MikeR Posted September 26, 2018 Share Posted September 26, 2018 Hi peeps, Here's my latest completion for the year; High Planes 1/72 Atlas Cheetah two-seater kit completed as "860", a Cheetah B built from a Nesher T airframe obtained from Israel. The HPM kit isn't all that bad, the plastic parts are easy to work with although my kit is one of the older issues with the overly wide panel lines. The resin parts were also easy to use although the biggest challenge was the LERX extensions as they're not a great fit to the wing after you've cut-out the corresponding areas so plenty of filler and elbow grease is needed to get a good appearance! I also declined to use the provided resin tail fin and ejector seats. For the former I used the plastic part so the panel lines matched the rest of the airframe as those on the resin tail are quite fine and looked out of place and for the ejector seats I used two modified MB Mk 10's from a Special Hobby Mirage F-1C kit I had in stock. I used the kit decals although I substituted Springbok roundels from Xtradecal's Mirage F-1 single seater decal sheet for the later Eagle ones supplied with the kit. Paints were Humbrol throughout with 125 Gunship Grey as the main colour. WIP shot which I've already posted in another thread: Completed shots: Comments welcome! Mike. 27 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Corsairfoxfouruncle Posted September 26, 2018 Share Posted September 26, 2018 Excellent Cheetah 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vultures1 Posted September 26, 2018 Share Posted September 26, 2018 Very nice! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WildeSau75 Posted September 26, 2018 Share Posted September 26, 2018 Nice and clean build of a sexy looking aircraft. Cheers, Michael 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Parabat Posted September 26, 2018 Share Posted September 26, 2018 Always good to see one of these lesser spotted cats, that is very nicely done. Top notch. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
F-32 Posted September 26, 2018 Share Posted September 26, 2018 Lovely work, looks really good 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dolphin38 Posted September 26, 2018 Share Posted September 26, 2018 Nice looking Cheetah, one of my favourites of the Mirage family 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeR Posted September 26, 2018 Author Share Posted September 26, 2018 Thanks guys! I forgot to mention that I used a Master brass pitot tube intended for the AMK Kfir kit as I needed something suitably robust for the front end! It's also my first proper go at masking an entire canopy the hard way as there aren't any masking sets for the HPM/PJ Productions Mirage family. I'm not too happy with it and I had to do a fairly major repair job when I unmasked everything as some of the paint peeled away from the plastic but it looks OK from a distance. Mike. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ArmouredSprue Posted September 26, 2018 Share Posted September 26, 2018 Fantastic work on this model mate. Well done 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Graeme H Posted September 26, 2018 Share Posted September 26, 2018 A great build there, do so love the Dassault Deltas, and variants 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Avgas Posted September 27, 2018 Share Posted September 27, 2018 Excellent job Mike. Looks fantastic! You mentioned a WIP thread - would you mind linking to it please? I'd like to see how it went together. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BIG X Posted September 27, 2018 Share Posted September 27, 2018 Mike - that is really well built and not one I've seen before 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeR Posted September 27, 2018 Author Share Posted September 27, 2018 12 hours ago, Avgas said: Excellent job Mike. Looks fantastic! You mentioned a WIP thread - would you mind linking to it please? I'd like to see how it went together. No WIP thread I'm afraid - the first photo is the only one I have of the kit "in progress". The only thing I could recommend would be to check through the Mirage Group Build from last year: LINK. A few of the guys built kits of the single seaters from both HPM and PJ so that should hopefully give a feel as to how the basic kit itself goes together. The two seater kit is basically similar although it does pay to test fit and re-check the fit of the cockpit section as you can end up with quite a nasty gap between it and the main part of the fuselage if your not careful. There's a pair of locating lugs which get in the way if you don't trim them off. The resin Cheetah parts are not too bad although the quality of the casting can vary between kits, between this one and another my dad bought there were differences with regards to flash and air bubbles etc. I wasn't happy with the resin ejector seats on both kits which is why I used the Special Hobby parts. In addition the usual warnings about working with resin apply - wet sand where ever possible to avoid creating dust as you don't really want to be breathing lots of that stuff in! My only major gripe is that no one has done a proper canopy masking set for it as it's quite tricky and time consuming to do, particularly when doing the front part of the main canopy with the rails for the blind flying hood. Not something you want to fluff as it affects the whole look of the model! Mike. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
glatisant Posted September 27, 2018 Share Posted September 27, 2018 That's a build great. Lovely looking aircraft. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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