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1/72 Mirage F1CR & F1CT


Andrew

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Thanks to everyone for their kind words.

3 hours ago, exdraken said:

Both come along nicely!

Looking forward to the solver belly on the CR!

Thanks very much, but I have to ask - are the undersides of the F1CR silver? I only ask because I thought I'd found the perfect grey to go on the undersides and duly applied it yesterday. I'm fairly certain the instructions refer to H/C308 as the underside colour - this is Gunze's colour for FS36375, a Compass Grey. I've used a different Gunze colour, possibly C35 IJN Grey (I'm not at my bench at the moment) because it looked okay when compared to photos and because it was, well, a light grey, but now I'm worried that I should have gone with a metallic colour. I'm clearly going to have to look a bit harder.

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5 hours ago, guillaume320 said:

The underside of the CR is light grey. The C is silver....

Excellent, thanks very much. It's always reassuring to have confirmation that I'm not going crazy/crazier.

2 hours ago, Tony Oliver said:

Hi Andrew mate,

Have you tried wrapping some foam around the pen handle to pack it out and make a more secure/snug fit up the jet pipe? 

Tony

There you go with your excellent practical suggestions... to my embarrassment, I hadn't considered doing that, so very much appreciated. Hopefully I'll spare you the need to offer any more top tips as this build progresses.

1 hour ago, exdraken said:

Sorry,  of course they are grey.... 

The Bs were silver  as well.

No worries, I'm now home, so have checked my Cocardes book, which tells me that the lower surface colour is light grey, sorry, gris clair, which is equivalent to FS36628; this strikes me as a very light grey, sorry, gris tres clair... either way, I'm still happy with what I've sprayed.

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There's been slow and gradual progress on the two kits over the last few days, primarily painting and masking small areas on both, applying the underside colour to the F1CR and applying a precursor grey coat to the F1CT, all in preparation for the next colour, a dark blue grey.

 

To wit, one F1CT:

 

35816813103_0c810e96f1_c.jpg

 

and the F1CR:

 

36456945502_d0a30fc88d_c.jpg

 

Notice anything .... how do I say, peculiar?

 

Of course, the F1CR needed the undersides masked off prior to applying the uppersurface colours and this masking was the task I set myself this evening. I assure you, dear reader, that I was not rushing this important job; on the whole, I'm happy to take my time when masking and I can even enjoy the process, as I know that a good masking job will serve the overall appearance (once painting is complete) very well. Despite that fine sentiment, while switching grip or something suitably commonplace, I dropped the kit, with the following hilarious result, in close-up:

 

35816812583_17bc034d7c_c.jpg

 

Actually, I was not amused.

 

I very nearly threw said bent jet at the wall.

 

I definitely said a rude word, possibly three of four times, very loudly.

 

To my amazement, but possibly simply because I'm a stubborn git, I've reattached the wing and fin, and removed the pitot (it couldn't be saved - even when bent back to more-or-less fore and aft configuration, there was a dogleg in the middle segment so profound that my attempts to straighten it only broke the poor pathetic thing). In removing the base of the pitot I've actually taken plastic away as well, so I've had to clean the area and added some plastic stock back in preparation for re-profiling and a new Master pitot. Once that's done, I'll attempt (!) to re-attach the end of the refuelling probe.

 

To those who were hoping for real progress worthy of a look, I apologise for my monumental clumsiness.

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So, where was I? That's right, getting back to where I was with the F1CR a couple of days ago... by re-attaching the wing and fin, filling the joins as appropriate and addling a plug of plastic to the nose in preparation for the new pitot -

 

35831097524_c15b810c85_c.jpg

 

Profiling the nose plug and drilling a hole to locate and centre the pitot, and smoothing the joins at the wingroot and base of fin -

 

35831097404_bafe36d85e_c.jpg

 

Carefully attaching the new pitot and smoothing that join (plus getting the refuelling probe back together - I'd thoughtfully knocked the base off as I smoothed the pitot join) -

 

35856743823_a94973f317_c.jpg

 

Having repainted the radome, I could now reattach the refuelling probe and prime the seams. Not visible in this shot is the repainted wing underside. I had plenty of spare paint mixed up, so it was squiggled over the upper surface in readiness for finally applying the next colours -

 

35831097234_070d9d0413_c.jpg

 

I really am back where I was a couple of nights ago; my next step will be to finish masking the underside. Barring any other cases of misadventure, I think the darker grey will be tomorrow's project.

 

I haven't forgotten the F1CT either; it's also had some more pre-camouflage colours paint applied (all without breaking anything else on it!) -

 

35856743343_9d2cde8673_c.jpg

 

cheers,

 

Andrew.

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Well, if you hadn't told us about your near disaster I don't think any of us would have noticed!

 

A masterful recovery :thumbsup2:

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I've recently finished applying the upper surface colours, starting with the blue grey. For both colours I've used enamels (mixtures of Humbrol, Revell and Xtracolour) so I've been letting them dry in their own good time. Masking was achieved with the Blu-Tac sausage method, with swathes of Silly Putty filling the bits between the Blu-Tac. Not many pictures of the process, unfortunately. The blue grey applied:

 

36935887005_6db3b47179_c.jpg

 

Followed by the green:

 

F1CR -

 

36764953742_3171490075_c.jpg

 

F1CT -

 

36796321111_c72b14735c_c.jpg

 

And yes, I did bump the refuelling probe on the CT during de-masking and dislodged the tip (how we laughed), but it's safely back on as of this evening.

 

Although it feels as though I've been hammering away at these for an eternity quite a while now, there's plenty more painting to do yet - hopefully I'll be finishing all of that this weekend.

 

cheers,

 

Andrew.

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14 hours ago, Avgas said:

Those colours look good. It really is a pretty aircraft, isn't it.

I have to agree, even those colours don't detract from the good looks of the aircraft.

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I decided that there was insufficient contrast between the radome and the rest of the airframe on the CT, so applied a significantly lighter version of the green - I may have gone too far...

 

Anyway, not willing to finesse the colours any further, I let things be and the pair (with a forest of bits and pieces) have now been gloss coated, in readiness for some decalification...

 

37061073345_9f0e6903f3_c.jpg

 

That's all for this update, thanks as ever though for stopping by and for your encouraging words.

 

Andrew.

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Nice tidy paint work. Just a thought: if the radome indeed turns out to be too light it still provides a good base for a soft uneven misting of a darker tone to simulate weathering. But you probably had thought about it already. Looking nice!

 

Jay

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After many days of intermittent periods of decalling, I've now collected the following pile of discarded backing sheet...:

 

36832674720_20c9fc1c3b_b.jpg

 

Oh, and I think I've left the decals behind in more-or-less the right spots on the two kits...:

 

37058618852_0d9b884e87_b.jpg

 

Decals are a combination of the Special Hobby kit markings (esp. the F1CR boxing) and Berna decals sheets for the F1CR and F1CT, plus a sheet by Berna of generic numbers/codes (nicely printed, very thin and very useful when it became obvious that the numerals on their F1CR sheet were too big...).

 

About time to get another gloss coat on and start the weathering.

 

Thanks for looking in.

 

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