Supertom's One Weekers

[Supertom]

Right,

Here's my one week entries. As with any of my builds, they're always overambitious, and what I have is...

A Saab SK-37S of the Republic of Singapore Air Force (RSAF). Yes! Singapore, with its fierce independence and love of ABBA in the 70's, went with the independent route and purchased the Saab Viggens from the Swedes. With relationships being better with the US than most other nations in the region, they were able to get away with the getting the Volvo RM8 engines without any objection from Pratt & Whitney. A proposal for A-4s were floated to Singapore but they wanted something with a little more oomph, and Sweden's use of the Viggen mirrored Singapore's needs perfectly (the sting US to US military imports were lessened by Singapore's purchase of brand new F-20s as well).

What I have here is the trainer SK-37, as an alternative to their really cool TA-4S. So, similar paint scheme, drop tanks, etc. The Matchbox kit is a simple one, and I'm resisting the urge to scratchbuild a cockpit, etc.



What's that you say? Doesn't sound overambitious? That's because I'm not building one, but TWO whatifs for my One Week build, this time with modifications! Not only did Singapore buy the F-5, eventually they bought the F-20 to replace the F-5!



Construction started off with painting the erm...cockpit....



While that was drying off I worked on the F-20 as well. The rear mechanism was pretty cool until I realized that it was meant for an open canopy...so I lowered it to make the rear deck look busy but unfortunately it still didn't fit, so off it went...

[Supertom]

Basic assembly is done, canopies placed, masked and ready for paint...



As the Viggen's paint scheme is more complex, I started off with that. Somehow it doesn't seem quite right. Maybe the lighter shade of green is too light?

[Thorvic]

Looks Pretty good Tom from here, 

[Martin H]

hmm that scheme realy suits the Viggen

[Glenn Gilbertson]

The colours look good to me - I always thought that the US greens in the SE Asia scheme were too close in shade.

[kerick]

Your paint job looks great! The colors are fine and your airbrush work is well done.

[Mossie]

Viggens are always good.  The paints are Swedish equivalents, never quite going to match up.

[KiwiZac]

Loving the paint on the Viggen!

[Captain Canada]

Woah....nice entrance Tom ! Love the way that Viggen looks...no problems there ! Two great whif ideas. Close enough to reality ? Subtle /

[Weaver]

Two excellent ideas! Nice one errrr two! 

[Supertom]

Thanks guys. A coat of Future is on the Viggen now. Unfortunately, in my hurry to get my builds going, I neglected to soap/wash the sprues and put some primer on the Viggen, and that shiny late production Matchbox plastic is pretty slippery....have a lot of paint chipping so I'll have to go back and patch it up.



So while that's going on, here's what's happening with the F-20S....



You'll notice that the bird slicers are of uneven lengths. That's done on purpose as I tend to put them in long, then sand them to the right length/shape. This ensures that all the blades are of the same length/angle.

A few hours later after the glue had cured and the blades have been sanded to shape....



The F-20S also got some tiny chaff/flare dispenses undersides, from the spares box. I think those came from an Italeri A129 Mangusta. Shapes are a bit uneven as I had to sand them down to shape, I will do a little bit of more refining before I call those done. Couple more things to stick on top, but I'm leaving those out until I know I won't have to turn it upside down as much.

[Supertom]

Lost a day's worth of work due to work emergency which lead to me coming home late, and repairing scratched paint. I've also spent too much time cleaning up my airbrush from using Vallejo paints so I'm tossing those as I spent half my paint time cleaning the gummed out bits in my nozzle! 

While the Viggen is drying out time to turn my attention back to the F-20S. Attached refueling probe (nicked from a Hobbyboss F-5), preshaded and nose painted dark gull gray. The rest of the paint job will go on tonight.

[Supertom]

So the paint on the F-20 is pretty much done. Just need to put some Future on it and then it's decals.

[Captain Canada]

Great stuff ST ! Really got a modern look to that F-20 !

[comrade harps]

Both are looking great. Especially like the SEA camo on the Viggen.