Alt.Gripen - The Swede That Could Have Been

CammNut · April 29, 2018, 02:13:01 PM

No backstory with this one. On completing my Vickers 559-inspired reimagining of the Lightning, I wondered what else I could hack and hew into something different. I have always liked the Saab Project 2107 concept that preceded what became the Gripen (aka Saab 2110). And I had Revell's horribly inaccurate early Gripen kit. So I thought I would see what I could produce.

You can find rather nice concept art and a three-view drawing of the Saab 2107 on this thread here.

http://beyondthesprues.com/Forum/index.php?topic=268.45

So after the hacking and the hewing, I found myself with this...

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WTW (What The Whif)? But, after the gluing and the puttying and the sanding, I got to this...

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And these are all the terrible things I did to that ~~rubbish~~ poor kit...

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But this is the result...and it rather surprised me!

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A few touch-ups are still needed, but I am on travel for the next few weeks, so I thought I would get it up here first.

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A top-mounted inlet does not seem like a good idea for an agile fighter. But Saab, it turns out, has had rather a long love affair with them. It produced designs for the A36 Vargen, A37 Viggen and A38 (aka B3LA) with top-mounted inlets - I presume to prevent debris ingestion when operating from road bases. But they ever made it into the final designs.

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The early Revell Gripen kit is truly 'orrible and hinaccurate, but it was ideal for this job. Some parts, like the extra-long wingtip missile rails characteristic of the Gripen come from an Italeri kit (as do the decals).

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The 2107, seemingly, was the favoured design until Saab decided to go with an unstable canard-delta and developed the Gripen that we all know and...whatever.

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So that's what you get for being a whiffer, with all the hacking and the hewing - I would rather have been a judge, but I didn't have the Latin (with apologies to Peter Cook - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Grg5tULy0tY)

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deathjester · April 29, 2018, 04:41:06 PM

What an awesome little birdie

Shame they didn't stick with that design!

ysi_maniac · April 29, 2018, 08:22:03 PM

Just perfect.

Tophe · April 29, 2018, 09:14:09 PM

weird & lovely...

Gondor · April 29, 2018, 10:27:37 PM

Great job makeing a silk purse out of a sow's ear

Gondor

Dizzyfugu · April 29, 2018, 11:51:22 PM

That's sexy. I know that design alternative, and you did it justice.

Excellent!

Cobra · April 29, 2018, 11:56:29 PM

Superb Build

looks like it came from the Mind of Gerry Anderson! Keep up the Superb Work

Dan

zenrat · April 30, 2018, 03:00:38 AM

Good work.
But you can tell us the truth. You built this to celebrate ABBA reforming didn't you...

Thorvic · April 30, 2018, 04:29:15 AM

Quote from: zenrat on April 30, 2018, 03:00:38 AM
Good work.
But you can tell us the truth. You built this to celebrate ABBA reforming didn't you...

ROFL

Thorvic · April 30, 2018, 04:32:09 AM

Excellent Work, always thought the 2107 project was doable and nice to see it done so well

comrade harps · April 30, 2018, 05:45:34 AM

SAAB's F-107!

NARSES2 · April 30, 2018, 07:34:21 AM

I like that

Doug K · April 30, 2018, 10:01:20 AM

Excellent job, weird, but excellent