1/72 SAAB 37800 - two seat Viggen prototype

Gallery Article by Björn Bäcklund on June 6 2014

Sweden National Day 

 

I decided to build the Matchbox Sk 37 as the prototype for the two seater. The main reason for me to build it like that is the shape of the fin. The two seat trainer and the interceptor (JA37) had a taller fin and I don't think that Matchbox got it right. Having built a couple of Heller kits I was left with some cockpit tubs from the two seater and I added them to this kit. The part between the two canopies were missing on one of the fuselage half's so I took that part from Heller as well. I was worried that I would have problems fitting the canopies now but the front canopy from Matchbox fits just fine and with some adjustment to the rear wall the rear canopy from Heller fits as well.

 

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Instead of trying to correct the fin I removed it and used the fin from the Heller kit. As it turned out it would probably have been easier to make a new top (tip?) on the Matchbox fin building it as an production plane. I thought that the wheels looked boring with bolts instead of holes so I'm doing an experiment drilling 0,9 mm holes using two bolts and the edge of the rim to steer the drill in the right position.  I had lost one of the seats so I used Heller parts instead. Of course it turned up when it was time to mount the canopies. It must have been more than 12 years since I started on this kit an the belly tank had gone missing since then so Heller once again had to rescue me. No problem there. When I'm done with this and the three Airfix Viggen's I’ve planned for a Heller Viggen without the tank. 

I painted it with the lightest shade of metal colors from Games workshop. Then I mixed some red-brown wash in the silver paint and painted the rear of the body that would be exposed to the hot exhausts. This prototype didn't have much markings. The absence of the national insignia will make it different compared to the other ones.

Björn Bäcklund

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Photos and text © by Björn Bäcklund