1:72 Pilot Immersion suit Draken Viggen

The immersion suit as a condition of survival over the Baltic

The Baltic Sea has a temperature even in summer at which an airman would not stay conscious for more than a few tens of minutes after ejecting without protection. The Swedish Air Force therefore introduced an immersion suit, in Swedish Isolerdräkt, and a life vest with it. A figure in such a suit looks different from a pilot in an ordinary flight suit: it is bulkier in the shoulders and hips, the collar sits higher and the cuffs at the wrists and ankles are distinctly drawn in. It is exactly these features that show on the figure even at a small reduction.

The equipment goes with the SAAB 35 Draken and the SAAB 37 Viggen, and it also covers the Finnish and Austrian users of the Draken together with the Swedish SAAB 32 Lansen and the SK60 trainer. That makes the figure a very versatile accessory for a collection of Nordic Cold War hardware.

In painting the key is to separate the suit from the vest. The suit tends to be in a darker cool tone, the vest by contrast markedly lighter or in a signal color, because it was meant to make a swimmer visible in the water. That contrast is legible on a finished model even from a distance and it does more for credibility than the finest shading of individual folds.

The casting is supplied unpainted. Once the casting block is cut off, wash the surface, degrease it and lay down a thin coat of primer.

For a scene on the apron this figure is rewarding outside the cockpit as well. An airman in an immersion suit walking toward his machine or standing by the boarding steps tells a viewer more about the nature of Nordic service than the most detailed model of the aircraft itself. In that case it pays to add a base with the markings of a parking apron.