A pair of Lion cubs - Finished 25 Aug 13

[Natter]

This may be a slow build, I have quite a lot on at the moment, not least a 1:1 Landrover Defender in need of some attention while the weather is good.

When I did the Gnat Swarm I promised I would never have more than one kit on the bench at any one time ever again. Here I go breaking that promise, I hope I don't come to regret it.

I got the Italeri from Troffa for a fiver about five years ago, and he donated two large underwing tanks and pylons too. The Hasegawa I got at Huddersfield this year for three quid. I have a couple of resin seats coming, which cost almost as much as the kits themselves with postage included! The tan sprues are the Hasegawa and the grey are the Italeri.

Taped together and with the intakes assembled and fitted they look like this:

What do you reckon are the chances of those pitots making it to then end of the build un-broken? The intakes of both kits are made the same way, inner and outer pieces which are separate from the main fuselage halves. It makes for easier masking of the white interior but it does mean that they sort of fit in a not too perfect way. The gaps will need some attention, and the gluey fingerprints I managed to make on both Hase intakes will also need a bit of work.

Italeri:

Hasegawa:

The Italeri will be done in the two tone grey scheme and the Hasegawa in the three tone camo with the big orange and black ID triangles as per the box art. I hope to be done by the October deadline.......

[Enzo the Magnificent]

What do you reckon are the chances of those pitots making it to then end of the build un-broken?

If you're anything like me, then absolutely zero!

I built the Hasegawa kit about thirty years ago in the kit scheme. This will no doubt bring back some memories.

[snapper_city]

[Giorgio N]

The Italeri kits looks like it's not going to be an easy build.... I've test fitted a few parts on my F-21 and I can see some hard work coming !

[Vulcanicity]

Yeesh, those intake gaps look...well, yawning! Good luck with your builds, the Kfir is a very handsome aircraft, and a pleasingly popular choice (so far) on the GB!

What's the story behind the yellow triangles by the way? They remaind me of WW2-style Dutch insignia...

[Natter]

Just a quick update, without pics tonight. I have the Pavla resin Martin Baker Mk4 BRM seats and have given them a quick coat of primer. I know the C2 had the Mk6 seats but the Mk4s look good enough and, like other Pavla seats, they're really good. These aren't competition entries after all. I have added a couple of bits of plasticard to the cockpit tubs to close up the gaps but I am not going mad on any detail. The primer grey is close enough for the cockpit interior so bar a few bits it will stay this colour.

As Vucanicity says, the gaps are huge and wouldn't look out of place on my Landy; I am dreading having to tackle them.

[Enzo the Magnificent]

What's the story behind the yellow triangles by the way? They remaind me of WW2-style Dutch insignia...

I believe they were applied as recognition markings after the Egyptian Air Force received some Mirage IIIs.

[Natter]

A small update. I have painted the ejection seats and the cockpit tubs are fixed to one half of their respective fuselages. The Pavla seats are a little too wide to fit as they are so I have shaved the bottom parts slightly. Before that though they were photographed with the Italeri (grey) and Hasegawa (tan) kit seats. There doesn't seem to be that much difference really......

The Italeri instrument panel is solid with raised detail and has been painted (pic later) but the Hase panel is clear with a decal. The Hase panel comes with a HUD moulded, but I managed to get paint on it so I have removed it and will add a new one later from acetate. It is obvious that the tool maker and the decal designer weren't on speaking terms as they are different sizes...

Once the panel is under the coaming it shouldn't be too bad.

More soon - right now I am contemplating those massive gaps around the intake pieces.

[Natter]

A small update today.

The huuuuge gaps in the Italeri intakes have been filled. I tried Vallejo putty, but that is really only any good for filling gaps where you wipe over and don't have to rub down. I redid them with mixed superglue and talc filler. The bits are from the kitchen towel that was wiped over the model after the last rub down and are not in the paint:

Alas the gaps where the wings meet the fuselage will be equally challenging:

I made a bulkhead for the aft fuselages of both aircraft so that I will be able to fit the tail pipes later. It means that I can paint them at a later time and not mess about with any fiddly masking:

The Hasegawa kit has (mostly) raised panel lines and I decide to rescribe some of them. This has taught me that I am rubbish at rescribing! I will probably try again on another model to see if I can find a technique that works for me. I may have to do some more on the wings though:

The pair don't look much different from when they were taped together, but they're all glued up now - and I remembered the noseweight:

[Vulcanicity]

Well, your scribing is at least as good as mine! What kind of tool are you using!

Good work on those "joints" in the Italeri by the way, it's helping to psyche me up for my Jaguar!

[Natter]

Hi Phil, I used the Trumpeter scriber on the fuselage and a pin in a pin-vice for the tail. I think I am a relative of the Matchbox trench digger; maybe I should try a lighter touch and see what effect that has.

I have tried Vallejo putty on the underside gaps on the Italeri, wiped over with a wet cotton bud. We'll see how that looks when it has a coat of primer on. I am not going for a competition finish so that may be enough.

[Giorgio N]

I wouldn't call yourself bad at rescribing, the result you got is quite good considering that rescribing over the tight curvatures of a 1/72 Kfir fuselage is not an easy job a all.

The gaps on the italeri kits will really need a lot of work... no wonder that modellers never speak of "Italeri quality".....

[Natter]

Canards fitted, main assemblies primed. I told you it would be slow!

[Vulcanicity]

Dave, I'd recommend the Tamiya scriber (aka the Olfa P-cutter) as it's always done me well. I find the handle very comfy, and it's easy to scribe very lightly and gently with it.

Giorgio is right though, complex compound curves never make for easy scribing, and yours looks pretty good to me!

Edited August 3, 2013 by Vulcanicity
spelinge

[trickyrich]

With those sort of gaps I'd be using stretched spure. With some careful pulling you can easily draw spure to the right thickness, or maybe a little thicker. Then it's just a simple matter of cutting to correct length and gluing in place. Finishing the joint is nice and simple as it's plastic and with a bit of care the joint is almost invisible with no collateral damage to the surrounding plastic.

love the seats!!

they should look nice together when finished

[Black Knight]

I concur with trickyrich - stretched sprue is great as a gap filler. If one uses liquid glue such as EMA the sprue dissolves more and becomes more like part of the kit.

[Natter]

Vulcanicity,

I have a Trumpeter scriber, but maybe the Tamiya will have to be acquired. I have a Heller Mirage IV which needs a complete re-scribe as all the panel lines are raised, and that scares me!

trickyrich, Black Knight,

Stretched sprue to fill the gaps. Of course. I have read enough of Mike Grants's article, but never thought to do it that way. Maybe on the next Italeri kit!

Sooooo, what of the Kfirs? Well, I have done a few bits through the week and some this weekend. The Hasegawa bits have some ejector pin marks in places which will show on the build if not attended to:

But the Italeri? Good grief....

With primer on both models the paint schemes were started. The Italeri got an all over coat of Tamiya Sky Grey, near enough to Compass Grey. With that done the darker areas were sprayed with Tamiya Light Grey. This had far too much of a blue/green cast, so I mixed some Tamiya Dk Sea Grey in to the Sky Grey in the airbrush cup and re-sprayed the 'Dark Compass Grey' areas again:

The contrast between the two greys was too high, in the photos of the grey Kfirs the difference between the colours is quite subtle. So, a spray over of much thinned Sky Grey sorted the blending a little:

A small error had been made with the Hasegawa model. I made a beautiful job of fitting the sidewinder rails, blending them in almost perfectly with superglue. Then I realised that I wouldn't be able to get the ID triangle decals on - aaaaaargh. Some careful work with the scalpel had them off again, and the decals were applied over a patchy coat of Lifecolor RLM 65. The underside blue of the Kfirs in desert camouflage seems a pale blue, and Lifecolor's RLM 65 looks OK to me; patchy for weathering. The first top coat was Vallejo model-air Sand, which was then masked for the green:

The green is a mix of Lifecolor's UA060 RLM 99 Green and UA091 Dark Green. It isn't quite right, but the internet photos and other models seem to be a bit of a mix. Many of the models in the magazines seem to have used Model Master paints, but I don't have access to those so the mix will have to do.

So far they look like this:

Next up will be re-masking the Hasegawa for the Lifecolor US Brown. More soon....

[Natter]

A quick update. The Hasegawa kit was re-masked for the US brown and sprayed this evening. This took a little time and the result needed some touching up where the brown and green meet, which I actually did freehand with the airbrush. The Lifecolor paint, thinned with screenwash and a couple of drops of flow improver, sprays beautifully. The underside looks more blue than the photos show. Perhaps it should be a bit more 'duck egg', but it is what it is and I will leave it as done.

[Natter]

This weekend has been touch up jobs and decaling. Both sets of decals stood up to some serious (mis) handling, but they are translucent and I have added circles cut from a white piece of decal under the roundels. I made a couple of mistakes and made a couple too small, but they are more noticeable in the pictures than in real life. The ID triangles were a pain. Not only were they translucent, they wrinkled like mad with microsol and didn't settle properly again. The Hasegawa decals have no red walk-way lines. The instructions point out 'red line' but these are really narrow so I cut some red decal with a pair of scalpel bladed stuck together with a piece of 5 thou plastic between them. In retrospect I may have been better leaving out the plastic shim. You can see how translucent the decals are below:

With the decals fully dried I masked around the yellow of the triangle with some Tamiya tape de-tacked by sticking it to the palm of my hand a couple of times. Xtracrylix Trainer Yellow is a very good match for the yellow of the decal and after a careful spray the finished job is much better. After the spray I took the pictures of the models, and you can't see the underlying camo through the upper right ID triangle in the picture below. Together the models look like this so far:

There is still a long way to go, but they are looking more Kfir-like with every session.

[Giorgio N]

I can feel your pain with those decals, very disappointing when decals in kits behave like that.

You have done a good job regardless of these problems though !

I like your idea to cut decal strips, never thought of it but makes perfect sense. I'll use this tip when I'll have to make my decals for the Italeri kit

[Vulcanicity]

That's some excellent work, and I concur with Giorgio about the red line trick-so intuitive but I'd have never thought of it myself!

The camo is looking really good, and the ID triangles very striking now you've sprayed back over them

[Natter]

Done. I haven't updated through the week as there is nothing much to show when adding washes and spraying varnish to seal the decals. Windsor and Newton's Gelleria Satin gave the finish and sealed the decals. I re-attached the pitot probes with a tiny piece of wire to add support. It's a single conductor from car wire fitted in to a 0.3mm hole drilled in the pitot mount and the probe itself:

The cockpits weren't superdetailed. Just a resin seat and a HUD each. The Hasegawa one looks like this:

I opened the Hasegawa cockpit so added the handle and mirrors to the opening section:

The cannons were modelled as just the muzzle brakes and troughs, so I added some thin rod barrels. I didn't see any of the faults that show up until I saw the photos:

The Italeri kit has some detail in the main wheel wells but the Hasegawa wells are plain and too shallow. I wasn't bothered doing anything except add paint. The undersides look like this:

The wing mounted Sgt Fletcher tanks on the Hasegawa kit are from a Phantom I think; Troffa let me have them when I bought the Italeri kit from him about four years ago (where has the time gone?). The sidewinders are from the Italeri kit and the centreline tank in the kit item. I normally build kits 'clean' but the Kfir looks 'right' with a full load. The Italeri kit I just did clean as a contrast. Speaking of contrast, the greys on the Italeri kit don't show the subtle weathering and shading very well in the photos. I am pleased with the way it came out in the end. Weathering on both models is a mix of lightened shaded of the main colours and a little post shading, which shows up more on the desert camouflage of the Hasegawa.

Uppers:

The desert 'camouflage' scheme really is colourful:

So, that's it for this GB for me. More photos can be found in the Gallery.

Many thanks to the GB hosts and everyone who has followed or commented, it had been fun - again!

[Enzo the Magnificent]

Brilliant! Utterly brilliant!

The desert cam one brings back a lot of memories of when I built it thirty-odd years ago. And now I'm looking at the Kfirs in The Stash...

[Giorgio N]

Very nice models, both look good !

[Vulcanicity]

Those are gorgeous, well done. The desert scheme steals it for me though, such a busy scheme!