Part 2: The Build Concluded

Day three was spent in the bliss of cleaning up the yard, while shooting paint between efforts. The night before when I had finished up the airframe, I painted the center lower fuselage Tamiya bare aluminum, as well as the leading edges of the wings and the vertical fin so they would have the day to cure. The camouflage scheme listed neutral gray undersides; again, I used Tamiya AAF neutral gray as the paint of choice after masking off the bare aluminum areas using Kabuki tape. The instructions showed the topside camouflage as olive drab with "Midnight blue". I used "www.Airliners.net" for reference, and determined Testor's ModelMaster Acryl RAF dark green looked good enough to me, with Polly-S "Weather deck blue" as the "Midnight blue". There were elements of gray and blue in this color, and it looks correct to my eye. A gloss coat, and we're ready for the next step… Decaling was simple; Registration was perfect, and there was even gold in the shield on the tail! Each color element snuggled in with a bit of Microsol, and once they were dry I shot the whole model Tamiya gloss, let it dry, and then Tamiya flat. (I love that stuff!) The only decal I could not use was the wraparound yellow/black bee-stripes for the pitot tube; I painted it flat white, then Bright Yellow with Black stripes. After curing, I used a bit of 600 grit to clean off the tip of the tube, and it was done. Installation of the landing gear was complex but well engineered; I ran into no problems. The trademark tail bumper wheels were the only difficult part to paint! They look cool hanging down… the drop tanks were easy to fit and located positively with long, sturdy attachment points. The canopy is a drop fit, and I left it removable for the photo sessions. As you can see, the decals and raised detail instrument panel and side panels are convincing. The only thing remaining at this point is to add AIM-9L and Falcon missiles to the pylons; they are somewhere in the attic roasting with the rest of my stash, and I'll find them later. Overall, the Draken is an excellent kit and well worth a purchase. It looks different than any other fighters, and is a relatively simple build for someone with a few kits in their history. Thanks once again for HobbyLink Japan providing the kit and Hasegawa for developing and fielding this magnificent effort!

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