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Mirage 4000 Modelsvit 1/72


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I was a little reluctant to show this after the superb version produced by InFlames a while ago but I thought you might like to see what an ordinary modeller made of it and to hear of some of his problems.

The Dassault Mirage 4000 first flew in 1979 and, as it was designed at the same time, looked like an enlarged Mirage 2000. It proved to be too large and expensive for the French Air Force and though it appeared in 1987 in a desert camouflage scheme, presumably in an attempt to sell it to a middle eastern country no sales were forthcoming.

 

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I first knew of the 4000 when I saw a model of it at Farnborough and thought that it was a great looking a/c so when I saw that Modelsvit had produced a kit I had to have one. However my reaction on getting started was ‘be careful what you wish for’. It seems to be a typical Modelsvit product containing lots of detailed parts some of which fit together nicely and some which do not. A case of the latter is the upper fuselage for which you have to join the two halves together with the engines nozzles in between with no way of ensuring that they are correctly aligned and then this assembly has to be mounted on the lower wing/fuselage. I thought that the chance of this actually working was small enough to find a different way of doing it. I fitted the upper wing surfaces to the lower part and then inserted each half of the upper fuselage into the gap using pieces of plastic sheet as packing to align the fuselage/wing joint. This was not easy but it did work. The main problem was getting the nozzle assembly into the correct position.

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The forward fuselage assembly went together easily but when offered up to the rear fuselage it did not fit and required trimming and filling. It might be an idea to paint the gap between the intakes and the fuselage at this point as it is not easy after assembly.

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There are the usual Modelsvit problems of getting the upper and lower wing surfaces and the two halves of the rudder to mate neatly.

Once it was all together it was painted white using a Halfords Appliance White spray. - something that I was afraid of doing but it worked out quite well. I then went to paint the red around the intakes and discovered a problem. The masks provided are such that it appears that you are expected to apply the red, apply the masks then apply the white paint. Something that seemed to guarantee that red would show through the white. I used the masks to make other masks that would mask the white area and allow me to brush paint the red. I was not happy with the result as it did not look tidy and the red paint specified (Humbrol 19) did not look like the correct shade.

Then on to the decals…I think that one has to have a Master’s degree in decaling before starting. They are thin, come of the backing sheet easily and settle down well but can be a little fragile. I would advise applying the blue areas of the wing last as you can see where bits have chipped off the leading edge on the wing.

Getting the long, thin blue stripes on the fuselage sides and the fin leading edge straight was a nightmare and not a great success. Getting the decals to wrap around the wing leading edge was ‘fun’ and required Microsol before they would go around.

There was one final problem. The nose probe looked too fragile to survive but as it is more than a simple tube I decided to use it and predictably it got broken almost immediately so another was made from pieces of brass tube and the bulged end was made from CA/talcum filler turned to shape using an electric drill.

It’s far from perfect and there are several deliberate mistakes for you to find but it is finished, and so am I!

 

John

 

 

 

 

 

 

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2 hours ago, stevehnz said:

Thanks for that run down John. Yours looks very good to me, in spite of your hassles. I intend to do mine in the desert scheme it also wore, hopefully a bit less "fun". :)

Steve.

Thank you. To me the desert scheme makes it look like just another military a/c whereas the original is nicer to look at as well as being out of the ordinary.

John

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Fair point John, to each their own I guess, I'm rather fond of interesting camo finishes especially desert themed ones, so that works for me, though I do concede, it does look very sharp in what I take to be Dassault house colours.

Steve.

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On 8/11/2020 at 8:04 PM, TheyJammedKenny! said:

Nice!  Sounds like a real bear of a kit, though.

No. I've known a lot worse. It's fairly typical Modelsvit. Very good in parts and so-so in others and one gets the impression that they have been designed and produced with no attempt to assess and eliminate flaws. There are 'interesting' quirks like the the top fuselage halves have different depth panel lines. The scissors on the front u/c leg have to be assembled from a couple of tiny parts whereas those on the main u/c legs are very nicely moulded as part of the leg. Having said that it is a lot better than the MiG 150 series.

You also have to take into account that I am nearly 80, the fingers are a lot less nimble than they used to be and patience is in short supply these days.

John

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