Neomega 1/48 J-29 Tunnan Kit First Look

By Fotios Rouch

First Look

The Swedish efforts for a jet powered aircraft began during the end of 1945. SAAB came forth with proposals the R101 and the R1001. The R1001 design was faster and more agile and was ultimately selected as the winning proposal. The barrel shaped R1001 was originally of a straight wing design but data obtained from German research on swept wing designs dictated that a 25 degree sweep would be very beneficial to the new designs' performance.

The SAAB 29 prototype first flew on September 1948 and was a small barrel shaped fuselage aircraft with a single central air intake and with thin swept-back wings. The Tunnan was regarded as one of the finest fighters of its time. 661 Tunnans were built from 1950 to 1956. 30 Tunnans were sold to Austria in 1961 and they served with the Austrian Air Force until 1972. The Tunnan served as part of the UN peacekeeping forces in 1961.

Neomega has been producing fine resin cockpit replacements and accessories for years. This is a full resin kit with vacform canopy and decals representing the J-29F Tunnan by SAAB.

The resin is in a light gray color and is of good quality with few pinholes and blemishes.

The fuselage is broken down in parts. The parts are light and hollow and test fit pretty well together. After careful cleaning the fuselage should go together very well. The surface detail on the fuselage is very nice and full of detail.

The wings come as solid castings. This is a fairly thin wing and it is not heavy when cast solid. Again, lots of detail all over the wing both top and bottom. The modeler will need to run a scriber along the flying surface joint lines to clean up the small excess resin that was present at least in my example.

The cockpit is just like what we come to expect from Neomega. Full of detail through out with sidewalls included and detailed instrument panel, etc. Seatbelts will need to be added by the modeler to complete the ejection seat.

The landing gear parts are also very detailed with deep and detailed wheel wells, well cast wheels and resin struts that should be able to take the weight of the model.

The jet engine is detailed with a set of intake and exhaust fans, intake trunking connecting to the intake ring and an exhaust tube as well as a variety of small cooling scoops for the fuselage.

Only one clear vac canopy is provided and therefore no mistakes are allowed when cutting it!

Four natural metal schemes are provided with three Swedish and one Austrian machine. I am not clear but the Austrian scheme does not have the white triangle insert included. Maybe the modeler is to paint the surface white and then lay the red decal over it.

It is obvious that a lot of time was spent on the master to work all this exquisite detail on the surface of the wings and fuselage. The resin casting is good but some work will be required to bring the model to blemish free status before the natural metal paint goes on.

This is a unique offering for this early jet and a great addition to the early jet age aficionados.