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HELLER 1:72 SAAB J/S 29 TUNNAN |
Reviewer:
Kevin Ronayne (Kevin.Ronayne@nuigalway.ie)
Kit Review submitted:
13 November 2004
Date: 10th October, 2004
One of the 'first generation' of post-war jet fighters, the Saab 29 owed much to two things: one was German wartime research on swept wing aircraft, which found it's way into Swedish hands via a circuitous route in late 1945. The second was the development of the de Havilland Ghost engine, which almost by chance fitted the private venture SAAB R001 almost perfectly, and was much more powerful than the Goblin engine being manufactured under license for Swedish Vampires. The R001 would eventually become the Saab 29 Tunnan, which in many design aspects represented a 'first' for European jet fighter design.
The Saab 29 had a very long and successful career - the last example was not withdrawn from Swedish service until the 1970's. Some 661 aircraft were built in a number of versions - some of the later versions were rebuilds of earlier versions with new wings or engines. Export success was limited to Austria. Although a very good aircraft to fly, there were a number of fatal accidents early in the type's career which occurred during landings affected by crosswinds. Extra training (on two-seat Vampires) and limitations on flap settings eventually overcame this problem.
Among Swedish aircraft, the Saab 29 has the rare distinction of serving in combat, when both fighter and reconnaissance versions were sent to the Congo in the early 1960's, to support UN operations against Katangan rebels during the chaotic period that accompanied the Congo's gaining its' independence from Belgium.
Since Mark B himself has done both inbox and full build reviews of this kit, I can keep this short. My copy of the kit is newer than his. I bought mine in 1994, and it was packaged in the then current style - see the cover artwork above. This is still the current format for many Heller kits that are being re-released, although not for all kits - and certainly not for the few new Heller toolings. Mark's kit dated from the late 1970's/early 1980's, judging by the artwork and decal sheet in his review. The contents of the decal sheet have not changed; it's just that the printing style has changed. Mark's kit had an 'old-style' instruction leaflet. Mine still had this format, which was quite unusual in a 1990's packaging. It had a single-step construction diagram with just a couple of detail views, and to complement this there was a trilingual parts listings and text-based construction sequence guide. The one area where the instructions had changed is that Humbrol paint codes were included (no more Heller paint codes or generic descriptions), although their accuracy was questionable.
Physically, the kit is unchanged. Whereas Mark built the Swedish-operated J 29E fighter version, I built the S 29C reconnaissance version that operated under UN control in the Congo between 1961 and 1963. An aside: what is it about Heller and Swedish jets? The Heller 'Tunnan', 'Lansen', 'Draken' and 'Viggen' kits can all be built as reconnaissance versions. The UN S 29C features a really unusual camouflage scheme which wrapped around the fuselage. I had wanted to build this subject for many years, but had to wait until I got some really good reference material, as I did not really trust the Heller paint guide. This duly arrived in the form of in the September 2004 issue of Scale Aviation Modeller, which features an in-depth article on the 'Tunnan' by Richard J. Caruna. Armed with this, I had no hesitation in starting.
As I type this review, this kit is not currently available from Heller, but there is every reason to hope it will be re-released in the couple of years, along with many other Heller kits. In the interim, you should be able to pick it second-hand, and the probability of it being re-released should mean that you won't have to pay that much for it! The only other kit of the 'Tunnan' that I am aware of is the Matchbox kit of the 'F' version, which is (being issued in 1978) probably slightly newer than the Heller kit. That was not a bad kit by Matchbox standards, and featured a similar level of detail to this one - although I can't remember if the detailing was mainly Matchbox 'trench lines' or more restrained raised detail as found in this kit. Revell could in theory re-release that kit.
Actually, that was nowhere near as short as I thought it would be. Oh well ...
Box art from the new (Autumn 2005) Airfix reboxing of this kit, in Series 3. It will be interesting to see just what Humbrol colours Airfix specify for this camouflage scheme, i.e., are they the same colours that I decided to use.
Rather than give a blow-by-blow account of how the kit was built, I will just list a few salient points. Mark's build review covers the build process in detail, and there is little I can add for what is a pretty simple kit, especially when my experience closely followed his. Most of what I have to say relate to the paint scheme of the UN version.
As the scan below shows, the paint guide is most unhelpful, as it only shows one side of the aircraft. The real problem is that the guide is inaccurate both with regard to the camouflage scheme and the colours. The colours first: the two main colours are Hu 91 (which is actually RLM 70 Schwartzgrun - black green) and Hu 157 (RAF Azure Blue). In other words, the suggested scheme is dark green and mid blue. The Scale Aviation Modeller article suggests a main scheme of FS34052 (KF 438 Dark Blue) and FS34086 (KATF 325 Dark Green). The IPMS Stockholm Colour charts match Dark Blue 438M (which I assume to be KF 438) to Hu 77 Navy Blue. For the 'Dark Green', I settled on Hu 155 (FS34087 'modern' Olive Drab). This is, of course, a brown-green shade, and not really dark at all. Using these paints produced camouflage colours almost identical to those shown in the plates of the UN aircraft in the article, so I was happy that I made the correct decision on that score. Note: Judging by what Mark said in his inbox review, it is possible that the old Heller colours may have been more accurate than those in my instructions, and that something got lost in the translation to Humbrol colours.
The 'minor' colour is plain yellow (Hu 24) according to the Heller guide. The article says these streaks were orange. I dithered between the two, and eventually chose Hu 154 (aka RLM 04 Gelb), which is bright yellow with a hint of orange. Judging from the article plates and magazine cover illustration, another dash of orange wouldn't have gone astray.
With the colours sorted, I could now apply the camouflage scheme. As I said, the paint guide is very unhelpful as it shows only the port side of the aircraft. The Scale Aviation Modeller plates and illustrations are a bit better - you at least get a top view of the camouflage, but still no starboard view. You will just have to apply some guesswork, which is what I had to do. If you only have the Heller guide to go on, then remember that where Heller shows dark green is where you should apply dark blue, and where it shows mid-blue is where you should apply olive drab. It is also worth mentioning that there may well have been more than one scheme applied, as the 'Tunnans' were supplied to the UN in three batches - five J 29B's in September 1961, 2 S 29C's in November 1962, and four more J 29B's in December 1962.
The yellow/orange streaks were not applied as a border between the main camouflage colours, as the Heller paint guide shows. Instead, they appear to have been applied in a free-form manner. Again, there is no guarantee that there was only one way of applying these streaks - indeed, a preserved J 29B has no streaks! The Scale Aviation Modeller plates showing the 'streak' application are only of a J 29B, but the article also includes a black and white photo of a parked S 29C with this applied. Since there were only two S 29C's sent to the Congo (and both at the same time), then it is almost certain both aircraft were painted in the same way. The aircraft in the picture has a tail code 'A', but there is another aircraft in the background that appears to be painted in the same way, and has a tail code that may well be 'B'. That aircraft is very probably the subject of this kit. The aircraft are on a paved surface in front of a very large hanger. This means that the photo was probably taken in Sweden before just before the aircraft left for the Congo - or soon after they returned - as the base facilities in the Congo were unlikely to be of this standard.
© Kevin Ronayne 2005
Note: my application of the yellow/orange streaks is by no means 'correct'!
The Heller paint guide shows the under wing tanks and pylons as being painted aluminium, just like the under surface of the main wings and tail planes. This is almost certainly correct, as the photo mentioned above clearly shows this. For aluminium, read 'natural metal'. I used Humbrol Matt Aluminium Metalcote. Judging from other photos and plates, in some cases (i.e., on some or all of the J 29B's), the tanks were apparently painted - but not in this case.
One final observation on the paint scheme is that some Swedish-based 'Tunnans' carried the dark blue/green scheme on the wings and upper/side fuselage. This is shown in one of the Scale Aviation Modeller plates. It happens to be an S 29C. This makes sense, as such a scheme would be of benefit if most of a photographic reconnaissance mission `were spent at low level. So, in the case of the two S 29C's that were sent to the Congo, we can surmise that the existing camouflage scheme was simply extended to the underside of the fuselage and the 'streak' effect then added. What happened in the case of each of the two batches of J 29B fighters is less clear, as they were probably all natural metal to begin with. In fact, Scale Aviation Modeller includes one plate of a UN-operated J 29B with no camouflage applied ...
The decals are adequate - the Swedish roundels are slightly out of register. That isn't a problem with the UN markings. Also, with most of the aircraft covered in camouflage, there would presumably be very little visible stencil markings. The large UN markings were extremely difficult to move around if they were not positioned properly to begin with. The adhesive quality of all the decals was excellent, and no decal setting solution was required. A quick application of Humbrol MattCote over the decals finished the job. Here's a quick thought: did the UN markings on the bare metal lower surfaces have a different finish to those on the fuselage and upper wings? I left the under wing markings uncoated on my kit.
The J 29E variant was fitted with a different wing to earlier versions, with a 'dog-tooth' leading edge. This wing was retrofitted to S 29C's. As the S 29C subject dates from the early 1960's, it is correct for both subjects to have the same wing - if the S 29C subject represented an aircraft before conversion, then there would be a problem. What is definitely missing is a lot of minute details all over the model when compared with the 1/48 scale plans in Scale Aviation Modeller. Given the age of the mold, this is to be expected. In particular, the panel detail is not as extensive as that shown on the plan. This is probably not a bad thing, as too much raised panel detail can ruin a model, in my opinion. One obvious missing detail is a prominent camera port on the port side of the fuselage of the S 29C, about half way down and beneath the windscreen - I don't think there was a corresponding port on the starboard side. Some (but not all) S 29C's had a small fin antenna on the underside of the fuselage, almost directly beneath the pilot. The UN Congo aircraft in the aforementioned photo certainly has it, so this kit should probably have it too. I will add it when I have a moment to spare. There should also be a small light ventral light positioned about 80cm ahead of the tail pipe, which appears to be on all Saab 29's.
Regarding other details, the kit is probably correct. Mark did not like the look of the dorsal antenna, but I think it looks to be the correct size. The Scale Aviation Modeller plans include diagrams of several different types of drop tanks carried by the 'Tunnan', but not the type actually included in the kit. However, some photos (including those in the article itself) seem to show tanks of this design. The Matchbox kit had similar tanks, but I suspect that the Matchbox kit was based on this kit to some degree - it had the same main wheel bay detail as this kit. Later on in their service life (it is not clear when), the S 29C's had a navigation radar fitted into a splitter plate on the front of the air intake. The kit doesn't have this option, and I don't exactly what the installation would look like. Basic dimensions and shape appear to be correct, including the bulged lower 'cheek' profile of the S 29C version.
With the model industry being the way it is, I cannot envisage a new tooling of the Saab 29 from a 'major' mainstream manufacturer. The 'Tunnan' just isn't popular enough. Probably the best we could hope for is a limited-run kit. If that doesn't happen, then this is still a good, essentially accurate kit, if slightly basic by modern standards.
© Kevin Ronayne 2005
As you should guess by now, the main reference was the September 2004 issue of Scale Aviation Modeller (Volume 10, Issue 9), with the article by Richard J. Caruna being the feature article. This is an essential reference if you want to model the UN S 29C subject.
Web references on the 'Tunnan' are quite scarce. This page contains some background text, specifications and thumbnail links to a few images, including a photo of a J 29B in a Swedish museum in UN/Congo-style camouflage, but without the streaks applied.
Another page is: Saab 29 Tunnans in Congo, part of the Swedish military aviation web site by Urban Fredriksson. This page has a link to another photograph of the museum J 29B.
Another Saab 29 page can be found in the Air Vectors section of the Public Domain articles Web Site run by Greg Goebel.
Lastly, there are the IPMS Stockholm colour charts, although the entry for the Saab 29 is somewhat confusing and incomplete.
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