1/48 Kinetic Mirage IIIO

[Calum]

Supposedly this is going to be part of a build of with a couple of mates. We tried this last year with another kit but those 2 didn't even finish  this kit in questions so I called that a win to me

 

For this reason I'm keeping it simple and only adding a PE set for the Mirage IIIE. I've no idea how accurate this is but I know it will be close enough for me as the Mirage isn't really my thing (after all it's no A-4 ) . Still I've also ordered some resin wheels but they haven't come yet. 

 

 

PE for the sides fitted, and I'm quite happy how this looks

 

 

Seat and tub done. I'm really happy these turned out. Whilst it's flat IMHO the PE looks fine in a small black cockpit like this. I did try a resin set from Wolfpack but the seat was way larger than the kit seat. (this seems to be a thing with Kinetic kits)

 

 

[exdraken]

Very nice start!

Which scheme do you plan to do?

[Calum]

14 hours ago, exdraken said:

Very nice start!

Which scheme do you plan to do?

I was going to do the early lizard scheme, but I want to use the RPK tanks with the bomb racks on them so I'll go with the standard 3 tone OD/Grey/light grey 

[Graeme H]

Didn't want to go in the Mirage GB then?

[Calum]

6 hours ago, Graeme H said:

Didn't want to go in the Mirage GB then?

Didn't know there was one on..That said I'm happy doing my own thing

More progress.
 

I've seen a few builds of this kit where the builder has ended up with a large gap between the fuselage and wings. So forewarned is forearmed. 

 

First tip is don't glue the rear of the intakes (by the engine face) into the curves where it's supposed to sit - just let it float. 

 

Secondarily, follow the instructions and glue the intake fuselage pieces onto the respective fuselages, match the contours of the rear of the intake to the mating fuselage half. 

 

Thirdly, assemble the wings. I did have to sand a fair bit from both parts to ensure a flush fit on the underside. When I assembled the wings I only glued the leading edge areas leaving the joins nearer the fuselage un-glued – for now. 

 

Fourthly, spreader bars are your friend, as you can see I’ve used 5 here. I also put one under the nose gear bay to push it up slightly to get that part to sit flush with the wings.

 

 

Dry fit, sand, dry fit, sand and repeat. I spent a good 3-4 hours honing the fit to get to this stage, No gaps and no steps – well worth the time spent. I did still have little gap (approx. 1mm) between the fuselage and wings, on the right side. I did sand a bit of the area shown in the image above to reduce this gap.
 

 

Once I was happy I mixed up some 5 min epoxy and applied it to the mating surfaces at the wing roots, then I  held in my fingers it until it went off. I then applied some clamps and ran liquid glue along the joins between the fuselage and wings and left it overnight. I deliberately didn’t apply any glue to the joins on the lower of the intake as I wanted to finagle this once the main wing assembly had set.

 

Edited August 20, 2017 by Calum

[Romeo Alpha Yankee]

 

Nice detailed description of the fixes Calum. Might have to find the etch set, your cockpit looks great.

 

[Calum]

4 hours ago, Romeo Alpha Yankee said:

 

Nice detailed description of the fixes Calum. Might have to find the etch set, your cockpit looks great.

 

it's one of the small ones so it's pretty cheap. Well worth IMHO, especially as there doesn't see to be a aftermarket seat that'll fit without much surgery

[matteo44]

Nice cockpit! 

[Calum]

The next day I reviewed the joins, and was pretty happy all round. I did have a wee step on a small part of the right hand wing/fuselage join. So I applied some more glue to soften the join and using a toothpick as a wedge to ease up that area. All good now.

 

 

 

Next was to glue the tail pipe area. This is a butt join so I cut some scrap card up and glued it to the inside so it would sit across the join. I probably should have done this before fitting the lower wings. Once this was set I ran glue along the joins

 

 

Once all the glue had set I applied a few bits of Magi Sculpt epoxy to fill some of areas that needed it. 

 

 

[Calum]

As I learnt from another thread in another place the area forward of the instrument panel has the looms and other avionics equipment exposed, rather than covered by a panel as depicted in the kit.  I felt like a bit of scratch building so using some scrap evergreen sprue, solder and safety wire I scratched up something. I probably made it  a little to busy but it was fun 

 

 

Couldn't resist seeing how the fit of the front windscreen was..... not bad but there will be some work needed to get a better fit

 

[Calum]

 

The join of the Doppler(?) panel under the nose needed a bit of work. It seems the panel is slightly rounder in circumference than the kit. The worst bit is at the rear where there are panels that need to be there. I cemented it then filled the seam with CA/Talc in preparation for re-scribing the lines. I also replaced the probe on the side of the fuselage with a needle. 

 

 

 

The instructions don’t mention nose weight but I think it needs some so I stuffed some white tac as a back board, then lead shot and with white glue, followed by more white tac to hold everything in place. 

 

[Calum]

Not waiting for Mediocre models Pty Ltd (i.e. Bruce) to catch up, plus as he needs all the tips he can get I've decided to to crack on

 

A bit of dry brushing over my console work to make the detail pop and then on goes the nose . Fit here is as good as a Tamiya kit. Perfect in size and shape with only a tiny bit of sanding on the mating surfaces needed. Once I was happy I glued the 2 nose pieces together and joined it to the fuselage.

 

 

The windscreen piece was a little to wide for the fuselage so I attacked it with the sanding sticks. Unfortunately I was a little to vigorous. I had to use a bit of Magi sculpt to restore the shape. I like that Kinetic moulded the clear piece with a large bit of “fuselage” on the part. I wish other companies would do this (Like Tamiya did with the F-14) as this allows you to use normal cement to attach the part without worrying about damaging the clear parts.

 

 

All ready for paint. There are some large sink marks on the wings, which run laterally across the wings. I used black Mr Surfacer to fill those. Black Mr Mr Surfacer doesn’t seem to shrink like the grey stuff does, I’m not sure if that’s true but that’s what it appears like to me. I’ve spot primed all the other areas that I worked on and added some other random spots

 

 

Edited September 1, 2017 by Calum

[Romeo Alpha Yankee]

The area behind the instrument panel looks good Calum, now you just need to add the 5-10 years of dust that accumulates in there between R4 servicings 

 

 

[Calum]

Thanks Ray

I decided to go with sausage method to get a softer line between the colours. 

 

I started by applying a base coat of green. After a recommendation from a poster on Aussiemodeller I chose Gunze Mr Hobby H73 (RAF Dark Green WW2) It's greener than olive drab but more olive drab than the modern RAF green. 

I then added the sausages and applied the Mr Color Dark Sea Grey. This was an old bottle I had lying around that I’d used on my Jaguar so I had lightened it a bit. 

 

 

I pulled off the sausages and then added different shades of green and grey to break up the single tones.

 

 

 

[pacificmustang]

That looks surprisingly good for you  Really like that patchy worn finish, looks like its spent a couple of months under a hot tropical sun on the Butterworth Flightline.  Wingroots came out fine too

 

I'm coming up to days off, so will be putting in work to catch up

 

Bruce

Edited September 6, 2017 by pacificmustang

[Uncle Uncool]

 Noooiiiceee fix, Calum!

 

This thread goes right in the pinned section of this forum; Mike! Miiiike...!!!

Such an impressive fit you've achieved on this kit! Also, you were gifted with a kit with all of their gun flash hiders intact - that's luck, as every and each one of my Kinetic/Wigman Mirage fuselages has come with a broken gun flash hider. Or have you fixed them?

Cheers, luv.

 

Unc²

  

[Pappy]

Looking great Calum,

 

I am stashing pics of this build away as a reference for when I start mine!

 

cheers,

 

Pappy

[Calum]

22 hours ago, pacificmustang said:

That looks surprisingly good for you  Really like that patchy worn finish, looks like its spent a couple of months under a hot tropical sun on the Butterworth Flightline.  Wingroots came out fine too

 

I'm coming up to days off, so will be putting in work to catch up

 

Bruce

Looking forward to seeing yours Bruce. I need a good laugh  

10 hours ago, Uncle Uncool said:

 Noooiiiceee fix, Calum!

 

This thread goes right in the pinned section of this forum; Mike! Miiiike...!!!

Such an impressive fit you've achieved on this kit! Also, you were gifted with a kit with all of their gun flash hiders intact - that's luck, as every and each one of my Kinetic/Wigman Mirage fuselages has come with a broken gun flash hider. Or have you fixed them?

Cheers, luv.

 

Unc²

  

Just lucky on the gun flash hiders I guess. . One of my elevons was short shot so I had to rob from another kit. Kinetic / Lucky Model are sending a replacement

24 minutes ago, Pappy said:

Looking great Calum,

 

I am stashing pics of this build away as a reference for when I start mine!

 

cheers,

 

Pappy

Glad to be of help Pappy. It's not a bad kit, similar quality to the Shar.  

 

It does suffer from being a bit overly complicated in engineering as a result of trying to jam so many variants in 1 box . That said I've quite enjoyed trying to resolve the fit issues, which IMHO aren't too bad. But It's certainly no Tamiya kit. 

 

My biggest gripe is the soft/shallow panel line detail on the fuselage. The thing I dislike most about this hobby is re-scribing existing detail, I am tad hamfisted so it never goes well I've found the plastic doesn't scribe that well either.

[Calum]

Bottom is done. Paint is Mr Color Lacquer, this is still my favourite paint (I’ve recently decided I don’t need to fall into the trap of trying every new paint that comes out ) . 

One thing I love about these paints (and lacquers in general) is that it dries within minutes so it reduces the chance of fingerprints and allows you to continue working immediately after (unlike the Mr Hobby Aqueous/Tamiya or enamels)
I’ve also applied an oil wash. With the lacquers there’s not need a clear coat. I usually just give the kit a quick rub down with wet mircromesh (anywhere from 4000 to 12000) to take of any rough paint, then I apply the oil paint, let it dry for 20 minutes or so and wipe off with a paper towel/ rag.

 

Bombs are from one of the old Hasegawa weapons sets. I have a few of these sets and whilst they aren't as nice as the newer sets from manufacturers like Eduard and others, the basic dumb bombs are still good enough. 

 

I’ve gone with low drag Mk 82’s for this build as I’ve got a heap of them to use up. The kit comes with MK 82 high drags which will go into the bomb dump for some other build.I wanted to add more bombs but it seems that the Mirage couldn’t carry any more than 4 MK 82’s in practice. 

 

Paint is a mixture of Tamiya/Mr Color and Mr Hobby and I still need to add decals and weather them a bit more.

The tanks are from the kit.  From what I understand the bomb racks staggered with the inboard pair being further forward than the outboard pair so I assume this meant the tanks were specifically left hand or right hand. The kit tanks don’t depict this and to be honest I couldn’t be bothered fixing it as it requires re-scribing on the small curved sides of the tank.  

 

[Calum]

Decals are done. I used the kit decals for everything but the serials and fin flash, those were from the Caracal sheet. The kit decal option is for a grey Mirage IIIO but the stencils are the same as for this scheme. 

 

I preferred the kit roundels over the Caracal ones as the blue on the Caracal sheets seem a little to bright to my eyes. I figured I may was well use the kit stencils as well as, like all Kinetic kits, they’re printed by Cartogragh and are probably the best kit decals out there. The Caracal decals are also printed by Cartogragh so they performed well.

 

Gloss coat was Gaianotes Lacquer.

 

 

 

 

[Pappy]

That is looking pretty nice Calum!

 

cheers,

 

Pappy

[Calum]

Thanks Pappy

 

Weathering and flat coat completed. I’ve gone with quite a weathered gfinish to try and simulate an aircraft a long time from the paint shop and one that’s had a lot of use out in the Malaysian / Northern Australian sun 

I think the aircraft actually had a semi gloss finish but IMHO for a little aircraft like the Mirage in this scale Semi gloss looks to glossy. I’ve used Gaianotes flat which has given me a slight sheen anyway.

 

For the weathering I used some pastels, coloured pencils, and a bit of airbrushing.

 

Just the undercarriage and tanks to go, although I may do some more to the underside.

 

 

 

 

 

[Caerbannog]

Just have catched up with this - excellent skills! Very nice looking Mirage.

René

[Calum]

Now that my 10 day sojourn to the motherland is over I've managed to get some shots of the Mirage on it's wheels

 

The wheels are from Reskit . I'd never heard of them before but found the wheels on eBay. They are very nice and come with separate hubs.  The kit wheels are significantly under size in diameter and width. 

 

The Reskit wheels match the sizes for the tyres I found online. However when I cut them of the casting blocks and dry fitted them to the kits they were contacting the scissor link on the main gear leg. Even sanding down the scissor link wouldn’t result a gap between the tyre and the link.

 

Looking at the actual aircraft wheels in photos I noticed the brake assembly on the inner hubs sits proud of the tyre. Whereas I'd sanded this part off the resin wheels thinking it was part of the casting block. I punched some discs from plastic and glued this to the hubs which returned them to the approximate original size. Once the hub was put into the wheel assembly the wheels no longer contact the scissor link.

 

The nosewheel in the kit is also much thinner than the resin part. Luckily the kit has 2 forks for the nosewheel, and the one marked as not used fits the resin wheel perfectly.

 

 

l]

 

Fitment of the gear doors is pretty straight forward.

 

 

 

Just the racks and a few other details to go

[exdraken]

Wheels look very nice!

That is a very nice scheme  by the way!