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Garage find no2 - Matchbox Mystère IVa


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Recently joined thought I’d post my current build - this is the second kit I’ve started from a recent forgotten garage find.
 

Matchbox Mystère IVa which I intend to build as a Patrouille de France 1957 aircraft to add to the theme of my first garage find the Ouragan which is in 1955 colours

 

Rescribing done - minor issue when I discovered the raised lines on the kit bear little resemblance to reality  - luckily I’d only done the one fuselage half - had to fill the dodgy lines and start again 😳

Now onto the cockpit - the kit offering is a “tad” rudimentary 🤪 - even though there’s not much visible when it’s closed up I think I need to get the plastic card out 


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Yechh! That ejection seat looks like it should have an Egyptian mummy sitting on it....I'm thinking a LOT of plasticard or aftermarket- lose that lump of plastic! 😵

Mike

 

BTW- welcome to Britmodeller!

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Work on the mystère cockpit has commenced - still quite basic but not much visible when it closed up (but definitely more than the crude seat and a tab to attach it to that came with the kit) - for the seat I’ve ordered a resin one rather than try to rescue the basic kit item
 

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Edited by Dean Whiston
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I was going to say I love the Mystère but the truth is, I love all the Dassault jets from the Ouragan to the Rafale,

 

I've got one of these lurking somewhere, I bought some Aeroclub goodies (IIRC undercarriage, ejector seat and canopy), to go with it.  I also have the Azur-FFrom kit too.  I'll get around to them one day.

 

In the meantime, I'm waiting on the EM37 book (otherwise known as the big boys book of the Mystère), to arrive.

 

Good luck with this one.

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Cockpit installed and the fuselage closed up - fit is atrocious with a large step along the join line - much sanding and filling will be required 😔

 

on a plus note the replacement seat has arrived 👍

 

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1 hour ago, Dean Whiston said:

the fuselage closed up - fit is atrocious with a large step along the join line - much sanding and filling will be required 😔

A tip, don't always trust alignment pins, sometimes you may need to enlarge the holes, or entirely remove the pins. 

I look at some kits I kept from when I 'got serious' in my early teens, (and didn't finish to to early onset AMS) and now can see how some more careful adjustment and alignment would have saved a lot of work, filing ,sanding and loss of detail.

Admittedly this also come from way too much plastic fondling and procrastination. 

 

Great to see an old kit getting an upgrade, lovely neat work on the new cockpit, good pragmatic approach, enough to make it look busy under the glazing especially with the resin seat..... i think you are going fit in very well here!

 

Also a neat bit of film of the Patrouille De France Mystere IVs here and has a few good close ups

 

cheers

T

 

PS is it just me, or does the briefing room scene remind anyone else of Thunderbirds? 

link to time...

https://youtu.be/SLuOxXro7zE?t=132

 

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Dean.

 

Good progress with the Mystère, that seat is a nice addition although I think it only applies to aircraft from about 1967 onwards, it depends upon how fussy you want to be.

 

Troy,

 

Thanks for posting that video, for me, being an aircraft engineer and ex-groundcrew there's so much of interest to be seen before the aircraft start trundling off to punch holes in the wide blue yonder!

 

The clear cover to the ranging radar in the intake, the earlier Republic based ejector seats, noting their green colour, I think the same one was used on the Super Mystère.

 

Interesting to see the groundcrew in such clean uniforms!

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6 hours ago, Wez said:

that seat is a nice addition although I think it only applies to aircraft from about 1967 onwards, it depends upon how fussy you want be.

I did think it was a bit “modern” but couldn’t find a resin SNCASO seat - looking around again I think I could possibly get away with  an MB mk2 with a bit of tweaking what do you think?

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Unexpected opportunity to do a bit more on the Mystère - should have been at work but the change I was supporting has been put back a week 😁

 

join line sorted - lots of sanding but not much filler needed in the end - panel lines across the join rescribed

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nose intake added; cockpit tidied up and the windscreen installed- lots of filler needed around this as its a really poor fit 

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next will be mask the screen and tidy up the join then ready for wings & tailplane

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15 hours ago, Dean Whiston said:

I did think it was a bit “modern” but couldn’t find a resin SNCASO seat - looking around again I think I could possibly get away with  an MB mk2 with a bit of tweaking what do you think?

It would be a good place to start, it has the high leg guards like the SNCASO seat, the rear frame is quite substantial and the head box is quite different (being landscape rather than portrait like the MB seat).

 

I googled for images of the Mystère ejection seat and came across this thread, although it's for a paper model of the seat it shows the structure quite well as well as having pictures of the real thing.  I don't think the cushion is typical though...

 

There's a couple of gotcha's with the Mystère, the earliest ones have smaller link collection boxes, it looks like the old Matchbox kit has the later, larger ones.  Also the kit has the lozenge shaped tailplane endplates on the fin, this puts it firmly in later aircraft territory although I don't know at which serial number the cutover is (I'm still waiting for the book to arrive).  The end-plate signifies a jet with the all flying slab tailplane, earlier aircraft had the conventional tailplane without this lozenged shaped plate.

 

AFAIK, the earlier aircraft remained as built, they weren't retrofitted with the later improvements in service.

 

I must say in your hands the old Matchbox is scrubbing up well!  Seeing your efforts gives me the confidence to dig my kit sometime.

 

 

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@Wez Useful info on the seat 👍

 

the lozenge plate was something I’d not picked up on - looking at photos and the video it looks like there is a panel that shape on the older aircraft but not prominent - think I’ll file it down and scribe it on - interestingly the tailplane pieces look correct with evevators🤪

 

while looking at the tailplane I notice the rear NAV light is way too big so that will need some surgery as well!

 

think I’ll leave the collectors for now

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5 minutes ago, Dean Whiston said:

the lozenge plate was something I’d not picked up on - looking at photos and the video it looks like there is a panel that shape on the older aircraft but not prominent - think I’ll file it down and scribe it on - interestingly the tailplane pieces look correct with evevators

Yes, the tailplanes acted to some extent as trim tabs but were probably used for the autostabs.

 

Which scheme are you going to do?

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Looks very nice already Dean, nice one mate.

 

(wondering quietly off to one side will Dean have the pilot supping coffee or smoking a pipe sitting on the side of the cockpit?  Dean is a brilliant figure modeller and flights of fantasy sometimes come true)

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2 hours ago, perdu said:

(wondering quietly off to one side will Dean have the pilot supping coffee or smoking a pipe sitting on the side of the cockpit?  Dean is a brilliant figure modeller and flights of fantasy sometimes come true)

Don’t tempt me ...................😏

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Finished cleaning up the fuselage - cockpit masked off and filling around the windshield complete - removed the slab horizontal tailplane gubbins and rescribed the tail fin - added the wings and ran in the first layer of filler; as expected they were a bad fit - that’s me done for the weekend 😊


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