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The M4A2 is ready for decals, but those haven't showed up yet which means that instead it's go time.
Now Viggen basically came in three basic variants. First out was the AJ37 attack/interdictor. Fill the nose with cameras instead and you get an SF37 photo recon plane, or you can keep the radar and bolt an SKA24 camera pod semi-permanently to the right fuselage pylon to get the SH37 naval recon one. Then there's the double seater, radar-less SK37 trainer (a few of which ended up as electronic warfare SK37E), and finally the JA37 fighter with new radar, avionics, engine and a few minor changes. Tarangus kit here is a JA37, and the specific plane I want to build is an SH37. Now Special Hobby (it's a co-op between them and Tarangus) has tooled their sprues with the parts for all the different variants, but business is business so they remove the AJ37 style fin, SF nose and SK37 front fuselage here. And with the complete absence of any ordnance we're also lacking the SKA24 camera. Otherwise some creative deviations from the manual will allow you to build an AJ/SH by and large. A few of the details we can't change out this way are actually AJ37-styled instead of JA37-style, so apart from the fin this kit may actually end up being more accurate as an AJ/SH than as a JA (wingtip position lights being one thing I can confirm).
So, a resin SKA24 bought along with a pair of Rb04D ASM, a sidewinder donated from my J35F2, an AJ37 fin shenanigand into existence, some third party decals and paint masks and I'm all set. And just about broke.
So far fit and finish is quite good enough, but no Bandai/Tamiya. We'll see when it's time to weld the big bits together how things go there. Detail levels overall seem decent enough. Having intake trunking and engine faces are sadly a nice exception to the rule for 1/72 jets. Not having that would also have felt extra wrong since I've actually crawled in through an intake and out the arse of a real, de-engined Viggen.
