1/72 Airfix Pucara

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Sunray
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1/72 Airfix Pucara

Post by Sunray »

The kit decals aren't the best so I will using a set from Hannants and the pilots will be from a Revell set if they fit. Anyway here we go.

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The kit has recessed panel lines and no locating pins. Also after dry fitting a few of the parts the fit isn't the best but thats the price you pay for doing an old Airfix kit. The first job I did was to workout where I was going to attach the bolt in the fuselage for the stand which wasn't a problem as it is going to go near or enough in the middle of the wing roots. Before that I added a small of squared plastic rod to give the cockpit floor support a bit more strength and to act as a guide the keep the support vertical.

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I did the same for the support in the nose wheel well.

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While it was easier to get to I closed up the nose wheel well using scrap bit of plastic to support the nose wheel doors. Next I used a pair of calipers to find the centre of the fuselage.

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Then using a 4mm drill I made the hole for my M4 bolt.

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Then I did a bit of test fitting.

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As the kit plastic is a bit soft I added another bit of scrap plastic to give the plastic around the bolt a bit more strength and to make the level area where the head of the bolt will sit to give a better joint.

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I then stuck it all together with quick drying epoxy.

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The epoxy gives a strong and tidy joint.

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The support or marker for the cockpit rear bulkhead required a bit of help.

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So I added a touch more plastic to both sides of the fuselage halves to help as a guide for the bulkhead.

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While I was waiting for all the glue to cure I moved my attention to the wings which were a good fit.

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Cheers
Ian


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planecrazyman61
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Re: 1/72 Airfix Pucara

Post by planecrazyman61 »

looking forward to seeing this get built got one half built myself which i had a couple of problems with the wings have a 1.5 mm gap each side where the upper wings joins the fuselage and engine nacelles were a bad fit ,ripped them off in the end hopefully you might not have the same issues
cheers craig
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DavidWomby
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Re: 1/72 Airfix Pucara

Post by DavidWomby »

Interesting. Is that an Airfix mould or somebody else's that they rebox?

David
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Re: 1/72 Airfix Pucara

Post by vacant »

It's a rebox (can't remember from what), which is why it's an Airfix kit that seems to be like no other Airfix kit.
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iggie
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Re: 1/72 Airfix Pucara

Post by iggie »

According to Scalemates, it's a re-box of a 2003 Special Hobby tooling, hence no locating pins I guess.
I always thoughtv it had been around longer than that!
Best wishes

Jim
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Re: 1/72 Airfix Pucara

Post by ShaunW »

Good to see another project on the go Ian and an interesting choice at that. I can't recall seeing a build thread featuring this kit on here before.
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Stamford
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Re: 1/72 Airfix Pucara

Post by Stamford »

Never seen one of these built very interesting.
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Sunray
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Re: 1/72 Airfix Pucara

Post by Sunray »

Thanks chaps. This is a rebox of the Special Hobby one as I have got one. The sprues are the same but the Special Hobby's one is a multimedia kit and the decals are different.

Now for the an update, the fuselage which wasn't a good fit. The fuselage halves were warped but when pushed together they weren't any large gaps. To attach the halves I decided to glue them in stages. I started at the tail. As I have said before there are no locating pins so I used the panel lines of the fuselage halves as a guide. So I lined up the panel lines on the tail section and I clamped the tail fin. Then I applied the Tamiya Extra Thin. I waited until the glue had a good bond on the tail then I moved down the fuselage ensuring that the join was rock solid before pulling the halves of the next section together, clamping them and gluing them together.

As I came nearer to the wing root I taped in the cockpit floor\nose wheel well section in place and again pulling in the fuselage halved I clamped them together. Luckily they dropped in quite well and again I glued in position. The problem I had was no matter how I tried there was a big step on both sides of the cockpit\fuselage wall where it joins the cockpit floor\nose wheel section. (if you know what I mean). To get around this I decided to try and balance the amount of step on each side then when I came to fill and sand them down they would look the same. So using my homemade Tamiya Extra Thin filler I applied a thin layer to start to build the lower step in the fuselage up. I waited over night for it to harden then I sanded it and I applied another layer. I kept this up until the fuselage sides were level. The downside of doing it this way apart from the time was that you lose a bit of detail but this can be added later. I would of took some photo's but I couldn't find my camera. Anyway while I was waiting for the filler to cure I ran so filler down the main fuselage seam lines to fill any gaps and I sanded them smooth.

Once all this was done I added the rear cockpit bulkhead using the guides I installed earlier then I attached the wings. Luckily I found my camera so I can show you the result.

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As you can see there is a bit of a gap at both wing joints. So as "Blackadder" would say "bugger". At first I though that one wing would be bigger than the other because one gap is wider than the other and it would put the balance of the aircraft out but when I measured the actual wing parts one was smaller and it balanced out the wings, if that makes sense. So that was that problem solved. To sort out the gaps in the wings I just used plastic shims glued in the gaps then once the glue has cured, I cut the waste away and sanded them down.

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Now for the tail plane.

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To attach the elevators wasn't a hard job. All I did was to make my own locating pins out of copper wire. The good thing about the copper wire is as well as supporting the elevators you can bend it helping with alignment. So armed with my copper wire and drill I made a hole in one of the elevators and using CA glue I attached the wire.

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Then I cut down the wire.

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I then aligned the elevator with the tail and I used the copper pin to mark the tail so I had something to follow when drilled a hole in the tail. I didn't drill the hole all the way through in case I made a mistake. Happy with the location I drilled another hole in the elevator and glued in another copper pin.

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I marked the tail again but this time I drilled the hole all the way through.

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The reason why I put in a smaller pin in was also to give the first elevator more support while the glue cures and to keep the elevator as the right angle. You don't need two pins in the second elevator as the long pin is enough to support the second elevator but also allows a bit of movement while the glue cures to enable me to align both together. (If that makes sense?)

So I glued the first elevator (the one with 2 pins) in position first using CA glue to tack it in position. I trimmed down the long pin as it was a bit too long and I marked the second elevator and drilled the hole for the pin. Then test fitted and adjusted the alignment and I glue the second one in position using CA glue. When I was happy and checked the alignment I used the homemade Tamiya Extra Thin filler to fill any gaps and to give a good bond on both elevators. I left it over night and sanded the joints down.

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Cheers
Ian


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Stamford
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Re: 1/72 Airfix Pucara

Post by Stamford »

Nice work with those nasty gaps and dealing with the butt joins.
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Migrant
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Re: 1/72 Airfix Pucara

Post by Migrant »

I never realized this was a Special Hobby re-box either. I wouldn't be surprised if a whole generation of kids never picked up another kit after attempting to build this :shock: Great tutorial though, looking forward to seeing this finished.
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Tarkas
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Re: 1/72 Airfix Pucara

Post by Tarkas »

Excellent work, and very interesting to read about. The wing root gaps almost make me wonder if the wings are supposed to have some dihedral, which would close them up -- or possibly open up gaps on the underside instead! :roll: On checking, I find that the inner wing panels are flat; it's only the outer panels that have dihedral. So much for that idea...

Regardless, looking forward to more of this build.
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Marek
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Re: 1/72 Airfix Pucara

Post by Marek »

Quite a work on these seams. You made this work beautifully.
planecrazyman61
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Re: 1/72 Airfix Pucara

Post by planecrazyman61 »

hi you did a good job of filling the wing root gaps and the pins on the elevators is a great idea, enjoying watching the progress on this one
craig
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Re: 1/72 Airfix Pucara

Post by Sunray »

Thanks Chaps. I have done this kit in a different order than I normally do as now I am going to add detail to the cockpit. When I tried the seat in the rear cockpit the gap between the seat and the side panels seemed a bit big to me.

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So I glued pieces of plasticard to the side panels to take up a bit more space.

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Once the glue had cured I removed the excess plastic. I then attached the side panels and control panels. The control panels required a bit of support, so for this I used scrap bits of plastic which did the trick. For the interior frame of the cockpit I used thin solder cut to length and glued in place with CA glue. To finish off I added the throttle levers made from pins and I added a bit of cabling made from copper wire attached again with CA glue.

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I checked reference photo's because the seat seemed to be a little low and as I am using Revell pilots I needed to make the seat slightly larger. All that I did to do this was cut the seat and add a strip of plastic which was an easy fix.

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I also made the ejection seat pull from a piece of copper wire wound around a drill bit of roughly the right size.

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The copper pull was then cut to size and glued in the pre-drilled holes.

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I used the same method for the antenna in the tail plane.

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The antenna's on the engine nacelles were made from photo etch sprue cut to size and glued in position.

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For the aerial under the rear fuselage I just used pins glued in pre-drilled holes.

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As were the control columns.

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As I was doing all this I would test fit as I went.

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For the props I had to peg each blade into position into the hub to align them then I glued them into their final position using Tamiya glue.

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Now it is starting to come together.

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Cheers
Ian


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iggie
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Re: 1/72 Airfix Pucara

Post by iggie »

I assume you have yet to scratch build the wooden blocks to enable the pilot to reach the rudder pedals :grin:

It's coming along very nicely indeed, even if the Special Hobbby trademark problems are all there!
Best wishes

Jim
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"Never put off till tomorrow, what you can do the day after tomorrow"
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