October 2026

SAAB GlobalEye

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SAAB GlobalEye Airborne Surveillance & Control

Company Demonstrator, RIAT, 2023

3d printed Files from 3D_araujo 1/72

With the venerable Boeing E-3 Sentry rapidly approaching retirement, nations around the world are beginning to seek modern replacements. For the UK, this has been the E-7 Wedgetail, based on the Boeing 737 (like the RAF's P-8 Poseidon) developed originally for the Royal Australian Air Force.

Twelve months ago, it looked as though the E-7 had cornered the market for future AEW, but a surprise decision by the USAF to cancel their large order in favour of space-based detection has changed the balance significantly. The USAF’s decision was followed by a collective NATO AEW Force decision, matched by France, to cancel their own E-7s and instead to buy the Swedish SAAB GlobalEye.

GlobalEye is based on the highly successful Bombardier 6000 series business jet, built in Toronto, Canada. Basic airframes are delivered to SAAB in Linkoping, Sweden for conversion into AEW platforms by adding SAAB's Erieye AESA radar in a canoe fairing above the cabin. A British-made Seaspray surface radar is also slung beneath the cabin, giving a precision surface (sea and land) search and track capability. ELINT specialised versions are also available.

Globaleye carries a much smaller crew than the Sentry, with 7 onboard operators assisted by AI, plus a high bandwidth data link to ground controllers. Its main radar has a range of around 450-550km, enabled by the Globaleye's ability to fly higher than the E-3 (or E-7). The aircraft itself can remain on station for more than 12 hrs (although it cannot refuel in the air), can land on a short 6,500 ft runway and has a 7,000+ mile range. In overall terms, it is probably not as capable as an E-7 at managing a large battlespace, but offers significant capability , survivability and sustainability benefits over the much larger Boeing design. For some countries, the Globaleye’s independence from the USA, no longer seen as a trustworthy ally, is also a major bonus.

Globaleye is already in service with Sweden and the UAE, with the latter using them extensively during the ongoing Iran conflict to track drones, ballistic missiles and sea surface traffic in the Gulf. A further Gulf customer has placed an order, with NATO, France and the Netherlands expected to order theirs soon. It has also been selected by South Korea.

Printing and Building a GlobalEye

This is the largest project that I have undertaken so far with my 3D printer and although not yet at the limit of what it could do, I’m nearly there.

The .stl files came via Cults3d, sold by 3D_araujo for £9.63. As supplied, its scale was not specified, but using published dimensions of the real thing I scaled it to what I believe to be 1/72 scale. In retrospect it may be a little underscale (by about a centimetre in length).

Files for the fuselage and tail came in 5 parts. The fuselage sections were a little large for my printer, so I further split them into 4 shorter lengths. In this form they printed cleanly without issue although getting the joints smoothed after assembly did require some filler and a little rework after the first coat of paint. I did re-print the engines as I had made a mistake with the drainage holes in the first ones. The tail plane fillets were a little disappointing as they do not seem to be the same size or angle with respect to the main surface. I’m not sure if this is an error in the files or something to do with the way I printed them. They are also a little crude, so if I was doing it again I would remove them and replace with plastic card.

Sadly, cabin and fuselage windows are solid, although I guess it would be possible to print the nose section in clear resin to overcome this (clear resin printing will be needed for another planned project). Most of the fuselage details are present and nicely restrained, but I did add some small sprue-based lumps and bulges that seem to be missing. I also added some jet pipes to the engines. The wing to fuselage joints provided some problems, requiring quite a lot of filing and sanding to get a tight fit. I’m not sure why as this should not be a problem with a 3d print, but I guess some tolerances in the re-scaling may be to blame.

The winglets were also an interesting issue - the port one printed beautifully, but the starboard turned out clunky and thick. I checked the files for each side and it turns out that clunky and thick is correct. I think port must have been a fortuitous printer eror. In the end I sanded starboard to match port and got a sufficiently good result not to have to re-print it.

For the decals, I downloaded the SAAB logos from SAAB's own site and printed them on decal paper in my inkjet printer. Smaller markings came from E-3 and P-8 decals my spares folder! Fuslelage paint is Humbrol 128 Compass Grey, possibly a little too light.

Although I'm not sure I got the re-scaling entirely correct, it’s well within acceptable limits and this has been a very pleasing project with a satisfying and (so far as I know) unique outcome.

I’m building myself up to printing a 1/72 BAe 146 (the type that Mrs T used to fly in). It will be a little larger, but this has been a good soft start that has proved a few concepts, particularly in terms of fitting into the printer, fuselage thickness versus strength and the need (or not) for supports.

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Background - My one and only picture of a Globaleye, taken at the very soggy RIAT 2023.

In my defence, it was throwing it down at this point and I was taking shelter in one of the stands.

RNLB Robert & Catherine Steen 13-47

RNLI Shannon Class Lifeboat

Anstruther, Fife, Scotland 2026

Airfix 1/72

I built this kit back in 2024, but always felt it was missing something. The addition of some crew has made all the difference!

These are resin figures, from Modelu (www.modelu.co.uk) . They weren’t cheap (in fact they were horribly expensive!) but they are superbly sculpted and printed. Modelu also sell a set of more relaxed Lifeboat Crew, withiout lifejackets and waterproofs.

I have since found some alternative files on Cults 3D to print some of my own, but they seem to be wearing a much earlier set of RNLI clothing (including lifejackets of the type we used to refer to as a “brick”). They are not cheap either, although perhaps “cheaper” . I have a larger Severn Class model in the stash that will need crew, so perhaps they will have to do!