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Fonderie Miniature 1/48th Dassault Super Mystere B2, Le Petit Sabre Francais FINISHED!


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Hi All - so this has been on the bench over Christmas. Its actually pretty decent for FM (on a par with the Cougar and Tiger I'd say) - in that the plastic parts match each other, and the resin fits.

As usual with FM kits the surface finish is rough - so everything needs refining, but thats part of the fun!!

I've been trying to get sub assemblies finished, so once the gluing starts it will come together pretty quick. So to start ( and this is in no real order)

Drop tanks - assembled and cleaned up. Pylons cleaned up and holes drilled to take pins to attach to the wings. The end plates on the tank fins were attached and then once dry thinned and refined.

P1050398_zps7237ddb7.jpg

Ditto with the afterburner / engine exhaust and main wheel bay. The clamshell afterburner was removed from the jet pipe so it could be 'fiddled" with more easily - and a bit of plastic card detail has been added.

The wheel bay is just trued up and sanded to get a decent fit in the fuselage.

P1050395_zps4c0802d1.jpg

A little work on the starboard fuselage front to open up some vents and deepen the cannon ports.

P1050393_zps5754da8b.jpg

And inside plastic card is used to make retainers for the various bits: The resin cockpit and front wheel bay are joined now so they fit neatly, with retainers around the bay opening acting to position the whole thing.

P1050403_zpsd6309f49.jpg

And here's how it all fits ( as you can see the thick resin means theres no "through" trunk for the intake!!)

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Wings are sanded and joined, trailing edges made good with CA/Talc filler then sanded out, and holed drilled for the drop tank pylons

P1050396_zpsfe4e76c5.jpg

The nose intake comes as a front, and two piece of trunking, which all join easily enough, but take a bit of filling and blending. To stop the trunking showing the resin bits inside, Im trying a new idea: A plastic card blank is cut to block the rear of the trunking, then an engine front image is put together with a black to white graduated fill in Photoshop and printed out - when assembled the idea is you'll vaguely see what appears to be the turbine face "deeper" inside the fuselage than it is. It may work, it may not, but was fun to try.

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Finally - a quick shot showing it does all fit. This constant dry fitting is always needed on these kits, but you do get a very good idea of where problems will be by doing this; so although tiresome, it pays dividends in the end.

P1050405_zpsd40fac1f.jpg

More to come soon...

Jonners

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I don't tend to do modern fighters but from my inexperienced eye it looks like this is coming along nicely. Nice idea re the turbo fan detail - look forward to seeing that in the final build.

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Thanks Calimero - I know that walkaround - thats what Im using!!

And I didnt know about the correction set until I asked on here recently, but can't justify the €60 price tag I'm afraid ( I have my own plan for the nose).

So some more work done - cockpit is being assembled and has had a few bits added. The ejection seat is a multi media affair form the kit - just needed a few bits adding/ replacing ( the arm rests broke off, so were rebuilt).

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Here the engine can - with the PE burner ring added. Looks pretty decent

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Cockpit needs sills adding - so some plastic card is shaped. This will make more sense when you see the canopy...

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Finally main gear bay doors are added, and sanded flush( a chore to say the least). The SMB2 had its main gear doors shut when powered down - so that at least means less work to do in the gear bay!! :)

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And Albion Alloys tubing is used to make the DEFA cannon barrels which are CA'ed in place

P1050415_zps961ff840.jpg

More pics to come of work on the canopy....

Jonners

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So here's the plan for the canopy. It's vacformed, but thick, so takes a bit of work to cut out, but the material sands well.

So once trimmed, the windscreen was separated, and a rear and front frame attached to the main canopy with CA, then inner canopy rims are cut with the distinctive rounded bottom corners.

P1050418_zpsad057c8a.jpg

These will be attached to the front and aft frames and will sit slightly lower than the outer canopy sill edges. The rear top deck hinge attaches to the back of the rear frame, so will need some detail adding eventually. Once Im happy with fit - the clear parts will get a Klear bath.

Jonners

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Yep - given it had a number of schemes, plus every popular Israeli use, you'd think someone would do one....

So - 'pit painting is a collection of scale blacks, enlivened with some colour on the consoles and side wall levers. I used my micro punch and die set to make some tiny coloured dots from red, yellow and orange card, then attached them with dots of PVA. Quite pleased with that idea!

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Here's the ejection seat with its initial overcoat and wash too.

P1050423_zps61cee0c2.jpg

Cheers

Jonners

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Hi Jonners, talk me through 'scale blacks', is that like 50 shades of grey? I have never seen a FM model in the buff, so to speak, but from the posts of those that have, seems to be one for the purist.

As always TQ work, thanks for sharing,

Strickers

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Nice to see an unusual kit being given the treatment Jonners. The cockpit looks very sharp.

Did you ever finish the F-11 Tiger?

All the best.

Chris,

Hi Chris, the Tiger is still in progress, funnily enough I was looking at it yesterday, and thinking " I should really get my finger out and finish it!"

Hi Jonners, talk me through 'scale blacks', is that like 50 shades of grey? I have never seen a FM model in the buff, so to speak, but from the posts of those that have, seems to be one for the purist.

As always TQ work, thanks for sharing,

Strickers

Hi Strickers - , in short yes - its 50 shades of very dark grey, then washes of brown black and straight black to lifet out details, plus a bit of drybrushing .

FM kits have a (deserved) reputation for being tough - they are, how shall I say, "artisan" produced, with resin and white metal detail parts that often appear as though are not intended to fit the parent kit, and indeed dont.

Some are far worse than others- their Mirage F1B ( now thankfully consigned to the obselete models heap by Kittyhawks kit) is a terrible model for example - nothing fits at all, while the F11F Tiger, the F9F Cougar and this model are all pretty sound with a little elbow grease added.

cheers

Jonners

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Righty ho, its been a hard days gluing.

Fuselage joined yesterday morning, and made good ( which actually has taken a wee bit of work). Nose added and some CA/Talc used to beef up the top section and round out the profile and cross section. Re-scribing is also nearly done on most areas, where sanding reduced or erased panel lines.

P1050426_zps33afe0f9.jpg.

Wings were then added. These are an "OK" fit - even allowing for the the brass tube pins I inserted to give some strength, the mating edges of wind to fuselage weren't as flat as I thought ( and that was after Id assumed I'd trued them up).

The wings need an anhedral of just over 2 degrees, so they were first secured using Mr Cement S ( which really likes the FM plastic so grabs very well). Once this had held I fashioned a basic "jig" to give me the down angle on the wings. I say jig....

...Now given the Super Mystere is an aircraft of some Gallic grace and panache, I feel this photo has a suitably Louis XV elegant feel to it - the cut glass candle stick holders in the background are not essential to the wing alignment, but do add a certain je ne sais quoi.....

P1050425_zpse4b08180.jpg

Two pound coins provided enough height to allow the wings to be set to about the right anhedral, while the two jars of Artichoke hearts ( well if it was a British aircraft I'd use baked beans) provide the weight to hold things in place and push the wings down. CA/talc mix in the consistency of runny honey was then mixed and carefully dribbled into the wing fuselage gaps to created a firm permanent bond.

You can just see the tan coloured CA/talc mix on this pic.

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The wings are aligned to the leading edge so the trailing edge needs a little fixing. Its all done now. I'll post pics in the morning of the work done on the underside too.

Cheers

Jonners

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Nice work Jonners! So far this Fonderie effort seems to be behaving better than my experience of their kits. I still have their 1/48 Alize to build and that looks a nightmare in the box!

Martin

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Hello!

Interesting and pretty rough subject ^^

A friend of mine had to put aside his own build because of serious trouble with the plastic.
The upper surfaces of plastic were literally peeling off...

dscn2423.jpg

dscn2935.jpg

His whole "In Progress":

http://fighters.forumactif.com/t44835-dassault-sm-b2-au-48-la-baston-continue

At Savigny les Beaune Museum (France):

IMG_3943_zpsff28c399.jpg

Good Luck!!

Romain

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"The appealing camouflage of Artichoke Heart and Aubergine (Type S) was then applied..."

Sorry, nothing useful to contribute...

bob

Artichaut fumé et violet auberginois - the scheme de camo "digestif"

Actually I was thinking how nice the Mystere would look in High speed silver with some 74 sqn Tiger stripes down the spine....and perhaps a pair of red tops under the outer pylons....

Sacrilege I know but if would make a bon "Et si"

Hello!

Interesting and pretty rough subject ^^

A friend of mine had to put aside his own build because of serious trouble with the plastic.

The upper surfaces of plastic were literally peeling off...

His whole "In Progress":

http://fighters.forumactif.com/t44835-dassault-sm-b2-au-48-la-baston-continue

At Savigny les Beaune Museum (France):

Good Luck!!

Romain

Hi Romain - yeah I read a couple of builds where the delamination had occurred. It happened on my FM Cougar a few years ago - but only in a couple of places, so was correctable. ( plastic not hot enough when moulded perhaps? or contamination of plastic?)

I see you asked your friend how its going too! :)

Just noticed on your pic of 02 there's a small fairing at the base of the top of the rear of the fin above the rudder. Checked pics of my No 154 12-ZJ and its there too. Need to add to kit.

BC

Jonners

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Ayup all!

Now while I add a multitude of louvres to various parts of the Mystere, Ive been looking at colours.

Does anyone happen to know if the L'Armee de L'Air's Vietnam inspired 3 colour scheme, as seen on early 70s Mysteres, was a pretty close match to the USAF FS colours?

The medium green looks like a bluer duller green on the French colours to me, and the brown seems yellower....

Cheers

Jonners

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Ayup all!

Now while I add a multitude of louvres to various parts of the Mystere, Ive been looking at colours.

Does anyone happen to know if the L'Armee de L'Air's Vietnam inspired 3 colour scheme, as seen on early 70s Mysteres, was a pretty close match to the USAF FS colours?

The medium green looks like a bluer duller green on the French colours to me, and the brown seems yellower....

Cheers

Jonners

Hi Jon,

A friend of mine started his quite a long time ago (and didn't finish it, but that's not the point).

Check there:

http://su22m4.free.fr/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=879

He explains (in French) the various colours used.

If you need help, just ask.

Cheers,

Sebastien

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