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Mirage IIIE EC1/3 Special schemes 1985


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Mirage IIIE No.501 / 3-IB EC1/3 'Navarre'

Nancy-Ochey, France, June 1985

 

This was built from the old Revell 1/72 kit from the 1970s. Not the best Mirage kit out there nowadays by a long way but it's been in the stash for so many years and it was time to build it. The inspiration was that Modeldecal sheet with those attractive EC1/3 anniversary markings. The French are usually very good at anniversary schemes, and though this one is quite simple it's also very French and looks good.

 

The kit was basically OK. It gave the impression that it had been scaled down from the Revell 1/32nd scale kit of a similar era. This was noticeable in some of the attachment points and detail. particularly on the undercarriage, which were so small and thin as to be unusable. In the end I replaced the main gear with that from a Heller kit, and used the Heller nosewheel in the Revell nose leg. The inner main gear doors were leftovers from a resin conversion kit for a Mirage V and had nice internal detail. I added quite a bit to the ejection seat but the cockpit is a black pit so there's minimal detail apart from the seat. I struggled to fit the canopy neatly but just about got there in the end.

 

I used Mig Ammo paints from their French Modern Jets set for the top surfaces which sprayed very nicely and dried in no time, and a mixture of Xtracrylic aluminium and light aircraft grey for the undersides. Decals were all from the Modeldecal sheet except for the roundels which were replaced with others having better depth of colour from a generic sheet. The topcoat was Humbrol matt varnish.

 

Overall a fairly quick (by my standards) and enjoyable project

 

IMG_5643

 

IMG_5640

 

IMG_5634

 

IMG_5633

 

IMG_5632

 

IMG_5631

 

And some of it's brothers :

 

 

Mirage IIIC 025

 

Models Mirage & Sea Hawk 002

 

Models Mirage & Sea Hawk 008

 

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Fantastic Work!   I think I will have to do the Blue Fin version myself...I see that SPA95 and 153 are represented....I know I have those decals in my stash....153 is certainly on the old ESCI Morane Decal Sheet.    

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That is a very nice collection.  The Revell kit gives a fine looking Mirage.  Superb work.

 

This quartet of Mirage would look great on the Mirage60@2021 big display at SMW2021 (if SMW is possible this year !!)

 

 

Thanks for sharing them

Zhizhou

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Great job on such an old kit! I recently built this kit as a III R2Z and it was a bit of a challenge to get it up to today's standards. Also like how you subtly repositioned the elevons.

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