I'm glad you all like it guys !
Stig:
I'll see you at the Laxå meeting 3-4 Sept. I doubt my Gripen will be ready to fly but it will definately be there for static display.
Aero65:
It is funny how the small details makes such a great improvement in appearance.
All features (pylons and missiles) are made in the traditional way of moulding. They are first shaped in sold material (like Skymaster Jets do). Pylons are shaped in wood (pine tree) and missiles from aluminum tubes with wooden nose cones.
Pylons and Drop Tank are laminated with one layer of 100g/m² satain + one layer of 160g/m². Missiles from two layers of 100g/m². Missile fin's are made from 1mm plastic card.
I was cheeting with the pylons since Einar Jonsson (Captain of the Swedish JWM team) had the moulds already made up in 1:6 scale. I used his moulds to make mine but I had to adjust them afterwards to fit the 1:7 sized wing. That saved me a lot of time.
I could not find any standard g/f or c/f tubes in the right dimension Ø18 for the Sidewinders and Ø25 for the AMRAAMs so I had to do them the hard way. Man it's difficult to make a seamless tube of Ø18mm . . . I probably spent every evening in 3 or 4 weeks to make them and it wasn't the most healthy period in my life.
All added small fins's to the fuse are made from 2mm c/f laminate. They are fixed inside the fuse with c/f roving and zap.
There are some really good high res pic's on
www.Gripen.com look at Gripen Images Photos 2005.
By the way - I feel like a school kid with a dinky toy when I compare my ARTF Gripen with his project. When you have seen the 100% scale gear in action you realize that there will never be any one else trying to do this . . .