Kfir Canard 254 Sqn, 1/72

[Giorgio N]

Thanks guys, glad you found something interesting in this build. I find this technique for the exhausts quite easy and cheap. Yes in this case the nozzle is in resin, but I've used the same trick on other models just with the kit parts.

I should say something IMHO important about the resin cloning: it is not really in itself a cheap process as the resin and even more the rubber for the moulds are relatively expensive. Buying all the materials and doing all the tests just to copy a couple of parts is not worth but for modellers who already have the experience and the materials, it can help in a lot of situations.

Back to the model, a small but important update: almost everything is in place within the right fuselage half:

The instrument panel is the kit part with the addition of decals from the Academy F-8. For this I have cut a number of individual instruments and laid them on the italeri panel. It's not 100% accurate, actually not even 50% accurate, but will do. The same was done for the consolles.

As it can be seen, the ejection handles detached from the seat... I should have known something like that could happen. They'll be glued on again after the fuselage is closed to avoid losing them again...

[Giorgio N]

The fuselage has been finally closed ! It took some work to make everything fit inside. My original plan was to add the seat at a later moment, but in the end I realised I needed to have the seat in to keep the consoles spread in the right position... the result of using parts not meant for this kit.

The fit was pretty bad, something that is now the leit-motif for this build... There will be some more filling and sanding to do and many panel lines will need rescribing.

A note on the panel lines: they are all quite soft and wide but while those on the wing can be acceptable, the ones on the fuselage are quite bad and in some areas disappear completely. A lot of rescribing will be needed to sort this issue alone. This is unfortunately a relatively common problems on Italeri kits of this era.. again, there's a reason why people speak of tamigawa quality and not of tamileri quality....

While the fuselage sets, I can start to add to the wings all those small intakes and vents that populate the undersides of every Kfir. Probably because of its genesis, the Kfir has plenty of similar bits attached pretty much everywhere and Italeri seems to have forgotten 90% of them...

Edited August 30, 2013 by Giorgio N

[Natter]

You're making a lovely job of this Giorgio. I look forward to your addition of intakes.

[Giorgio N]

Dave, I'm not sure if I'm looking forward to those intakes... your build showed this will be a real challenge !

The wing-fuselage fit was also quite challenging as the pictures below show:

There are huge gaps everywhere !

The pic showing the undersides also shows the addition of a few small vents and intakes. As said before, Italeri forgot most of these.

I also had to rescribe pretty much the Whole fuselage as the panel lines tended to disappear. The wings and the tail fortunately are better so I limited myself to some deepening of those lines representing mobile parts, like the rudder and the flaperons.

The intakes will be next......

[Natter]

"The wing-fuselage fit was also quite challenging....."

Oh yes indeed. Looking at what you have done so far your build will find excellent solutions. Stand by for more biiig gaps when you fit the intakes.

[Giorgio N]

Stand by for more biiig gaps when you fit the intakes.

A first dry fit showed that not only there will be big gaps, but also another problem: the inside walls of the intake don't reach the intake mouth as they should. Guess a solution will have to be found for this. What started as a quick OOB build is becoming a very frustrating experience

[Natter]

I never noticed the error on mine and just built it!

[Vulcanicity]

The exhaust solution is really very neat, well done. I feel your pain on the gaps, some of the parts on my Jaguar simply don't fit together!

[Giorgio N]

Not surprised about the Jaguar, Italeri has quite a reputation for ill fitting kits. Still they have many subjects available for a good price and for this reason I have quite a few of their kits in my stash. I really hope however than someone might introduce a new 1/72 Kfir in the near future.... I'm starting to like this subject a lot but I'm not sure I want to go through these fit problems again. Maybe rescribing the Hasegawa kit as Natter did in his build is not a bad idea....

On with the intakes ! The parts in my kit showed a problem: the wall next to the fuselage should meet the intake lips but it didn' in the kit. The cone is also not great and is ogival instead of being a straight sided cone as in the real aircraft. To try and sort the problem I decided to:

- replace the inner wall with plasticard

- cut the cone from the original inner wall and reshape

- reattach the modified cone to the new plasticard wall.

The picture below shows the difference between the original left inner wall (on the right) and the new assembly for the right side (on the left)

The cone is still not "pointy" enough but unfortunately the soft plastic used by Italeri makes this process quite difficult. I'll have to live with it....

And here's the right inner wall and the cone glued to the fuselage:

Finally, a dry fit of the outer intake wall shows how the intake will look like:

Not perfect but an improvement over the kit parts. I also removed some plastic to the fuselage so now I can add the splitter under the cone and then I'll add the lateral supports. Before that however, the intake insides will need to be painted White. This colour was used on the early Kfirs while later aircrafts had the intakes in grey

[Natter]

Brilliant.

Again!

[Natter]

Where has it gone Giorgio?

[Giorgio N]

Where ha sit gone Giorgio?

Still working on this one but I've left it aside a bit to focus on the Attacker for the FAA GB.

Intakes are both on and most gaps have been filled and sanded.. a tedious job !

[Natter]

FAA GB too. Brave man! Good to see this one isn't forgotten. Good luck.