Pappy

April 2, 2008

Exactly, seems I'm "preaching to the choir"!

Well, I may have done this once or twice before....

Pappy

Pappy,did yopu see my p.m.?

G'day George,

I have just figured out how to open the pictures, so I am downloading them as I type, thanks again,

Pappy

April 2, 2008

Pappy,did yopu see my p.m.?

Yes thanks very much!

I am after pictures of the wheel bays. I know the large main gear doors and the large nose-gear door are normally closed on the ground and that they normally open when the gear is cycled, but I want to depict the "D" on take-off with the gear in mid retraction. For this reason I need pictures of what is beneath these large doors. The "N" and the "EG" will be in a static pose, so these doors will be shut,

Pappy

April 2, 2008

looking amazing mate!!!!
Is it possible to have some closer photos of the elevon/flaps you drop to see the profile of them with the plastic rod?

cheers mate!

G'day Peri,

Sure no problemo.

I glued a section of quarter round stock to the upper leading edge. Once dry, this was sanded so as to blend it into the kit parts. I didn't add plastci to the underside as the gap will be covered when attached to the wing trailing edge,

The gap between the flap section and elevon has been puttied over. I will rescribe the line when the putty has hardened. The gap looked a little too deep for my taste,

cheers,

Pappy

April 2, 2008

You seem to be putting a bit more into this that I did mine, it's going to look brilliant. Here's a tip that worked on mine. I attached the wings front & rear & let them dry thoroughly. Then, I used a long piece of wide tamiya tape, wrapped over the fuselage & around the tip of each wing very tightly so that it "bent" the wings up to meet the fuselage. Next, flood the joint with liquid cement & leave over night. Remove the tape & the wings "pop" back into position but the roots remain attached to the fuselage. All I needed to do then was run some PVA glue along the joint & finish with a wet finger. Much easier IMO than using spacers.

What, you mean like this,

This is how I went about glueing my wings to the M2000EG (single seater)

cheers,

Pappy

April 2, 2008

Today's progress, firstly the M2000D.

I have opened up the lower intake auxiliary doors and glued in the scratch built doors.

I have also tried a dry fit of the fuselage to the wing assembly, as expected, spacers will be required to spread out the lower fuselage to eliminate the gaps at the wing root join.

Whilst dry fitting the wing, I also conducted a dry fit of the intakes,

The cockpit tub has been cemented in place and the panels added

Lastly, the nose pitot was added. Since the "D" has not nose probe, the tip was snipped off and sanded back to a cone shape

Meanwhile, on the M2000N, I have cut apart the flaps/elevons and added some quarter round stock to the leading edge. Once set, the edges were re-profiled and checked for fit. The Mirage deltas all seem to have drooped elevon/flaps when hydraulics are removed.

cheers,

Pappy

April 1, 2008

great work so far mate!!!

Thanks Peri!

I really like the Corsair, I must get back to mine someday.....

cheers,

Pappy

April 1, 2008

G'day again,

I have started to clamp the fuselages together. The warped fuselage (destined to become a Mirage 2000N) was annoying, but I think everything will eventually pull into shape. The nose and tail ends have been glued and taped/clamped while the glue sets. Tomorrow, I will (hopefully) be able to pop in the cockpit tub assy and glue the upper fuselage seam after inserting the appropriate spacers.

I have also attempted to fold up the spine mounted flare unit fitted to the Mirage 2000D. I began by annealing the part (on the kitchen gas cooker) then shaping up the part using paintbrush handles, bits of coat hanger and anything else I could find! The shape is not quite perfect, and I may yet replace the whole lot with a home made version.

In the meantime, I decided to modify the Mirage 2000D's intakes. The intakes feature auxiliary intake doors, which (I think) are spring loaded. These doors are sucked open when the engine requires more airflow than that provided by the main inlets. I want to depict these doors in such a condition in-flight. The doors were chain drilled and cleaned up. A small piece of shaped plastic sheet was then glued into place.

cheers,

Pappy

March 31, 2008

Very nice, clean painting so far
Can I ask what paints you used for the Liquid crystal displays.

G'day,

I painted over the LCD areas with some Tamiya clear green. I found that the printed LCD squares did not have a very good colour density and rather than appearing as one solid block of colour, they instead looked like a bunch of very fine dots. I also added a coat of Future to all the instrument dial faces once the overlays were attached. I personally wish that Eduard had retained the film type instrument faces with the pre-painted PE panels (climbing onto my soapbox for a moment) whilst the printed overlays can look good, the pre-painted dials look too flat and not like they are behind glass. I hope Eduard are taking note !

rant over

cheers,

Pappy

March 31, 2008

G'day Greg,

Thanks for the tips.

I am glad I am not the only one with a 1/48 scale bannana! I was reading through your ARC thread and it pretty much mirrors what I was planning to do, I am glad it will work! Here is how I applied the spacers to my single seater,

As you can see, great minds think alike (of course idiots never differ!!)

Whilst reading your ARC thread, I noticed the remark about the two mould batches, and how the early batch suffered from pronounced warpage. I just checked my two kits and sure enough, the warped copy has the lighter coloured plastic whilst the 'good' one is a darker plastic.

I am also looking for pics of the rear bulkhead. I think the whole bulkhead has a black mesh type material so that any underlying detail is basically hidden in any case. The same material also appears to be fitted over the rear portions of both instrument coamings, so there shouldn't be a mess of wiring 'spaghetti' as per the Phantom,

cheers,

Pappy

March 31, 2008

G'dat John,

I reckon twill turn out okay.

I could not tell from your pictures, but did you end up modifying the instrument panel to represent the "Kahu" upgrade? Most people (my self included) don't and just pretend it's there but the two MFD's would be noticed in 1/48. There is a Kiwi mob that make a cockpit upgrade 9(sorry, their name escapes me at present) that offer a "Kahu" upgrade set that includes the panel,

cheers,

Pappy

March 31, 2008

G'day people,

I have taken some better pics of the seats. I have also added the lap belts to complete one pair of the seats. I wasn't happy with the appearance of the Eduard pre-painted belts, so I re-painted them.

I also added the HUD units to the front panels

some pics of the tubs

I also decided to dry fit all the bits to see if ther would be any problems

Everything seems to fit okay. The real test will come when the stuff has to go into the fuselages.

cheers,

Pappy

March 30, 2008

G'day John,

Lovely effort so far. How are you going to replicate the upper strobe light (the clear pointy light ) as it is not included in the kit. I made mine from scrap clear sprue and I went through about 5-6 attempts before settling on one that I was happy with.

I noticed that you have transplanted all the lower antennas and lower strobe to the right u/c fairing, this is a detail often overlooked on Kiwi A-4K's. I don't know why they are different, they just are,

Looking forward to seeing the finished item,

cheers,

Pappy

March 30, 2008

Which Greek one are you planning to do,Antony?
Looking for any info on this?

G'day Goerge,

I am not sure yet, but probably a 331Mira. I have the excellent Greek Mirage 2000 monograph by Leonidas S. Blaveris (in the "Ellinika Maxtika Eroskafi & Elikoptera" series), so pretty good for references, but if you have any pics of HAF Mirage 2000's with live missiles, that would be great, as I havn't been able to find many pics of these. Also any good pictures of the rear bulkhead of the two seat Mirage would be good as well

Can you PM me off-line, I need a favour,

Cheers,

Pappy

March 30, 2008

Got to concur with the others - nice work on the seats Pappy - how about 1 D & 1 B version. Would be a great contrast

G'day Gary,

I am planning on one "D" in a gey/green wraparound, loaded up in a flying pose and one "N" in a parked pose in the pretty desert scheme, possibly loaded with an ASMP and Magics (or should that be magiques!),

The single will be a HAF Mirage 2000EG,

cheers,

Pappy

March 30, 2008

Nice progress on your 2000's!

Thanks George!

That was the easy part. The hard work will begin when I try and make the wings fit the fuselage!

Here are some pics of a Mirage 2000EG that I am also working on. The tub is a Neomega item, and it is better than the Eduard stuff

I didn't think the centerline pylon was long enough or the correct shape so I set about improving it.

I have nearly got this one together. I am up to attaching the wing to the fuselage. IT should go together pretty quick after that,

cheers,

Pappy

March 30, 2008

Looking good. I over looked the matter of the canopy breakers on mine. May have to go back & revisit them!

G'day Graham,

I personally think it makes a big difference, and being located on top of the seat, it will be noticed. The work I acrried out took about 20 mins in total, though it was fiddly. Perhaps using the plastic items as a template to make card susbtitutes would have been easier?

I also noticed that I had to shave down the throttle quadrant 'humps' to fit the PE bits. I ened up adding the PE bit that lives on the throttle 'humps' separately, after trimming these as well.

My other problem is that the fuselage parts in one kit are really badly mishapen. The kit fuselage halves look like bananas!. My plan at this stage is to glue the back of the fuselage as far as the fin base and add spacer bars to the lower fuselage whilst the upper fuselage section is progressively glued. I will also glue the nose together and hopefully, the cockpit tub/nosegear bay will allow the forwrad fuselage to pull into something resembling a Miragee 2000!

cheers,

Pappy

March 30, 2008

Ta OZH!

I will take some better pics tomorrow in daylight. Hopefully they will turn out a little better.

cheers,

Pappy

March 30, 2008

G'day people,

I spent today adding the pre-painted PE placards to the tubs and painting the seats. It took a while but all four are painted, and two of the seats have had their belts added. I think the canopy breakers look a little overscale, but otherwise my 'surgery' turned out okay

Sorry about the orangey tint to the pics, I took them inside, I think the fluoros had red shifted the colours. Ina nay case, I am not entirely happy with the pre-painted Eduard belts. The belts are a light brown colour instead of the dark yellow, I may actually repaint them yet. I have decided to replace the ejection initiation handles in the seat pan with some copper wire as the moulded on items were a little thick and it will be easier to paint them separately.

The instrument panels look very nice but again, the grey colour is much too light, especially if the instrauctions are followed and the tub is painted FS36081 (a very dark grey).

I compromised and used a medium sea grey. It still contrasts the pre-painted panels, but I will live with it,

cheers,

Pappy

March 29, 2008

G'day people,

I have begun something I have wanted to build for ages. I am going to try and build two Mirage 2000 kits simultaneously, I am not sure how much time it will save, but I'll give it a crack anyway.

I will be building the Eduard re-boxing of the Heller Mirage 2000 kit. One will be a Mirage 2000N ("Nuclear") whilst the other will be the Mirage 2000D ("Diverse" ) precision bomber.

Eduard have added some pre-painted PE and some resin seats. I am not a big fan of the pre-painted PE as I have found the painted details are very fragile, and the paint can chip & flake off as the items are bent, which is difficult with items like seat belts. The instrument panels are nice though I am not convinced the grey colour is correct, it seems too light IMHO.

The kit includes all the parts form the Heller Mirage 2000B/N kit, which is a good thing. The resin seats are exquisite, however they do not feature the very prominent canopy breakers.

Luckily the original Heller seats have these moulded on. I carefully remove the canopy breakers from the plastic seats, thinned these down for a better appearance, then added these to the top of the resin seats prior to painting them.

Note that the front canopy breakers are larger and more triangular than the rear ones.

Well that's all for now,

cheers,

Pappy

March 28, 2008

Oh @+****, I was aware that they existed on the real thing but NOT that they were on the sprue - bloody instructions. Ithrew out the box & used sprues yesterday & unfortunately, the bin men came yesterday afternoon so I was unable to retreive them. I'll remember them for next time when I build an "N"!

Bugger!

I would give you mine but I will need them for my M2000D build.

Perhaps someone may have some spare or even cast up a copy of their kit items?The kit items are a little plain though, they need to have the two tubes and a pair of fins added to the underside of each. It is not hard, just a little fiddly.

Incidentally, despite downloading heaps of 'detail' pics whilst surfing, it was not until I saw your build that I noticed that the clear part (in the upper port intake) is actually blanked in the Mirage 2000D/N, so I am not perfect either! I think Eduard's instructions proof reader may need a stern talking to......

In any case we have both learned something, and perhaps others may avoid the same pitfalls,

cheers,

Pappy

March 28, 2008

G'day Graham,

Tres, tres bon!! Another cracker. I will be using your WIP as a guide.

I have a small query though. Did you end up adding the chaff ejectors (Spirale?) that live at the wing root trailing edges?

I cannot see them in the pics. I noticed that you have added the 'notched' wing root end fairings (parts 38 &37) that the Spirale ejectors live in but not the actual units themselves (parts 46). The instructions don't actually mention them, but they don't shade them out as 'parts not for use' either.

Or is it just me?

cheerio,

Pappy

March 23, 2008

Here you go: http://www.smds.ws/index.php
Or try searching "Skyraider Model Designs". I believe that they are in the process of moving premises at the moment, so if the item you're after is showing "out of stock" it may not be back in stock for a few weeks. I've asked them about their Rafale B corrective parts & this is the response I've been getting. Generally their service is very good. Got their Rafale B decal sheet in the post this morning & it looks superb. Highly recommended all round!!

Thanks very much Graham,

I like your home made solution to the dispenser. I have the kit and as you have discovered, the dispenser shape is more complex than the simple "U" shaped metal part. I am looking foward to seeing it completed,

cheers,

Pappy

March 23, 2008

Here you go: http://www.smds.ws/index.php
Or try searching "Skyraider Model Designs". I believe that they are in the process of moving premises at the moment, so if the item you're after is showing "out of stock" it may not be back in stock for a few weeks. I've asked them about their Rafale B corrective parts & this is the response I've been getting. Generally their service is very good. Got their Rafale B decal sheet in the post this morning & it looks superb. Highly recommended all round!!

Thanks very much Graham,

I like your home made solution to the dispenser. I have the kit and as you have discovered, the dispenser shape is more complex than the sinple "U" shaped metal part. I am looking foward to seeing it completed,

cheers,

Pappy

March 22, 2008

In the first pic you can see the AUF2 dual GBU launcher pylon, from the Skyraider resin range - a must see site for modellers interested in the modern FAF

G'day Graham,

Umm, I don't suppose that you could tell us the website address for the Skyraider resins site? All I get when I google is stuff for, well skyraiders!

cheers,

Pappy

March 18, 2008

G'day all,

I am actually building the Italeri 1/48 jobbie in tandem. I had bought the Italeri kit before I clapped eyes on the Hobby Boss kit. I like the Italeri kit. It has shape issues around the nose, being boxier in shape than the HB kit. The cockpit detail is crap (the seat is very nice though) and the engine nacelle joint between the inlet fans and engine inlet cowls are an absolute barsteward!

It is however about half the price and has quality decals (Cartograph) so it is still a good option.

I was immediately impressed by the HB kit however.

Here are some pics of my Italeri kit:

I wanted to add a desert style helmet cover. It isn't really correct, I just like the look of it.

The kit will be in the current low-viz grey scheme. I found out about the DTC box whilst browsing the net. It is part of the upgrade programme and was fitted prior to the A-10C update standard.

I will be modelling this one in an airborne pose. I am not happy with the look of the static inlet blades. I decided to chop these out and replace them with a solid disc instead. That is where I am up to with this one,

cheers,

Pappy

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