SAAB J-29Z

[Tophe]

To cure Zac’s lack of decals (the 2nd envoice is sent, Zac!), I have opened half of my old boxes (kits remaining to build), and I have been very surprised   by one of my Heller J 29 kits, already half built – probably in 1997, I had forgotten… Blame on psychotropic drugs.
Well, it was not only “built”, but butchered deeply ^_^ , in order to match a truncated beautiful profile of J.29 I made in 1992 (page 67 of my book “Catamarans in the sky” for the ones having it). And as for the C.714 and XP-77, I had bought 2 kits, in order to compare on the same shelf the beauty (what-if) and the beast (real).

BUT now that the C-7114 and P-7117 have been built as Zwilling more funny doubles  (it is hard to finish the P-7117… ), I plan to build a J.29Z, with thin port-fuselage and bulky starboard-fuselage. Someday… ^_^
Thanks Zac to have brought this from a long past!  The reward for you is the decals I sent . This is mutual help you see?  Old ones need refreshing air from young ones…
 

[Tophe]

The workbench today, with the J.29Z starting to take shape (the fuselages will be closer once the wings will have been truncated and linked)...

[Brian da Basher]

Wow Tophe you've got some very interesting projects on your workbench! I love that gold thing you do on your builds too!

Brian da Basher

[Tophe]

much Zwillingable, aren't they? ^_^

However, balance will be uneasy with one mid-wing and one low-wing, with no landing gears...

[Tophe]

Well, they have been Zwillinged…
Or… do you say… I am filling, they have been filled, so… I am zwilling, they have been zwilled?
I know Zwilling is German, but I am mixing… and mixing is the basis of what-ifism, for most of us.

[Tophe]

J.29Z near completion:

Steps remaining:
- gluing the wind-screens to the canopies, painting them black, gluing them to the fuselages, adding tape to paint a blue frame, painting this frame
- painting many sky-blue spots on the middle-blue wings, as a what-if smily mix of roundels-style and Allan-in-Camberra-way (remember http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v51/bark...rn/DSCF0002.jpg at http://www.whatifmodelers.com/forum//index...c=4181&hl=spots ?)…

[Tophe]

I am ashamed to reveal you : I have turned half-JMN… Look: wheels on a model of mine! Hey! What for? Rolling, the model would fall from the shelf!

I must explain to the tribunal…
My J.29Z was awfully out of balance, and I considered adding on the low-wing half-part a device to hold higher. A pylon would have been fragile, and fragility was the main reason why I disliked landing gears. So I considered some bigger part. I looked in my spare parts box, and saw rather big wheels, 2 of them, more elegant than a square box I thought. I glued them to one another then directly below the fuselage. Hey, impossible to turn, with the top glued and no axis! And no wheel at all on the other fuselage, laying on the wood ! Am I forgiven?
After drying, solidifying, it appeared though that the balance was very bad anyway; with noses up and tails down. I had no lead plumb to put in the big nose, so I decided to support the lower tail. And as well, I used a tiny wheel instead of a pylon. Just one wheel there, where 4 would be needed for minimum symmetry! With tire glued on the jet pipe, no axis, hey this is not JMN’s way!
With bright-blue tires, making JMNs shivering or howling…

[Tophe]

And the final result is this, pleasing me simply… My dream, turned plastic…

[Brian da Basher]

Another Tophe Twin-Tail materpiece! I love the colors you used on that beautifully unique design! The wheels are just fine by me Tophe...actually they add even more to the whif-like wonder of it all!

Brian da Basher

[K5054NZ]

Tophe, I'm so sorry to have missed this build! C'est magnifique my dear friend!   And I;m glad to have helped you!