Mirage IIIO 1/32, Scratchbuild

[621Andy]

Quote

Stay with me folks I'm going to get this one finished before August!

Which year?🤣

 

Lovely work though...Starting to look like a proper Mirage😍

[SteveMc]

It’s all looking good Steve.

[Bandsaw Steve]

2 hours ago, 621Andy said:

Which year?🤣

 

TBA…

[Bandsaw Steve]

Rapid progress.

 

Sometimes I just get a bit reckless with these projects and when I do I find things go much faster.  Perhaps I've just been 'needled' by the somewhat pointed and entirely valid comments above regarding my lack of speed. 😄 In any case, I do seem to have put a few runs on the board recently.  🤔

 

Earlier this week I decided that ready-or-not the time has come to stick the missing cockpit wall in place. In order to do that I had to start by squirting some black Tamiya rattle-can paint about as shown below.

 

While waiting for the paint to dry I thought to myself  'I wonder how the rest of this blotchy and uneven-colored thing will look when finally painted? So - before I knew it - I had masked off some of the black paint, cleaned off the metal with a cloth dampened with few drops of isopropyl alcohol and sprayed a couple of coats of grey metal etching primer. 

 

Here's the result. I think it looks quite encouraging!  I only sprayed the top half though because there's still a bunch of detailing to go in the wheel wells and it will probably be much easier to work on unpainted surfaces.

 

Here she is from another angle.

 

It's obvious that the big hole in the side of the cockpit really does need to be filled, but it's equally obvious that it's far easier to put the final components of the cockpit into their final position before closing up that sidewall.  The last components are an ejection seat, an instrument panel, an  instrument panel shroud and all of the 'guff' that sits above the shroud ahead of the pilot.

 

Here's the result. This is probably sufficiently inaccurate to make any Mirage III guru cry;  but to hell with it - I'm trying to make rapid progress! 

 

Blading putty and sanding was used to conceal the join where the new wall met the rest of the fuselage and with a squirt of more black paint the result was satisfactory.

 

 

I think it looks OK from a distance.

 

Now I rolled the thing on it's back and started working on the guns.  How to deal with the guns has worried me for a while because I really was not sure how I was going to position and align the gun barrels so they weren't aimed point-blank at the underside of the nose. 

As you can see I carved out two big trenches where the guns can sit...

 

and then epoxied and milli-putted the short visible lengths of gun-barrel into position carefully lining them up so that they can just be seen from directly in front of the aircraft, thereby proving that firing them is not an act of suicide.

 

Now came the really tricky bit. How to make the extremely elongated oval reinforced housings that surround the gun troughs.  @hendie once said something like 'ovals are hard to make' and I would have to agree with him on that. 

 

These look shocking! So bad in fact that the top one got re-made and the bottom one (about 80% complete in this photo) probably should have been scrapped as well. it was only saved because I was running low on out of copper and still did not really know how to make the next one any better. 

 

Here a bit of folded / rolled-up sandpaper is being used to 'ovalise' the gun troughs.

 

These are far from perfect but I'm pressing on regardless.

 

I used copper for this because I figured it would take the slight compound curves better than Aluminum lithoplate and, being a bit thicker, might withstand the handling better. 

 

I think it was the right choice as in the end the result is not toooooo baaaaaaddd.... as long as you don't look closely. Hopefully the overall 'racy' appearance of the jet from this angle will distract the eye from the rather 'agricultural' gun troughs.

 

Right now I'm pretty happy with how this is looking. 

 

Next comes the canopy. The canopy's vac-forming molding 'buck' is already well underway and will be the subject of the next update. Like I say - I'm putting a few runs on the board at the moment! 

 

Best Regards,

Bandsaw Steve

 

 

[Bandsaw Steve]

By the way, if you are enjoying this project then you might like my contribution to the NATO 75 Anniversary Group build.  Here's the link...

 

 

 

 

 

 

[621Andy]

That looks fantastic!

I didn't mean to rile you about how long it was taking, but having said that progress has been swift😋

[Bandsaw Steve]

Rile away, I don’t really take any of this that seriously! 👍

[ArnoldAmbrose]

2 hours ago, Bandsaw Steve said:

Like I say - I'm putting a few runs on the board at the moment! 

       Go for six!! (I don't actually mean hit the MODEL for six 😁). But yeah, I've often found that a model can appear to stagnate while all the component parts are made, and one can't do this until one has done that, and one should really do the other first! Then the bullet gets bit and it can come together quite quickly.

       I'm no expert in any aircraft but the detail in the cockpit looks good, it looks very busy. And with some paint on it looks like you'll complete the innings soon, declare. (I'm not really a sports guru, particularly cricket, but I think I've got the terms correct?) 🙂

       Regards, Jeff.

[hendie]

Nice update and nice progress, Steve.

 

"Ovals"? You've got a better memory than me. 

 

She does look nice with some clothes on now, even if it's only her underwear

 

 

 

[CJP]

Looking very nice Steve

Chris

[SteveMc]

More great progress Steve. I would have given up a long time ago 😂. 

[Bandsaw Steve]

The Big Push

 

Right, after too many other distractions such as group builds, WASMEx and 'life in general' I'm finally back onto this seemingly never-ending project. This is it though! This is the big push! I'm going to stay on this stupid project until it is completed. Hopefully that will be before the end of this calendar year, and with a bit of luck much sooner.

 

This is where I was up to in April 2024 when I last worked on this thing and just before I went haring off into the distance building a 1/32 Super Sabre for the NATO group build.

 

In fact this is where I was really up to since this photo includes all of the associated sub-assemblies.

 

Last time I wrote I boldly claimed that the next step would be working on the canopy and that is true;  I have done some work on the canopy, but I'm having a few problems with it and will only publish here once they are all sorted out.

 

In the meantime there is plenty to keep me busy.  Here I am sorting out the shape needed for the final metallic skinning around the outside of the air-intakes.

 

I had been dreading this particular step because I thought that the compound curve geometry would be nightmarish but in the end the lithoplate went on without too much bother.  A little dash of automotive filler and some judicious sanding returned the nice sharp leading edge of the intake. I'm quite happy with this.

 

There was a similar process with the skinning around the gun troughs.

 

And around the ventral fuel tank.

 

With all of that completed I think I've finished all of the skinning required for this project; I'm not going to skin around the cockpit and up to the nose-cone because if I do that I don't think will not be able to achieve a smooth surface from the unskinned nose-cone to the skinned fuselage. Leaving it this way the transition is well hidden immediately behind the nosewheel bay.

 

Speaking of the nosewheel bay I have added some details, some of which even look a little bit like those in the real jet, but mostly just opportune bits and pieces from the spares box. This close-up photo is very unflattering because it shows up every little bit of crookedness and 'wobble' in there. I'm happy enough with this though because I think that most of the problems will be obscured behind the undercarriage and associated doors.

 

The main U/C gear wells got a very similar treatment.  My approach to accuracy at this stage is to put items in that look fairly close to reality and to make the UC wells look sufficiently 'busy' but I'm not really trying to make a 1 to 1 exact representation of the real thing. Right now I'm just trying to press on to get to the finish line. The little blue cylinders are some electronic item off an old circuit board. 

 

With the last of the litho-plate on and both wheel-wells full of details - albeit largely spurious details- it's time to see what the underside will look like when painted grey.  Since there's metal involved, once again I'm using etch-primer.  Always use a respirator when painting, you don't want to inadvertently etch your lungs.

 

Here's the result.

 

I'm happy with this, but the underside is still looking a bit sparse.  There are still heaps of little vents and intakes and landing lights and things to go on.  They will be the subject of my next post.

 

Stay with me Bandsaw fans I'm going to finish this I promise! 

 

Best Regards,

Bandsaw Steve.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[ArnoldAmbrose]

31 minutes ago, Bandsaw Steve said:

This is the big push!

G'day Steve, you sound like another lovable character from here (and Blackadder Goes Forth), General Melchett. But it's good to see this back on the go. And it's not a stupid project.

 

35 minutes ago, Bandsaw Steve said:

Leaving it this way the transition is well hidden immediately behind the nosewheel bay.

I've done similar with a few models, hidden cut-and-joins etc behind other objects. It must be a good idea, we couldn't both be wrong. 😁

 

37 minutes ago, Bandsaw Steve said:

The little blue cylinders are some electronic item off an old circuit board. 

They look like resistors. If memory (of 25+ years) serves, those black and brown lines indicates the value of the resistance.

 

       She's a beautiful aircraft, you're doing a great model of it, and despite the hold-ups I think you've done well to be able to pick it up again. After a break like this I wouldn't know where to begin. I've been constantly checking this sub-forum waiting for this to continue. Looking forward to the next installment.

       Regards, Jeff.

[Bandsaw Steve]

The Myriad

 

In Geoffrey Pentland and Peter Malone's excellent book 'Aircraft of the RAAF 1921 - 1978' there is a photograph of the underside of a Mirage III with a caption discussing the 'myriad of small intakes and vents on modern aircraft'.  To that we can add maintenance hatches. Here is a photo of where we we up to at the end of the last post.  There is a fair bit of detail in the undercarriage bays but there is little in the way of small surface details.

 

 

Here are the first ones that went on. I think that these bulges and bubbles are something to do with the guns. 

 

As shown here, various other intakes and vents and so forth were added. Most are either constructed from Evergreen plastic tube or rod or are small pieces of dowelling that have been 'chucked' into a Dremmel tool and turned to appropriate shapes with sandpaper. 

 

Some of the trickier little vent shapes I have pirated from this sheet-metal kit of the US house of congress.

 

With supersonic jets any hatches or other surface details will be completely flush with the skin of the jet. With this in mind I had to find a means of making detailed shapes out of something both adhesive and very thin.

At my local craft shop they sell 'Cricut' cutters which can cut adhesives into all sorts of complex shapes. Among the many different grades of 'Cricut' laminate in store I found this roll of metallic foil. (Please note that the photo shows the wrapper not the foil itself - but I'm sure you get the idea).

 

 

This stuff turned out to be ideal for this purpose. It's thinner than the usual run-of-the-mill Cricut foils that I have used before and as you can see in the photos below has a beautiful smooth shiny finish. The adhesive is very effective too.

I have developed this rather crude method of working out exactly where the various hatches will go.  

 

Just trace around each cut-out to show the location of each hatch.

 

A hole punch set allows small discs of foil to be readily created and stuck onto the model. These were especially numerous on the underside.

 

So with this myriad of little bits stuck onto this model, including a tiny blade aerial on the fuselage spine, we are now very close to starting the painting phase. 

 

From here things might get a bit more exciting.

 

Bandsaw Steve.

[Brandy]

Lovely to see this on its way to the finish line. Nice work on those "little" details, they tend to make a difference that is inversely proportional to their size!

 

Ian

[Mattlow]

Lovely work.

 

As Ian said above, all those little bits and bobs really breath life into the shapes...

[Corsairfoxfouruncle]

 

7 hours ago, Bandsaw Steve said:

Here are the first ones that went on. I think that these bulges and bubbles are something to do with the guns. 

 

As shown here

You would most likely be correct, look like gun gas vents to expel spent gases. 

[ArnoldAmbrose]

       G'day Steve, is there no end to your commitment to authenticity and accuracy? I thought her underside was looking good as it was but now it's looking really busy. (Said in the utmost innocence. 😁) It'll be good to see some paint on her. Regards, Jeff.

[wellsprop]

I can't wait to see this with paint on! 

[Bandsaw Steve]

3 hours ago, wellsprop said:

I can't wait to see this with paint on! 

Me too!

 

In fact I can’t wait to see the whole damn thing finished! 🤣

[woody37]

Just caught up with this wow! I never realised there was guns under the intakes, every day is a learning day!

[ArnoldAmbrose]

10 hours ago, Bandsaw Steve said:

In fact I can’t wait to see the whole damn thing finished! 🤣

Yeah, I often feel that way towards the end of a build too. But what you've done is very impressive. And I'll have to wait until next August to see her in the flesh  .   .   .  😥

Regards, Jeff.

[heloman1]

Coming together nicely. The detail is going to make it pop!

 

Colin

[stevehnz]

I didn't think I'd missed five months of progress. Whew. Nice to see this advancing steadily. I'm impressed at your little bits & greeblies. I 'd have been gutted if you'd missed them out.    If I'd noticed that is.

Steve.

[Bandsaw Steve]

Paint!

 

After three and half years of on-again off-again messing about with this thing I finally get to see some of the final colour on this thing.

 

Here's the underside with all of it's little 'greeblies' attached and ready for some final etching primer. I have to use one more coat of etching because the cricut foil has a metallic surface and will not readily accept normal paint,  but it does etch very well.

 

Here is the underside etched with standard Dulex etch primer straight from a rattle can.

 

And here's the topside. I really like how the surface detailing is visible but subtle. 

 

The next step was to spray the insides of the UC wells with SMS metallic aluminum lacquer.  The bottle of SMS etch primer you can see in the background was used to etch the smaller parts because airbrushing small parts seems more civilized than flooding them with a rattle can.

 

This metallic lacquer does a beautiful job. It will be my 'go-to' if i ever make another natural metal finish aircraft.

 

There are times when silly-putty is the only masking agent worthy of consideration.  The chosen paint for the underside is SMS Premium RAAF Sky Grey (PL 160).

 

As always, the SMS paint airbrushed flawlessly. 

 

I used a combination of my usual Tamiya masking tape and Vallejo flexible masking tape for the underside / topside boundary masking.  I was very impressed with the blue Vallejo tape which flexed and flowed beautifully around every bend. After using this as a test roll and I went back to my local hobby shop and bought a swag more of the stuff at a variety of different thicknesses.

 

My chosen topside grey is SMS 'Mod Eagle Grey' (PL 117).  I had received some advice to use SMS 'Gunship Grey' (PL121) but thought it looked a little bit too dark and so I went with this slightly paler shade.

 

I tried to get a bit arty with some pre-shading.

 

And then after about 20 minutes of gentle and trouble-free airbrushing, I had this...

 

I think that this is looking pretty good. 👍

I'm looking forward to trying this flexible masking tape on the camouflage pattern.   I am hoping to be posting again fairly soon.

 

Best Regards,

Bandsaw Steve