Reviews : Italeri JAS 39 A Gripen

This kit comes in two large sprue frames, and is a very simple and straightforward kit to assemble and paint - less than 20 hours with no mods. The kit comes with the common armaments found on a Gripen with the Maverick and AIM-9L being nicely detailed. With the exception of a poorly engineered cockpit/nose wheel bay assembly, fit and finish is actually good for an Italeri kit with minimal filling required. Unfortunately, that’s where all the good news ends… Now for the bad news. Details on the kit are mixed; The wheel wells are beautiful, the fuselage and armaments decent, but everything else is really lacking. The worst offenders are on the wheels, cockpit and the intake-less air intakes. The poorly adhering decals are sparse - enough for the jet, but none for the armaments. Kitty Hawk’s 1/48 Saab Gripen is generally considered to be the go-to kit, but they went out of business - which leaves all of us with the following manufacturers: Italeri, Italeri and Italeri. I know there are a ton of demerits to this kit, but it does have a solid base to build a nicely detailed kit from - you just have to put in a LOT of work to make it beautiful - especially if you are an aviation enthusiast who loves this oft overlooked aircraft. The photos enclosed show the custom riveting and hydraulic lines on the front landing gear to make it more realistic. The Sidewinder and Maverick decals where printed on decal water slides also available at HobbyLinc - as well as carry overs from other kits.

Besides the greater detail in the wheel wells, this is basically an upscaling of the 1/72 kit. The cockpit lacks detail. The kit decals has markings for two Royal Swedish Air Force planes and a Czech plane.

Besides the greater detail in the wheel wells, this is basically an upscaling of the 1/72 kit. The cockpit lacks detail. The kit decals has markings for two Royal Swedish Air Force planes and a Czech plane.