FMA IA.58 Pucará (1/72 Special Hobby)
FMA IA.58 Pucará (Special Hobby 1/72)
A-511 Grupo de Ataque 3 - BAM Malvinas, pilot mayor Carlos Tomba. This aircraft was shot down on the 21st may 1982 by Lt Cdr "Sharkey" Ward piloting the Sea Harrier XZ451/006. Mayor Tomba survived the ejection and later became prisoner of war.
I'm really glad to finally finish this kit. It fought me all the way (I started this building on June 2020). Several problems with fit and when it was almost done I had a problem with the windscreen and broke it when trying to fix it. I had to find another kit to replace the part (Thanks Trevor 👍).
Not my best model but glad to finally call it done.
Comments and critics are welcomed .
Looks good, Paulo, I’m glad you were able to finish it and could source a spare kit for the damaged canopy.
Thanks mate. I realized I’m too old to spend time building sh@t kits to honest.
Looks really nice Paulo! Great indeed that you found a solution for the canopy.
Thanks for your comment Spiros. I was very lucky indeed to find the canopy replacement to honest since this kit is long now discontinued.
Really great result, Paulo @armouredsprue
Hard to believe this is not one of your best models, compared to mine, this build looks perfect.
Glad you found a solution for the broken canopy.
Thanks John. At a closer inspection you can see it’s not perfect but like I said I am very happy to call it done and have it sitting in my cabinet.
Love it! I am a huge fan of the Pucara and have this same kit. Do you have any tips now that you've forged through it? Also love to know what paints/colors you used to accomplish this scheme. I'm not sure what scheme I'm going with yet, but this one looks great.
Hi Greg
Thanks for your comment mate. Please note the Special Hobby has a Pucará in 1/48th scale which is a new tool and from what I have heard is an amazing kit. Having said that this kit here is the 1/72 version, released long time ago and now out of catalog. This kit is a short run, no guiding points to help alignment of parts, the fit is very lousy and needed constant dry fit and part preparation before committing to glue it in place. Try to insert as much weight as you can, it is a tail sitter and mine almost got unbalanced. I cut the canopy to make it opened, I don’t know if I would do it again. For the painted I used a mix using some Tamiya and Gunze acrylics as follows (H=Gunze, XF=Tamiya): Green - FS34554= 20:XF2+4:XF78+1:XF4; Tan - FS33578= 6:H313+6:HH11; Blue underside - FS35450= 11:XF2+2:XF19+1:XF8. I hope you find it useful.
Please note there were 3 versions of camouflage for the Pucará’s ( light, medium and darker) this one represents a lighter version. All the aircrafts were field painted and painted sourced from local shop and mixed just before spraying so there were a lot of variation in shades. The kits decals are very good and you will not have an issued with them (micro sol/ set works great).
You did a great job with this kit which I understand is a nasty build to get it dialed in, Paulo. It really came out terrific. Congrats for hanging in there to the finish.
You mention Special Hobby has a new tool in 1/48th. Are you referring to Kinetic's 1/48 Pucará? It's a superb kit, very well engineered and a joy to build. You can find my build and Tom Cleaver's in the Malvinas/Falklands group build on iModeler.
You’re right, my mistake. I’m not into 1/48 scale. But heard good things about that kit.
Nice work, Paulo! Great paintwork.
Cheers
Great work, Paulo! Lovely paint and weathering!
Thanks heaps David
Lovely work Paulo, great weathering!