Saab A 32A Lansen

Cockpit with prepainted Maestro Models PE parts. I didn't try to match the prepainted green but chose to work with two different tones as this is also visible in reference photos. 

 

I'm going to show the airbranes deployed. The Maestro Models PE set offers all needed parts. But you'll need a very steady hand and much patience! 

I spent some time to rework the air intakes. The macro photo shows how crude it looks when you take a closer look 😄 But still better than what's in the box. 

As I plan to build a NMF Lansen I think some additional rivet detail will look great later on! 

I drilled holes into the airbrakes to make it easier to open them up. 

On the right the result after the airbrakes have been opened. On the left I started to thin down the edges. 

The airbrake inserts from the Maestro Models set were detailed with PE scrap parts and stretched (transparent) sprue. 

The air intake trunks were simulated with aluminium foil that was put on the sticky side of a piece of electrical tape. On the non-sticky side some scrap PE was added. Like this the part can be bent in the desired shape. 

Everything in place - the fuselage halves can now be glued together. Some nose weight can still be added later. 

That's how it looks now. I think I'll ad some rivets now - just as I already did on the wings. 

Rivets have been added but are only barely visible in the photo. The wings show a quite nice fit - no glue has been used yet. 

Heller moulded the landing gear bay as a plain and small closed compartment. On the real thing there is in fact a lot going on inside the landing gear bay and the internal fairing of the jet engine is visible quite prominently. Therefore I opened them up. 

Some time ago I had bought some carving foam which I was eager to try to work with. I thought I could give it a go to model said internal engine fairing. 

The carving foam was a joy to work with. I think next I'll apply some primer. 

The primer could wait a bit longer. First I had to try my new contour gauge tool in order to measure the shape of the bulheads aft and ahead of the wheel well. This worked quite nicely. I smaller gauge would have sufficed, though... 

The shape of the bulkhead was then pasted to some plastic sheet. 

And this it what it looks like now. The wings haven't been glued to the fuselage yet, so I can paint the wheel well separately. 

Change of plans again: In the end I finished detail work on the wheel wells after the wings had been glued to the fuselage. This is now done and looks much busier than out of the box. Of course, I took a lot of artistic licence when I did the wiring and plumbing... 

The wheel wells were masked prior to spraying them with 1st grey primer/microfiller and 2nd aluminium paint. After a wash and some satin varnish... 

...it now looks like this.  

 

The navigation lights were made from some scrap clear sprue. A small hole was drilled and filled with paint to simulate the coloured light. 

The cockpit is now finished. I'll attach the vac-formed canopy next. I chose to show my model with a closed canopy as I like it better that way to show off the Lansen's clean lines. 

Alclad II Gloss Black Base was sprayed on and some imperfections were polished with a polish sponge and toothpaste. 

I used Alclad II White Aluminium for the base NMF finish. Some panels will be sprayed with other Alclad shades later. And I did some touch ups at the wing-fusleage joint, which doesn't look too good in this photo. 

Some panels were sprayed with different NMF shades. 

The paintjob is now finished. The radome became just a bit "too orange" - I'll try to tone it done a bit during weathering. But first some gloss coat and the decals. 

The Moose Republic decals worked finde. First it looked as if Mr Mark Softer made the decal film more visible as it looked like silvering after I had applied the decal softener. But after some drying time everything looked good again. 

A very light weathering was added. The Lansen had just entered service when it was still in this NMF scheme. 

I really like how the wing tip navigation lights turned out! 

 

The nose colour was toned down using some dark and white pigments.
Two 1.5mm lenses from modellingtools.co.uk were added to the front gear doors. Heller provides clear parts, but one of them was missing. 

I had planned to add a small rearview mirror to the canopy. But the next time I thought of it I had already glued the canopy in place...
I didn't forget to add brake lines to the landing gear though! 

The angle of the wheels seems to be off - but this is characteristic for the Lansen. However, you can see in this photo that engraving long curved lines along the fuselage shows the limitations of man vs. machine... 

 

For the base I started by drawing the structure of the tarmac on some Heki dur 3mm foam board. You cannot work this material with a scribing tool, but drawing a pencil along a ruler created nice recessed lines. 

In one corner of the display base I wanted to let the tarmac end and create some adjoyning soil. I tried Sculptamold for the first time. It was really easy to use. 

This is how everything looks after some airbrushing and drybrushing with pigments. 

I collected some dirt in the garden, sieved it and used that for my "earth". Some pigments where then applied - a bit of browm and green on the ground corner and some "concrete" on the tarmac. The little sponge thing that I got from Søstrene Grene worked very well with the conrete pigments on the tarmac. 

Of course I wanted to know how everything looked with the model in place 🙂
Next I'll paint the edges of the display base black and glue it to the picture frame which can be seen in one of the previous photos. 

 

 

 

Here she sits in the display cabinet. But shelf space is already running low...