Stahlhart papercraft
 
Go back to this site's homepage
Models
needing help with our models?
find out about stahlhart
Send us a message
 
 
Aircraft, Helicopters and Spaceships Castles, Churches, Temples and the like Human figures, Animals, Robots

back to Draken main

Building the
These are all the surviving betas
During the development of the Draken model I produced quite a squadron

The Saab Draken was the first jetfighter I ever knew about in my whole life, known to me then only under the name "The Saab". I just couldn't forget its shape after seeing it in a book.
But actually, when I started to planes I never built it, mostly because there was no useful kit on the market at the time and because when I started to build paper aircraft, the Viggen and Gripen were more attractive. After I finished the Skylancer, I realized, that it was so similar to the Draken actually and that day I decided I have to do the Draken, I was so frustrated that my first F-18 beta was a complete mess.
The fuselage with tail The finished prototype
The prototype after the fuselage is built   The finished prototype without panel lines
     
The prototype on its back
The prototype from below. Note the "GUT" (good) on the, well, the good wing.
 

The fuselage with tail
  The prototype is trying on the 2-seater canopy
 
The construction of the prototype was easy, it went naturally and was a joy to build. I already included the landing gear well as it is in the final version in the prototype. In the first beta, which can be seen as the Austrian low-visibility version in the gallery, The biggest problem were the Air intakes, since I modified the cut there, to have the glue area to the fuselage and the intake warning will be easier to to unlike with the Skylancer. The second problem were the wings, which from then on were adjusted on every beta, altogether 14 times. In the final version they work fine. The difficulty of the wing comes from the uneven fuselage. The Skylancer's straight fuselage makes it easy to wrap the wing around it, but the Drakens fuselage gets fatter where the engine begins. Also the panel lines cross over from wing to fuselage.
The prototype on its back
The colour prototype. Each coloured line is a different paint scheme
 

The fuselage with tail   The finished prototype
The lower side with the lines for the Ostarrichi and Dragonknights versions. I redid the Ostarrichi paint scheme in a second colour prototype
     

 
The fuselage with tail  
After I had finally found the blue version, I did a third colour prototype.  
 
To minimize the required number of testbuilds, I did a colour prototype, that means i drawed the wanted paint schemes on the second beta, then took it apart to scan the parts to know where the lines should be. Then I did the Buffalo and Dragonknights versions in one Beta, with the Buffalo on the top and the Dragonknights on the bottom, which required 3 builds. The Ostarichi turned out horribly when I drew it, so I redid the colour prototype.
Another invention to save work was doing one testbuild for all camouflage versions together. Instead of the actual camo's, it had the coloured lines from the colour prototype on it. After a second beta, the camo's were okay. Then the Draken could have been released, but by a strange coincidence, I found 4 more versions, two of which I had been looking for, namely the yellow and blue versions. The other two I found were the Camo-swordfish and the ghost version. I had to do these also, so the release was further delayed, including another one month I was travelling. The Blue versions required another 5 testbuilds, but fortunately only twice as a whole. Then I still did the weapon sets. The version i did last was the weathered Danish version. I usually don't do weathered, but this one is too pretty like that. It was the final Draken I build myself. Now it's other people's turn.
The fuselage with tail   The finished prototype
The cut apart colour prototypes   All surviving beta's note the grey first beta modified to the short rear version, the nose tests and the additional tests of the blue version in the back.
     
I want to thank Lars Fors of the Swedish society for Aviation history. Without his help, some of the Markings wouldn't have been as detailed as they are.
 
 
return to top