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Atlas Cheetah C 1/48 work in progress


Vlamgat9

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Using the Heller 1/48 Mirage III B/C:

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and the Spinners resin and PE conversion kit:

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Firstly, Heller fuselagea nd wing parts need to be cut down:

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Then assembled and the resin nose/cockpit piece added:

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Fuselage spine, resin back end and after burner and wing dog tooth inserts added:

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A bit of sanding, ventral ECM housing added, some more sanding down and then a quick primer coat to see how much spade work is left to do.... Answer: LOTS!!!

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Got to get this done as have the Spinners Cheetah D two seater to do and want to kit bash a Cheetah E and an Argentine Finger.....

Edited by Vlamgat9
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]

Got to get this done as have the Spinners Cheetah D two seater to do and want to kit bash a Cheetah E and an Argentine Finger.....

Looking off to a great start. Where did you get the Spinners conversion set, pls?

Are you going to do 'Spotty' or a regular camo scheme?

David

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I got the Spinners kits direct from John W, who runs the business in SA. I am not sure if he is still trading though - his email addy is [email protected] if you want to try him. I emailed him a while back about his 1/48 Rooivalk but never heard from him. Wish I had bought more stuff from him now!

Erwin at Aviation Megastore stocks John's stuff but he may be out of 1/48. Also try Linden Hill as they were getting some sets in too.

As to finish, I was going to do a normal Cheetah but Zane at MAV Decals is going to do a Spotty set so maybe I will have to try that....

The Cheetah is one hell of plane - check these out:

cheetah3.jpg

cheetah1.jpg

And then there is indeed always Spotty:

cheetah_2.jpg

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I got the Spinners kits direct from John W, who runs the business in SA. I am not sure if he is still trading though - his email addy is [email protected] if you want to try him. I emailed him a while back about his 1/48 Rooivalk but never heard from him. Wish I had bought more stuff from him now!

Erwin at Aviation Megastore stocks ........

The Cheetah is one hell of plane - ..............

Damn right - to me it's the ultimate Mirage descendant. I think the extra length makes it look so much sleeker and meaner than Kfir etc..

Aviaition Megastore have quite a few things I want but their shipping/handling fee is excessive in my opinion so unfortunately, I can't bring myself to order from there.

David

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That's a great start. I'm looking forward to the rest of your progress which, if this is any indication, won't be too far away. I raided the IPMS SA gallery of pics on this plane a year or so ago, and I occasionally drool over High Planes' offering in 72nd, but just can't summon the minerals to commit knife to plastic.

Andrew.

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That's a great start. I'm looking forward to the rest of your progress which, if this is any indication, won't be too far away.

I should say this is about 6 months of acculmulated progress so don't hold your breath!

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Damn right - to me it's the ultimate Mirage descendant. I think the extra length makes it look so much sleeker and meaner than Kfir etc..

Aviaition Megastore have quite a few things I want but their shipping/handling fee is excessive in my opinion so unfortunately, I can't bring myself to order from there.

David

David i agree with you totally on both points, the Cheetah C and even the D really do have something about them.

As for the Aviation Megastore, they have so many brilliant things in stock, and i used to order from them all the time, they even went so far as to search for certain kits for me at conventions etc (great guys), but their minimum postage cost let them down slightly being 10euros regardless.

Vlamgat9, really nice work so far, can't wait to see more. The Cheetah is a favourite of mine and i believe someone else on these boards is doing a very nice D in the same scale as well.

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I got the Spinners kits direct from John W, who runs the business in SA. I am not sure if he is still trading though - his email addy is [email protected] if you want to try him. I emailed him a while back about his 1/48 Rooivalk but never heard from him. Wish I had bought more stuff from him now!

Inserting myself into this discussion I must agree with VLAMGAT9 about Spinners ( the last email of mr John Weideman is [email protected] ): I have ordered directly from it one Cheetah C in 1/48 in mid January 2007 and the delivery is happened in September after months of silence.

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Not wanting to elaborate, John was experiencing a number of problems which have now been alleviated (he very nearly ceased production).

He does state that there is a long waiting list for his products and he appreciates it greatly if people can be patient (it's not his full time occupation).

I have found him to be 'one of the good ones' and have since placed a number of further orders from him.

HTH

Dave.

Edited by Dave
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Not wanting to elaborate, John was experiencing a number of problems which have now been alleviated (he very nearly ceased production).

He does state that there is a long waiting list for his products and he appreciates it greatly if people can be patient (it's not his full time occupation).

I have found him to be 'one of the good ones' and have since placed a number of further orders from him.

HTH

Dave.

I agree - John is a good guy. I can't wait for is Rooivalk! I also can't help but think he should partner up with someone to help make his stuff more available.

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  • 1 month later...

I did something rather radical this evening.... I broke the Cheetah C up!

PICT0013.jpg

Now this possibly looks and sounds worse than it is. Basically I was unhappy with the work I had done and the Heller base kit isn't great so I have decided to salvage the Spinners resin parts from this effort to have another go. The Spinners bits after all are the bits that are valuable. So it is back to the drawing board with this one! Might use the Hobby Boss Mirage IIIC or the Fonderie Miniatures Mirage IIE as base next time around. Ho hum....

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Interesting outcome for what was looking like a pretty neat project. Shame, really. I for one wish you'd have pushed on.

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I hope the (re)build goes well for you when you get 'round to it. The photos are dramatic, but, as you say, the resin is the important stuff and I'm sure you'll give it a good home on either the Hobbyboss or FM kits. I look forward to seeing the pics when you're able; my Cheetah C (the High Planes kit in 72nd) is a long way from starting, let alone any in-progress stuff.

Cheers,

Andrew

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I hope the (re)build goes well for you when you get 'round to it. The photos are dramatic, but, as you say, the resin is the important stuff and I'm sure you'll give it a good home on either the Hobbyboss or FM kits. I look forward to seeing the pics when you're able; my Cheetah C (the High Planes kit in 72nd) is a long way from starting, let alone any in-progress stuff.

Cheers,

Andrew

Yuck, the High Planes kit! It is horrid! I gave up in despair......

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Yuck, the High Planes kit! It is horrid! I gave up in despair......

Okay, now I'm worried. I've never proceeded very far with any of the High Planes kits; the extent of my progress is cleaning up a Mirage IIIO fuselage and realising that there would be a whole lot more to go.....but I have seen them finished to a very good standard, which gave me some comfort. Oh well, it's really the only option short of resorting to the Spinners 72nd conversion, which seemed to be unnecessary. Perhaps I was mistaken. Good luck with your build when you get to it. Any chance of snaffling any remnants of the high Planes kit - resin, decals etc....?

Andrew.

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  • 2 years later...
Hi Vlamgat.

Did you ever get around to trying this? I don't like the look of the Heller kit at all.

I did but I have never finished it. I have never been able to get a satisfactory join of the Hobby Boss fuselage and the Spinners front end and the intakes are a nightmare because of the different way Heller and Hobby Boss do the splitter plate and boundary layer bleeds. However the exhaust and wing parts actually fit quite well. So for the time being it is stuck going nowhere.

I do wish someone would do a proper, up to date Mirage IIIE in '48 that would spare quite a bit of this grief and provide a ton of options for modellers.

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