F.1! Italeri "Bye Bye" Mirage F.1 1/48

[kiseca]

Mirage F.1. Dassault somehow have a habit of designing a bit of style into their jets. Whether it is intentional or not, I don't know, but their fighters are often very easy on the eye. None more so, in my opinion, than the Mirage F.1. Even the name is evocative.

 

For me, perhaps because of the generation I am, very few designs visually capture the performance, athleticism and lethality of a supersonic jet fighter with as much grace as a Mirage F.1 manages.

 

There are very few options for an F.1 in 1/48 and the aged Esci one is generally acknowledged as the one to have. It has some inaccuracies but for its age it actually goes together rather well. I bought the Italeri "Bye Bye" boxing of this kit simply because, with it being the youngest boxing of the anciend Esci kit available, it seemed the one least likely to have any warping or damage on it.

 

I was originally going to do a SAAF CZ but when my I saw the desert camo option available in the boxing, I knew I had to do that. It's a change from the usual green / brown / grey camo I usually have and the tail treatment is particularly striking with the black flashes on the vertical fin echoes in the twin dorsal fins beneath the tail.

 

The build is completely OOB with the exception of the scratch built, removable intake covers which I made primarily to mask off the intakes while painting the model. I'll reuse these on the next F.1 I build. Paints are mostly Vallejo Model Air with a few exceptions: The aluminium underside is an old and dull tin of Humbrol 11 (Silver) which also serves as the primer coat for the camo colours, the nosecone is Tamiya acrylics (flat black and dark iron mixed), and the ECM pod thingy on the port wing (station 2?) Is Revell steel enamel because I wanted to give that paint a try (It looks nice enough but was an absolute pain to clean the airbrush... and it stinks) . All other metals are Vallejo Metal Color. Panel lines and (minimal) weathering is all a pastel wash. Varnish was Vallejo spray gloss before decals, and Windsor & Newton Galeria matt varnish final top coat to set the finish and seal everything in.

 

There are a few mistakes I've made which I could have avoided with more research or forward planning. One was the navigation lights on the wings, which aren't called out in the kit's painting instructions. There are two little teardrop shaped bumps, one under each wingtip, which are kind of shaped like navigation lights sometimes are, so I painted those red and green. Turns out those bumps should be body colour and the actual nav lights are two little rectangular sections on the front section of each wingtip. I know better for next time. The other is two quite prominent decals that should go on either side of the ejection seat headrest. These are not marked in the instructions when the seat is assembled, but only called out with the rest of the exterior decals. By the time I had gotten to them the cockpit was all sealed up and I wasn't going to crack it open to add them.

 

Overall, a very pleasant build especially considering the kits age. So much so that I've bought aftermarket decals for two more.

 

Build thread is here:

 

And now for the pictures.

 

 

 

 

 

Not sure why this one displays sideways..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks for looking!

Edited August 28, 2022 by kiseca

[Slater]

Superb looking Mirage. That desert scheme is especially eye-catching.

[Slater]

It does seem to bear a passing resemblance to Morocco's F-16 camo scheme:

 

http://

[kiseca]

Yeah, very similar. Also reminds me of the Israeli F-16s from Iron Eagle, though it looks like they have some green in them as well.

[GiampieroSilvestri]

Very nice Mirage F1!

The Escadre de chasse 2/33 Savoie based in Mont de Marsan in southern France painted three Mirage F1 in the camouflage schemes the aircraft had in armee de l'air service for the last flight of French Mirage F1 in june of 2014.The desert camouflage was used on aircraft based in Djibouti.

 

Saluti

 

Giampiero

[Unfinished project]

Nice F-1 done to perfection. quite a sleek purposeful aircraft in my eyes and looks good in the desert camo. 

[kiseca]

17 hours ago, GiampieroSilvestri said:

Very nice Mirage F1!

The Escadre de chasse 2/33 Savoie based in Mont de Marsan in southern France painted three Mirage F1 in the camouflage schemes the aircraft had in armee de l'air service for the last flight of French Mirage F1 in june of 2014.The desert camouflage was used on aircraft based in Djibouti.

 

Saluti

 

Giampiero

Thanks for that. The Italeri instructions are very light on information about the three aircraft or why it calls this the "bye bye" edition. An easy enough guess that it is to do with retiring the F.1 but the kit gives no indication what made the three aircraft depicted significant for that event.

 

I searched internet images of the aircraft I built while researching / verifying the colours but I didn't go into its history. So it's nice to have a little bit of background added for them as well. Thanks very much!

[exdraken]

very nice, great work!

[exdraken]

On 8/28/2022 at 5:21 PM, Slater said:

It does seem to bear a passing resemblance to Morocco's F-16 camo scheme:

 

this scheme is a commemorative/ retirement  scheme, one the F1 wore on deployment in Djibuti, or elsewhere in Africa.

 

It is more like the Maroccan F-16 resemble those schemes a bit!  

[Slater]

30 minutes ago, exdraken said:

this scheme is a commemorative/ retirement  scheme, one the F1 wore on deployment in Djibuti, or elsewhere in Africa.

 

It is more like the Maroccan F-16 resemble those schemes a bit!  

Either way, they're both attractive schemes.

[Pantherhawk27263]

Beautiful job on a beautiful plane!!! Very nicely done!

[Tokyo Raider]

Great job!  Love the cammo

[stevehnz]

Let's hear it for modern fast jets in desert schemes, a great favourite of mine, I have a SH F.1 kit with a similar scheme in stock. I really like this one too.

Steve.

[exdraken]

2 minutes ago, stevehnz said:

Let's hear it for modern fast jets in desert schemes, a great favourite of mine, I have a SH F.1 kit with a similar scheme in stock. I really like this one too.

Steve.

some of the inspirations of the commemorative scheme:

 

 

there were darker and lighter schemes, depending on the operational theater and time frame

 

C, CR, at CT versions carried such schemes at times, sometimes even with a decorative and fearsome sharkmouth! ( 🇫🇷 gueule de requin!)

 

https://www.traditions-air.fr/unit_en/photo/561-4.htm

 

https://www.airhistory.net/photo/208874/265

 

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mirage_F1C_(26701300084).jpg

 

https://www.escadrilles.org/histoire-et-histoires/f-1-bleus/

 

https://www.escadrilles.org/histoire-et-histoires/f-1cr-et-ct/

[kiseca]

1 hour ago, stevehnz said:

Let's hear it for modern fast jets in desert schemes, a great favourite of mine, I have a SH F.1 kit with a similar scheme in stock. I really like this one too.

Steve.

Nice! I hope you'll be sharing that build on Britmodeller when it's done?

 

I need to get another two because there are two more F.1 liveries I want to do. I considered going for them in 1/72 but one of them will be a SAAF aircraft and I already have a SAAF Impala in 1/48 so I'll stick with that.

 

I bought these in 1/48 from FFSMC along with SAAF decals. If I get a Mirage III then I can do a SAAF jets of the 1980s collection (should add a Buccaneer too) and I will have enough F.1s to keep me happy. I think.