Aviation Modeling: Drakens in 1/72



The history of the Saab J-35 is long, with the first J-35A taking to the air on February 15, 1958, and the latest versions still in active service with Sweden and Austria. Other countries that have flown the Draken are Finland and Denmark. The are a number of J-35 variants out there, ranging from fighters to trainer and reconnaissance types. Building models of these different variants can be done with what’s out there now, albeit with some cutting needed on some of the marks. We’ll start with an overview of the available kits and their good and bad points.
Revell issued a J-35 that scales out to about 1/71. It most closely resembles a J-35B with the longer tailcone, the early framed canopy, and no bullet fairing on the tail. The overall shape is fairly accurate, which is surprising for a kit of this age. There is a problem with the contours of the nose section around the air intakes, but once built it captures the look of the early Drakens quite well. Just don’t build a J-35 from the Airfix, Heller, or Hasegawa and put it next to this one. The faults of the kit are many, but nothing that really stands out for a kit from the 1960s. The cockpit consists of a pilot figure in a seat, head cocked to one side, firmly grasping the control stick, and squeezing his legs together like he REALLY needs to find a relief tube. On the plus side, the cockpit tub from the Heller kit fits nicely, so if you aren’t going to do a 2 seater Draken (and why aren’t you?) you could cannibalize the Heller kit for the extra interior bits. Once you have the insides done, you then get to have a go at the outside. Revell went a little rivet crazy on this one, but instead of doing it like the early Airfix kits and have the rivets raised, they recessed all of them. They also recessed the panel lines (!) which was a nice touch, but those rivets have to go. When you’re finished filling them all in and sanding it down, you can then move towards the other big omission: the tailwheel fairing. This is completely absent on this kit. The only ones that didn’t have this fairing were the early J-35s without the lengthened tailcone. So, grab a couple of pieces of 40 thou card and start carving. While you’re working the rear end of the kit, you’ll also want to cut back the spine fairing. The Revell kit has it going all the way back to the end, while the real one actually stops short. Check pictures of the plane and chop accordingly. Once those few changes are done, you have a fairly decent-looking J-35B. Sitting it next to a Heller or Hasegawa kit will make it look funny due to the scale differences and the problem with the nose contour. Overall, about all this kit would be good for is collecting purposes, as you can make a more accurate J-35B out of the Airfix kit. But, if you have one of these, and don’t want to buy another kit, it can be made into a good representation of the Draken.
Moving up the modelling time frame, we come to the Airfix 1/72 kit, which represents a cross between a J-35D and a J-35F. It features the longer tailcone, the bullet fairing on the tail, and an IR sensor under the nose, but the canopy is the non-blown version, albeit without the requisite framing. Weapons consisting of Falcon missiles are included. The overall accuracy is better in this kit than in the Revell one, but there are some small problems, which I’ll outline below. Construction is pretty straightforward, with the cockpit consisting of a pilot and seat (separate this time). The fuselage is split top and bottom, like every other Draken kit. Once these are together, the next step is to fix the tailwheel fairing. It seems that this is an area that is wrong on most Draken kits. The Airfix one is a bit too pronounced and needs to be shaved down just a bit. It also looks too narrow compared to photographs. Once that area is worked over, all that remains is putting the rest of the kit together and finishing it up. Since the kit most closely resembles a J-35D, I would leave off the IR sensor and paint the requisite canopy frames, relying on good photos for placement. To do a J-35B, the only extra step you would need to do is remove the bullet fairing from the tail. With some work, this kit can be made into a very nice example of the early J-35s.	.
If you want to build Drakens, this is the kit to get. While the Hasegawa kit has nicer details, this kit gives you the choice of doing the single seat fighter, the two-seat trainer, or the single seat reconnaissance plane. With this kit and a Hasegawa kit, you could bash together just about any late mark Draken out there. Straight from the box, the Heller kit builds up into a very nice model. It is very accurate in shape. The details are finely molded in typical Heller fashion, with raised panel lines throughout. The breakdown of the kit has separate nose sections for the recon and fighter versions, and separate humps for the single and two seat variants. The cockpit has a decent tub with some raised detail. Assembly is straightforward, with separate front and rear cockpits consisting of their own tubs, seats, control sticks, and instrument panels. Once you have the basics together, you get to make the choice of variant. A word of warning: out of the box this kit can only be built as the Danish two-seater. To do a Swedish two-seater, you will need to convert the body to J-35A standards, which consists of removing the lengthened tailcone and repositioning the cooling vents, removing the tailwheel fairing, adding a tail bump, and adding ventral fins to the outboard wings. It’s not a difficult conversion and makes up into a different looking Draken in the end. Straight out of the box, you cannot make a J-35F, as the J-35F only has one cannon in the right wing. The Danish J-35XD can be modeled, however, as they had both cannons. Also, the Danish RF-35s had both cannons, while the Swedish S-35E had no cannons. For any of the trainers, all the gun ports will need to be filled. With that little bit of work, you can make a Draken fighter from Finland, Austria, Sweden, or Denmark; a reconnaissance Draken from Sweden or Denmark, or a two-seater from Denmark. Not a bad selection for just one kit.	.
Here is a kit that does the Draken justice. It scales out perfectly, features finely recessed panel lines, and is broken down similar to the Heller kit, hinting at future two-seaters. The afterburner section is also separate, which points to a true Sk-35C and possibly a J-35A as well. The kit is being sold as a J-35J, which features extra sidewinder pylons on the intake trunks. Overall, this looks like the pinnacle of Draken models. The only downside is the decalled interior. While the decals look nice, I would have liked the better detail of raised instruments. Construction is typical Hasegawa, with near perfect fit throughout. As you build this kit, the differences between the Draken variants are quickly made apparent, as Hasegawa has engineered this kit to fit all the variants of the Draken. Even the tail doesn’t escape their attention, with the bullet fairing being made as a separate piece. The canopy is beautiful, accurately capturing the look of the later blown style. Underwing stores consist only of two fuel tanks, which can be converted into rocket pods fairly easily. As for other weapons, such as Sidewinders and Falcons, you’ll have to dig them out of one of the Hasegawa Weapons Sets. If you want to build a Draken fighter, this is the kit to get. It builds up nicely, has beautiful surface detail, and accurately captures the look of a Draken. I only hope that Hasegawa is not slow in coming out with other variants, especially the Sk-35C and J-35B.	.
Sources: Saab J35 Draken, Aerfax Minigraph 12, R. Dorr, R. Francillon, J. Miller, 1987 Aerofax, Inc. Flygplansritningar 1, Björn Karlström, 1983 Allt Om Hobby. Flygplansritningar 2, Björn Karlström, 1985 Allt Om Hobby. From 17 to 39, a Saab Half Century, Air Enthusiast Number 33, 1987 Chevron Press. Saab Story, Geo. John Geiger, Wings, Vol 4, No 2, April 1974, Sentry.