1:32 Dassault Mirage IIICZ (SAAF) - For Dad

[Erabe]

Hello fellow modellers, this is my rendition of the 2 Squadron Mirage IIICZ my dad worked on (electronics / avionics etc.) in the early 80's in the border war of South Africa. It is also my third model in over 2 decades, and I was originally planning on building it only after I had gotten a fair skill set and some more experience, however I couldn't help myself as I had the model and paints already and just decided to do it now. There isn't a WIP for this one, I simply did not have the time to take pics, and built this in the evenings between work and sleep. 

 

The Italeri kit is quite disappointing in fit, and I did a ton of filling / sanding and fettling and it still isn't perfect, but I'm proud of this one and I'm sure my dad would have been too. And that's all that really matters me thinks. The decals were good however the springbok on the castle emblems should be gold metallic and not orange. Which is a shame because some of the other decals included are metallic - so it's not like they couldn't. It's also missing an antenna on the large front landing gear door which the kit did not contain, but overall is a good replica. I did have some slight silvering in places because one of my decalling sessions I had to run to take a delivery and left them in the water too long and something happened to the glue. 

 

This was my first time trying to do a camo paint-job and I used the white tac worms technique, which would work really well if I knew what I was doing, but it came out OK and there was really no other way I could think of to get it better. I know now to spray perpendicular to the worms to get a softer and more consistent edge. I mixed the colors myself to get closer to period photos as the instruction colors are a bit off, especially the bottom which was a pale blue to simulate the African sky.

 

The panel lining was done with Mr. Weathering color over a gloss enamel clear coat and came out much better than my previous two builds. The final weathering was done by airbrushing a very thinned mixture of black and german grey, and it is definitely too heavy (these birds were kept very clean by the highly disciplined SAAF ground-crews, of which my dad was one, back then and it would have been a punishable offence to put them away dirty) but it does add some interest and looks more realistic to me. (Let's just say this one JUST got back from a mission 😋)

 

I also got the Eduard PE seat-belt kit (first time using PE - what a learning curve!), and Master pitot for it, as the kit one was horrible. The ladder was included in the kit but the wheel chocks are from my Tomcat kit in the same scale and painted yellow, so not exactly accurate.

 

The base is similar to the Tomcat one, an unused photo frame with a runway painted on the back of the glass, the name is from the decal sheet and the badge was worn on uniform by my dad and was the SAAF emblem from that period. ("Per Aspera Ad Astra" is engraved on it meaning "through hardships, to the stars")

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks for looking! Critique welcome as always...

 

Happy modelling 😉

 

 

[John_W]

Wow.

Amazing build there.

[Paulaero]

That is a stunning build of a difficult kit.

 

Don't be so hard on yourself , the differences in the camo really set it off and mirror real life !!

 

Nice one

 

Paul

 

 

[Deano353]

Brilliant scheme the build is great. This is one of my favourites camouflage patterns. My other halfs uncle worked on these during the Angola war he armed the Mirages.

[heloman1]

Excellent result and finish. The base sets of your model very well.

 

Italeri, what can we say!!!

 

Colin

[doxasg]

Stunning this model and the unusal for me camo!  I really like the result, colour and weathering!  Congratulations.

 

Giannis Doxas

[Erabe]

1 hour ago, John_W said:

Wow.

Amazing build there.

Thanks John! 😉

 

47 minutes ago, Paulaero said:

That is a stunning build of a difficult kit.

 

Don't be so hard on yourself , the differences in the camo really set it off and mirror real life !!

 

Nice one

 

Paul

 

 

Thank you Paul, really appreciate it! I'm happy with it, but I've seen much better, always learning though! 

 

23 minutes ago, Deano353 said:

Brilliant scheme the build is great. This is one of my favourites camouflage patterns. My other halfs uncle worked on these during the Angola war he armed the Mirages.

Thanks Deano! That's very interesting! He may have worked closely with or even known my dad then, we're talking about the same war (Border war / Angola war) my wife's dad was in the orchestra... 😂😂

 

14 minutes ago, heloman1 said:

Excellent result and finish. The base sets of your model very well.

 

Italeri, what can we say!!!

 

Colin

Thank you sir! Yep unfortunately Italeri was the only viable one I could find in 1:32, and I must have spent close to 10 hours just getting the nose cone to remotely match the fuselage, it was probably 2mm too big all round and the shape was way off. I think they rushed this to market too quickly as the stencil detail wasn't even in the instructions and was supplied as a single printed page as an "oops" we forgot this. I also totally bodged the anhedral of the wings, as there was no way to deal with the gaps it would have caused. The molded details are very nice though. 

 

6 minutes ago, doxasg said:

Stunning this model and the unusal for me camo!  I really like the result, colour and weathering!  Congratulations.

 

Giannis Doxas

Thanks Giannis! Dassault painted the camo in factory according to the SAAF order, but they were repainted numerous times by our crews and the colors changed slightly over the years, (they also painted over a lot of bare metal areas) this scheme is very reminiscent of our African bush landscape and I think it would have worked well. 

 

[Deano353]

I did wonder when I read that if her uncle and your dad met lol. It's a cool looking plane in this camo I was actually going to do this aircraft in this scheme at some point to be honest. I assumed when you said Border war you meant Angola I'm not familiar with it it's something I'll have to get a book on and learn about.

Edited March 29, 2022 by Deano353

[Erabe]

7 minutes ago, Deano353 said:

I did wonder when I read that if her uncle and your dad met lol. It's a cool looking plane in this camo I was actually going to do this aircraft in this scheme at some point to be honest. I assumed when you said Border war you meant Angola I'm not familiar with it it's something I'll have to get a book on and learn about.

 Lol it's not impossible, my dad did several deployments over the course of the war. If you're interested here's a short clip of the "why / who / what" of the war. They were fighting the Russians, Cubans, SWAPO insurgents and a host of other enemies. The airspace fighting over there was intense and the Mirages were the heroes of the day. 

 

 

[Deano353]

Thanks very much I'll check that out.

[Dric]

She's beautiful. realy nice job. Bravo !

[Rod bettencourt]

Very cool! Thanks for sharing.

 

Rod

[Pete in a shed]

Wonderful build. Every last detail covered.

Pete

[kiseca]

Lovely looking build. Well done with a difficult kit and nice matching of the quite unique colour shades they used in that period. Your model stirs a lot of memories for me, and I have a soft spot for SAAF Mirages. I grew up in SA in the 1980s and the Mirage III and F.1 were the fighters I got to see . I grew up thinking that's how a fighter jet should look. I have a photo somewhere of a young me, with a white bone dome on my head, sitting in the cockpit of a III painted in a dark grey scheme.

 

I remember at an airshow, the commentator would nearly always try to get the crowd looking in the wrong direction when a fast jet was about to start their display. The first time I experienced it, it was a Mirage III. We're all staring out over the airfield waiting for this thing to show up. The commentator warned it would be loud. My friend and, at about the same time, both looked at eachother at the same time, both thinking we've been had, turned around to look behind us just as this Mirage came skipping over our heads from behind the crowd, moving almost too fast for us to track, accompanied by a faint whistling sound. We both looked at eachother and started to say "that wasn't loud" when the noise - a whole lot of it - caught up. No clue if it was an AZ or a CZ, it was going too fast 

 

Later in our youth both of us applied for pilot training in the SAAF, and were both rejected as they weren't taking candidates. That was enough to end my aspirations of an airforce career, but my friend went on to join as a weapons specialist and served 5 or so years working on Impalas.

 

My brother incidentally also fought in the border wars, joining the ranks of veteran relatives on this thread. He was SADF, not SAAF, and spent his deployment driving a Buffel.

 

[Meatbox8]

Beautiful.  Love the Mirage III, especially when the rendition is this good.

[Erabe]

38 minutes ago, kiseca said:

Lovely looking build. Well done with a difficult kit and nice matching of the quite unique colour shades they used in that period. Your model stirs a lot of memories for me, and I have a soft spot for SAAF Mirages. I grew up in SA in the 1980s and the Mirage III and F.1 were the fighters I got to see . I grew up thinking that's how a fighter jet should look. I have a photo somewhere of a young me, with a white bone dome on my head, sitting in the cockpit of a III painted in a dark grey scheme.

 

I remember at an airshow, the commentator would nearly always try to get the crowd looking in the wrong direction when a fast jet was about to start their display. The first time I experienced it, it was a Mirage III. We're all staring out over the airfield waiting for this thing to show up. The commentator warned it would be loud. My friend and, at about the same time, both looked at eachother at the same time, both thinking we've been had, turned around to look behind us just as this Mirage came skipping over our heads from behind the crowd, moving almost too fast for us to track, accompanied by a faint whistling sound. We both looked at eachother and started to say "that wasn't loud" when the noise - a whole lot of it - caught up. No clue if it was an AZ or a CZ, it was going too fast 

 

Later in our youth both of us applied for pilot training in the SAAF, and were both rejected as they weren't taking candidates. That was enough to end my aspirations of an airforce career, but my friend went on to join as a weapons specialist and served 5 or so years working on Impalas.

 

My brother incidentally also fought in the border wars, joining the ranks of veteran relatives on this thread. He was SADF, not SAAF, and spent his deployment driving a Buffel.

 

 

WOW! What an awesome recollection! This nearly brings tears to my eyes as my dad would tell similar war-tales... I too have sat in the pit but was far too young to remember the details, but my dad took me on many airshows back then and I vividly remember the delayed whoosh when the Mirages were going fast. Now most of the aircraft are dilapidated and the ones on display aren't really being kept nice, in fact some of my reference photos have litter and empty drinks bottles strewn around the display... very sad. 

 

My dad flew 2IC in a 2 seater Impala trainer and told me how the whole plane felt like it would fall apart when the pilot ripped the 30mm practice cannon rounds. I still have one of the spent shells from those and use it to store my tweezers and brushes. 

 

Your brother must have incredible stories to tell as well... pity they weren't taking recruits, but your friend could have possibly also known my dad.. he worked on the whole fleet, but his favorite was the Mirages, specifically the IIIC... what a small world. I remember a story where he was sitting on the spine of a IIIC working on some electronics in a access hatch somewhere aft of the pit, and it was drizzling - slippery, so he had one hand in the wiring and the other hand behind him holding a tool bag or box, and when he turned and reached behind him to get another tool, he slipped off the spine, landed on his backside on the wing and broke his coccyx... much to the amusement of the other ground crew. 

 

Thank you for sharing this, it warms my heart! 

Edited March 29, 2022 by Erabe

[Erabe]

1 hour ago, Dric said:

She's beautiful. realy nice job. Bravo !

Thank you Dric! 

 

1 hour ago, Rod bettencourt said:

Very cool! Thanks for sharing.

 

Rod

Thanks for looking! 😉

 

46 minutes ago, Pete in a shed said:

Wonderful build. Every last detail covered.

Pete

I appreciate that sir! Thanks for looking! 

 

1 minute ago, Meatbox8 said:

Beautiful.  Love the Mirage III, especially when the rendition is this good.

Thanks Meatbox! Appreciate the kind words! I too am an avid observer of real ale 😂😋

[kiseca]

45 minutes ago, Erabe said:

 

WOW! What an awesome recollection! This nearly brings tears to my eyes as my dad would tell similar war-tales... I too have sat in the pit but was far too young to remember the details, but my dad took me on many airshows back then and I vividly remember the delayed whoosh when the Mirages were going fast. Now most of the aircraft are dilapidated and the ones on display aren't really being kept nice, in fact some of my reference photos have litter and empty drinks bottles strewn around the display... very sad. 

 

My dad flew 2IC in a 2 seater Impala trainer and told me how the whole plane felt like it would fall apart when the pilot ripped the 30mm practice cannon rounds. I still have one of the spent shells from those and use it to store my tweezers and brushes. 

 

Your brother must have incredible stories to tell as well... pity they weren't taking recruits, but your friend could have possibly also known my dad.. he worked on the whole fleet, but his favorite was the Mirages, specifically the IIIC... what a small world. I remember a story where he was sitting on the spine of a IIIC working on some electronics in a access hatch somewhere aft of the pit, and it was drizzling - slippery, so he had one hand in the wiring and the other hand behind him holding a tool bag or box, and when he turned and reached behind him to get another tool, he slipped off the spine, landed on his backside on the wing and broke his coccyx... much to the amusement of the other ground crew. 

 

Thank you for sharing this, it warms my heart! 

Thanks for sharing your story too, along with the model. It really changes the perspective.

 

My brother never really spoke much about the days in the war. He'd talk plenty about his initial training in Walvis Bay. Relatively recently he opened up a bit, sounded like they had a few scary moments under fire, or breaking down in the wrong place... but he also did time in the townships and he found that a lot worse.

 

The friend eventually went on to get his dream and is now an airline pilot, after many years and many thousands of GBP of investment. He got there in the end, totally dedicated to it.  I can't remember the air base he served at by name, I'm not sure I ever knew, but he was in Bloemfontein from the early to mid 1990s. Probably 1992 - 1994/5 or so. He also had some time up in Pretoria, but I don't think he was there long before he klaared out. In fact, the Pretoria days may well have been at the start. I can't remember now. I just remember picking him and a mate up there once to go see a Simple Minds concert (we missed it... I blew up the engine trying to get there in time... )

Edited March 29, 2022 by kiseca

[binbrook87]

Wow! That's an absolute corker. Nice to see an SA Mirage. That camo work is stunning 👍

[DaveH]

Very nice build 'n finish...

 

DaveH

[RMCS]

Outstanding finish 

[NFR]

Looks absolutely epic! I've got the Kinetic Mirage lll RZ in 1/48 to build in the same scheme but need more practice. For only the 3rd model in 2 decades and your first PE attempt it's really come out superb.

 

I remember sitting in the R2Z at Ysterplaat museum as a kid, when they still had the canopy open. My Grandfather, a SAAF radar technician for 37 years, would tell me incredible tales about them.

 

Any more SAAF builds coming up?

Edited January 16, 2023 by NFR
spelling mistake

[Julien]

Thats pretty nice there.

[Bandsaw Steve]

Best looking colour-scheme ever applied to a Mirage I think! A real cracker. I am honour-bound to do mine in RAAF colours but if given a free choice… 🤔

 

 

[Andy Dyck]

Another cracker! It turn out very nice. Weathering isn’t overdone and if you say that they were good maintained it is so. Normal slightly using traces are always welcome and brings he model to life, at least for my taste. I thought that the colors were more bleached by the African sun. 

Great result and you and your dad can be very proud of this historic plane! 
 

Andy