Fly Swedish SAAB J-29B Tunnan in Congo

[thierry laurent]

The Fly kit has quite good surface details but it is a little bit flat. Panel lines are a little bit too shallow but all the small vents and intakes really need a little bit of work. There are actually a lot of them (close to a dozen) on the fuselage rear half. I'm progressively reworking them to something that looks more accurate. This is also required to avoid the flat/plain surfaces rendering. I will post some other pictures soon. At the same time, I used my traditional solution to strengthen the fuselage seams when there is no locating pin. So, we are back to traditional vacform modelling techniques!

 

 

This is actually quite easy. I'm simply cutting squares of plastic card. In that case, this is coming from leftovers sections of card from a vacuform kit. However, it is recommended to fold the part in the middle with your fingers. This will create a minimum of curvature that is required to allow a strong bonding with both fuselage halves. If you put them cautiously they simply interlock and give a quite strong assembly.

 

[thierry laurent]

And here's the final result:

 

 

No need to add more. Moreover, I avoided adding too many ones to the rear as this would complicate balancing correctly the kit on its front LG!

And you can see that when dry assembled, this stays correctly with a very fine seam!

 

[themongoose]

Wow once you cut it i could really get a sense of the depth issue for painting! Nice re-assembly for sure.

[thierry laurent]

Hi guys,

 

I ended yesterday the improvement of all the vents, intakes, small exhausts and other details engraved in the fuselage surface. Now, only the protruding ones will have to be added. Hopefully, Fly reproduced all of them even if they are either too shallow, either not drilled.

There are also some depressions (to give access to bolts heads?) on the surface. I drilled them a little bit further to be sure they will keep a black wash during the weathering phase. For instance, there are three under the stabilators. Simply look for the correct diameter of drill and just use it cautiously as you should not go too far. Look for pictures of the full scale airframe to reproduce them correctly.

 

 

For the big vents, I'm using a brand new cutter blade and scrape slowly with the tip to open them further.

 

 

 

 

For the very fine holes, I'm using a dry pin-shaped tool and drill a little bit further with a micro-drill.

 

Then, we have the round vents to consider.

 

 

 

For them, this is more complicated as they must be drilled with a very narrow angle. Personally, I'm doing a mark with the tip of a blade, than start drilling with a very fine drill and progressively reduce the angle. This is required to avoid mistakes such as a rip in the surface. You can end the work with a thin round file. Last, use a little bit of extra thin glue to smooth the surface and edges.

 

 

 

Actually, most of them are very visible. So, it is required to work cautiously. Nonetheless, I think the effort is worthwhile. This will give some depth to the surface features.

 

 

 

 

[thierry laurent]

 

I was a little bit puzzled by the fact the cockpit rear bulkhead was featureless. It is not that easy to find good pictures of that area but what I found clearly shows some elements are unfortunately missing. So, I think it was a good idea to rebuild it with plasticard as it will be easier to add the missing elements. We will have a look at that.

[flarpen]

Hi
I have a few pics that may help.
Not that much on the rear bulkhead though.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[thierry laurent]

Thanks very much!!! This confirms what I found with some better views. This will really help!

[flarpen]

4 minutes ago, thierry laurent said:

Thanks very much!!! This confirms what I found with some better views. This will really help!

Great
I do have loads of references on the Tunnan, so if there is anything you need, feel free to ask and I'll se if I can help.

[dutik]

@flarpen

 

It always pays to have a Tunnan in your garage

 

Thank you for sharing the images

 

Regards

- dutik

[Fenous]

This is very useful walkaround, especially if you plan riveting job.

https://walkaround.rajce.idnes.cz/Saab_J-29F_Tunnan

[npb748r]

I love pictures like this - there's at least 5 or 6 different shades of green in that cockpit meaning I will have a paint that matches at least one of them. All that worry and fuss we put in on getting the correct colour - makes you realise we do it for no reason !!

[thierry laurent]

9 minutes ago, npb748r said:

I love pictures like this - there's at least 5 or 6 different shades of green in that cockpit meaning I will have a paint that matches at least one of them. All that worry and fuss we put in on getting the correct colour - makes you realise we do it for no reason !!

Well, there is probably a single hue of green but according to the light pictures show many variations. This just demonstrates that as far as you stay within a spectrum of dark green color variations this should look ok.

[quang]

4 minutes ago, npb748r said:

All that worry and fuss we put in on getting the correct colour - makes you realise we do it for no reason

Why should you use just ONE colour? Nobody prevents you to reproduce the 5 or 6 different shades you see on the photos. That’s precisely the point of modelling isn’t it?

[thierry laurent]

2 hours ago, Fenous said:

This is very useful walkaround, especially if you plan riveting job.

https://walkaround.rajce.idnes.cz/Saab_J-29F_Tunnan

Thanks. I will not do the riveting as it is not visible on Tunnan planes with the UN camo. This is clearly different on NMF airframes.

[Rockie Yarwood]

11 hours ago, Fenous said:

This is very useful walkaround

Thanks for the link Fenous, there are a lot of nice walkarounds on that site.