SAAB J35
Draken

Limited Edition

Eduard, 1/48 scale

Reviewed by Brett Green

Eduard's 1/48 scale Rockin' Rhino Limited Edition is available online from Squadron.com

The Saab 35 Draken ("kite" or "dragon") was a Swedish fighter aircraft manufactured by Saab between 1955 and 1974.

The Draken was built to replace the Saab J29 Tunnan and, later, the fighter variant of the Saab 32 Lansen.

The indigenous J35 was an effective supersonic Cold War fighter that was also successfully exported to Austria, Denmark, Finland, and to the United States as a test pilot training aircraft.

The Draken was the first fully supersonic aircraft to be deployed in Western Europe.*

The Draken in 1/48 scale

Hasegawa released the only 1/48 mainstream injection moulded J35 Draken during 2008.

This was a simple kit with fixed control surfaces, boxed-in wheel wells and fairly basic cockpit detail. However, the surface textures were well up to Hasegawa's excellent standards with crisp but fine recessed panel lines.

In recent years, Eduard has been supplementing their own original kits with limited edition packaging of other companies’ products plus BRASSIN resin, Eduard photo-etch, masks and colourful new decals.

The latest of these is Eduard's "Draken" package based on Hasegawa's kit.

Hasegawa's plastic sprues are light grey. There are only 115 plastic parts, and of these 19 are marked not for use.

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Thumbnail panels:

The 15 BRASSIN resin parts include the ejection seat, pilot's back cushion, headrest, wheels plus optional tail hook and bay.

Two styles of main wheel are supplied. The inner hubs are provided as separate pieces. Casting quality and detail of all the BRASSIN parts is excellent.

Many of the coloured photo-etched parts are destined for the cockpit, including side consoles, instrument panel, harness straps and other small details.

The brass fret adds yet more detail to the undercarriage legs, bays, trailing edges and the tail pipe area, including the flame holder.

The canopy is provided in two parts and they may be posed open or closed. The quality of the clear parts is excellent.

Self-adhesive die-cut masks are provided for the canopies and the wheels.

Markings

Markings are provided for four varied machines with colourful markings.

One large decal sheet is included, which also contains stencil markings.

The decals have been perfectly printed by Cartograf.

Hasegawa's Draken is the only mainstream J35 available in 1/48 scale, and although it was a very nice kit, it was always a bit sparse in detail.

Eduard's Limited Edition package adds meaningful resin and photo-etched parts to Hasegawa's simple sprues to deliver a best-of-both-worlds result.

If you want a Draken with crisp, petite surface features AND a high level of detail, Eduard now gives you a solution in one box!

Highly Recommended.

* Historical summary courtesy of Wikipedia

Thanks to Eduard for the sample.

Review Text and Images Copyright © 2016 by Brett Green
Page Created 16 June, 2016
Last updated 21 June, 2016

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