mirageiv

Beautiful work again Craig, I really admire how you make OOB kit cockpits with the little help of a resin seat and some top scratch building look like a whole resin cockpit set, super stuff! What did you fill the rivets on the wings with? Ah the Master pitot, on my F-104 builds I've broken it off without fail every time usually whilst applying the decals , it is just so easy to catch on things around the bench when moving the model, I hope you are more dextrous than me and it makes it! I do think faring in the pitot is a good idea though, it just imho makes everything more scale.

F-104s in 1/48 are becoming like Spitfires, great!

Fantastic work Craig, the cockpit looks excellent and I look forward to the SEA scheme on a F-104!

Hi Alain, thank you for your interest. I agree, a super kit, the surface detail is beyond anything else I have seen in this scale and even 1/48 I think. I am just trying to sort out the intakes now, probably the most awkward part of the construction but I will have an update soon! Thank you Craig, glad you like the work so far. Dubendorf 88' sounds like an ideal airshow for me with these sort of participants, jealous! I look forward to your IIIS also, I assume you will use the 1/48 Kinetic kit which looks very good, although Aero48 produces a nice resin nose to make up for the one dodgy part of kit. Thanks guys, I'll have an update sometime later next week. David

Hi Craig, I'm building a Swiss Mirage IIIS from the Modelsvit 1/72 kit linked below, it just looked such a nice kit in the box and it is about time I attempted a NMF. I need to check out your GB and F-104 properly this weekend and catch up with the builds there! Hi James, it is, all I had to do was glue the F-104 together but didn't seem to find the time, once the GB deadline passed it did deflate the mojo on the project tbh. The Tamiya F-14 does seem to be a a good cure for misplaced modelling mojo, have you a thread for your build/completed model? Thanks for still showing interest guys David

Hi Craig, sorry for the long delay in reply, I missed this! No in short . I'm currently building a Mirage and the plan is to finish that along with this F-104 and do a RFI thread of them both. Oddly I lost a little interest when it was 99% done, but soon! David

Thanks for the help guys, much appreciated! I was not aware of the GX-2 black so I'll give it a go. I did some test comparisons between Humbrol 21 gloss black and Mr.Color 002 black and the enamel gave a much superior shine, I'll see how the GX-2 compares. Cheers, David

Thank you guys, glad you like it, my eyes didn't! Giorgio-true, it is tiny, I will get a better non-close up pic of the IP to give some sense of scale as the close ups aren't really doing it justice tbh. Thanks Terry! Those RV Mirages are an 'interesting' build from my short experience. I attempted an AML rebox of the RV Mirage IIIC last year and eventually gave up after plenty of parts didn't even remotely fit or look like they should, my conclusion being life is too short! The Modelsvit IIIE kit is absolutely worlds apart despite looking superficially similar. Cheers, David

Thank you guys for the kind words! If anyone is building their kit whilst reading this, test fit the main gear well parts before painting! I found they needed some adjustment to get a good fit. I didn't know about that Humbrol colour, good call Wardog it looks very good, I'll look at that for the future builds for sure! According to the information I have the Mirage IIIS/RS nose wheel fork is increased to 54cm in length in total and no indication that the actual nose leg itself was extended, therefore 75mm overall in 1/72 fork length. I will measure my IIIE nose fork supplied from the kit and either extend it by the appropriate amount or make a new one to the correct size, I need to test fit the nose wheel first and decide from there. I plan to work out this part when paint is drying on the airframe but I will show my take on it. On my build, because of the small scale, atm I think I will only extended the nose fork, however there does seem to be some little differences in the base of the nose gear leg also around where the fork is attached. I assume for the foldable feature the new fork allows. The new longer aft nose wheel bay door measures 18.26mm in 1/72, so depending on the size of your nose bay door in your kit you can then extend it and therefore the nose gear bay itself by the appropriate amount. Credit for the measurement data goes to Jean-Paul Poiseroux where he took dimensions off a real Mirage IIIS/RS, unfortunately I cannot locate the article online anymore. Hope that helps a bit! Thanks Jeff! The rivets look good to me I agree but everyone has their own take on them I guess, I'll get some improved photos later under paint and we can judge better, under a camouflage job maybe they might look a bit too strong, but for a NMF I think they could look really good. If anyone has built the Tamiya 1/72 F-16, the surface detail is pretty much identical to that, really impressive for the scale. Oh nooo on the books! Do you know which ones they were? Thanks for your input on the tanks. I dry brushed in a vertical direction trying to replicate the grain I saw, as you say to break up the pristine finish Alclad gives. The problem is getting them all relatively neat and parallel is difficult over large parts like the fuselage so I'm not sure yet, more testing and I'll decide! I was thinking about attempting foil but the surface detail and scale makes it maybe too intricate for me to do, at least for a first time foil job. Cheers, David.

Thank you chaps, glad to have some Swiss Mirage fans along. Jackman-great clip! I've made some good progress on a lot of the internal parts so the main construction can now motor along pretty quickly, a big wordy update! After extending the front gear well, the plumbing etc..was extended also to match. Modelsvit's cockpit OOB is pretty fantastic for the scale and would be more than enough for a typical black Mirage cockpit as not much is seen, however the Swiss used a bright metallic grey-green colour that shows up details quite well. With this in mind I went about replacing the (inaccurate for IIIS) etch cockpit sidewalls with my own plasticard versions and placing in tiny switches from stretched sprue. My eyes didn't like it but it sure makes it more busy than original etch panels. Additional wiring added in various places according to references. The more I looked at the IIIS IP the more differences I saw between it and the IIIE, including the IP coaming which originally seemed much too short. I ended up modifying it too and extending it as the Swiss version seems to come out further with a larger glare shield. The pic below is before extension. Modelsvit Mirage IIIE IP provided OOB is nice, But the Swiss version on the IIIS looks like this, https://www.airliners.net/photo/Switzerland-Air-Force/Dassault-FW-Emmen-Mirage-IIIS/876193/L . Actually there are some further differences from the linked image as this represents a late IIIS IP after the update program. I used another reference for an early IIIS IP but I can't post it due to copyright. I initially made this, taking a page from Eduards book in using clear sheet as 'glass.' Sorry for the crappy photo but I just couldn't get a good one. Since this picture it was refined some more, but it was extremely difficult to drill such small holes using very thin plasticard and required 'a few' attempts. Since the cockpit parts and front gear bay are one of the same I painted them both simultaneously. First up the gear wells were painted a chromate colour matched to photos, Then the cockpit parts were painted the Swiss 'Metallic, minty, greyish green' colour. I used Mr Color 008 silver as a base as the metallic pigment is extremely fine then added Tamiya X-28 green and some blue and a little white to get the tone I wanted, which I used his image: http://master194.com/photo_avion/mirage3-suisse/pages/cockpit02_jpg.htm . I made the metallic hue too strong at first chancing that further varnish layers will tone it down to about right and mixed a good amount into an empty Tamiya jar for my planned 1/32 Swiss Mirage. Due to the metallic nature the exact hue is very difficult to photograph but the general idea is there. The gear bays in this kit are quite complex for a 1/72 model but the detail in hydraulic lines etc...provided is the best I've seen in this scale, almost too small to paint tbh! You certainly need a very very fine paint brush at hand to do this model justice. The cockpit parts painted up. I'm pleased about how the new IP turned out (hence too many photos!), although the close ups don't look so neat in real life I'm really chuffed! The dials were taken from various spare decal sheets. The 'glass' worked too, Close enough! The front gear gear bay extension required the cutting off of some of the lower fuselage, something in the order of the red lines, I noticed in a few images the centre panel of the fixed canopy had a blueish tint to it, I assume armoured glass but I"m not certain. It is very subtle however so I just sprayed a single pass of a Tamiya clear blue/green mix. Over a white background is about the only way I could get my camera to pic it up, Over the dark IP coaming it almost disappears which seems to be the case on the real deal, honestly in the flesh it is very subtle. Before closing up the fuselage further I needed to check the Reskit nozzle. It needed a lot of thinning of the rear exhaust area to get it in which was no bad thing as this area is rather thick as done by Modelsvit and a tad out of scale. The Reskit exhaust has a larger diameter than the kit version but also is in a more 'shut off' position (not totally either unfortunately), the Modelsvit exhaust seems to be done in 'full dry power' for whatever reason. It now can simply slide in at the end of the build and is held by friction. The Reskit exhaust is full length so it needed a mounting plate. The rear turbine face of the supplied Modelsvit exhaust provided a great mount after being hollowed out. Finally I've been playing around with Alclad testing various things. Below is a pic of two spare tanks sprayed with Polished Aluminium. The tank above primed with Mr.Color gloss black, the bottom with Humbrol 21 enamel. The difference in shine was distinct, the enamel being much superior, almost chrome really. However I then dry brushed a silver over it in order to introduce some texture and graining which reduced the shine somewhat. I'd like to know your guys opinions here, as I'm not sure tbh. Does it look like metal grain or is it a bit messy in this scale? Maybe more testing needed but I have been thinking about using this technique on the main fuselage which is quite shiny, not sure. Thanks for looking (and reading if you made it to the end,) David.

Hi guys Has anybody had success using Mr.Color C002 gloss black as a primer for the Alclad high shine finishes? In particular I plan to use 'Polished Aluminium', 'Airframe Aluminium' just doesn't stick to anything in my experience and is extremely delicate. In the past I've had good finishes with enamel gloss blacks (much superior to Tamiya X-1 gloss black imho) such as Humbrol/Xtracolor etc...However I have noticed over time the black base starts to 'come through' again slightly if that makes sense, detracting quite a bit from the appearance when sprayed fresh which might be the enamel base slowly shifting under the Alclad over time as it cures out, I'm not sure really (just FYI I left the enamel gloss black base 5 or so days before Alclad on top). Hence my thinking Mr.Color Lacquer should fully cure out within a few days and not 'shift' under the Alclad. If you have, do the high shine finishes grip the Lacquer Mr.Color well or will masking be a problem? I do intend to mask over it if possible. Any other recommendations for primer will be helpful, I've tried Alclads own but I've never found it particularly shiny nor does it cure properly in my own experiments. Thanks for any help, David

Hi guys. After getting the Modelsvit Mirage IIIE a few months ago I've decided to build it as a Swiss Mirage IIIS. For me this is the most interesting derivative of the Mirage III series and a very capable fighter when introduced with the combo of the Hughes Taran 18 radar and Aim-26B missile. What a job it must have been flying one of these beauties through the Swiss Alps! For some context a nice video can be found here if you have a few minutes to spare (the footage is great regardless if you speak French): https://notrehistoire.ch/entries/kOPYgj3dWyz We have the dedicated Kinetic kit in 1/48 scale, however after doing the sums on how much the build would cost me knowing I'd throw a lot of aftermarket at it, I decided I'd prefer to do my ultimate IIIS in 1/32 using the Revell/Italeri kit as basis as the work and expenditure would be similar (I already have numerous AM for it already anyways). That long term 1/32 build is for another day however when I have a new modelling area all set up. Until then I've decided to make a 1/72 version for now and I'll apply what I've learnt here to that build, particularly the NMF which I think will be done by Alclad (not sure yet). PJ productions has recently released a 1/72 Mirage IIIS/RS kit aimed at the later updated variants. A while ago I made a Mirage IIIRS using the original PJ conversion kit on the old Heller kit, to which I had the IIIS resin nose left over with the aim of doing something like this one day. There are various modifications that need to be done to produce an early IIIS from the IIIE, however not nearly as many as the upgraded later versions to which I think the new PJ kit would be the way to go in this scale. I have chosen the Modelsvit kit as the details are unbelievable in the scale, I think the most detailed kit I've had in my hands in 1/72, it's like a very good 1/48 or 1/32 kit hit with a shrink ray in many places. Also I quite like the much disputed rivet detail on the model, maybe under a camo scheme I agree it would look too much in 1/72, but for a NMF it could look very nice, well we will find out. I've got quite a bit of AM for this build too, Matterhorn Circle decals, Reskit Mirage IIIE exhaust (please ignore the paint mark on the box, that was me!), Barracuda Mk.4 seat, Reskit wheels, Master pitot, Maestro Aim-26B or HM-55 in Swiss service and the PJ resin IIIS nose. I know quite a bit but I thought what the heck, my build rate is so slow I just threw everything at it tbh wanting to build the best one I could. The rest of the IIIS conversion work will be scratch built. I would like to make an early example soon after delivery in the mid 60's in a QRA set up with pairs of live Aim-9Bs and Aim-26Bs and supersonic tanks. Maybe 'Geronimo' if I can find when the artwork was applied and is applicable in this period, does anybody know? First up was to remove the Doppler radar under the nose area, AFAIK the Taran radar could ground map also allowing all weather navigation. Modelsvit made this integral and hollow to the front fuselage pieces so after some careful cutting I then glued in some thick plasticard to then shape to the surface contours of the nose area, this is yet to be refined until I glue the halves together to get a nice symmetrical shape. The nose gear bay and door (not pictured) is being extended to take the longer modified IIIS nose leg/fork. I'm using dimensions taken from a real IIIS using an article I found online ages ago that doesn't seem to be around on the 'www' anymore, saves to plan ahead and save interesting articles via pdf for future use! After finding some good images of the underside of an early IIIS I began removing various antennae not present (still some to do) and opening up all the air scoops and drilling the cannon ports, More antennae removed from the fin. I've cut the rudder out in order to build the actuator linkage and displace it although it seems at rest it does look to usually be in the neutral position. Clear light also drilled/installed and blended in, bloody small job in this scale! The exhaust area will have to be thinned quite a bit to get the Reskit exhaust nozzle in which is no bad thing as it is quite thick and overscale imho here. After gluing the rear fuselage halves together I then attached the wings to get the best join I could before attaching the lower piece against the instructions. A black wash shows the join, not bad compared to what I have seen online on many other Mirage builds, this will be filled with Zap a Gap I think. Modelsvit seems to have made a lot of the joining parts not on panel lines which I think is quite a smart way to do it (except the front canopy unfortunately), for me it is easier to fill and eliminate a join opposed to doing the same then rescribing back the panel line on it as most manufactures do. I found I needed some plastic shims on the other side of the vertical fin join. Hopefully the pic also gives an idea of how fine the rivet detail is. Fuselage progress so far. I cut and installed clear lights on the wing tips that will be sprayed with Tamiya green/red clears when painting comes around. If it wasn't for the IIIS modifications I'm doing I think this would be a very quick model to assemble. Next up will be sorting out the gear bays and cockpit area which will need a new specific Swiss IIIS IP, quite different from the IIIE variant. Thanks for looking, David

Thanks for the too kind words chaps, glad you like it so far! I've pretty much finished most of the other parts now, just a few antennae, anti-collision lights and that pesky canopy defogging interior tube to sort out Below includes: Aires exhaust, Daco Chaff/Flare units, Daco ladder, Daco nose wheel, scratch 'heated air' German intake covers, Brassin centre pylon (to my surprise I found it in the spares!), True details seat+RBF ribbons, some hydraulic lines added to the legs and gear doors and finally the tips of the fuel tanks with some paint flaking. I'll glue it all together and get some photos for a RFI soon, thanks for looking. David

Outstanding work Glynn, really one to be very proud of!

Fantastic result Werner, you did the beast justice!

Hi guys Well it took most of the week to apply the decals (there were several hundred.) I also gave the model an oil panel wash and now it needs some more oil streaking/staining etc..then I can apply the final satin varnish. The '33' of the '24+33' code on the port side fuselage is slightly offset because of the camera window. Also the decals on the dayglo parts of the fuel tanks were really very stark and needed to be blended in with some more layers of yellow and dayglo, the stencils here look really quite faded on the real aircraft but I will re apply the white ones as they are quite distinct. The 'Rescue' marking panel decal did not quite match up to the kit engraved line unfortunately but if I applied it to match this profile the whole decal would have been set at a strange angle. I faded the stencils in slightly on the top and bottom with very thinned layers of the base colour and then dirtied up the bottom silver with some very thinned greys sprayed in various areas. I still need to paint the gear bays yet. Overall it is looking like this atm, Still plenty to do, in fact I have not done so much on any other parts of the model than what is shown here so I'm pretty certain I won't make the deadline unfortunately! I'll keep updating the thread which should only be 1-2 last updates as I hope to finish it by this coming weekend as I'm pretty busy after that. Thanks so much for looking and the interest/comments shown in the build and to Rich and Col for running another great one, cheers everyone! I'll checkout the gallery later on, it will be a difficult choice I think in this GB! David

Tamiya X22 + Levelling thinner applied to hopefully a good enough shine but without reducing the weathering too much, ready for a decal Marathon Sunday!

Thank you Werner, yes I agree it does need be be darker and more weathering. After I place the decals I plan to weather these sort of areas with oils and thin grey airbrushed like I did here, Cheers Werner! I hope so too!

Unbelievable work so far Alan, the painting of the bays in particular is as good as I've seen yet, really very impressive (well it all is!). I like the canopy a lot and I think I've seen the same canopy tinting vid btw. Slight diversion but maybe interesting, I've tried a few metallic paints here in the Tamiya clear mix, where I've found skimming off a small amount of the pure metallic particles from Alclad's Copper and/or Gold (depending on the tint colour) mixed in with clear yellow/smoke/orange mix etc..can give some really cool results as the metallic grain is very fine, give it a test if your interested in the F-16/F-22 type tint! Naturally there is always some slight grain because of the scale we are working in but it can look very good. Anyways a serious model in progress here! David

Thank you Craig, glad you like it! I've used these decals so many times now I almost know where a lot should go by memory (hmm that is probs..no..definitely a bit worrying!) so hopefully it will speed things up here applying quite a few at a time. Cheers Rich! Yep they always do for me but I've tried to exaggerate the shading in the hope that the subsequent varnish layers renders it how I want it in the end. My pictures really aren't great tbh at conveying the colours and shading at all like I see it (taken in pretty poor natural light here in the UK today) as in the flesh it is more 'overdone' than what is shown here with different colours to my eye. I've also used Tamiya X-22 gloss + levelling thinner which in comparison to Aqua Gloss or Future etc.. in my experience affects shading and colour shifts the least, well I've put the gloss on now and most of it is still there which is pleasing. I can always do some more post shading later to further break it up if needed, but the big plus is it hasn't darkened much either which is a win compared to the previous effort! Case in point on the colours my camera shows are below, both in poor light but quite different and not at all what it looks like in person oddly enough (I guess you really can never trust photos as gospel for colour matching) Is it grey? Or blue? Rich stop being modest, I'm sure when you tackle your F-104 with the DACO set it will be another wonder model ! Kinetic are bringing out a new kit also which I'm sure could produce another level of F-104 when combined with some of the DACO details. In fact this could probably be my last Hasegawa F-104 model if the Kinetic kit is as good as I looks it could be. Oh yeah the '3D' decal haha, I used it to help gauge if the colours/contrasts looked ok with some sort of marking 'applied' (blu-tack), it helps me I find as I do struggle with colour matching tbh. Anyways thanks for the nice words guys, David

Thanks chaps, I got lucky to save it! Rich that specific oven cleaner sounds a good shout too, although I hope we both don't have to use paint removers again! Yes Craig it was if I had given the model an oil wash! I'm attempting to build and paint the model like this exact jet in the linked photos: http://www.916-starfighter.de/Large/2433.htm and http://www.916-starfighter.de/Large/Album/a2433C.htm And this is about as close as I think I'll ever be able to do it personally to the heavily faded and patchy looking airframe, I used AK 'Real Color' for the top (mixed with a bit of blue as straight RAL 7012 was a bit too grey or me) and nose (RAL 7035), quite nice paints actually now I've thinned them correctly, pretty much indifferent to Tamiya acrylics imho. The underside was sprayed with my own mix (mainly Tamiya matt aluminium and Gunze light aircraft grey) and the tip tanks after a white-yellow base with Colorcoats RAL 2005 luminous orange (it was more accurate than AK's version to me but also AK real color just refused to cover to any opacity.) I also slightly faded them at the top with some yellow coming through for scale as straight solid RAL 2005 just looked too much compared to my prior paint job. The undersides are looking way too clean by comparison but I'll stick to the original plan of fading and weathering them after the decals go on, The colours are a little off in the photos tbh so don't take them as exact but I'm much happier with the paint job than the previous one in the flesh, worth the strip for sure. I'll give it a gloss layer this evening in prep for the decal marathon, the DACO decals are amazing but it is hard remaining sane applying them! Thanks for looking, hmm maybe I might just be able to squeeze it in before the GB ends. David

Wonderful result so far James, the F-104 looks really good in this scheme! Btw have you seen Kinetic are releasing a new F-104 kit? Completely took me by surprise but maybe it will be time to retire these tired older Hasegawa tools now!

I only use superglue , Mr. surfacer and milliput as fillers where the thinner will remove the surfacer if you put a good amount on and let it soak into the paint. It probably will remove other fillers a bit like Tamiya etc..but I'm not sure, it doesn't completely remove them but for a super smooth surface you might need to re apply. I guess stripping a model is never fuss free and requires some correction but it gets the paint off using them What paint and clear coat did you use to for your TA-4K? I found going through the barrier of Aqua gloss tougher than normal on this build as I usually use Tamiya clear or Future and those have easily come off. Yes I think the correct title is confusingly 'Mr Hobby, Mr Color thinners 250ml', the non retarding version of the levelling thinner. I've used levelling thinner too which gives you a little more time to remove the paint as it keeps it wetter for longer naturally. Meanwhile I've remasked and primed everything ready to start paint 2.0! David

Thanks Terry, I used Mr.Color Lacquer thinners. It works very well for removing enamels and lacquer based acrylics like Tamiya, Mr.Hobby etc but importantly doesn't damage the plastic or clear parts. I apply a generous amount with a brush on selected areas, a wing for example, it soaks in, then reapply another layer and then the paint starts to wrinkle. With enamels after it begins to wrinkle you can then just 'pull off' the paint as a 'skin' with a brush, sort of like a layer of skin on top of cooled milk after it has been warmed. Any little bits still left are removed easily with a cotton bud soaked in the thinner and rubbed on the spot to take it off too, also this was done around the canopy frames to have control in preventing anything getting in and under the canopies. I did polish the canopies back up to get a proper shine but no crazing or clouding happens with the thinner. Some paints require heavier layers of neat thinner to get them to come off, the Colorcoats enamel for example on the tip tanks was a bit difficult to remove, very tough paint it seems, but every other type I've tried (Xtracolor, Humbrol, Revell, Tamiya, Mr.Hobby, Alclad IIRC) comes off pretty easily without making a huge mess. There probs are dedicated paint removers out there but this these thinners work just great in my experience. David

Wow, very impressive work it looks awesome, you are doing the SR-71 justice! Aqua gloss I have found needs quite a wet layer after an initial 'biting' layer in order to get a proper shine, maybe not the absolute highest gloss varnish out there but it sure is tough for further weathering etc... David