Saab 35 Draken MikroMir-kit
Aligning parts is tricky.
Left one is from Hasegawa, right one from MikroMir.
I need to get the cockpit fit between the fuselage halves before painting anything.
More dry-fitting
More dry-fitting.
I had to add one missing part from scratch. The white one.
Cockpit painting ongoing. I'm also building Hasegawa's kit in the same time.
Afterburner was really a challenge. I managed it by using Ammo's Ultra Glue an thin black CA-glue.
Afterburner completed.
Cockpit painted and ready.
Comparing Hasegawa and MikroMir
One of the most interesting and rare details: the air intake.
Comparison of Hasegawa's and MikroMir's afterburners.
Fuselage details need a lot of fitting. Here i one of the lower airbrakes.
The air intake painted.
This kit requires a lot of dry fitting and fixing. Just noticed that the front wheel bay and the cockpit couldn't be put in place the way suggested in the instructions.
Placing of the parts is very complicated.
Wing root was very challenging.
Opposing to instructions it was better to glue wing roots to the upper frame.
Frame halfs help aligning wing roots.
Air scoop comparison: from left Quickboost, Hasegawa and MikroMir.
MikroMir's IRST was a disappointment. It has clear parts and one PE-part, but the body of the IRST is too bulky and lacks panel lines.
500- and 1500-surfacers applied. Tape protects the small opening.
The insides should be ready for joining the fuselage halfes.
Front landing gear bay glued to the nose part.
Notice the alignment pin in the nose part joined to the air intake.
Lot of pressing.
The canopy still shows a good fit although there is a big gap between the nose and the fuselage. Dryfitting!!
Nice progress. Next is filling gaps and smoothing joints.
Gaps filled with styrene sheets.
The air intake was damaged so it needed fixing.
The inlet fix is okay-ish.
Rudder in place!
I'm making a late Finnish J35XS Draken so it needs chaff and flare dispensers. Maestro Models' resin parts needed some uppgrade . That's why I made this easy hole punching tool in about 15 minutes just to get 0,8mm diameter plastic circles. Just some leftover wood, a toothpick and 0,8mm drill bit.
Left one is a Falcon missile from MikroMir kit. The right one is RB27 AIM-26B Falcon by Maestro Models. Just for comparison, because I'm not going to arm this kit with missiles.
I used Sketchup for estimating the cutting lines for the flaps.
Marks measured and tape limits the area that will be removed.
Cutting was success and now the flaps can nicely droop.
I made a lot of mistakes with the canopy parts but now they should be ready with additions.
Canopy in place masked with the kit's own masks.
Back antenna added. Now the model could be ready for painting.
White base with Mr.Surfacer white finishing primer 1500 with some pink preshading...
H4 yellow added a few times. The yellow is awfully transparent so the preshading with pink was a bad idea 🙁
Removed most of the paint for a redo.
Now much better without preshading.
Underside is Revell Aqua Acrylic paint 7 black gloss airbrushed.
I lost the wheel guard so I had to remade that part from white styrene.
All the details painted.
To test how the decals work I put first the underside decals.
The wisent decal is designed for Hasegawa kit so there are some fit issues.
Milla's turbine wings were very difficult to add.
Landing gears started.
Flaps, ailerons, rudder and upper air brakes in place.
Finishing varnish added and canopy masks removed.
Tail wheel in place. I have an annoying dust problem...
Main landing gear painted, washed, varnished and ready
Out of curiosity I assembled fast one of the kit's Sidewinder missiles and one of the droptanks. The missile is not perfectly round and it is missing panel lines.
Main landing gears in place
Nose undercarriage and milla ready.
Bay doors added.
My original idea was to have the canopy be able to open and close, but the Micro Liquitape wasn't strong enough to keep the canopy up. The canopy is now fixed to open position. I also added one plastic rod between the canopy and the cockpit wall.
All the Drakens in the cabinet.
Komentarzy
46 26 February, 21:28
RandoVery cool, I'm getting the Mikro Mir kit, interested to hear how it goes together
27 February, 00:22
Patrick HagelsteinTrue! Joining in as well to see how this builds up. Enjoy the build! 👍🏼
28 February, 00:28
S MWelcome, mates! I'm building also a Hasegawa kit alongside with this for comparison and for testing painting.
29 February, 06:24
Patrick HagelsteinŁukasz, I was thinking the same. That 'old' Hasegawa kit isn't that bad after all. The MikroMir kit is only marginally more refined as it seems.
4 March, 14:38
S MHasegawa has only 60 grey parts and 3 clear parts, but it is pretty smartly made and easy to build. MikroMir has 150 grey parts, 5 clear parts and 67 mandatory PE-parts. Being a short-run kit its parts need more work to fit. Still MikroMir contains more details (and Falcon missiles) than Hasegawa so it's comparatively cheaper.
4 March, 16:18
Patrick HagelsteinOK, so you do think the MikroMir kit is the more detailed one? Good to know when I get to my Austrian Draken project (sometimes this century.... )! Following your build with interest! 👍
4 March, 21:00
S MWell my background research is still going on, but atleast the cockpit is more detailed.
4 March, 21:19
S MI have to update that MikroMir's IRST is not as good as Hasegawa's. The seeker head is a clear part and there is one PE-part fin, but the two-part frame is bulky and doesn't have panel lines. Luckyly the Draken version I'm goingt to make doesn't have an IRST so I used the clear part and the PE-part to improve my Hasegawa-Draken's IRST.
7 April, 15:44
S MSlow progress, but I'm very proud of this simple tool that I made in 15 min to make 0,8mm diameter styrene circles.
5 June, 17:38
RandoMan. Struggling away with the clear parts on my RF-8 right now. Toughest part of modeling probably. Nice work on your canopy!
28 June, 03:30
S MThanks! @Rando I agree it is one of the most tough and riskiest parts. They took me 3 days because I wanted to make them pretty shiny with Humbrol Clear, but it takes lots of time to dry and it has become too thick. Next day when I check the clear parts they have some ugly residues and unevenness +hair. On the other part I just sanded and polished some minor points, but the other part I cleaned the varnish away with isopropanol and tried to dip it in varnish again. Next day still unevenness so I just sanded and polished them avay and dipped it in my more reliable floor polish that also dries faster.
28 June, 17:31
RandoYeah I've always had that with dipping parts in the floor polish, it doesn't dry evenly for me so I just polish with Tamiya and Novus compound. Good to get over the hump and onto painting and decals!
28 June, 23:59
S MBad luck with painting. I have to redo the top surface by removing most of the paint. It was a bad idea to preshade yellow with pink.
4 July, 23:05
ClementI've had better luck using tamiya XF-3 or any other flat yellow and following with a gloss varnish.
Gunze gloss yellow, orange, white etc are virtually useless to cover anything.
5 July, 06:32
S MYeah my choice of paints haven't been perfect, but I have settled for them and now the decals have been added. The big wisent needs some fixing.
12 July, 22:22
ClementLooking good! Given how short lived that scheme was, no preshading is probably the right call anyway 🙂
13 July, 10:47
S MI hope this gets finished in one day, because only landing gears are missing. I almost ruined this model with bad painting and bad choise of gloss varnish.
15 July, 21:39
S MThanks J35J, Clement, Podkon and Mimoid! The model is now ready, but I will take better photos tomorrow.
16 July, 20:43
