Kinetic 1/48 FMA IA-58A Pucará - Finished!

Started by Eric Berg · 143 · 1 year ago
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    Eric Berg said 3 years ago:

    LANDING GEAR

    While waiting for some paint to arrive, I started working on other parts of the Pucara starting with the landing gear. The retraction jacks are molded solid so I thought I would drill them out to make them look more realistic. I know. I know. I'm getting carried away.

    After drilling one hole, I discovered the molded holes don't line up front to back so I am filling the back side, will sand it smooth and try again. I'm not the only one who discovered this. There is a great Pucara build going on over at Britmodeler worth checking out. Meanwhile I am correcting these guys.

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    Spiros Pendedekas said 3 years ago:

    Love all these improvements, my friend @eb801! "Copied", for use at my Pucara build in the future.
    Nice wings-on, too (for some reason your previous update showed up only a couple of hours ago)...

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    Eric Berg said 3 years ago:

    Spiros: check this guy's Pucara build blog over at Britmodeler.

    https://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/235087411-ia-58ad-pucara-148/

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    Eric Berg said 3 years ago:

    DECAL UPDATE
    Two Bobs Decals in Texas has a new Pucara decal sheet for this kit just out. One can do any of the Malvinas/Falklands with the extra generic markings. And also corrects the Kinetic kit decal that reads :FUERZA AEREA ARGENTINA" that is supposed to be the wrong size.
    https://www.twobobs.net/contents/en-us/p737.html

    More Pucara decals are coming from Aztec Models on May 20, 2021.
    D-070 Awqaq Urin 1 - Pucará (Pre-Sale)

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    Spiros Pendedekas said 3 years ago:

    The Two Bobs seem to be great decals, my friend @eb801.
    I went and read Mike's build thread above: fantastic job and very detailed text, a great aid for potential modelers.

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    Eric Berg said 3 years ago:

    Spiros - I've heard good things about TwoBobs decals so I will go with them because there's a generic sheet of markings that will cover all the Pucaras that were sent over to the Malvinas. Not sure who currently prints TwoBobs decals but it used to be MicroScale. Already placed my order with them.

    Meanwhile back to the landing gear and those two retraction jacks:
    Here they are with the holes drilled out. The holes look bigger than they actually are because of the shadowing in the photo and they will shrink under a coat of paint as well. I sprayed them with Alclad primer.

    These parts are very fragile and flex like crazy when drilling. I broke one in half, but despite that, I think it's worth the effort as it adds a bit more realism even though i did a slightly sloppy job.


    A word about Kinetic's wheels and tires: each is molded in two pieces with a slight bit of tread to them...which means good luck smoothing out that middle seam without losing those faint treads as I will soon find out. Too bad Kinetic didn't put a little more thought into the mold design of these. I notice Res Kit from the Ukraine makes a superb resin set of Pucara wheels just for this kit that totally ups the ante detail wise, if one is willing to pop for them. I went for the decals instead.

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    Tom Cleaver said 3 years ago:

    @eb801 - the Aztec decals are for the limited run Argentinian resin kit, and according to Pablo Calcaterra they are dead-on accurate. I'm sure the Two Bobs sheet is nice, too.

    Glad to see this.

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    Eric Berg said 3 years ago:

    Aztec's site says these will be available in 1:48 which I don't think they issued before. Just in 1/72. Regardless, i just couldn't wait a month to get them.

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    Spiros Pendedekas said 3 years ago:

    Your drilled jacks look fantastic, my friend @eb801!
    Yes, they are fragile and prone to breakage - happens to me all the time! But, man, do they look good!

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    Erik Gjørup said 3 years ago:

    Nice "going detail mad" progress Eric.

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    Eric Berg said 3 years ago:

    Thanks Spiros and Erik.
    The landing gear has been painted and a few oil stains added. Also hand painted the wheels as there is enough rim detail sticking up that I decided not to go through the hassle of masking and airbrushing so I just got out a fine brush and went to town with Tamiya JA Grey XF-14 and Vallejo Air tire black. However, I must say I wish I could have got my hands on the excellent set of Res/Kit Pucara wheels but I couldn't locate any in stock here in the States. Once I lightly sanded Kinetic's tires to get rid of the seams, there went the already faint tread markings. Oh well.

    No more Pucara updates for the next couple of weeks as I am taking family time off to do a road trip out to Arizona. First time out on the road since this pandemic started. Whoopie!


    Take a look at this amazing Pucara built by Albert Tureczek that was posted on Kinetic's Pucara Challenge Build on FB. When I first saw this photo, I was absolutely sure it was a real live Pucara sitting on the tarmac. Fantastic don't you think?

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    Tom Cleaver said 3 years ago:

    Yeah I I saw that. Proof there is no way to do this badly.

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    Erik Gjørup said 3 years ago:

    Strong tailwinds and happy landings out there - we will be waiting for more updates on your return!

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    Eric Berg said 3 years ago:

    Thanks Erik and Tom.
    More to come after I get back. By then, everyone will have already built one of these.

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    Colin Gomez said 3 years ago:

    Looking really good, Eric. You are at the exciting stage of getting the fuselage halves together so that it will now demand your full attention. Good idea to remove the seats at this point. I made a similar decision with my Super Etendard. The SuE is also a Kinetic kit with a very tight and accurate fit. The problem is getting photo-etch to fit inside when it compromises the engineering. Good thing you went with a painted version of the cockpit in that case. I really like your decision to fill in the back of the retracting jacks when you discovered the misaligned holes. It's a neat solution. When you mentioned the issue I at first couldn't see how to fix it. Drilling and filling is worth the time and effort. Seeing daylight through there will really contribute to realism. Speaking of realism that is one incredible Pucara model your pic cites. I love those colors. If I were to do a Pucara (join the club?!), I would definitely paint it that way - the same as the museum bird in the UK. Looking forward to more progress!