1/72 Airfix Pucara

Gallery Article by Warren Osborne on Jan 11 2011

 

Having just spent most of the year building the Revell 1.48 Catalina, I decided to have a go at something a little simpler, the Airfix Pucara, not quite as easy as I had imagined.  I think this is another company's moulding and classed as a limited run kit, but apart from a couple of fit problems here and there you can get a good result.  I added some detail to the seats and cockpit side walls as the canopy is crystal clear once dipped in Klear/Future.  Most of the parts need to be cleaned up a bit once removed from the sprue and some of the detail is a little poor especially in the wheel bays and on the undercarriage, I drilled out the line of holes on the retraction strut and also added brake lines and a nose gear light.  One big snag is the rear of the canopy did not match the fuselage, I solved this by dipping the rear of the canopy in hot water then gently opened it out until it matched, a small amount of filler made this area good.

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The model is finished in the Argentine air force scheme which was a real pain to mask and spray.  I used the sausages of blutack and Tamiya tape method, the Airfix diagram was confusing as it shows the pale stone as the darker colour and I kept mixing up the areas to be masked. There are a few pics of this particular aircraft (A-522) on the net as it was captured during the Falklands war, this also helped me with the painting process especially when in came to the propeller blades which are not just silver as Airfix call out, they have yellow tips and black panels at their base.  All the main colours have been tinted with shades of the base colour to help give them a weathered look.  Everything was sealed under a couple of coats of klear ready for the decals which are a little thick but on the plus side there aren't many of them.  At this point I also added the white area behind the prop which is just a small band of decal from the spares box.  Humbrol mattcote sealed everything in, a few silver chips here and there finished the build. 

Thanks for looking.

Warren Osborne

Photos and text © by Warren Osborne