AvantGarde Model Kits IAI Kfir C2/C7 1:48

[Mike]

IAI Kfir C2/C7
1:48 AvantGarde Model Kits

The Kfir is an Israeli development of the successful Mirage III, which was used by the Israelis successfully as a Mach 2 all-weather interceptor with success, but they felt it lacked the loiter time that would be needed if a ground-attack role was to be added its task list. As a result of an arms embargo, Israel built the Nesher, an unlicensed Mirage 5, which was then improved further and was suitably different to be renamed as the Kfir. It entered service in 1975, and was almost immediately superseded in the air superiority role when the first F-15s arrived from America.

The C2 variant added more swept canards, dog-tooth leading edges to the wings and strakes under the nose, while the C7 had more hardpoints added under the air intakes, a new engine with more thrust, in-flight refuelling probe, plus many upgrades to the avionics, which includes HOTAS capabilities.

It continued in service into the late 90s, after which it was replaced by more modern aircraft, but many are still on strength, whilst being offered for sale to potential purchasers that included Argentina.

The Kit
This was the first release from newcomers AdvantGarde Models, and was the second Kfir to be released in this scale in 2013. It arrives in a nicely presented box that is perhaps a little flimsy to be placed at the bottom of a pile of heavy kits for any length of time. Inside are a bunch of small and large sprues carefully packed into resealable bags that will please those of us that like to peruse our kits but keep them safe from damage and loss of parts. There are three large sprues, a separate lower wing sprue, plus twelve smaller sprues, all of which are moulded in a mid-grey styrene. Clear parts are bagged separately, as are the decals, and the instruction booklet is taller than A4, printed on glossy paper, which includes the painting and decaling guide at the rear.

First impressions? Pretty good for a first kit, and apart from a few inconveniently placed ejector pin marks here and there, there really isn't much to complain about. It would appear that the ideal mould pressure and temperature have been dialled in now, resulting in the mild flash present on early injections of the kit being absent on my sample. The instructions are of good quality, making construction straight forward, and the inclusion of plenty of munitions for the pylons is a lesson to some companies.

Construction starts naturally enough with the cockpit, which has a single part tub with a chunky looking rear bulkhead added to the rear. The coaming and a choice of two instrument panels are added to the front, forcing you to select either C2 or C7 variants, which had upgraded avionics, as evidenced by the MFD in the bottom left of the panel. The control column is added to a slot in the floor, but you might want to sand that floor a little before you start, as it has a few feint ejector pin marks present that may or may not be seen once the seat is installed. The rudder pedals are moulded into the front bulkhead in a simplified way, which may bring out the scratch-builder in you, or make you wait until the Eduard sets arrive, which I'll be reviewing soon. The ejector seat is made up from two clamshell halves, plus seat pad, drogue-chute pack and top-box for the earlier Martin Baker JM6 seat, and integrated top box for the later Mk.IN10LH seat. The overhead pull-handles for the C2 are moulded into the drogue pack, while they aren't used on the C7 seat, but both have the pull-handle between the pilot's knees.

Turning over the cockpit, the nose gear bay is then built into the underside rear of the cockpit tub, from four separate panels that form the bay, with plenty of detail on each side due to the part count. After these two steps are complete, you can close up the fuselage, after removing a couple of sensor bumps that aren't appropriate to these marks. Whether that suggests other versions is entirely up to you!

The wings are next on the agenda, and the same method for construction of the main wheel bays is used, namely individual panels that make up the shallow bays, which are then glued to the inside of the full width inner wing. The narrow outer sections of the bay walls are moulded into the wings, so don't forget to paint these and the inner skin of the upper wings, which are moulded with some nice detail. Cannon muzzles, a pair of clear lights near the wing tips, flap actuator fairings and a belly insert are added before the assembly is offered up to the large hole in the underside of the fuselage. The splitter plates with moulded in shock-cones are added, and to them are added the outer surfaces of the intake trunking, with the small canards mounted on small fairings at the upper sides of the intakes. There is no trunking behind this area, and frankly you wouldn't see it even if there was, because of the shock cones that take up a large portion of the space within. A profusion of auxiliary intakes and sensors are added to the spine of the fuselage, and later to the undersides, as well as a large pair of two-part intakes just aft of the main gear bays.

At this stage the instructions would have you fit the landing gear and their doors, but these are probably best left until later, to avoid damage during handling. The main gear legs are made up from the main leg, plus a two-part oleo scissor-link, and a jack that runs up the leg, which then fix to the outer sides of the gear bay, plus another retraction jack that stretches toward the centreline. The bay doors have moulded in detail, plus a set of hinges, and location points for the single captive door that attaches to the leg itself. A scrap diagram shows the correct orientation of the doors from a forward view, which will be very useful for setting the angle of the large central doors. The nose gear leg has the retraction jack moulded in, but half of the Y-shaped base is a separate part, as is half of the yoke that holds the small nose wheel in position. The main wheels are made up from two part tyres with separate hubs, while the nose gear wheel is a single moulded part, and all have good detail.

More choices lie ahead depending on whether you are building the earlier C2 or later C7, with the C2 having a blanking plate that fits to a hole under the nose, while the C7 has a Pave Penny laser designator pod semi-recessed into the plate, and a separate clear lens part to improve the look. The nose cone is separate and made from two parts, with different parts either removed or added, depending on which variant you have chosen, and this locates on a large peg into the front of the fuselage. At the rear of the airframe, the large hole is filled by a nicely detailed exhaust trunk, which includes a very nicely moulded set of petals, a two-part trunking section that has difficult to remove ejector pin marks in the fluted walls, which is topped off with the afterburner ring, and the rear face of the engine. This is simply slotted into the hole in the rear of the fuselage, held steady on a pair of C-shaped guides moulded into the insides of the fuselage that locate on the rail running down the sides of the exhaust trunking. The rear section of the belly insert is also added at this stage to complete the area, unless you are building the C2, which has a pair of small bomb racks added under the rear of the belly. The rudder is moulded into the fuselage halves, but a small insert containing an instrument pack is added late in the build, which again suggests other variants, plus the tip to the pen-nib above the exhaust. The two-part canopy and ejector seats are added last along with the HUD glass, two rear-view mirrors, pull-handle for the canopy and pitot probe on its mount just below the tip of the nose.

The rest of the build process revolves around the construction of the munitions and their pylons, of which there are quite a choice in the box, as follows:

2 x Python-3 AAM
6 x Mk.82 Iron "dumb" bombs
2 x TER
2 x TER adaptor pylon
1 x centreline bomb pylon
1 x Napgach centreline MER pylon
2 x Griffin LGB with pylon
2 x GBU-12 LGB with pylon
1 x Centreline supersonic tank
2 x wing mounted subsonic tank

Painting and decaling instructions for all the weapons are included using Gunze call-outs. A suggested load-out for both decal options is also given on the last page of the instructions, which is helpful for folks like myself that aren't yet 100% fluent in "bomb speak".

Markings
There are two choices of markings in the box, but only one per variant, which seems a little short on choice, but there are plenty of aftermarket decals out there if you feel the urge to be more individual. From the box you can build one of the following:

• C2 #874 1st Fighter Squadron 1979 - FS36320 over FS36375 (two shades of light grey) with a red/white striped rudder and desert camouflaged wing tanks.
• C7 #555 The Arava Guardians Squadron 1990 – Three tone sand/brown/pale green over grey with a red/yellow motif on the upper tail.
  

The C7's pale green colour is given as FS34424 and a mix of 60% Gunze 312 and 40% 314 is suggested in order to achieve this unusual shade. A separate page on the inside rear cover for the booklet is used to show where the myriad of stencils are placed, in order not to over-complicate the main painting and markings guide.

Conclusion
An excellent first outing for new company AvantGarde Models, and a worthy addition to the stash. Detail is good throughout, and the inclusion of plenty of weapons makes for a well-rounded package.

Highly recommended.

Available from all good model shops online and in the high street.

Review sample courtesy of

[dhtmo]

Looks nicer than the Kinetic kit, Mike? Your thoughts?

[exdraken]

I built one already, and can only say that fit is gorgeous! the same goes for correct tanks, pylons, weapons and so on.

maybe it adds some value here:

http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/234954460-kfir-c2-amk-148/?hl=kfir

in progress:

http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/234951106-kfir-c2-amk-148-decals-on/?hl=kfir

I have not seen a Kinetic one in person yet, although the reworked Wingman Model C10 convervsion looks very tempting! maybe it even works with the AMK kit ??

[Mike]

Looks nicer than the Kinetic kit, Mike? Your thoughts?

If it builds like the L-29 of theirs that I finished recently, it'll be good

[dhtmo]

Cheers guys. Sorely tempted now.