| Gator Masks |
| 1/72 Saab AJ-37 Viggen |
| Reviewed By Jim Pearsall, # IPMS USA 2209 |
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| I had an idea. This guy can produce a mask which will allow me to do the Saab AJ-37 Viggen 4-color camouflage! This color scheme is something I’ve wanted to do since I first saw photos of the aircraft 30 years ago. Unfortunately I was daunted by the idea of having to mask all of those little spots of color on a 1/72 aircraft. The argument boils down to whether I’d go insane or blind first. The Aircraft: Sweden built over 300 Viggens, but failed to find any overseas customers, mostly because they refuse to sell to non-democratic regimes, and would cut off spare parts to anyone using their aircraft in an aggression. Oh, another trivia thing: The Swedish AF nickname for the aircraft is “Vigg”, which is a species of duck found in Sweden. And the French word for duck is “canard”. Coincidence, I don’t think so. The kit: The application: |
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| Then apply the mask for the dark green and paint all the places where this color is used. It was a little difficult at first to figure out where the different holes went in relation to the model, but the straight lines at leading and trailing edges made it possible to get decent alignment. |
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| Another trick I used was to swab the undercoat
with a mixture of dishwashing liquid and water, then let it dry.
The adhesive on the vinyl is very good, but can be too aggressive.
This keeps the adhesive from pulling the paint off the masked areas.
It’s not 100%, but it sure cut down on the amount of retouch required.
Here’s the dark green finished. So far, this is a walk in the park! |
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| Next comes the brown. (color 3) I began to
hit problems here. The brown didn’t line up exactly with the dark
green on the fuselage top and sides. So I cut the large sheet
of mask up into smaller parts, and applied each spot individually.
This allowed much finer alignment of the masks. And it worked
pretty well. The masks stuck nicely and prevented any underspray,
giving a nice sharp delineation between colors. I had applied
the soap & water to the green, so the masks didn’t lift this color
either.
I also discovered that it was far easier to see where individual masks went on the aircraft if I had a large, legible placement sheet. I scanned the instruction sheet at high dpi and printed it to fill a standard sheet of paper. This allowed me to see where colors went without having to use a magnifier. |
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| I then started with the lighter green. (color 4) Here’s
where the statement “some trimming may be required” in the instructions
began to mean something to me. There were small gaps between the
colors that were not managed by the mask. The wings (shown here)
had some problems, but the fuselage required fairly extensive fixes.
These are caused by the limitations of the drawings I sent, which were scans of the original Heller instructions. These were 3-views, (left, right, top) and as such don’t show the curved sections of the fuselage very well. And the masks cant make up for the lack of information about the curved surface you get from a 2-D drawing. Nevertheless, I completed the light green, and then did some touching up. The blown-up scan of the color scheme was invaluable at this time. I was able to complete the model, and after touch-up, it was fine. |
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| I saved the masks by using the backing sheet from some labels. I also used the original backing sheet, throwing away the parts of the material which weren’t used. |
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| Conclusion: The finished product is a model I’m very satisfied with. It isn’t as easy as I thought it would be when I started, but this happens all the time. The thing is, I was able to do a scheme which I wanted to do for 30 years, but I was either too inept or too lazy. |
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| Also, this was an adventure in painting. It took me a complete evening to do each color. Sometimes two, if the mask required covering a recently painted area. Let it dry, apply the soap & water mixture, leave it alone until I get back to the project. Then another evening to touch up each color. Fortunately, this project took place over the Christmas/New Year time, so I had plenty of other things to keep me from starting the next color too soon. |
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