35C models, is actually useable as Sidewinder pylons for the J35D/Ö. And there's nothing for that in the Hasegawa J35Ö kits. Not very consistent.. But on the other hand, these latter pylons are quite easy to make from plasticard, so I'm more annoyed by the omittance of the J35J pylons.

But whiffing, you can use which ever you want, obviously.

[Captain Canada]

But whiffing, you can use which ever you want, obviously

Amen !

Love the look of these. Just something about two seater fighters.

[Pellson]

Just to better explain the difference between the pylons:

The forward Sidewinder pylon on the J35J:

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..and the one on the J35A/B/D/Ö:

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[Pellson]

Also this Draken has gotten its launch rails and some paint, as per her older siblings. And it's rather fascinating how different the appearance of the model is once it's in one, consistent hue rather than the many different greys, depending on where I've sourced the parts.

I'll likely take a photo or two tomorrow to document progress, but that kind of tasks are easier performed once the paint has dried a bit. 

[Pellson]

Having finally really gotten some proper modelling time, also this Draken project is nearing completion. Physically, the build has now been ready for a few months, but only this week, I got round to paint and decals, undoubtedly as a consequence of completing its "older" Revell-based J35A/B/Sk35C siblings.

It's been a nice run, though, and I'm rather chuffed that I was able to imitate the several years old J35M/Mod 4 Draken multirole fighter, now having created a combat capable conversion trainer to accompany it in Swedish service. But as with the fighter version of the Mod 4 Draken, also this one became low-vis overall grey, save for a few small unit marking. My personal view is that the slightly older and more colourful scheme I used on the A/B/C Drakens is nicer to the eye, but hey - there's also a certain appeal in variation!

As said, IRL the Mod 4 was drawn up as a backup solution should the JAS39 Gripen fail or become even more delayed and hence, it was to have true multirole capability, being able to swing between strike roles, fielding Rb15 anti ship missiles as well as Sidewinders and possibly even Skyflashes or AIM-120 Slammer air-to-air missiles. Having mulled a bit on that, mine are both to be air-to-air armed, as that role always was the primary one for the RSwAF. We're not attacking anyone, but we will bloody your nose should you come in harms way towards us. Hence, AAM's it is, and the single seater is also allocated to an old fighter wing, F3, based at Malmen/Linköping, just by the current Air Force Museum. The trainer, however, is now at home at F10 Wing in southern Sweden, as that's where the Swedish Draken OCU went for the final decade plus, having previously been assigned to F16 Wing in Uppsala from the early 1960's up to ca 1986 when that wing converted to Viggens. And that's also why my Sk35C is assigned to F16, as you may have seen.

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While at it, I also took the opportunity to bring the single seater up to standard from a marking perspective, adding relevant warning stencilling etc, something I largely omitted when completing it several years ago. I also finally have varnished in the decals properly, having had to replace one that had fallen off in the meantime. This mean both are now properly sealed but also given matt coatings, meaning they now look properly in service.

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Not too bad, methinks, and I am sorely tempted to build another single seater but in Danish F-16 colours. The Danes bought Drakens for the strike/recce role, liking them enough to originally wanting to double their order from two sqns to four, and I can very well see that they would have bitten on the Mod 4 concept, making even more use of their existing airframes, should the Swedes have gone forward with the modifications.

Still, as with the other Drakens, I have to complete the armament, and as I have decided to go for Skyflashes rather than Slammers, at least for the older aircraft, I have had some mullings about colours on the missiles. As the aircraft are thoroughly updated and improved, so should the armament, I believe, and Sweden was deeply involved in the development of the Skyflash 90/Active Skyflash before that fell through and the Slammer was procured as a stop gap solution awaiting the much superior Meteor, also being developed partly in Sweden. So I wanted these missiles to differ from the all-white early Skyflash/Rb71 missiles you saw on F-4K/M's, Tornado F.3's and not least JA37 Viggens.

From a technology perspective, while the Active Skyflash never flew, the original Skyflash missile was still improved to SuperTEMP standard, rendering it the second best Sparrow derivate ever fielded after the current AIM-7M.  The SuperTEMP Skyflash was used on the Tornado and from what I can gather, did get a two-tone grey scheme.  While many Swedish Rb71's also had similar upgrades, however it doesn't seem they ever got a repaint, so I feel it's time to take it all the way, creating a full AIM-7M equivalent Skyflash, but giving it true fire-and-forget capability by adding an active seeker. The resulting missile would still lack somewhat in range and speed in comparison to the AIM120 of the period (1990's), but it would carry a heavier warlord, feature a home-on-jamming functionality the Slammer lacked, and it would - actually - be cheaper per round.

So why not? And I found a scheme on SuperTEMP missiles that I like.

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Currently am trying this out, admittedly with guesstimated Humbrol hues, on a set of Skyflash/Sparrow missiles from the spares bin. Only some matt varnish to close them up, and then we'll see.

[NARSES2]

They really do suit that scheme