Komosur 3D 1/48 IAI Dagger

“This Dagger was originally Israel Air Force stock. It served with the “Arava Guardians” squadron from 1972 to 1978. That year, it was sold to the Fuerza Aérea Argentina and given the numeral C-411. During Malvinas it was deployed at the Base Aeronaval Río Grande. On May 23rd the aircraft suffered a landing accident after completing two combat missions. 6 years after the war, on March 7th 1988, it was upgraded to the IAI Finger IIIA, and transferred to Escuadrón 1 of the Grupo 6 de Caza in Base Aérea Militar Tandil, Buenos Aires province. The aircraft was discharged on September 20th 1998. It is currently preserved at Museo Malvinas, Oliva, Córdoba province.”

This is a fairly simple kit, 12 parts inside a bag, and no decals. The parts are moulded in a hard white PLA resin with a single vacuformed canopy. Detail is not abundant, but it can be improved with some scratch building.

First order of business was to glue the fuselage together, which is divided in nose and the body of the aircraft. I then glued together the 1300 litre fuel tank halves and missile halves. Once the parts were dry, I filled them with Vallejo’s Plastic Putty, and excess was wiped off with my finger.

Argentinian deltas arrived to the country in the famous South East Asia (SEA) camouflage. For these colours I used RLM 79 (Revell Aqua Africa Brown 17), RLM 70 (Revell Aqua 40 Black Green) and RLM 71 (Revell Aqua 39 Dark Green). Undersides were painted in light grey (Revell Aqua 76 Light Gull Grey), though I suspect the colour should have been white. For the Malvinas Theatre of Operation, yellow ID bands were painted on the tail and upper and lower wing surfaces, so those were added with matt yellow (Revell Aqua 15 Matt Yellow). The nose was painted matt black, and the cockpit too. Speedbreaks were painted matt red. Wheels were painted with metallic hubs and RLM 66 (Revell 78 Tank Grey). The model was then glossed in preparation for the decals.

I had purchased a while ago Condor Decals’s set 48047 “Guerra de Malvinas Part 3,” which has options for four Daggers. I chose C-411. Decals worked nicely, succumbing to Microsol where needed. One C-411 folded on itself, and didn’t realised until after I had matt coated the model.

The remaining parts were then glued to the fuselage. These have very positive locating points. The model was a bit of a tail sitter, so instead of a pilot, I glued some weight inside the cockpit. When the landing gear was dry, I turned the model and glued the pitot tube and vacuformed canopy.

Easy and simple kit to build. It can be improved by adding scratch details, but the basic outline is there.

https://www.amilarg.com.ar/daggerfinger.html (in Spanish. If you wish for a translation, contact me, I’m sure I’ll be better than Google Translate).

Francisco Santoro

6 May 2024