Internet Modeler : First Look : Aviation RSS News Feed

Special Hobby 1/72 Saab J-21R

By Chris Banyai-Riepl

Overview

Saab's J-21 was a first for the company in several ways. It was Saab's first fighter aircraft, and it was their first jet aircraft design. It was also the first Swedish fighter to be fitted with an ejection seat, and the first tricycle landing gear aircraft. Finally, the propeller version was the first pusher aircraft as well. An impressive list of firsts, to be sure, but even more impressive is that the J-21 is one of only two aircraft to be successfully converted from piston engine to jet power (the other one being the Yak-3/Yak-15).

For those interested in the Saab J-21, the choice of reference materials has been severely limited until very recently. This year, Mushroom Model Publications released a new title in their Yellow Series covering this interesting aircraft, and it is highly recommended as the best reference available on the Saab J-21A & J-21R.

The Kit

Interestingly, while an obscure type, the J-21 has been kitted before, and by a mainstream kit company. Heller produced a very nice kit of the piston-engined J-21A many years ago, and while it features raised panel lines, it is still very buildable. For those interested in the jet J-21R, though, about the only option (other than scratchbuilding) was a vacuform conversion put out by Broplan. Now we have a very nice, new tool kit of the Saab J-21R, courtesy of Special Hobby.

The kit comes molded in medium gray plastic, with petite recessed panel lines throughout. A combination of resin and photoetch help detail the smaller parts, while the decal sheet provides markings for four aircraft. While the J-21A and J-21R would seem to lend themselves well to multiple kits with minimal effort, the truth is that the shape between the two has significant subtle differences. Special Hobby has done their homework, though, and the parts breakdown hints at the possibility of a J-21A down the road.

Construction begins with the interior, and this kit provides a good mix of plastic, photoetch, and resin details. The instrument panel is made up from photoetch, with film dials, while the gunsight is resin. The only real letdown here is with the seat, which has some errors in details and is missing the headrest. The seatbelts and basic shape and framing is quite good, though, and the headrest is easy to add.

With the interior together, the basic construction is logical for an aircraft with such a complex shape. The fuselage halves are split into right and left halves, with a separate nose gear well, the assembled cockpit, and a separate exhaust pipe falling inside. There is no representation of the complex intake ducting, which is understandable as I am not sure that could be molded easily in plastic or resin. The completed fuselage assembly sits on top of the one-piece lower wing, with separate right and left upper wing pieces butting up against the fuselage. The main gear wells are separate, while the tail booms are split into halves. The tops of the booms are keyed, which should hopefully guarantee perfect alignment of the stabilizer, vertical fins, landing gear, and wing.

Moving to the landing gear, the J-21 sits on rather stalky legs, and this kit does a good job of capturing that look. Of course, this comes at a price, and the main challenge will be with the nose gear strut. This has a one-piece main strut and a smaller piece for the wheel yoke. The attachment point between these two will be weak, so it is highly recommended that these two parts be pinned together. For both the nose gear and main gear, the oleo scissors are provided in photoetch, while the wheels are resin. The latter are nicely done, with the main gear featuring the most common tread pattern consisting of wavy horizontal lines. Some J-21As and J-21Rs were equipped with tires featuring horizontal Y tread patterns, should you wish to model something a bit different.

Moving on to the final details, this kit gets quite a bit of external detailing in the form of photoetch. The gear doors are all attached with photoetch hinges, while the ailerons and elevator have photoetch control horns. Armament comes in the form of the unique 8-gun belly pack, while the thirsty engine gets more fuel from the separate wingtip fuel tanks.

For markings, all J-21R aircraft were finished in the same two-color camouflage of olive green over blue gray. National insignia shows up in six places, while the Wing number is on the fuselage. Within the Wing, the individual squadrons are identified by colors, both on the nose and on the tail code letters. The aircraft included on this sheet features two aircraft from F7 Wing and one from F10 Wing, with the final option being the restored example as seen at the Flygvapenmuseum.

The Flygvapenmuseum aircraft is marked the same as one of the F7 options, Red N, with careful attention given to the differences between the operational version and the museum version. The other F7 aircraft is Blue Ö, a very odd code letter, while the F10 aircraft is Blue D. The decals are very nicely printed, with excellent register. This is often a challenge for Swedish kits, as the crowns in the national insignia feature black outlines that frequently end up misaligned. Not so in this case, and that, coupled with the good selection of stenciling, results in a nice decal sheet that can be fully utilized.

Conclusion

This is a very welcome kit for fans of Swedish aircraft. While the Heller kit has kept us happy for many years, the desires of many modelers to have a good model of the jet-powered J-21 have finally been answered. Here's hoping that Special Hobby will continue the coverage of Swedish aircraft and bring us new J-29, J-32, and Sk-60 kits. My thanks to Special Hobby for the review sample.