1:48 SAAB J21 pilot

A figure tailored to a twin-boom fighter

The cockpit of the SAAB J 21 is narrow, deep and, unlike most fighters of its day, it has no engine in front of it but a propeller behind, between the tail booms. A figure therefore has to sit in it differently from a universal one: shoulders closer together, knees higher, the back resting against a high seat headrest. The casting is designed to drop into the J 21 kit from the same maker that produces the figure.

That link is the main added value. Anyone fitting an indeterminate figure usually sands the hips, shortens the calves and still does not get the canopy to close. Here the shape is derived from a specific tub, so a builder manages the dry fit at the first attempt and is left dealing only with the seating height, so that the helmet does not rub against the frame.

The SAAB J 21 is among the most unusual machines of its time. The pusher propeller meant that an ejection seat had to be built into the aircraft — without one an airman leaving the machine would have ended up in the propeller disc. The Swedish Air Force thus became one of the first users of seats of this kind in routine service, and a figure seated in the cockpit tells that story better than an empty tub.

The material is cast resin, that is a hard substance with no give. Once the casting block is cut off, it is enough to degrease the surface, lay down a primer and work from the flight suit toward the small details of the equipment. The figure is glued in with super glue, because solvent cements for polystyrene do not bite into resin and the joint would let go the first time the model was carried.

In a display case one simple thing then holds: an aircraft with a crew tells a story, an empty cockpit stays a shape. A finished J 21 with a pilot inside also shows plainly how cramped that cockpit really was.