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Mirage 2000D. Kinetic, 1/48.


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22 hours ago, Biggles87 said:

Looking splendid.

I like your alignment and support jigs, very imaginative.

 

John

 

Thank you, John. They were made by a fellow modeller who decided I had greater need of them than him for getting things properly aligned, took pity on me and donated the set to me! 

They have been very useful and they get quite a lot of use.

 

The set has two magnetic bases and a number of attachments......

 

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As you can see, it uses crocodile clips as clamps. (I haven't figured out what the larger brown beads are for - they are too large to fit into the jaws of the crocodile clips).

The grip of these can be a bit strong, so I sometimes use them to hold a hairclip with a lighter grip (this is holding a flag made of thin brass sheet for gluing).....

 

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The pliers make a handy heavy base to attach the magnet. For higher models the pliers can be raised up onto a block....

 

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A magnet keeper is put on when the clamps are not in use.

 

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The set is kept in a small box for storage...

 

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Cheers!

Pat

 

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On 11/11/2020 at 05:54, Biggles87 said:

I used an Aires nozzle on my single seater and omitted parts PP2 and PP3 after mangling PP2 in several ham-fisted attempts at folding it. Unless you get right up to it with a torch I don’t think anyone would notice and I won’t tell if you don’t.

 

John

 

Time for me to work on the jet, keeping your warning very much in mind, John.

 

Here are the resin parts cleaned up and ready for priming:

 

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I used black Mr Surfacer 1500 to prime them. Lovely stuff....

 

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The turbine end was picked out in various metallic paints following photographs. The centre hole has an interesting red brown colour in the photograph in the Duke Hawkins book.

 

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The first of three photoetch grids lays in place onto the resin. It needs a little coaxing to get positioned and superglue added where it touches (once you have figured out where that is - it's not that obvious especially if your eyesight is not so good, like mine!).

 

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I found this Meng paint to be a reasonably close match to the colour of the grid....

 

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I'm intrigued what material the real grids are made from. It has a green patina similar to a copper roof. I guess it is an extremely hot part of the engine so maybe it is a ceramic coating??

 

Now to the tricky bending stages. I attached a small block of plastic 2.5mm high to a scrap of plastic card. I bent the inner array of arms against this to get them all the same height. There is a small flat at the end of each arm that was pressed onto the top of the block to form the gluing surface for the inner ring......

 

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Once the glue had set firmly, the outer arms were bent using the same plastic block. 

 

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The outer grid was laid face down onto a piece of paper cut from a label backing. This has a non stick surface should any excess glue run from the joint and allows the part to be lifted off after the glue has set. 

 

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The grid assembly was airbrushed with the Meng paint before attaching to the engine.....

 

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This was given a wash of Citadel Agrax Earthshade diluted equally with Klear to give the brownish deposits visible in photos of the engine in the Duke Hawkins book....

 

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My photo of the engine differs in some respects to the ones in the Duke Hawkins book, but at least it shows the grids well.....

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The jet pipe was lightly sprayed with a mix of Alclad Jet Exhaust (what else!) and chrome, allowing the paint to catch just the exposed part of the ridges, leaving the black primer in the dips to act as shadow....

 

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Two different tones were used inside the nozzle itself. A  darker mix was applied to the outer petals and a strip of foam rubber placed over this as a loose mask. The inner petals were Alclad chrome. A wash of Citadel Nuln Oil and Klear was then applied. The tips of the actuators  visible between the layer of petals has a somewhat bronzish tint and this was mixed from metallic acrylics and brushed on.

 

The parts were now assembled......

 

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The outside of the petals were sprayed and washed in the same way as the inside. A distinctive array of white ceramic tiles runs around the periphery of the nozzle. This was represented by a strip of white decal and the tile edges and attachment rivets drawn on using a fine permanent marker.

 

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The model is about done. I had intended to paint a couple of pilots (these are very nice 3D printed ones) and  put the model onto a base. I may do this later as I am keen to move onto something else now. I'll post some photos of the pilots in case you should be interested (as well as the completed model of course!).

 

Thank you for your interest and any comments would be most appreciated,

 

Cheers,

Pat

 

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The two aircrew I bought for the kit are made by the French company Reedoak and are 3D printed. 

At a model show I went to, the company was taking volunteers and dressing them in the actual clothing and  equipment and scanning them. So I should be able to recognize some of the models!

 

Here are the figures as supplied....

 

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As you can see, the surfaces are nice and smooth. The connectors came off fairly easy using sprue cutters, cutting a short distance away from the part and then cleaning up using a scalpel. There are some really fine connectors as well, and I was sometimes uncertain whether it belonged to the part so had to check against photos to make sure I didn't snip off something in error.

 

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They have been given a black primer coat and a zenithal highlight ready for painting (at some time in the future).

 

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Many thanks for looking,

Cheers,

Pat

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On 11/25/2020 at 2:50 PM, patmaquette said:

 

 

 

 

 

 

The remainder was then glued, clamped and left to set.....

 

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O

Hi there 

 

Please allow me to ask for those clamps???  How i can get some of them??? with large or long clamps

 

Regards 

 

Armando

 

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On 1/22/2021 at 8:14 PM, patmaquette said:

The Renaissance ejector seats have a nice level of detail. They were prepared by cutting off the large casting block from the underside. A raised plinth on the cockpit floor had been removed early in construction of the kit. When the time came later to put the seats into the aircraft, some packing was made to set the seat headbox to the right height.

The front seat should have large canopy breakers attached to the headbox. They were present on the Kinetic kit, but not the Renaissance one.....

 

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These were made from plastic card and superglued into place......

 

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The seats were primered black then white. It didn't turn out too well (I've now changed to a different primer that works beautifully)...

 

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They were fairly quick to paint despite their complexity. Some labels from the Kinetic photoetch set gave a nice finishing touch. It was necessary to cut away a lot of material at the front of the seats to clear the control columns before they would fit into the cockpit opening. Here they are in place....

 

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The two large tanks were attached before proceeding further with the topsides of the airframe. A ruler was useful for laying across the fins to hold the tanks level whilst the glue set...

 

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A support prop made from a skewer held by a magnetic clamp was carefully positioned to set the canopy to the correct angle (from studying photographs) and the surfaces before committing to glue. The mating surfaces had been beveled and cleaned of paint to give as strong a joint as possible.

 

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A similar affair was used to hold the refuelling probe in position whilst the glue set. This time a piece of plastic tubing was a snug fit onto the probe tip and held it nicely...

 

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The colours are perfect.  Which colour/manufacturer paints did you use ?

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17 minutes ago, Keith T said:

The colours are perfect.  Which colour/manufacturer paints did you use ?

Thank you, Keith. I used Vallejo acrylics for the seats. They were typically sand colours, sometimes mixed with green. I normally record the exact colours I use, but this time I just delved into the paint rack and picked out paints as I went along. Citadel Nuln Oil and Vallejo green washes were also useful in "lifting" some of the detail. There are some good photos of the seat in the Duke Hawkins book. 

Thanks once more for your kind words, Keith,

Pat

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Just now, patmaquette said:

Thank you, Keith. I used Vallejo acrylics for the seats. Citadel Nuln Oil and Vallejo green washes were also useful in "lifting" some of the detail. There are some good photos of the seat in the Duke Hawkins book. 

Thanks once more for your kind words, Keith,

Pat

Cheers.  And for the main green & grey camou ?  French colours can be hard to match but you've absolutely nailed it.

K

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49 minutes ago, Keith T said:

Cheers.  And for the main green & grey camou ?  French colours can be hard to match but you've absolutely nailed it.

K

I used colours I had available but had a lot of problems doing so. AK Interactive do a paint set for modern French aircraft I believe, I wish I had bought them - things would have been a lot  more straightforward!

Grey: I used Vallejo 71.049 Medium Sea Grey mixed with 70.992 Neutral Grey as a first coat, and went over this with Aeromaster RLM75 Grauviolett to adjust the tone to better match photos. Some areas in shade needed further darkening and I used Xtracrylix XA1034 RAF Dark Camouflage Grey for this. Even after all this I felt that a further colour shift was needed, so went over the lot with a light coat of 70.992 Neutral Grey with a touch of 70.960 Violet added - it looked a lot better after that (thank goodness!).

Green: Vallejo 71.011 Tank Green with XA1816 British Khaki Drab in areas of shade. Once again I felt the tone was not quite right, so went over it with Xtracolor (enamel) X1 RAF Dark Green mixed in equal measure with Humbrol gloss varnish.

I then put the model on the shelf for a while as I was fed up with it and pulled something more straightforward to build from the stash.

 

I think you can understand why I skipped over the painting steps in my build article - I would not recommend what I did to anyone 🙂

 

Pat

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6 hours ago, RAGATIGER said:

Hi there 

 

Please allow me to ask for those clamps???  How i can get some of them??? with large or long clamps

 

Regards 

 

Armando

 

 

Hello Armando,

The clamps were home made by another modeller and cannot be purchased.

I think the crocodile clips are easy to find on-line. The wire came from a coat hanger by the look of it. The beads could probably be found at a haberdashery or art store.  The magnets can be bought on ebay - something like a miniature pot magnet or ring magnet would do the job. Then glue everything using an epoxy adhesive such as Araldite. 

It would make a nice little project 🙂

 

Best regards,

Pat

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On 22/01/2021 at 21:28, 2lefthands said:

Until the primer accident, I thought: I would like to build like that, but can't.
After the primer accident, I thought: this is how you solve problems.

 

Very, very nice model!

Thank you, @2lefthands   

I have built models for many years yet still amaze myself by the number of (sometimes elementary) mistakes I make. 🙂

 

Best regards,

Pat

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2 hours ago, patmaquette said:

I used colours I had available but had a lot of problems doing so. AK Interactive do a paint set for modern French aircraft I believe, I wish I had bought them - things would have been a lot  more straightforward!

Grey: I used Vallejo 71.049 Medium Sea Grey mixed with 70.992 Neutral Grey as a first coat, and went over this with Aeromaster RLM75 Grauviolett to adjust the tone to better match photos. Some areas in shade needed further darkening and I used Xtracrylix XA1034 RAF Dark Camouflage Grey for this. Even after all this I felt that a further colour shift was needed, so went over the lot with a light coat of 70.992 Neutral Grey with a touch of 70.960 Violet added - it looked a lot better after that (thank goodness!).

Green: Vallejo 71.011 Tank Green with XA1816 British Khaki Drab in areas of shade. Once again I felt the tone was not quite right, so went over it with Xtracolor (enamel) X1 RAF Dark Green mixed in equal measure with Humbrol gloss varnish.

I then put the model on the shelf for a while as I was fed up with it and pulled something more straightforward to build from the stash.

 

I think you can understand why I skipped over the painting steps in my build article - I would not recommend what I did to anyone 🙂

 

Pat

Wow, well your perseverance paid off nicely !

Lovely job.

 

Cheers

K

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