Another Draken trainer, but a multirole one: the Sk35M

[Pellson]

As some of you might remember, I have built my own version of the JA35 Mod4 Draken, a rather thorough rebuild of the original interceptor, adding full strike capability while at the same time improving the fighter characteristics of the aircraft.

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Having gotten the two seater early Draken up to ready for painting status, and realising that I did enjoy the trainer Draken quite a lot, I thought that I'll try to build a trainer variant of the Mod4 as well. A Hasegawa Draken kit has been taken out from the Stash^TM, another Heller canopy and spine adapter has been dug out of the spare parts collection, and some initial interior painting and canopy adapting has been started. So far, so good, methinks. And it's still fun. 

[kerick]

Sounds good! If a guy was to build a Draken new what kit would you suggest. I had a Heller kit and it was unusable and got scrapped for parts.

[Pellson]

Sounds good! If a guy was to build a Draken new what kit would you suggest. I had a Heller kit and it was unusable and got scrapped for parts.

Always the Hasegawa, if you're looking for a true representation of a late-ish Draken, i.e a J35D, F or J, featuring the large bore late Avon engine and the bubble canopy. Any boxing will do equally fine.

Using the Heller reconnaissance nose, you can build a Swedish S35E reconnaissance bird as well, but the camera ports are somewhat dubious, if easily corrected.
You can also make a Finnish 35S, a Danish F/RF35 and an Austrian J35Ö, but the two latter will require some resin details or scratching, such as RWR/ECM wing- and fin tips, chaff dispensers on the rear fuselage and arrester hook under the tail. All available from Maestro, but not very cheap.

Apparently(😉), using the Heller canopy and spine adapter, you can also build a Danish TF35, but both parts will need some judicious sanding to fit against the Hasegawa windshield and original spine.

An early Draken is an entirely different story, but still, the best option for a really realistic model would be the Hasegawa kit, mixed with a Pavla windscreen, new, scratched pylons and in the case of the short J35A and Sk35C's, a Maestro rear fuselage/afterburner casing. Also, a Maestro fin would be needed, or a scratched fin tip.

An Airfix will build you a J35D/F, but it's slightly undersized and the canopy feels too low. Also, the nose radome is tilted downwards in a strange way. However, angling the kit part somewhat upwards and puttying it in will work surprisingly well, making the model a lot better. Also, the extreme wing tips will need some filing to become accurate. Consult plan drawings.

The early Revell/Mastercradt/Mistercraft is an absolute dog, but it does give you the early fin and tail cone, the latter however several mm's too long. Also, only the Revell canopy will work on an early Draken, the two -craft issues having another, one piece canopy rather than the thin two piece provided in the original Revell issue, and unfortunately, the former is rather unusable.
Also the radome feels too long and narrow. I've replaced it with a short radome from a Heller Mirage III/V, as can be seen in my build thread.

The Heller model fuselage is too fat, the exhaust too narrow, and the canopy too high. Also, the wind screen should be one piece, not a framed three piece thingy as in the kit.
The main upside however are nice Danish decals, a reconnaissance nose, however not really useable for any Danish aircraft, a nice radome to be carried over to a Revell dog kit 😉 and of course the only two seater parts in town. And they almost fit, both the Revell kit and the Hasegawa kit, as I have proven.

All above is for 1/72. For 1/48, there's the old Lindbergh kit, best forgotten, and the upscale Hasegawa kit, which is really good, but again for the later Drakens only.

[PR19_Kit]

Thanks for THE Word on 1/72 Drake kits Mr. Pellson. 

Jeepers, the CHEAPEST Hase Draken on ebay right now is £32.00! 

One, with the anime girlie decal all over one wing, is almost £300!!!!! 

[zenrat]

There are 19 different 1/72 Hasegawa Draken releases listed on Scalemates.
https://www.scalemates.com/kits/hasegawa-51989-j35j-draken--967310
If you think that's a lot check out how many Phantoms they've released.

I've got an Austrian boxing.  Some have tried to claim I misread the box and thought it said Australian...   

[kerick]

Thanks for all that info Mr. Pellson! Now I know what to look for at my next contest/swapmeet.

[Rheged]

Thanks for all that info Mr. Pellson! Now I know what to look for at my next contest/swapmeet.

I'd not even thought of having a go at a Draken until I read this.  Now, however........

[Old Wombat]

There are 19 different 1/72 Hasegawa Draken releases listed on Scalemates.
https://www.scalemates.com/kits/hasegawa-51989-j35j-draken--967310
If you think that's a lot check out how many Phantoms they've released.

I've got an Austrian boxing.  Some have tried to claim I misread the box and thought it said Australian...   

I've got a Hasegawa Austrian Draken in 1/48 that is going to be Australian. 

[kerick]

You need a Canadian Draken that was bought from Australia that was bought from Austria........

[Spino]

You need a Canadian Draken that was bought from Australia that was bought from Austria........

That's just about a full trip round the world 

[Pellson]

Initial trials show that the Heller rear cockpit tub and seat seems to fit rather well in the Hasegawa fuselage. Some minor sanding required, obviously, but not at all as much as I'd expected.

[kerick]

When you say you are using Heller two seat parts is that taken from a two seat Draken or something else? My two seat Starviggen uses the two seat front end from the Heller Starfighter.
Something else I need to finish. It just needs decals!

[Pellson]

When you say you are using Heller two seat parts is that taken from a two seat Draken or something else? My two seat Starviggen uses the two seat front end from the Heller Starfighter.
Something else I need to finish. It just needs decals!

The Heller parts I'm looking to utilise are as follows:

• Rear (long) canopy
• Spine adapter towards the canopy
• Rear cockpit tub
• One ejection seat

The seat is used as the Heller tub is deeper than the Hasegawa one, meaning I need a longer back on the seat. One would think it'll look strange with two different seats under the same canopy, but the visibility through the rear canopy is so limited that it'll work out ok anyway.
In theory, it would also have been nice to use the Heller rear seaters periscope (two parts), his control stick and also dashboard parts. However, these have been lost over time, so I'm improvising. After all, that went well with the Sk35C, so I'm rather confident I'll be fine.

[Pellson]

..the two seat front end from the Heller Starfighter.

I've looked at building a TF-104G from an Esci/Italeri kit and some Heller parts, but it's more surgery that I feel it's worth. The Heller Starfighter is grossly oversize, about 1/67 scale, and it just won't match the Esci fuselage in any easy way. Also, there is the ludicrously expensive but oh so nice Hasegawa Starfighter two seater, but given that also Heller kits are starting to go for ridiculous sums, the economic argument for a kit bash is just not there, methinks

[Charlie_c67]

Thanks for THE Word on 1/72 Drake kits Mr. Pellson. 

Jeepers, the CHEAPEST Hase Draken on ebay right now is £32.00! 

One, with the anime girlie decal all over one wing, is almost £300!!!!! 

Allow me to help you @PR19_Kit 

https://www.plazajapan.com/search-results/?q=Draken&filters=Brand,Hasegawa