Hi all. Back again after many months of hard work, some traveling and overnight modeling sessions which kept me very busy lately. Well, this is my most recent completed project: the Kfir C2 of the Colombian Air Force. I depicted the FAC-3046, which was sadly lost in an accident in 2003, caused by a bird getting into the motor of the jet. The pilot ejected successfully. 

Colombia received their Kfirs C2 in 1990 and received this handsome gray-olive green camo scheme. Since then, they have been extensively used in highly-accurate bombing missions against the criminal FARC narco-guerrillas. Recently all planes have been upgraded to C7 and C10 standards. Only Colombia and Ecuador operate Kfirs in Latin America . 

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THE KIT

I became really disappointed about the Italeri kit, which says to be a C7 when it is not. When I opened the box, I was happy with the crisp recessed panel lines, acceptable cabin tub and good landing gear details. I thought I will be a "quick build" with nice results and little effort. I was wrong. 

CONSTRUCTION

Cockpit work was not so bad. Main control panel had raised details that helped a lot. However it didn't matched the shape of the tub and it required size adjustments. Side walls were plain, so I had to print lateral control details in clear decal paper. All was painted in Medium Grey. 

Later I added some weight to the nose and behind the cockpit tub to prevent tail sitting. Fuselage was put together after placing the tub and the painted jet exhaust (MM Metalizers Burn Metal + Jet Exhaust). Then I placed wings and that's where the nightmare begun. As I read in other reviews, there were huge gaps in joints between upper and lower wing pieces. They required too much putty and sandpaper to look right. When this was done after several weeks of interrupted work, I was ready to add canards and all additional aerials using plasticard pieces cut and sanded to shape. 

Landing gear and weapons were build and painted apart. Colombian Kfirs used Python III missiles and those provided with the kit were typical Sidewinders, demanding some special attention. By using detailed pictures as reference, I modified both missiles to make them look right. 

PAINTING

First I gave a coat of Tamiya Primer rattlecan to give a smooth surface and find seam lines. After fixing them all with more putty and sandpaper work, the model was ready to receive the first coat of paint. It was something difficult to match the right colors because I found sources with different opinions, but after getting some accurate information from a good Colombian modeler friend, Javier Ordoñez from IPMS Bogotá, I decided to start spraying the whole belly in a mix of Light Ghost Gray + White to get the correct Light Gray tone. After some days I masked the paint job and painted the upper part in Light Ghost Gray. In order to achieve the soft camo borders between the upper Gray and Olive Green, I masked with "boli-goma" which is a gum like Blue-Tac, which have worked very well for that purpose in my models. However I need to improve that technique because it is difficult to achieve the same result in all paint work. After the camouflage was completely applied and paint cured, I worked a post-shading technique that I like very much: instead of doing pre-shading, I spray a very diluted coat of Flat Black (about 10% in alcohol) over all panel lines. After some few passes they look lightly darker, giving a realist effect of lights and shades for this kind of planes, at least for me. 

Wheels and small pieces were hand-painted with small brushes and Pactra acryl paints. For the gloss coat I used Future sprayed with my single-action airbrush, before and after decals.  

DECALS

Decals came from the Aztec Latin Eagles I set, which is now very hard to find in the market. Fortunately, my good friend Aldo Flores provided me a complete sheet one year ago when we met in Mexico City . It was waiting for this moment since then. They worked very well, as always with Aztec, but required a careful handle because they resisted to leave the paper easily. Thin stencil lines were the hardest part, I even broke some, but all they were saved and put in place as best as possible. Some few stencils were used from the original decal sheet.

WEATHERING

Weathering was done over the glossy surface of the plane, which allowed me to correct decals' position several times before sealing them. Then I realized that I should rescribe some of the recessed panel lines but it was too late for that. I made some trials finding China-ink the best for these soft engraved lines. Finally, all was sealed with MM Semi-gloss coat.  

CONCLUSION

As mentioned, this kit was not what I expected. It took excessive work to correct issues that most of the modern modeling companies have fixed. Maybe the Hasegawa offer is better. However I tried to do my best to get a good replica of a Latin American plane I wanted in my display since a long time. 

Thanks again to Javier, who provided many pictures, articles and detailed information about FAC Kfirs. The same to Aldo Flores for providing those excellent decals, and to all those friends that provided some tip and advice…  

A SINGULAR STORY

I can't go without telling the complete story that Josip Zagar from Slovenia posted here in October. We met thanks to ARC, exchanging some e-mails about this wonderful hobby. In September this year, touring Western Europe with my wife, we had the chance to met in person in a very surprising way. 

We arranged the meeting in the now flooded San Marco Piazza, Venice , in front of the main church at 4pm. The vaporetto delayed more than expected and we were there half hour late. It was crowded with tourists and it was impossible for us to find Josip and his girlfriend there, so we decided to find our hotel between the narrow walking streets of the island-city, action that took another hour. We went back to the piazza, sad for being unable to accomplish our goal, and finally decided to have dinner in a restaurant we picked by luck. I took seat looking at the piazza and when dinner was served on the table, I suddenly saw a couple going out from a building just behind my wife, in rush. I still don't understand how I suspected they were Josip and Sabina. Then I read the sign of that building, which was a hotel, and I realized they were looking for us in there. I ran after them leaving Claudia still talking and giving no explanations. You can't imagine how happy we were when I reach them! I gave them both a classical Mexican compadre's hug and took them with me back with Claudia. Another Slovenian couple, friends of Josip, joined us and we spend a short but delightful night in the Pearl of the Adriatic . We got lost again looking for our hotel, even with support of a GPS (hehehe), but at the end we found it. There, we exchanged our gifts before going to the Rialto Bridge, where they were going to take the vaporetto to the parking area for their car and drive more than 3 hours back to Ljubljana, but those few hours together gave us the chance to demonstrate that modeling is not only a hobby, but also a way to build friendships around the world. 

It was a great experience and I hope we could do it again at least one more time in this life! 

Thank you all and receive my best wishes in these holidays. Saludos desde Monterrey , Nuevo Léon, México, the "city in the mountains"…

Fernando

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