Hasegawa 1/48 SAAB J.35F2 Draken

The Saab J35F Draken was the ultimate Draken variant with much improved radar, updated avionics and most importantly the added ability to fire radar guided air to air missiles in shape of the Rb27 (Swedish licence produced variant of the AIM-26B) Falcon. Due to the installation of some of these new electronics the port wing cannon was deleted to make room for these changes. The first F prototype flew on 22 December 1961 followed by several test aircraft to aid the development of this new variant. The first production airframe flew on 26 June 1964 and service entry into Flygvapnet was a few months later. Until June 1972 230 J35F were delivered, the last 130 being an updated version with an IR sensor, the S71N designed by Hughes and licence build in Sweden by Ericsson. This variant was designated J35F2; the 100 early F’s being redesignated J35F1. Several of the latter were later exported to Finland were they served as the 35FS in Ilmavoimat, the Finnish air force. The J35F1/2 served until 1989, but the depeche was taken up by upgraded F’s as J35J’s. They served for another decade until the end of the 1990s when the Draken was finally retired from Swedish service.

Truthfully I have in fact built this kit before as a two tone grey J35J, but as I came across a favorable offer at a hobby show, I just couldn’t resist buying the kit again. I thought to myself it would be cool with a J35F in my collection too. This would of course be build straight OOB with the only addition of missiles, as, with most Hasegawa kits, are not included.

The construction of this kit is in fact very similar to my J35D as these were the two kits I started at that meeting I mentioned in my J35D review. Very little differs between the two variants so I will just mention the only external differences: the canopy is different (bulged), as is the armaments fit. The auxiliary air scoops behind the cockpit are also of different configuration plus the addition of the under nose IR sensor only applicable to the F2 variant.

The paint scheme is about the same as on my S35E so no need to repeat myself. Decaling went relatively smoothly, only when applying the large white ID numbers on the upper wings does require attention; lots of water is needed to move them into position. Make sure they are in the exact position before fixing them because they are really difficult (if not impossible) to soak up again if they have had time to dry for a while! Actually I found it best to leave them as soon as most of the water has been soaked up as the surplus moisture would evaporate automatically. This was because the decals moved on the gloss surface during my attempts to remove the water completely with my cloth. Upon drying and after removing surplus residue, the decals were sealed with gloss before the final flat coat was applied.

The last leg of this build consisted of painting and attaching the last items, such as gear doors, antennas pitot probes not to mention the under wing stores, and the last items glued in place were the Rb27 missiles, which I chose to recycle from my J35J. Not long after that review had been published the model was upgraded with some correct Rb27 missiles from Maestro Models leaving my home made Rb27s in the spares bin. Having no further Rb27s from Maestro Models in stock I came up with this quick solution to get my J35F finished at the same time as my J35D. But if I should get across some Maestro Models items, I guess it won’t take long to replace my home-made Rb27s once more!

When building a 1/48 Hasegawa Draken it’s all about experience to handle the difficulties that has been engineered into the parts – some experience ease things along. Knowledge of the subject is in fact also very useful to get things right – at least if it supposed to be a scale model one is actually doing or maybe just a “what if” model.

Saab 35 Draken Walk Around © 2010 Squadron Signal Publications ISBN 978-0-89747-612-6

Nicholai Plesberg

4 August 2023

Copyright ModelingMadness.com. All rights reserved. No reproduction in part or in whole without express permission.

If you would like your product reviewed fairly and fairly quickly, please contact the editor or see other details in the Note to Contributors.