April 2026 - Part 2

Saab J-35 Draken

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Saab J35 F2 Draken

Flygflottilj 10, Ängelholm Air Base, 1965

Airfix 1/72 with scratch decals

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The Saab J-35 Draken was another very advanced Swedish aircraft. Although the design was mostly Swedish, it also built on Nazi developments extracted from Switzerland after WW2. As with the Lansen, a number of prominent ex-Messerschmitt and Lippisch engineers contributed to the programme.

The Draken was designed as a very fast air defence interceptor, intended to face high flying Soviet bombers as they crossed the Baltic sea. Its revolutionary double delta wing was adopted to overcome CofG issues with a pure delta. Powered (like the Lansen) by a locally built licensed Rolls Royce Avon (the RM6) fitted with a Swedish-designed afterburner, its performance was superb with a top speed of Mach 2.3 at 36,000 feet and a service ceiling of 60,000ft. Although not part of its design remit, the aircraft turned out to be very manoeuvrable, with Swedish pilots trained to take advantage of the large wing area in what is now known as a Cobra Manoeuvre, to slow the aircraft rapidly, forcing any pursuing jet to overshoot.

Armament normally consisted of one or two 30mm Aden Canon (depending on variant), unguided rockets and the Rb28/27 Falcon (AIM-4B/AIM26B) Air to Air Missile (it is unclear whether the modified Swedish Falcons were more effective than the very poor performance of US ones). Drakens were exported to Denmark, Finland and Austria, with Danish aircraft fitted to carry 4 bombs in an attack role and Finnish aircraft adapted to carry Soviet R-13M air to air missiles.

Drakens first entered service in 1959, with the last operational flight in 1999.

Building the Airfix Draken kit:

I knew that this was a basic "classic" kit when I bought it, but the primary decal option and box-art are an iconic Airfix image from my younger days. I already have one of these kits in a very nice vintage Type 3 box, but its decals are badly aged and despite the Heller-Humbrol decal curse, it seemed worthwhile to acquire this and give them a go.

In fact, I had planned to use a Hobby 2000 issue of the Hasegawa kit with the Airfix decals. Sadly, that kit has disappeared into the darker spaces of my garage and I can't find it (my database helpfully tells me that it is "loose"), so off we go with the1971 Airfix original, but in the form of a 1994 re-issue.

The kit is typical of its age, with very little detail and prominent raised panel lines (drawing a poor comparison with my other build this month, the Heller Lansen) and a cockpit with nothing more than a “single sofa” and a pilot. It also has some of the quirks of this particular release era, which was one of Airfix's lowest points - like very soft and light plastic, all of which combined to make the fit variable and sprue attachments difficult to remove without damage.

That said, parts fit overall is not too bad (especially given the mould's age).

I sanded off the excessive raised panel lines as my reference pictures show a very smooth skin. The soft plastic helped to remove blemished and misshapes and I plan to restore some of the detail post-painting with drawn lines. Fortunately, my decals don't seem to be misaligned as the Heller-era printed sets usually were, but no doubt they will react badly to water, so I have used some Micro Decal Film once more, to try and beef them up (which worked and they went on well!).

One of the few benefits of this kit over the Hasegawa one is that it comes with some suitable armament, in the form of two variants (radar & IR) of the Hughes Falcon air to air missiles, as well as two centreline fuel tanks. The undernose IRST sensor is provided; I'm not sure this is relevant for both decal options, but I fitted it anyway! Paint is enamel, Humbrol 163 and Revell 74, with Humbrol 27001 and 27002 for the undersides & leading edges.

In summary, this is a kit only really suitable nowadays for nostalgia or blitz builds. Nevertheless, it was fun to build as a compliment to my other build of the month and the finished model turned out to be better than I expected, but trust me - decal design apart, in almost all respects the Hasegawa/Hobby 2000 one is far, far, superior!

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Link to Part 1- Saab J32 Lansen

Link to Part 1 - Saab Lansen

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Below: The Swedish Air Force (Flygvapnet) maintain a historic flight of iconic jet aircraft, including the Viggen, Draken and Lansen.

The following photos show them at the 2022 RAF Fairford Royal International Air Tattoo (RIAT).