Belgian Mirage 5 BR

[Graeme H]

Well seeing as stevehnz has left the door open on this, 

 

I thought why not, so 

I have a Mk2 PJ kit in stock ( what a surprise), and although I was a little undecided, I settled on the BR recon version

 

DSCN0800 by qfa_tsv, on Flickr

 

The great advantage of this kit is that it has a lot of resin goodness to do those late Belgian aircraft, with all their different bits

I started this on Friday

It requires you to cut off the plastic parabrake housing, as it the unique Belgian one included as a resin fin

 

DSCN0811 by qfa_tsv, on Flickr

 

There are 2 clear resin noses included for either the early or later recon nose, I of course need the later one

 

DSCN0813 by qfa_tsv, on Flickr

 

here the basics are just sitting together

 

DSCN0814 by qfa_tsv, on Flickr

 

Must confess these HPM/PJ kits are very easy to build, the big downside is the gap between the wings and fuselage, which is the reason for the spacer, helps, but does not eliminate it at all as can be seen in the shot above, and is worse on the port side every time for me.

 

The resin include with this covers everything, including a Mk10 seat, and the big 1700L French style tanks, as well as a pair of Israeli 500L Supersonic tanks, being a recon bird I will be going with the 1700L tanks

[exdraken]

A late entry!

Always  a special challenge with the big advantage of having less time to loose the spirit!

Seems to be a very well balanced kit!

 

Good progress so far imho,

Looking forward to more!

[stevehnz]

Well done on this Graeme, nice to see someone doing another Belgian one, especially seeing as I've rather dropped the ball on this GB.

Steve.

[Graeme H]

All together and time to start the rather complicated all over camo paint job,

The PJ instructions say the Dark Green is FS34064, which is called a very Dark Drab, which sounds about right, because it is much darker than the FS34079 called out by most others.

Hardly surprising that Pierre has the good info, but then again Verlinden doesn't, Looking at photos of them in the early days with the lower fuselage in a light grey it looks much more like the Vietnam scheme whereas when they went to the all over scheme the colours changed.

Now I couldn't find anything that even came close, so went a searching at my favourite paint reference site IPMS Stockholm they suggest that a 50 50 mix of Humbrol Hu66 and Hu163, and when mixed does certainly give the right shade.

 

so some paint on

 

DSCN0824 by qfa_tsv, on Flickr

 

I had painted the inside of the intakes white before joining them up, and the outside of the intakes and the fuselage under the intakes in the green to save on a lot of masking in that area 

Now there is the rest upper and lower and my thinking is to do one wing and fuselage before the other, as I can't really see me being able to do the whole lot in one go

[Graeme H]

Well doing some research on the Belgian Recon birds, I found the PJ painting instructions were more for a 5BA than a 5BR, then from the deepest recess of my now untrustworthy brain, I seemed to remember someone did a special for a 5BR scheme, so a search turned up that Modeldecal did way back last century, and lo and behold I have it, so changed to the camo scheme on that, but it's a bit small, and I can't find anything on my computer to increase the size like you can with some photocopiers, I'm sure that there was something, but damned if I can find it now.

 

So first things first with an allover scheme is where to start, as you can see I did the nose and some tan, but some of the tan is not correct by the Modeldecal sheet, and photos of the real thing, so some adjustment is going to be necessary.

These allover schemes are a right pain I can tell you trying to remember where you need to mask next, there was no way I could mask and do all of one colour, I have got the airbrush out 5 times so far, and still have part on the upper and lower to sort out.

The Bathurst Car Race is on tomorrow here in Australia, , so I should be good to get most of the painting done, while I watch that on my little TV in my modelling room

 

First the top

 

 DSCN0829 by qfa_tsv, on Flickr

DSCN0831 by qfa_tsv, on Flickr

 

The fin is going to be white, which is why no paint just yet, I did find some photos of BR04 and BR22 without the white fin, so if the Modeldecals don't work out I can just do it as a standard bird

 

The underside, still a lot to sort here

 

DSCN0832 by qfa_tsv, on Flickr

[Graeme H]

The masking kept getting more and more intense, as I applied each colour and then it was time to paint the fin

I used Tamiya flat white, followed by a thin coat of Tamiya white gloss

 

 

 

Then the top of the fin needs to painted light grey, so more masking, and do both at the same time

nothing to see here

 

 

 

and also there is a black on top of that, no photos of that bit

 

Then the great unmasking, firstly the bottom, and you can see where I missed some of the tan on the port wing, oh the humanity and bit of masking tape I missed

 

 

 

and the upper

 

 

 

so onto doing some touch ups, then it can have a coat of gloss ready for the sickers

[Andrew]

Looks good Graeme, I like the wraparound scheme on the Belgian Mirages. Here's to a trouble-free finish to the pair of Mirages and no dropped kits.

 

Andrew.

[exdraken]

Great work on the camo!

[Mountain goat]

Very nice work, I love the subject..!

 

Jay

[Graeme H]

OK, moving slowly with this, but little by little

 

It got first use of the upside down jig, so lower bits going on

 

DSCN0850 by qfa_tsv, on Flickr

 

and mostly done, a few U/C struts to add, then it can sit on it's U/C and get the topside done

 

DSCN0852 by qfa_tsv, on Flickr

 

The big 1700L tanks had a different set of pins to the plastic kit, probably left over from the PJ resin Mirage, so had to drill holes for them, and the fit wasn't that good, next time I will do this before any painting, started using the old Modeldecal sheet, came away with some white coloured muck which I washed off with a brush, went down very well though, the tanks were the big test, before I have to do the fin, the rest will be the modern kit ones.

 

really hoping to get this one finished in time 

[exdraken]

Jig and anniversary decals look good!

Always good ro see when old decals work!!

Edited October 25, 2017 by exdraken

[stevehnz]

Looking way smart Graeme, the upsidedown jig is a darn good idea.

Steve.

[Graeme H]

OK, another over the finish line (just), this is the PJ Version of the HPM kit 

 

first some lower shots, have to be in the jig to get these without damaging the model

a few comments on this, firstly the Modeldecals sheet was sized for the Heller kit, and it would appear their fin is a bit bigger, haven't had time to do a comparison yet, another is the PJ 1700 L resin tanks are a little undernourished, compared to most, especially the HPM resin one, think I would use those in future.

 

DSCN0866 by qfa_tsv, on Flickr

 

DSCN0867 by qfa_tsv, on Flickr

 

DSCN0868 by qfa_tsv, on Flickr

 

DSCN0870 by qfa_tsv, on Flickr

Edited October 29, 2017 by Graeme H
additional

[stevehnz]

A very handsome beasty you've created there Graeme, I like the look of that a lot. I was up for a Heller one before my GB mojo shot thru.  So it is nice to see a Belgian Mirage in the lineup.  

Steve

[Wez]

I don't know how I ever managed to miss this thread...   ...obviously needed my new specs.

 

I always remember seeing Belgian Mirages as we transited to RAFG from the UK and back, happy memories!

 

You've done a fine job there Graeme, thanks for your effort!