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And now...the nose!
My friend Alejandro lent me plaster mold, in order I could copy the nose of the Esci Kfir. Maybe this works fine with epoxi but it's a different story with resin...it run through the pores of plaster, so I finished with two detailess parts!!!. The only useful thing is that now I had a couple of solid bases to work on and construct the nose.
Sanding was so intense that when both resin nose halves had to be glued together, the diameter was much smaller than the needed one. So I had to go again and look for my old credit card, supplement the union of the halves and make them spread out.
More putty to conceal the union! The nose cone was made with a cutter and sandpaper. Panels of each side of the nose (2) were made cutting a very thin plastic and gluing it in it's place.
When I thought the nose was ready to be copied in rubber, a white hand of airbrushed paint showed me the defects still there (counting…). Eventually, I made the rubber mold and copied my resin nose.
Now, as the thickness of the plastic walls of the cockpit area was not enough to have a good surface to glue the resin nose, I cut some pieces of plastic which were fit inside the cockpit hub (or tube). See green zone in Image 3. Cyano was used to get a firm fit and the union of these parts was concealed under more putty.
Some air bubbles in the resin nose were covered with cyano. The little air intake on the right side of the nose was scratch built.
To clear my mind and nerves, I built another "Tamigawa".
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Image 3
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Or wings and elevons
To put the elevons in a moved position, I had to cover with plastic and putty the orange zone seen in Image 1, and between both halves of the 4 elevons. It was important to put just the needed amount of plastic in the forward part of them, for them not to be thicker or thinner than the non moving rearmost part of the wing. The front section of the elevons was sanded to make it a little round.
The thin part of pieces 27 and 28 (careen under the wings) was cut to allow the elevons to be places in a dropped position. With all this ready, I glued the elevons in place using the careens to strengthen the area.
The main covers of the principal landing legs have rectangular marks that are not present in our planes...so more putty and sandpaper to cover them.
I glued both halves of the 500 liters external tanks, and fit them in place. Everything ready to be painted…
Paaaaintttiiiiiiiing...
With the cockpit masked with tissue paper, I painted the wheel wells in silver, as were the legs and the front part of the exhaust.
All the paint was given a generous hand of Humbrol 140. Puff! No defects to correct with my, at this step, hated putty!!!
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I masked the nose cone, the panel under the nose ahead of the landing gear, the panel around the fuel filling valve and the fillets on the tail. These parts were given a coat of black paint.
The rear part of the exhaust part was painted with a black pencil, as were the guns, the rectangular panel in the back part of the ventral tank close to the tail and the rudder.
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To represent the wear of our planes and highlight a little the panel lines, I gently sanded the whole kit using a 1200 sandpaper.
In order not to get it yellow, I didn't use Humbrol clear varnish but Moldel Master, which requires several coats to get a decent gloss. In order to help the handling of the plane, I glued the legs in position.
Once the varnish was set. I had to wait for several months....as the decals for the Finger were not available. First batch of Aerocalcas were there to be used, but the carrier film had turned yellow.
More distraction with other kits followed...
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Decals arrive and odyssey ends!
New set of decals made by Aerocalcas are much better that the original ones, as they now have the stencils as well. A subtle difference in the shades of the greys made some decals disappear a little against Humbrol 140. As an example, the grey of the "Malvinas" stencil and the warning triangle for the ejector seat.
Carrier film is very transparent and thin, and they adhere very well to the surface without generating the feared silvering.
The winglets of the nose, VHF antenna and the tail antennas were glued in place after being scratch built. The long nose antenna was chosen from the 2 options given by Heller (part 22).
Position lights above the wings and on both sides of the tail were painted with green and red gloss paint from the Humbrol range. Position lights on the tip of the wings were made using an old toothbrush (green) and a disposable plastic fork (red).
Silver was used to paint the cone of the breaking parachute of the tail and the extreme of the nose antenna.
I glued the gunsight in place, and then the windshield and the pitot, which was the modified (by me) part 9 of the kit.
Landing lights of the nose landing gear were made using the semicircular extremes of the unused tree of the transparent parts. Back part of these was painted silver and then given a coat of natural metal.
And to finish it all, I glued to scratch built rear mirrors inside the cockpit, which were painted black (forward) and silver (rear). Once in place, the plane was ready. Puf!
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Conclusion
Well, as always the story goes (same thing happened to me with the HC Skyhawk, that was issued right after I had finished converting the Fujimi A4-F into a B with a lot of work!), perhaps soon some
manufacturer determines to issue a Finger, this would be very well received for modelers, so if you are thinking in this project, you could save two years. This is a rare and interesting subject, hey Hobbycraft, Hasgawa are you hearing!.
Nevertheless, I'm happy with the result of my work and I hope that you have enjoyed it too.
This is my tribute to the pilots of our Air Force, who are flying less hours each year in their tired warriors.
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The author in the VI Air Brigade in front of a Finger
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Photo by Guillermo Guebel
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Sources
 Dagger y Finger, by JF Nunez Padin
Avion Revue y Aeroespacio magazines
Acknowledgements
José Miguel Rodríguez (pictures he lend me and the invitation to visit the VI Air Brigade in Tandil where the Fingers are based) and Alejandro Serra (more pictures and the ruined -by me- plaster mold)
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