Sunday, July 1

Swedish subsonic spear – the Tarangus 1/48th Scale SAAB A32 Lansen A Pt. I - an Intro and the cockpit…


Eth gives us his unique perspective when building the new Tarangus kit of the SAAB A32A kit in 1/48th - today we look at the plane itself and get started a little on the cockpit and add some photo etch to the kit ...

Swedish subsonic spear – the Tarangus 1/48th Scale SAAB A32 Lansen A Pt. I - an Intro and cockpit…


Kit Maker: Tarangus
Scale: 1/48th
Kit no: TA4801
Sprues: 5
Parts: 80 grey + clear Parts
Material: Injection moulded plastic + PE Parts in the Maestro Add-on kits
Where to get it: Tarangus website directly


SAAB A32 Lansen A Build Pt. II
SAAB A32 Lansen A Build Pt. III
SAAB A32 Lansen A Build Pt. IV
SAAB A32 Lansen A Build Pt. V


Tarangus - A name most of us would not be familiar with as it is the name of a new Swedish model company and this, the Lansen, is their first kit. The Lansen has, to my knowledge, never appeared as a 1/48th kit before. So what do we get from Tarangus in their first release? Well it has to be said that this is a limited run kit and as such exhibits all the traits of a limited run kit, a lack of locating tabs on the larger parts, a certain amount of flash and some dubious lack of detail or over sized parts. However none of the above is a deal breaker but i do recommend a lot of dry fitting until you are certain you have the best parts fit that is possible. Because the Lansen is not a well known jet here’s a little bit of history for you:
The SAAB 32 Lansen was a two-seat, swept wing attack aircraft manufactured between 1955 and 1960 for the Swedish Air Force. During its long operational life the Lansen also served in the role as a fighter, reconnaissance, electronic warfare and target tug. Today two Lansen is still operational to provide air samples for the Swedish Radiation Safety Authority, very impressive.
However, the A32A Lansen main role was to provide air defence against possible Soviet
hostilities and defend Sweden´s long coast line from a Soviet invasion, if the cold war turned
hot.
The Swedish Airforce wanted an attack aircraft that could deliver it´s payload from its home
base, anywhere along Sweden’s 2000km long coastline within 1 hour, in all kinds of weather.
The SAAB A32A Lansen replaced the last piston-twin engine bomber in Swedish airforce
service, the SAAB B18. Although not designed as a supersonic aircraft, a Lansen managed to brake through the sound barrier during a shallow dive on 25 October 1953.
The A32A Lansen had a fixed armament of four 20mm Hispano cannons and could carry an
vast array of different kind of bombs, napalm bombs, rockets. The most powerful weapon was the Rb04C anti-shipping missile. The Lansen was also expected to deliver a nuclear payload, but the Swedish nuclear program of the 1950s and 1960s did not produce any operational weapons.
Included with the kit, but sold separately, where four sets of photo etch from Maestro Models (http://www.maestromodels.com/) some pre painted some not. The four sets are as follows:

It appears from the style of the photo etch that they have been made by Eduard, and it certainly seems so as the quality of the photo etch parts is very good indeed.

Part One - The Cockpit
The first task here is to remove all the moulded on details in preparation for the pre-painted photo etch. This is a fairly simple task and one that is soon over. Then all that was needed was a quick coat of paint and the cockpit could be left to dry and then the photo etch could be added
The instructions in the Maestro photo are very similar to the Eduard instruction layout and as a result are very easy to follow. The application of the photo etch parts moved along swiftly and after a short while the cockpit was complete.
The seats also get the photo etch treatment with pre-painted belts and escape handles to be attached. This is where the first problem occurred. When bending the seat belts to shape the top coloured layer did it’s best to separate itself. I have no idea why it did this as there as the straps were only bent with gentle pressure and no glue was involved. Searching various modelling forums it would seem this is not a problem with just the set for the Lansen, but a problem that crops up with a lot of pre-painted photo etch. Eventually with the help of some Crystal Glo the truculent seat belts were joined together and eventually conformed to the shape i wanted.
The construction of the rear cockpit followed the path of the first, although there is not as much photo-etch needed for the rear cockpit. The same problem reared its head with the seat belts but i was prepared this time and solved the problem without any issues.
And that is the first part of this build. I do want to mention one thing here, without the photo etch for the cockpit it would look a bit bleak in there .Tarangus do an ok job of the cockpit detail, but it is not up to what you find in a more mainstream kit and really does need the photo etch set.


Thanks to Tarangus for this kit and the extra additional etched add on parts more of this build very soon right here - stay tuned.