Official Freewing JAS 39 Gripen 80mm EDF Jet

[BaltimoreBomber]

Airguardian Thank you for sending me down that Citadel paints rabbit hole.... lots of information on that page and although $25 for a spray can seems outrageous to me im sure it goes a long way in the miniatures world. Im thinking its time to buy a new airbrush set up because of the details I want to do on other projects and I felt limited with Michaels selection. Ill have to find a local shop for the warhammer stuff if any survived lockdown here. Great resource for detailing the cockpit, I guess im going to have to add the opening canopy mod now too, and detail the cockpit. That dead space behind the pilot really bothers me.

[Skosh25]

Yes Callie had to make up 6002 for me. Mine was a quick rattle can job. I just wanted something I could see better. On 8s this thing really moves. I used Krylon matte black, matte white, matte glacier gray and matte deep gray. Then 3 coats of matte minwax poly on top, brushed on with a foam brush.

From far away you can’t tell but up close it’s obvious a rush job. Sounds like you’ve got a great plan and will have equally great results. Looking forward to seeing the finished product.

[Airguardian]

You can see in the tail closeup how smooth and flat that black is on the real plane, will be hard to reproduce on foam I think.

If the other colours don't satisfy you, maybe you could try Citadel's Chaos Black primer spray.
It's intended for plastic miniatures (Warhammer) and it gives a really matt finish, very akin to what that black Gripen looks like. :)

[rms]

I bought a TW from aliexpress witch did not work. It was stuck/ going badly, had to grind it but still not good.
Bought TW for the Mig 29 I`m fitting to the Mirage, and will put the other on the on the Gripen from Motion Rc witch works good.

Bought 8 batteries from Bangoods 2-3 years ago, 1 was not working when i came, have 5 batteries that is not working from them.
If the price is very low- the quality seems to be the same....
Have bought a lot of cheep things for china, and have got a lot af things in bad quality. Do I dont buy more than I can loose.... Its better from Hongkong based companys.
Bougth a very good headlight. Ordered 4 more from the same company. The later ones was looking similar, but was not the same production/ quality. But the ad was the same....

[BaltimoreBomber]

I did mine in 6002 and thought it turned out well. If you find or make a 3D printed scoop file let me know. Cool scheme and good luck with the gatoring.

Thanks, Now I know where the previous order for that scheme went when I emailed Callie and they already had it LOL

I will be spending the next few months of my life on gatoring actually. Im more of a builder than a flyer, and the challenge of gatoring actually excited me, I was going to build a Ziroli B-25 Mitchell in the 118"version but Ive done more than enough doping and glassing through the years when i was younger, and always wanted to do a few modern fighters. After going down the rabbit hole on very few kits all designed for turbine power I stumbled upon this gatoring problem and decided it was a challenge Id like to tackle.

My plan is to wetsand the model down smooth as possible correcting all those what I assume are horrid little alignment targets in the factory paint. I'll give it 3 coats of krylon foam primer wetsanded between each coat. Then it will get at least 3 coats of minwax polycrylic, wetsanded smooth between to secure and encase the foam, and that should stop the gatoring. I will test it in an obscure area for hardness and cracking to see how it handles bumps and scrapes, if I dont like what I see I'll raise the polycrylic to 6-8 coats total all wetsanded between to make sure its got a hard shell. Im not worried about weight its on the lighter side for the powerplant from what Ive read, and I can always go 8S now that Ive seen it successfully done!!

Finally for paint I will probably lay down another two coats of primer heavily wetsanded, then Ive already bought 2 different paints for the stealth black to test with. I got Rustoleum camo black which is more satin, and at Michaels they have a huge acrylic section including a true matte black. Whichever one of those looks best compared to close ups of the tail on the actual plane wins. Im going to shoot the two blacks over the same layers on a test board in 4 panels, because I want to see them over final primer but also experiment over a raw metallic finish like a spray on metallic aluminum coat, for weathering effects. You can see in the tail closeup how smooth and flat that black is on the real plane, will be hard to reproduce on foam I think. Worst case scenario I can always call my buddy at Edwards AFB and get him to get me a can of real radar absorbing stealth black LOL (Just kidding!)

So uhh yeah I have a lot of time on my hands and the next few months will be sitting on the porch swing wetsanding my life away!

SanExup send me those measurements/pics in a pm I will most likely take it regardless. I Think Im going to buy another one to do the "E" conversion on, along with the 6002 splinter camo after this one. Thanks!!

[Skosh25]

OK Questions.... Anyone doing or have done a Gripen-E upgrade?
Im repainting into the Aggressor livery Saab released;
The Aggressor was done in 2017 on a C model - should I go ahead with an E upgrade and if so does anyone have any links for the small scoop in front of the tail,
would the F-16 upgrade single wheel work for the front landing gear, or is there something else everyone uses...
Also I was eyeballing the airscoop from the bottom of a smaller spitfire to cut up and build the tail scoop out of. If anyone has one laying around Id buy it.
If you are unfamiliar here is the Aggressor livery Im doing, with a couple subtle twists.Since Im going all out with this thing Im also doing working formation lights with Solts F-22 kit, Strobon v2 upgrade on all LEDs with small white LEDs on the tail and white strobe on top of stabilizer added, Aggressor paint scheme thanks to Callie)
I also ordered a graphics package for the 6002 splinter camo, but thats in case I totally jack this up or have a survivable crash later.

I did mine in 6002 and thought it turned out well. If you find or make a 3D printed scoop file let me know. Cool scheme and good luck with the gatoring.

[SanExup]

I have a scoop from a smaller spit. I can send you a photo this evening or in the morning, with dimensions.

[BaltimoreBomber]

OK Questions.... Anyone doing or have done a Gripen-E upgrade?
Im repainting into the Aggressor livery Saab released;
The Aggressor was done in 2017 on a C model - should I go ahead with an E upgrade and if so does anyone have any links for the small scoop in front of the tail,
would the F-16 upgrade single wheel work for the front landing gear, or is there something else everyone uses...
Also I was eyeballing the airscoop from the bottom of a smaller spitfire to cut up and build the tail scoop out of. If anyone has one laying around Id buy it.
If you are unfamiliar here is the Aggressor livery Im doing, with a couple subtle twists.Since Im going all out with this thing Im also doing working formation lights with Solts F-22 kit, Strobon v2 upgrade on all LEDs with small white LEDs on the tail and white strobe on top of stabilizer added, Aggressor paint scheme thanks to Callie)
I also ordered a graphics package for the 6002 splinter camo, but thats in case I totally jack this up or have a survivable crash later.

[Airguardian]

There are certainly some sellers that you need to avoid, like the one pretending to be the "official" Freewing seller. They even have Freewing in their name - scammers.

I actually got a plane from them before word came out that they supposedly were scammers.
Maybe I got lucky? Maybe not.
I would certainly not dare recommend them... but I got my jet in perfect condition.

[kallend]

No feathers ruffled here. Just surprised that you weren't familiar with buying stuff from over the Pacific. There are certainly some sellers that you need to avoid, like the one pretending to be the "official" Freewing seller. They even have Freewing in their name - scammers. If you ever come upon a seller that you've never heard of, do a Google search for reviews of them or ask here. Unlike the "other" RC forum, this one doesn't censor you if you mention another company's name or use words like YouTube or that of another forum.

The censorship in the "other" RC forum is really quite silly. It doesn't allow "facebook" for example, or even links to photos with that in the link address. I had a link with the three letters "wtf" juxtaposed in the link address rejected.

[xviper]

My point, XViper was that I had never ordered direct from China before, so to me they were all obscure and it was a big gamble to me after a 25 plus year hiatus to the hobby especially.

I guess I did ruffle some feathers.

No feathers ruffled here. Just surprised that you weren't familiar with buying stuff from over the Pacific. There are certainly some sellers that you need to avoid, like the one pretending to be the "official" Freewing seller. They even have Freewing in their name - scammers. If you ever come upon a seller that you've never heard of, do a Google search for reviews of them or ask here. Unlike the "other" RC forum, this one doesn't censor you if you mention another company's name or use words like YouTube or that of another forum.

[BaltimoreBomber]

My point, XViper was that I had never ordered direct from China before, so to me they were all obscure and it was a big gamble to me after a 25 plus year hiatus to the hobby especially.

I guess I did ruffle some feathers.

[kallend]

Anyone still looking for THRUST VECTORING UNITS? I found some. I dont want to violate any rules or upset anyone so if you are desperately looking for one ready to go message me and i can give you a link.
I didnt say anything earlier because Ive never bought direct from China before and feeling like taking a gamble I didnt want to involve anyone else if I got ripped off.
However I ordered one from an obscure hobby store in China anyway.
I ordered it on the 19th and received the unit just now and its 100%.compared to the pics Ive found here and on motions page. Legitimate box, extension cables and all.
They have 5 units left..

If you don't like the foam nozzle there's this:

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4763795

[kallend]

At this point I really should have just used RC castle to order the TV unit as I was assuming motion would get it back in stock before the estimated delivery day that RC castle originally gave me, yet here I am a month later and still no clue as to when it’ll be back in stock. 😭 pretty sure I’ll order from castle and motion will get it in stock the following day 🤣

Raymond at Castle is a good guy and very helpful.

[RudyD54]

At this point I really should have just used RC castle to order the TV unit as I was assuming motion would get it back in stock before the estimated delivery day that RC castle originally gave me, yet here I am a month later and still no clue as to when it’ll be back in stock. 😭 pretty sure I’ll order from castle and motion will get it in stock the following day 🤣

[xviper]

Not sure who your "obscure" hobby shop is but if it's this one, they are not obscure and are a proven source for RC stuff. Even Alpha (from Motion RC) has praised RC Castle for being an upstanding seller of Freewing. There are many vendors that sell via AliExpress and Banggood that can be considered "obscure" but even those are quite reliable, though their shipping time can be quite long.

https://www.rc-castle.com/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=8964

[BaltimoreBomber]

Anyone still looking for THRUST VECTORING UNITS? I found some. I dont want to violate any rules or upset anyone so if you are desperately looking for one ready to go message me and i can give you a link.
I didnt say anything earlier because Ive never bought direct from China before and feeling like taking a gamble I didnt want to involve anyone else if I got ripped off.
However I ordered one from an obscure hobby store in China anyway.
I ordered it on the 19th and received the unit just now and its 100%.compared to the pics Ive found here and on motions page. Legitimate box, extension cables and all.
They have 5 units left..

[Hugh Wiedman]

Finished the repaint of my 8S powered Gripen today and took her for a spin with two of her hangar mates. It was the maiden for the MiG-21 as well. In all had 3 Gripen flights, 2 MiG-29 flights and 2 MiG-21.

Not a great paint job finish but Callie graphics make it look better. Don’t stand too close and it’s perfect

You got some serious skills, love all three! Bravo!

[Skosh25]

I like it, great change from the stock scheme.

Thanks. Tried my best to replicate the real one.

[Evan D]

I like it, great change from the stock scheme.