Mike Posted January 22, 2021 Share Posted January 22, 2021 Having just finished reviewing this new kit from Kinetic, which was sent to us by Lucky Model in HK. You can read the review here, and I'm afraid that I caved in last night and began building it I started with the cockpit, expecting to get the seats done before I went in for tea, but I ended up building the cockpit, the sidewalls, and many of the other assemblies glued together so that it will be ready for sanding and painting as appropriate. The cockpit goes together well, with enough parts to make for a detailed rendition, although I would have liked to have seen some decals for the instrument panels, so I'll have to get some of my Airscale decals out to detail that area up with the help of some cockpit refs. Clean-up was made easier by the inclusion of a lot of the sprue gates on the mating surface, so you can just nip them off and give them a light sanding to tidy up. I suspect the instructions show the wrong part numbers on the instrument panels, as the front one appears too wide. Check that before you glue, and there are also a few parts where the numbering has gone awry, but they're easy to guess, and I managed to guess correctly. The seatbelts were a bit of a faff, but that's PE for you I tried to add a little variation between the two seats, which seems to have worked. Looks good, doesn't it? The wings fit together neatly too, and the join under the wings is pretty impressive, which probably won't need any filler. The nacelle fronts go together nicely, hiding the joins along piano-hinges that allow the real cowlings to open for maintenance. I also put together all the other flying surfaces, which were also flawless in construction, with very little clean-up required when the glue is fully cured. I've taped things together for the first photos of the airframe, but it won't be long before I can close up the fuselage, as the cockpit and nose gear bay are the only things withing the space. Neato! The wheels, tanks and pylons just fitted together nicely with no sign of dramas, but I decided to leave off the aft engine nacelle panels so that I could paint the exhausts properly before inserting them. Fit is very good there, and the rear edges of the insert are nice and thin, doing a good job of representing a single sheet of metal. The same goes for the exhaust plugs. They're pretty short, but have false perspective inside, which gives the impression of depth. I might put some Black 3.0 in the very bottom, fading it out to a rusty metallic sheen toward the lip. The next job is to uncover the spray booth, which has become a bit of a dumping ground over the last few weeks 29 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peter W Posted January 22, 2021 Share Posted January 22, 2021 That does look a nice kit Mike. The only bit that looks worrying is how far that tail is from the CofG and where to put the nose weight. Looking forward to seeing it progress though. Pete 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jonners Posted January 22, 2021 Share Posted January 22, 2021 That's a nice-looking kit, Mike, and an interesting subject. I've seen a few Pucaras, although to be fair most had been 'ballistically dismantled' to varying degrees... Jon 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Posted January 23, 2021 Author Share Posted January 23, 2021 17 hours ago, Peter W said: The only bit that looks worrying is how far that tail is from the CofG and where to put the nose weight. I'll find out and take the precaution of weighing the nose weight if it helps people with their builds 15 hours ago, Jonners said: I've seen a few Pucaras, although to be fair most had been 'ballistically dismantled' to varying degrees... I came across a few pictures of those during my searches, and one that was a tangled mess was really quite tempting if I'd had the time to butcher the kit. Hopefully the pilots got out OK, but it was a war... 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gingerbob Posted January 23, 2021 Share Posted January 23, 2021 Blimey, not faffing about, are you?! I've always thought that this was an interesting looking airplane, way back to my impressionable youth. It'll be sorely tempting if I run across a "bargain"... 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Posted January 23, 2021 Author Share Posted January 23, 2021 A bit of progress last night. I primed most of the sub-assemblies after dealing with the seams, and started to look at the landing gear. There are a few ejector pin marks on the rears, so I filled those, and then had a look at the retraction jacks to see if those holes went all the way through. Thanks to Julien's bravery taking the Walkaround pictures at great danger of being stung by a wasp/hornet, I could see that they do, so I drilled one hole out with a 1mm bit. This led to the discovery that the holes aren't lined up on both sides, so I filled the inner ones with CA, sanded them back flush and then drilled them all out, taking care not to put the bottom one all the way through, as it would ruin the detail on the other side. That one just got deepened as much as I dared. Here's a quick pic of the finished item with a little primer on it: 1 minute ago, gingerbob said: Blimey, not faffing about, are you?! ...for a change, no! I've always liked its ungainliness, so you're not alone there 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnT Posted January 23, 2021 Share Posted January 23, 2021 Clearly not doing Mrs Mikes cleaning today then . Making good progress there all the same. It looks a nice kit. What decals are you thinking of using? I see the kit ones include the aircraft of Maj. Carlos Tomba. I dont have my books to hand but wasn't he the pilot Sharkey Ward shot down after several passes during the Falklands war? If I recall I either read that Ward said in a book or perhaps on video that the pilot was the bravest man he had seen the way he stuck with it and didnt bail until he had really no option left. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Posted January 23, 2021 Author Share Posted January 23, 2021 1 minute ago, JohnT said: I see the kit ones include the aircraft of Maj. Carlos Tomba. I dont have my books to hand but wasn't he the pilot Sharkey Ward shot down after several passes during the Falklands war? If'n you'd taken the time to read the review, you'd know it was I'll probably do that one TBH, in the nearly OOB theme of the build 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnT Posted January 23, 2021 Share Posted January 23, 2021 25 minutes ago, Mike said: If'n you'd taken the time to read the review, you'd know it was I'll probably do that one TBH, in the nearly OOB theme of the build couldnt finish reading the review as too worried about hornets 🐝 interfering with Julien. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Posted January 23, 2021 Author Share Posted January 23, 2021 12 minutes ago, JohnT said: couldnt finish reading the review as too worried about hornets 🐝 interfering with Julien. Don't lie... you nodded off! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Posted January 23, 2021 Author Share Posted January 23, 2021 Here's a question for those wot know. The landing gear. Looks to be a lightish grey, but some photos show it having a bit of a greenish tinge. Could it be Barley Grey? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Posted January 23, 2021 Author Share Posted January 23, 2021 The engine nacelles moulded into the wings have a seam that runs front to back, which isn't there on the real thing, so I had to fill those with some CA. A couple of doses of sanding later and they're nice and flat, but I also noticed that the panel lines further up the sides are a bit faint due to them being on the curve. Sharp panel lines wouldn't come out of the mould afterall I'll get the Dymo tape out later and give them a rescribe before I glue the nacelle fronts on. Those were just pushed into place for this pic. I also trimmed off the little drain under the nacelle fronts so I can get a better finish under there, and I've drilled a hole for inserting some fine tube later. If I've misunderstood the function of the "tube" as I'm calling it, someone please tell me! I've given the oleos a coat of Mirror, and also dosed the reflectors for the landing lights in the pylons while I was there. I'll leave that to cure for 24 hours and then paint the rest of the parts. I'm working up the nerve to paint the cockpit now I've grabbed a few references, as it's been a little over a year since I did any proper airbrush work. 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Posted January 23, 2021 Author Share Posted January 23, 2021 OK. Questions are mounting. What's the official colour of the landing gear? What rocket pods would it carry? LAU-6? I'm going to put a big tank down the middle, and was planning on putting either 2 or 4 rocket pods on the pylons Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
janneman36 Posted January 24, 2021 Share Posted January 24, 2021 Hi Mike , the official color is not known to me but it looks like a light type of RAF interior grey-green or even sky! According to special hobby it was aluminum and/or light grey up to 1982 and Airfix color callouts are Humbrol 56 but after seeing a lot of pictures I daubed if that was really the case as I have seen pictures from wrecks which are showing a pale green on the legs! The overal colors for the Argentine version are mentioned in the Airfix instructions as being Humbrol 90 for the green 65 for the blue underside and and 121 for the tan color although I have modellers seen using radome tan (Humbrol 148!). Hereby a picture of the ejection seat. And a diagram for the weapons layout..what I have read is that mostly they flew with four Lau’s and they also used the gunpods and dumb bombs.. The gunpuds are normally fitted on the outer hardpoints. extra info to a good site with pictures . https://www.zona-militar.com/foros/threads/todo-sobre-el-ia-58-pucará.12886/page-284 Further down the road in the instructions they have some etch parts for in the side of the fuselage which look to me as chaff dispensers but the funny thing is that these aren’t applicable for the versions in the box🤔 Hope this is of any help! cheers, Jan 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
exdraken Posted January 24, 2021 Share Posted January 24, 2021 Great start, looks really promising! Thanks for your review build 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Posted January 24, 2021 Author Share Posted January 24, 2021 13 hours ago, janneman36 said: Further down the road in the instructions they have some etch parts for in the side of the fuselage which look to me as chaff dispensers but the funny thing is that these aren’t applicable for the versions in the box🤔 That's what they are! I noticed that any of the Falklands era airframes didn't seem to have them, so left them in the box. Seems like I made a good decision 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scooby Posted January 24, 2021 Share Posted January 24, 2021 Oddly I was on the fence at buying a Pucara, your review and build thread has changed all of that. Nice work and nice review. Both my cousins fought in the Falklands. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Posted January 24, 2021 Author Share Posted January 24, 2021 I got the prop bases done, and here there was a bit of mis-matching with the panel lines, so I rescribed a new meet-up point for them to minimise the effect. The parts just slip inside the holes very tightly, and with a bit of seam scraping on the bit that's usually painted blue, they look pretty good. The gear legs and lights got their coat of Mirror as I mentioned earlier, and you can see how nice & shiny they are now. If the oleos go a bit dull under the masking tape, I'll just recoat them after. I'll have to properly clean my airbrush before I attempt to paint the cockpit, as it's got some paint of unknown origin in there presently, and I can't remember if it's acrylic or lacquer. 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Posted January 24, 2021 Author Share Posted January 24, 2021 Airbrush cleaned, and boy did it need it! I'm planning on using Gunze H306, which is FS36270 as the base coat, lightening it a wee bit as I go. That concurs with the instructions, so unless anyone's got any convincing ideas for an alternate, I'm a go on that once I hit the workshop for the enxt session Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigbadbadge Posted January 24, 2021 Share Posted January 24, 2021 Looks like a nice kit so far, well assembled obviously, is the mirror bush printable or is it only suitable for airbrushing? Great work Chris Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Posted January 24, 2021 Author Share Posted January 24, 2021 27 minutes ago, bigbadbadge said: is the mirror bush printable or is it only suitable for airbrushing? Yes - it's very brush-paintable, which I proved by brush painting those small sections. I also used a toothpick to paint the light lenses, as I couldn't be bothered cleaning another brush! Unless you're a better brush painter than me, larger areas might show some brush marks, but it sprays beautifully. Beware. it's fiendishly expensive, but I suspect it's going to go a looooooong way. There's a bit of a blurb about it in my recent Sputnik build here. You might need to scroll a little to read it all, but that was my test model. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigbadbadge Posted January 24, 2021 Share Posted January 24, 2021 14 minutes ago, Mike said: Yes - it's very brush-paintable, which I proved by brush painting those small sections. I also used a toothpick to paint the light lenses, as I couldn't be bothered cleaning another brush! Unless you're a better brush painter than me, larger areas might show some brush marks, but it sprays beautifully. Beware. it's fiendishly expensive, but I suspect it's going to go a looooooong way. There's a bit of a blurb about it in my recent Sputnik build here. You might need to scroll a little to read it all, but that was my test model. Thanks Mike, it does look good on your Sputnik model i was impressed with the finish . I have checked out the link and crikey it is a bit much for me I'm afraid, but thank you for answering and the information. Chris Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Posted January 25, 2021 Author Share Posted January 25, 2021 17 hours ago, bigbadbadge said: I have checked out the link and crikey it is a bit much for me I'm afraid, but thank you for answering and the information. It's steep, agreed, but it could well last you a modelling lifetime unless you go mad and make a polished aluminium B-29 in 1:32 The first bit of paint (excluding primer) has gone on the cockpit as of last night, and I also made up the props, which needed a little bit of careful tweaking to get them to fit well. It was a combination of slight differences in angles that required some gentle scraping and testing to get them to fit. I used a lot of my patience up for the week on them both, but the results were worth the while, and will sit neatly in place on the prop axle extensions. lots of detail painting to be done yet once I've finished airbrush painting those "black" bits. 8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigbadbadge Posted January 25, 2021 Share Posted January 25, 2021 2 hours ago, Mike said: It's steep, agreed, but it could well last you a modelling lifetime unless you go mad and make a polished aluminium B-29 in 1:32 Funnily enough... 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
heloman1 Posted January 25, 2021 Share Posted January 25, 2021 I like the subject Mike, the level of detail looks good comfortable seat and popcorn at the ready... Colin 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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