Jump to content

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


Recommended Posts

Lovely build indeed! A nice tribute to your Dad too. 

Impressed with the details. That Master Pitot tube looks spot on! It's an unusual cammo scheme, which makes it interesting all the more! A really nicely presented model. Thanks for showing this. 

 

For wing tip red and green navigation lights I use Sharpie Permanent marker pens rather than paint. I'll usually colour the inside of the clear plastic and do a single pass on the outside as well. This seems to work really well on all the models i've done this on so far. For 'green ' navigation lights for many WW2 USAAF and some RAF planes the actual glass was blue tinted and the bulbs were yellow - or so i'm told. when the lights were operated they thus were then 'green'. This is  just a little tip i'd like to share with you and not a criticism.

 

Kind Regards, Andy  

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 3/29/2022 at 5:47 PM, kiseca said:

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... )

Thank you @kiseca yes, my dad told me he never saw active combat but also only started telling me stories when I was old enough to understand "war".. a lot of the recces has bad PTSD though, but then us men never really talk about being scared at that age. My dad did his training in Swartkop / Waterkloof / Valhalla in Pretoria, and then deployed to 2 Squadron at Hoedspruit in Limpopo. There was a stage he did tower duty shift on the physical border, but I never got the full story, and probably never will. My mom might know more, but she's still grieving so I don't want to push her yet. 

 

I think the AFB in Bloem is called Bloemspruit, but I'm not sure if there are others. That's awesome that he became a pilot! I wanted to be one my whole life but we could never afford it, I have co-piloted a microlight though 😋 Hahaha what car did you blow up? That's a funny story!

 

On 3/29/2022 at 6:59 PM, binbrook87 said:

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

 

Thanks so much binbrook! 

 

On 3/29/2022 at 8:55 PM, DaveH said:

Very nice build 'n finish...

 

DaveH

 

Thank you sir! 

 

On 3/29/2022 at 10:24 PM, RMCS said:

Outstanding finish 

Thanks! 😉

 

On 3/30/2022 at 1:31 AM, NFR said:

Looks absolutely epic! I've got the Kinetic Mirage lll R2Z 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 RZ 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?

Thanks and nice one with the R2Z! These are smallish birds so I wouldn't be able to get close to this finish in 1:48, and in 1:32 its marginally bigger than my 1:48 Phantom, but if you're doing camo the white tac worms work very well, just watch a few videos because I thought I knew what I was doing but there is a trick to the spray angle. I made the worms match the reference pics and then in between the worms I put down wax paper, and trimmed into the white tac with a scalpel blade and pulled off the excess, took about 2 hours to do the whole thing, so it's not too time consuming. 

 

When did your grandfather serve? My dad was very close to a few radar guys in the 80s... sadly I never knew them by name. 

 

I'd love to do an Impala in NMF, but I can promise you if I ever find a SAAF kit for sale I will make sure to build it. Thanks for the comments and awesome story @NFR

 

On 3/30/2022 at 6:30 AM, Julien said:

Thats pretty nice there.

Thanks Julien! 

 

On 3/30/2022 at 6:35 AM, Bandsaw Steve said:

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… 🤔

 

 

Nah mate, just build 2! Thanks for the kind words! 

 

On 3/30/2022 at 7:21 AM, Andy Dyck said:

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 

Thank you Andy! The reference pics were old photos and I didn't see too much bleaching, they repainted them a few times, so let's just say it was recently repainted 😅 and kept indoors 😂😂 

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

23 hours ago, Jonners said:

That's absolutely superb. I'm another one who remembers gazing in awe at F1s and IIIs in this colour scheme at a formative stage in my life. Thanks for posting - I love it.

Jon

Thank you Jon! I'd love to find an F1 in this scale and make a stablemate for the III! 😉

 

16 hours ago, F-32 said:

That looks excellent :clap:

Thanks F-32! 😄

 

14 hours ago, Col Walter E Kurtz said:

Lovely build indeed! A nice tribute to your Dad too. 

Impressed with the details. That Master Pitot tube looks spot on! It's an unusual cammo scheme, which makes it interesting all the more! A really nicely presented model. Thanks for showing this. 

 

For wing tip red and green navigation lights I use Sharpie Permanent marker pens rather than paint. I'll usually colour the inside of the clear plastic and do a single pass on the outside as well. This seems to work really well on all the models i've done this on so far. For 'green ' navigation lights for many WW2 USAAF and some RAF planes the actual glass was blue tinted and the bulbs were yellow - or so i'm told. when the lights were operated they thus were then 'green'. This is  just a little tip i'd like to share with you and not a criticism.

 

Kind Regards, Andy  

Thank you sir! 

 

Funny story... After it was all done I was sitting watching youtube and fiddling with a red sharpie and a clear ballpoint pen and started coloring in the clear plastic and it worked so well I put the sharpie in my modelling toolkit! I'll just need to buy a green one and a blue one.. so yes and thank for the tip @Col Walter E Kurtz! 😎

 

14 hours ago, TheOxley said:

Wow....really nice…great finish…camo perfect..weathering top notch..👍🏻👍🏻

Thank you sir! 

 

12 hours ago, SAT69 said:

Your work is VERY impressive and you have every right to be proud of it. Well done!

Thanks SAT69! Appreciate the kind words 😄

 

21 minutes ago, GP2705 said:

Fantastic Mirage 💯

Thank you GP2705! 

 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

31 minutes ago, Erabe said:

Thank you @kiseca yes, my dad told me he never saw active combat but also only started telling me stories when I was old enough to understand "war".. a lot of the recces has bad PTSD though, but then us men never really talk about being scared at that age. My dad did his training in Swartkop / Waterkloof / Valhalla in Pretoria, and then deployed to 2 Squadron at Hoedspruit in Limpopo. There was a stage he did tower duty shift on the physical border, but I never got the full story, and probably never will. My mom might know more, but she's still grieving so I don't want to push her yet. 

 

I think the AFB in Bloem is called Bloemspruit, but I'm not sure if there are others. That's awesome that he became a pilot! I wanted to be one my whole life but we could never afford it, I have co-piloted a microlight though 😋 Hahaha what car did you blow up? That's a funny story!

 

 

 

I'll find out where my friend was based and we can see if any of the deployments match up. It sounds like your dad passed recently, very sorry to hear that and I wish all the best for your family. I think he got to work with the SAAF during its golden years. Well funded, fast jets, unusual homemade projects like the Cheetah and that Mirage F.1 with a Mig 29 engine, exciting air shows, there was a glamour about them back then which I'm not sure is still there. It might be! I've been out of country too long now to know.

 

The car was a Ford Sapphire Ghia - my dad's car. He had crashed it and after it was fixed, it had a small water leak that they never managed to resolve. It would also start to get hot during a long run at high speeds, and would settle down if you slowed down to normal highway speeds (120kph), but in SA in the '90s, who drove around at 120kph in a 3 litre Ford? 😇

On this occasion we were running late because I'd had friends back out, hence the round trip to Pretoria to pick up "reserves" and then back towards Johannesburg for the concert, so I was going a bit quicker than 120. On the way back from Pretoria, the temperature started climbing. I slowed down to 120, but this time it didn't cool down. Then it started pinking. We were passing Alexandra and I had a car full of people including my sister so I didn't want to pull over there. No cell phones between us in those days. So I pressed on, but didn't get much farther before there was smoke and the engine stopped. We were happily quite close to a roadside AA phone. I've been told when the tow truck picked us up, I asked the driver to tow us to the concert. I don't remember that particular detail personally 😆 Young and dumb. I'm not young anymore, at least.

 

 

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

10 minutes ago, kiseca said:

 

I'll find out where my friend was based and we can see if any of the deployments match up. It sounds like your dad passed recently, very sorry to hear that and I wish all the best for your family. I think he got to work with the SAAF during its golden years. Well funded, fast jets, unusual homemade projects like the Cheetah and that Mirage F.1 with a Mig 29 engine, exciting air shows, there was a glamour about them back then which I'm not sure is still there. It might be! I've been out of country too long now to know.

 

The car was a Ford Sapphire Ghia - my dad's car. He had crashed it and after it was fixed, it had a small water leak that they never managed to resolve. It would also start to get hot during a long run at high speeds, and would settle down if you slowed down to normal highway speeds (120kph), but in SA in the '90s, who drove around at 120kph in a 3 litre Ford? 😇

On this occasion we were running late because I'd had friends back out, hence the round trip to Pretoria to pick up "reserves" and then back towards Johannesburg for the concert, so I was going a bit quicker than 120. On the way back from Pretoria, the temperature started climbing. I slowed down to 120, but this time it didn't cool down. Then it started pinking. We were passing Alexandra and I had a car full of people including my sister so I didn't want to pull over there. No cell phones between us in those days. So I pressed on, but didn't get much farther before there was smoke and the engine stopped. We were happily quite close to a roadside AA phone. I've been told when the tow truck picked us up, I asked the driver to tow us to the concert. I don't remember that particular detail personally 😆 Young and dumb. I'm not young anymore, at least.

 

 

 

 

Thanks @kiseca, yep those were definitely the golden years, the entire current SA military is in disarray, broke, corrupt and they wouldn't even be able to protect 100 meters of our border, in fact they don't even try, a very large percentage of "citizens" are illegal immigrants from up in Africa, and everything our forefathers faught and died for was for nothing. There's a lot of tension, but I'm not a politician so I'll leave it there. 

 

Oh I know those, my father in law had a 2.0! Great cars... Hahaha that's an awesome story! And some things never change, Alexandra is still a no-go, Fords still break down, and we still don't drive 120 😂😂

  • Like 1
  • Haha 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I like this very much. The painting is lovely and makes me think of the colours as seen under strong southern sunlight. I'm very impressed by the sheen on the model, not quite matt and definitely not satin. Eggshell, I guess is the term.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 31/03/2022 at 07:35, Erabe said:

Funny story... After it was all done I was sitting watching youtube and fiddling with a red sharpie and a clear ballpoint pen and started coloring in the clear plastic and it worked so well I put the sharpie in my modelling toolkit! I'll just need to buy a green one and a blue one.. so yes and thank for the tip

That's great.. glad you discovered this method ! it works well i think! and again, a superb model! Regards, Andy

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 7 months later...

I really love your work; the paintjob is fantastic. I couldn't tell that it's "just" your 3rd aircraft you've build. But I'm amazed by the ladder you've build. the weathering, the bend upper stair and the used look is fantastic! You've done your father proud.

Edited by Fred piket
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 5 months later...
On 31/03/2022 at 17:29, Erabe said:

 

Thanks and nice one with the R2Z! These are smallish birds so I wouldn't be able to get close to this finish in 1:48, and in 1:32 its marginally bigger than my 1:48 Phantom, but if you're doing camo the white tac worms work very well, just watch a few videos because I thought I knew what I was doing but there is a trick to the spray angle. I made the worms match the reference pics and then in between the worms I put down wax paper, and trimmed into the white tac with a scalpel blade and pulled off the excess, took about 2 hours to do the whole thing, so it's not too time consuming. 

 

When did your grandfather serve? My dad was very close to a few radar guys in the 80s... sadly I never knew them by name. 

 

I'd love to do an Impala in NMF, but I can promise you if I ever find a SAAF kit for sale I will make sure to build it. Thanks for the comments and awesome story @NFR

 

 

Thanks for the tips, worked a treat on the F1 CZ I ended up building instead. 

 

He was stationed at Langebaanweg for about 20 years, Then moved to Ysterplaat. Reggie Roos was his name. 

 

Italeri do a 1/48 Impala and there is a superbly built scratch built SAAF one, in 1/32, on imodeler! Also, Scaleworx is releasing a 1/32 F1 CZ if you're still looking for that stablemate.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 9 months later...

Hello Erabe

Lovely model and detail.

Where can l purchase a 1/32 kit in SA?

Thank you

Regards

Edited by ChrisSA
Spelling
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...