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Kinetic 1/48 IAI Dagger - Fuerza Aérea Argentina 1982


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Hello everyone - Hope you are all safe wherever you are.

 

Here is my 1/48 IAI Dagger from the Kinetic Mirage IIIE/5 South America boxing. The kit is out of the box with the exception of some cockpit details from various sources, a new seat, mirrors on the canopy and a metal pitot from Master. The kit is pretty good - if a little fiddly here and there. The main problem I had was that the fit of the front canopy was poor. I simply filled and faired in the gaps and accepted that some detail would be lost - pictures show that little in the way of riveting/panel lines can be seen in this area anyway. The other problem was the poor instructions and slightly ambiguous placement of some parts such as the blade aerials on the tail - there are actually no slots for them to fit into and the placement suggested is wrong. (Also the aerials are too long!).

 

I chose the large fuel tanks because I like them and because the supersonic tanks provided in the kit are of the French type and not the extended type used by the Israelis and Argentinians.

 

I modified the markings a little and modelled C-415 shortly after the Falklands conflict with mission markings. C-415 suffered a damaged front canopy early in the conflict and was not available again until near the end or after the end of hostilities. I just didn't want to model the Yellow/Blue campaign markings that everyone else does!

 

Colours were as suggested in the instructions from Mr Hobby Aqueous Hobby Colour. Detailing and weathering was mainly using oils. The surface detailing is extremely fine in places and it was difficult to use a normal wash procedure so in places, individual lines and rivets were picked out.

 

thank you for looking

 

Cheers

 

Malcolm

 

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And a (poor) picture of the real thing:

 

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Beautifully built model. I still have a hard time believing the Dagger and other early Mirages could get into the air with those huge external fuel tanks. But then the Mirage 2000 carries some huge tanks too ... but has a lot more power.

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2 hours ago, exdraken said:

Vety nice!

Those sre 1700 liter tanks, the ~same ones as used on most export Mirage 2000s

They are indeed. Here is a picture of a sister ship with similar tanks. I may well add a bomb rack and bombs later - these are not included in the kit.

 

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Cheers

 

Malcolm

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That's really nice Baldy, I like it a lot. I see that you fixed the air conditioning problem that seems to afflict the front windscreen of many Kinetic Mirages. Well done.

 

Do you know the significance of the word "Ella" in the last photo?

 

Cheers,

Mick

Edited by Mick Drover
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Now, that is the essence of modeling: classic, beautiful machine in rare, interesting uniform. Very impressive and encouraging to find other subjects, fellow modellers omit in their searches. Keep on finding, making and presenting to us!

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Really nice work.  The paint and finish looks just right to me.  I haven't yet got into Falklands War subjects; I should given the influence that the conflict had on my career choice. This subject looks like one to get and I hope I do it the same justice you have.

Well done

Cheers

Gaz

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That is one superb looking Dagger.

 

Lovely paint finish and subtle weathering.  Well done Malcolm, your time and effort have been rewarded with a superb model.

 

 

Cheers,

Zhizhou

 

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8 hours ago, Mick Drover said:

That's really nice Baldy, I like it a lot. I see that you fixed the air conditioning problem that seems to afflict the front windscreen of many Kinetic Mirages. Well done.

 

Do you know the significance of the word "Ella" in the last photo?

 

Cheers,

Mick

Hello Mick

 

Thank you for you kind comments. Yes the front windscreen is tricky and although I didn't quite get the very front perfect it looks better than on some I have seen.

 

I'm afraid I don't know the significance of the word "Ella". I hope it isn't something that will make me look a chump!

 

Cheers

 

Malcolm

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5 hours ago, Baldy said:

Hello Mick

 

Thank you for you kind comments. Yes the front windscreen is tricky and although I didn't quite get the very front perfect it looks better than on some I have seen.

 

I'm afraid I don't know the significance of the word "Ella". I hope it isn't something that will make me look a chump!

 

Cheers

 

Malcolm

Nof fully sure about the context herebut ella usually means "she", or "her", in this case like "this one or that one,  or hete she is"..

Nothing bad here it seems.

 

The upgraded Dagger was called Finger.... supposedly not meant nice

Edited by exdraken
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5 hours ago, dsgimenez said:

Excellent work!!! An observation. Looking some pictures, I think the antenna at the bottom goes further forward, near the nose. regards

Thank you for you kind comment - and yes, you are correct, the antenna underneath is too far back - I didn't notice that. I will look at correcting.

 

Cheers

 

Malcolm

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On 5/18/2020 at 12:11 PM, dsgimenez said:

Excellent work!!! An observation. Looking some pictures, I think the antenna at the bottom goes further forward, near the nose. regards

Again thank you for your observation @dsgimenez and here with a couple of pictures after I have moved the antenna forward.

 

Cheers

 

Malcolm

 

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38 minutes ago, dsgimenez said:

Again, excellent work. I'm glad you could fix it. I have mine waiting and certainly yours inspired me. Cheers!

Look forward to seeing it. Beware of the instructions! Thanks again

 

Cheers

 

Malcolm

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