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1:48 Mirage F1C (French Fancy GB) & Rafale B


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Never taken part in a group build before but the French Fancy GB offered me the option to build makes I wouldn't normally do.

At first I wanted to do a Nord 1500 Griffon II as its weird, rare and... well.... a bit different. But I couldn't find a model kit anywhere and then work got crazy so no time for scratchbuilding :-(

So my rather tame entries will be:

Italeri 1:48 Mirage F1C (Rather old but OK)

Revell 1:48 Rafale B (lovelly kit)

and if I get time I might even give some small figures a go and build a set of 15th Century French men-at-arms and maybe the odd knight into a small dio of mud, blood and spent arrows (Agincourt) since the GB rules say it has to be in French uniform/livery, French designed or built.... think a sample of Charles d'Albret's force should qualify. Will need a lot of scratch built arrows :-)

Will post WIP pics here as things progress

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To start off then we have the Mirage F1C

Its the Italeri kit which is OK with nice engraved surface detail and reasonable plastic.... but its a bit limited in the cockpit detail.... not too bad mind so I'll be building it OOB to see what can be done with it.

First up is the fuselage air-brakes:

DSCN0675b_zps1g85ux5o.jpg

As you can see they are lacking a bit in detail and I want to pose this on the ground parked and I have a picture of a mirage with the airbrakes extended when on the ground so thought I'd copy that...

Out with the razor saw then

DSCN0677_zpszgr4uzuf.jpg

Then a quick bit of scratch building the bay behind the air brakes:

DSCN0681_zpsqfjfh6r5.jpg

I don't have any clear references for the bay but it seems that they are fairly blank and are aircraft frame primer green.

Meanwhile the wing tip Nav lights looked crap in grey plastic so I cut them off and replaced them with some clear plastic sanded then polished to shape:

DSCN0679_zpsr7uj6w1i.jpg

Been working on the cockpit and I now have the main fuselage halfves closed up. A quick dry fit of the wings, intakes and canopy and she is starting to resemble a Mirage!

DSCN0686_zpss6rucugp.jpg

More soon.

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And then it all went pete tong!

Glued the cockpit into the fuselage, joined the two parts together and then realised it looks wrong somehow...... stared at it for a while before I realised what it was:

Yes OK the cockpit looks crap with it's minimal detail and decal based instrument panels but that wasn't it, I was expecting that..... then it clicked, the seat! As the thread title says I'm working on two models for the French Fancy GB and the other is Revells Rafale B.

I've been putting the rafale's cockpit together etc. and I'd just glued the seat components together, and it was that that was ringing alarm bells..... the mirage seat is way off scale! The distance from the seat squab to the middle of the head rest is 13.5mm which scales to 648mm in real life..... which is only big enough for someone about 4 1/2 ft tall!

Here is a pic showing the tiny Italeri Mirage seat next to Revell's seat for the Rafale B I'm also working on (they are both supposed to be 1:48!)

DSCN0695_zpsnlzmxzwl.jpg

That seat isn't far off scale for 1:72!

Well then, how to fix it? Resin bang seat should fix this.... but then how is it going to fit in a cockpit that is too high up in the fuselage? Well Ebay provided a Pavla resin pit and seat set for the italeri so this build is no longer going to be OOB.

I now have to get the fuselage halfs apart (Of course I've done a sterling job of getting them glued together so that's a real PIA) and start again....grrr...

In the meantime my Rafale is progressing.

FB

Edited by Flying Badger
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Incidentally that Rafale's seat is probably a bit over scale as well..... the seat squab to middle of headrest distance is about 20mm which is 960mm in real life.... which is probably a bit OTT unless the French air force really did go from only letting midgets fly their fast jets to only letting lanky 6'10" guys become fighter jocks! (which I think is unlikely!)

But it fits in the cockpit and looks OK so is probably acceptable in the rafale.

FB

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And speaking of the rafale seats... they are missing the pull handle for some reason.

Reference pics all show a pull handle so I thought I'd scratch some for each of the seats.

Wrap some evenly stretched sprue around a small screwdriver blade shaft to get a nice even circle and then glue the ends together before coating them in primer:

DSCN0691_zps2bprqebx.jpg

Sprayed them insignia yellow (Xtracrylics XA1213):

DSCN0694_zpsp2halk8p.jpg

Once that is good and dry I'll take my super fine marker pen and add the black stripes before trimming the stalks to size and gluing them to the seats.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Minor issue with the Mirage F1C.....

Tried to get the fuselage apart to replace the low quality cockpit but I'd done too good a job with the glue on the tail. Nothing a razor saw couldn't fix:

DSCN0697_zpswgfridyl.jpg

A bit brutal I admit, but it was the best set of aligned panel lines I had and needs the least repair when glued back together....

More as it happens

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  • 3 weeks later...

Finally had chance to work on the cockpit and the gear on the Mirage F1C:

DSCN0707_zpsgzsqwqxn.jpg

Dry fitting to check stuff.

Now got it all glued back together. I've had to add some 10 thou plasticard in the join between the tail and the front sections to space the gap out so the lines fits properly:

DSCN0711_zpsmayat2zw.jpg

The resin pit instructions tell you to cut out the flat section where the IP glare shield fits but you don't need to cut all of it away so I'm filling it and will paint it all flat black once its done:

DSCN0712_zpsqxpetqn8.jpg

Next up is to paint the bang seat.

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Finished off the glare shield. Had to CA glue some thin slivers of plasticard around the edges to build them up to match the shape of the windshield frame.

DSCN0713b_zpspll4zwiz.jpg

Also added the resin intakes and filled and sanded the seams.

Other areas that needed attention included the nose where the tip was oddly shaped with an odd flare, now sanded to shape and drilled ready for the brass turned pitot tube which I'll add later so I don't keep stabbing myself with it (as is normally the case!)

A dry fit of the wings and gear and it's starting to look a lot like a Mirage F1!

DSCN0714_zpsqsnabx9l.jpg

More once it's done.

Oh and just to not forget the rafale B.... I've got the cockpit in and the fuselage halves glued together:

DSCN0716_zpseozp4rbq.jpg

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Last night I finally got round to the bang seat.... I often put these off as they're the hard bit and I make a mess of them (using a hairy stick isn't really my forte!)

Anyway I'm rather pleased with how the seat for the F1C turned out:

DSCN4899_zpsaha5akir.jpgDSCN4901_zpskab2shoz.jpgDSCN4902_zpsmoq0lns2.jpg

Oh and just for scale so you know how tiny this thing is.... here it is sitting on a penny (for our cousins across the pond, a UK penny and US or Canadian pennies are pretty much the same size):

DSCN4903_zpsylmbmkde.jpg

The seat is the resin one that comes with the Pavla resin cockpit set, but with my own ejector pull chords.

The pull chords I mentioned earlier in the thread worked OK but I found a better method...

I painted a very long piece of stretched sprue (actually in my case it was a bit of extruded plastic from the set up of my 3D printer but stretched sprue would work) and painted it yellow. Then wrapped a very very thin slice of masking round it in a spiral pattern to leave a thin gap between each wrap and then sprayed it black to give me a long length of stripy chord material.

Then just bent it to the size and shape I needed and fixed it with a dab of CA glue.

Here is a the off-cut on the end that I had left after making lots of lower and upper pull chord handles:

DSCN0708_zpswdl3ikit.jpg

Works really well and is far far easier than trying to hand paint stripes on already curved plastic parts!

Now to fit the seat and seal up the canopy on the F1C!

FB

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Great job on the seat! I'm watching your progress with the F1 with interest as I'm building the ECSI version myself (which is the same plastic as the Italeri version) with the same resin cockpit and seat.

I noted when test fitting the seat into the cockpit that the top of the seat hit the canopy and hence prevented it closing fully, but only by a tiny bit. By trimming the base of the seat a bit more than it should (eating into the detail) the problem would be solved, but I plan to pose the canopy open so it shouldn't be an issue.

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I noted when test fitting the seat into the cockpit that the top of the seat hit the canopy and hence prevented it closing fully, but only by a tiny bit. By trimming the base of the seat a bit more than it should (eating into the detail) the problem would be solved,

Arrggh! Just test fitted mine and have the same issue!

Will have to try to sand the bottom of the seat a bit and see if I can make it fit.

Thanks for the heads up.

Oh and by the way the rear exhaust isn't all that great and the wheels are fairly basic... the main gear wheels on mine was OK ish but the nose gear is very mushy in the detail between the rim and the tyre - makes them really hard to paint. Hannants have a basic resin wheel set for about £4 if I remember rightly and I invested in those to sort the wheels (so much for OOB this is now a multi aftermarket resin build!)

FB

Edited by Flying Badger
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No problem! I think shaving some excess material from underneath should do it and is unlikely to look wrong.

Agreed, the standard exhaust and wheels are weak. I put in a replacement resin exhaust set and I got a neat set of resin wheels which I hope to be adding soon. I want to try preshading the fuselage next then applying the blue topcoat. Hopefully it will look right!

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Bit more done.

The Rafale B .... Got the seats in and the cockpit all buttoned up and the canopy masked off.

The Mirage... got most of the major parts added, including the resin exhaust set which is all painted (with Alclad paints) and masked off:

DSCN0731_zpsfr1cbp0a.jpgDSCN0729_zpsb1nfnomg.jpg

DSCN0733_zpskqcfyuvq.jpg

Filed out the gun channels and opened out the gun ports as they were very poorly represented and the plastic parts are molded as only 1/2 section guns and don't look all that good.

DSCN0734_zpsmjkrruoz.jpg

So I scratch built some guns out of Brass microtube and some very thin masking tape:

DSCN0735_zps7rlefzmv.jpg

These need a little sanding and another coat of primer before I spray them Alclad gunmetal.

Next up were the 4 pitot tubes which are OK but I decided to add some microtube to give them the opening in the front of them:

DSCN0737_zpsjaipdpas.jpg

Still need a little sanding etc. These will all get sprayed with Alclad Gold Titanium once they have been sanded to the right shape.

FB

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The Air to Air missiles on both the Mirage F1C and the Rafale B appear to be the same R.550 Magic Missiles.

But the Italeri ones on the Mirage kit are no where near as well represented as the Revell ones on the Rafale:

DSCN0740_zpsmzuwfucr.jpg

Left: Italeri Right: Revell R.550 Magic Air to Air Missiles

so I thought I'd have a go at reproducing the Revell ones by casting them in resin:

first up was to make a small casting box with some plasticard... then pour in some high detail plaster of paris to approximately 1/2 way up before pressing the missile into it up to about 1/2 way up (easy as the fins give us an obvious line)

Then once the plaster has set remove it from the casting box, remove the missile and gently sand the top surface flat to give a really smooth clean surface for the first half of the silicone mold.

Return the missile to the plaster 1/2 cast and put it back in the casting box. Now mix up the silicon casting rubber and pour in tapping repeatedly to get out some of the bubbles.

DSCN0741_zpsarlo0xi5.jpg

Once it's set I removed it from the casting box, removed the plaster 1/2 cast and gave everything a clean:

DSCN0742_zpsrgqabdcv.jpg

Now I've returned the missile to the silicone mold and put everything back in the casting box and I've poured the rubber for the other 1/2 of the casting mold.

Just waiting for it all to set and this evening I'll try to pull my first cast out of the new mold.

FB

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Lots of panel line re-scribing on the Mirage. Especially since the kit's panel lines underneath are just wrong.

Finally got it to a point last night where it was ready for it's first coat of primer. Now filling the minor blemishes etc.

DSCN0748_zpsxcuhrdxj.jpg

There are quite a lot of minor blemishes!

DSCN0746_zpsrhqgkmlw.jpg

The pitot tube I mounted to the nose fell off when she fell off the cocktail stick nose gear in my spray booth but as it's brass it will go back on nice and easy once all the sanding is done.

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Lots of filling and sanding and polishing done.

Pre-shaded some panels to give a bit of variation in the later aluminium alclad finish:

DSCN0749_zpsjxsoghq1.jpg

Sprayed the Alclad:

DSCN0750_zpsrpex2hwe.jpg

Letting it dry before I give the upper blue colour a go.

More later.

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