Aires

1/72 SAAB J/S 29 Tunnan Wheels and Mask For the Heller kit

Stock Number: 7211

Reviewed By  Jim Pearsall, IPMS# 2209

MSRP: $7.45 Website: www.aires.cz The Aircraft The SAAB 29 Tunnan was actually called the "Fliegende Tunnan", or "Flying Barrel". It was one of the first swept-wing fighters of the 1950s. Its rotund appearance made it look ungainly but, in the air, it was amazingly fast and maneuverable. The Tunnan held the world’s speed record for the 500 km closed course at 977 km/h (607.05 mph) in 1954, only to have the record broken by an F-86 later. Tunnans came in fighter, bomber and recce versions. Tunnans were operated by Sweden and Austria. In 1961 nine J 29B fighters and two S 29C photo recce aircraft were deployed to the Democratic Republic of the Congo for peacekeeping. They wound up attacking secessionist positions with cannon and unguided rockets. These were the only Swedish jets ever to see combat. When the mission ended in 1964, the aircraft were destroyed in place, as they were at the end of their service life and the cost to take them back to Sweden was deemed excessive. The fighter version was retired in 1965. The last Tunnan military flight was as a target tug in 1976, at the Svenske Flygvapnet 50th anniversary air show. The kit In spite of the fact that it’s about 30 years old, Heller’s Tunnan is still a buildable kit. The kit comes with Swedish and UN markings. Okay, since I’m a sucker for a great story, I had to do the UN bird. Since it was Sweden’s only combat jet, it made my day. Also, who else has a purple, green and rust camouflage scheme? The problem was that the Heller kit is no longer available from the standard sources. I found two available on e-Bay, along with a Matchbox Tunnan. Perhaps someone at Aires knows something I don’t know about an imminent release of a new SAAB 29 kit? The Wheels This is the usual Aires detail kit. Perfectly-molded resin, easily-removed pour sprue, and a mask that goes where you want it, and stays there. My thanks to Aires for the set! The first step was to remove the wheel assemblies from the pour sprue, then clean up the resulting spot. This worked nicely, as I was able to flatten the tire slightly on one side. Then the whole thing was painted flat black and, after allowing some drying time, the mask was applied.

The mask was commendable, in that it was wide enough to cover the entire sidewall of the tire, leaving only the tread area to be covered. Instead of the recommended masking fluid, I used several short pieces of Tamiya tape, and made little cuts to allow the edges to follow the shape of the tire. I sprayed steel Metalizer, and allowed it to dry. Then I removed the tape and the masks. I touched up the couple of spots where I knocked the flat black off the tire. I put on a quick wash of thinned acrylic black on the hubs to bring out the nice spoke detail, and installed the wheels on the aircraft.

Overall Evaluation Zero problems. The parts fit nicely. If you have a Tunnan in the stash and you want to make it even better, this is the add-on for you. The big differences in the Aires and Heller wheels are that the Aires wheels have much superior tread, they have details on the hub edges, and Aires gives you the disc brakes. Thanks to Aires and IPMS/USA for improving my Tunnan.