Heller 1/72 SAAB 91 Safir

HELLER 1:72 SAAB 91 SAFIR

Reviewer: Richard Stracey (rec.models.scale) (#51)
Kit Review submitted: 25 October 2002

Kit Details:

SAAB 91 SAFIR HELLER 1/72 #262

Aircraft History:

The first of 320 SAAB 91s first flew on 20^th.Nov.1945 powered by a 130hp DH Gipsy 1c engine which was replaced by a Gipsy Major 10 in the –A production version. This was followed by the –B, which had a Lycoming 0-435-A flat six engine and had provisions for guns, rockets or bombs. The –C had four seats whereas the earlier versions had three. The final –D had a Lycoming 0-360-A engine and disc brakes. The Swedish, Austrian, Ethiopian, Tunisian, Norwegian and Finnish Air Forces as well as civilian operators used the Safir. It had a length of 8.02m and wing span of 10.59m.

The Kit:

This Heller kit dates from 1981 and consists of twenty two finely detailed parts in yellow plastic. Although Heller claim on the box end “3 versions, 2 decorations” they are only half correct as only the –B model is supplied!

Construction:

Interior detail is adequate with raised detail on the dashboard. Weight is needed and there is plenty of room in the nose before the cowling front (8) is fitted. I glued plastic card over the inside of the wheel wells in the lower wing (14) to form a roof. This results in slightly shallow wheel wells but looks better than nothing.

Everything fits well except the canopy (19) which is slightly too wide. I took to it with a razor saw and file before gluing the halves back together which did the trick. Not recommended for those of a nervous disposition! The ridge on the top of the cowling is not flash, it’s supposed to be there. I added a couple of jewels to the prominent landing lights on the wing leading edge.

Versions/Decals:

As the box states, there are “2 decorations”. One camoufaged Swedish and one yellow Norwegian, both with dayglow/ orange trim for which I used Testors 2041 Fluo.Red- Orange (FS28913) rather than the recommended Humbrol 18 Orange. The decals, which had curled up, looked a bit suspect but were fine. One strange feature of the Norwegian ones is that they don’t agree with the instructions. Nils from IPMS Norway advised me that “U” is the aircraft type which is placed behind the insignia on both sides and the individual code is “AT” not “TA”. Thanks Niles. I wish that Heller had made the Safir in white rather than yellow as I thought that I could get away with simply spraying the model yellow. Not so! Yellow must have a white undercoat! I had to take to the model with Smith and Nephew’s ZOFF to remove the paint before repainting properly. Serves me right for being lazy!

Overall:

At one stage Heller had a thing going with Scandinavia as the produced quite a few kits of Swedish aircraft and / or Finnish, Norwegian, Danish and Swedish decal options. They also fancied this style of single engined monoplane in that they made the Caudron C635 Simoun and Messerschmitt 108B Taifun, all three being very nice kits.

RHS / 51

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