SAAB 'TUNNAN'

The plane:

In the late 1940s, Sweden needed jet fighters to protect itself from the Soviets. Local aircraft manufacturer Saab (who later turned to producing cars as well) developed two fighters in rapid succession. The first was not a great success, but the second made use of all the latest research and know-how. This was the 'Tunnan' (It means 'Barrel'), one of the most distinctive of the early jets due to it's very tubby appearance. The Tunnan served with Sweden and Austria before being replaced by the delta winged Draken in the mid to late 50s.

The Model:

This was rather an impulse buy. Sure, I knew some day I'd buy a Tunnan - how could I resist the almost caricatured shape? Like the MiG-15, the Tunnan just looks like the perfect early cold war fighter. It's kind of primitive, and it's not as sleek as later fighters, but it is all business and it has a nose intake. I love nose intakes.

Well, one day I was in Victorian Hobbies buying supplies for another project when I spotted the Airfix kit of the Tunnan. The price was right, and I bought it.

The Airfix kit, I should mention is actually the Heller kit - it's even stamped with big 'Heller' logos on the insides of the fuselage. It's one of those odd marketing deals model companies make - you know, one company sells the kit in Europe, the other company sells it in the US. (Actually, since I live in Australia and most of the time BOTH versions are available here I didn't know such deals existed until fairly recently).

But back to the kit. It's simple, but the casting is crisp and the detail is nice. I have no idea if it's accurate, but it provides parts for a fighter and a recon version. Like I was going to build a recon version. The Tunnan is one of those early jest from before air-to-air missiles, so it doesn't come with any external stores except a pair of drop tanks (which I didn't use).

Assembly was straight forward, the only problem being that as usual, I forgot to weight the nose. I managed to get enough lead shoved into the nose wheel well to fix things without being to conspicuous, but I really wish more kit makers would mention weights on their instructions (Dragon and Hasegawa both mention the weights, where to put them, and even how much to use in some cases!)

I painted the Tunnan up in it's Swedish colours. Technically this was wrong as the decals supplied for the Swedish plane identify it as being a recon bird, but I like the Swedish camo scheme. The Camo is Tamiya Field Blue and Olive Green with a few Citadel dry-brushes, the belly is aluminum. Weathering is via washes and pastels.

The only real problem I had with this one was the nose wheel, which I broke several times...