JAS-39 Gripen Swedish Multirole Fighter Book Review

By Michael Benolkin

Review

If you've acquired one or more of the JAS-39 kits that have come on the market it recent years, don't feel alone. This is a beautiful aircraft with some very interesting lines. While kits have been released in all the different popular scales, there has been a vacuum of information on the subject in print - until now. CMK has released their third Photo Hobby Manual, this one dedicated to the SAAB Gripen.

Written in English, this 88 page title is crammed full of color photographs and line drawings of the single-seat JAS-39A/C and two-seat JAS-39B/D variants. There is some narrative about the history of the aircraft, but most of these pages provide a comprehenive walk around the aircraft and at numerous details on the airframe. About the only places where we still don't have coverage is in the cockpit and inside the radome. This is not unusual for a newer frontline combat aircraft.

This title has some of the first photos I've seen of armed Gripens, though many of them have training rounds for the AIM-9L Sidewinder. The majority of these photos are of line aircraft of the Czech Air Force. Color profiles are included for different color schemes worn by the aircraft in Swedish Air Force, Czech Air Force, Hungarian Air Force, and even a South African Air Force example.

Also included in this title is a five-page build article for the Best Choice (CMK) 1/48 JAS-39 Gripen (which is an updated Italeri kit) and the article does provide which CMK detail sets are needed to bring your Italeri kit near to the details provided in the Best Choice box.

If you have one or more Gripens on your shelf and lack good reference material, or if you are an aviation historial lacking good detail information on the layout and construction of the aircraft, this new monograph from CMK is just the ticket.

My sincere thanks to Hobbyshop.cz for this review sample!