Les Chevaliers Du Ciel

[Enzo the Magnificent]

My build for this GB will be two Special Hobby Mirage IIICs.  Both in NMF: one will be in Israeli markings and the other will be in Ad'lA markings.  In fact it will be one of the aircraft featured in the classic French televsion series Les Chevaliers Du Ciel.    This series was dubbed into English and broadcast in the UK durings school summer holidays, together with other classics such as Belle & Sebastian, Robinson Crusoe and The Flashing Blade.

 

 

Dontcha just love it when the Mirage engages its rocket motor and simply disappears off the top of the screen!   

[Sam]

Hello Enzo, welcome aboard!

Only two you‘re building, only two (2)??? 😎

Great to have you here, enjoy your stay!

[Enzo the Magnificent]

13 minutes ago, Sam said:

Only two you‘re building, only two (2)??? 😎

Omnia mutantur

[Sam]

8 minutes ago, Enzo the Magnificent said:

Omnia mutantur

…. nihil interit 😜

 

[Enzo the Magnificent]

28 minutes ago, Sam said:

…. nihil interit 😜

 

a classical scholar.

[TEMPESTMK5]

Good evening Enzo

Welcome to the Gb

Have fun and enjoy your build

Best regards

Patrice

[Enzo the Magnificent]

Rather than insult you all with my pathetic efforts to provide sprue shots, let me direct you to Mike's excellent review of this kit.

 

 

 

 

 

[John]

"The Aeronauts". The baddies seemed to have unlimited access to Fouga Magisters 😃

 

John 

[Enzo the Magnificent]

[Wings unlevel]

Looks like Tanguy and Laverdure had some high-flying adventures!

[TEMPESTMK5]

On 10/02/2023 at 10:45, Wings unlevel said:

Looks like Tanguy and Laverdure had some high-flying adventures!

 

Good morning my friend 

I found this on Youtube

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eoxHhYyRIL0

 

Enjoy despite it is only in french with "home made" subtiltles Best regards Patrice 

[Wings unlevel]

11 hours ago, TEMPESTMK5 said:

I found this on Youtube

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eoxHhYyRIL0

 

Enjoy

Thanks Patrice. I can see many entertaining hours ahead watching these! Some of the flying scenes are superb!

[Enzo the Magnificent]

First step: build the fuselage interior components.

 

 

That's a long fuselage with few joining surfaces on the undersurface.  Lots of opportunities for things to turn to worms... 

 

 

Fears unfounded!    The jetpipe assembly provides a lot of structural integrity at the rear end.   Proceed carefully with assembly and everything falls naturally into place.      I particularly like the one piece cockpit tub and one piece nose gear bay.  These ensure that the nose area fits together nicely with no problems fitting the nose undersurface.   I found this was an issue with the Modelsvit kit.  Both cockpit and gear bay are built up from numerous components and if you don't get the fit perfect, it causes major problems with the forward fuselage assembly.

 

 

Lower wing components.  There are two options on the sprue for the rectangular panel.   I assume one of them is for the forthcoming IIIE kit.

 

 

Wing ready for assembly.

 

 

 

 

[Sam]

1 hour ago, Enzo the Magnificent said:

Proceed carefully with assembly and everything falls naturally into place

I don’t have as much experience as most of our buddies here on britmodeler, but my year of kit building has certainly thought me that. Work cleanly, precise and carefully, test-fit, use as little glue as necessary. 
 

 

[Enzo the Magnificent]

1 minute ago, Sam said:

Work cleanly, precise and carefully, test-fit, use as little glue as necessary. 
 

 

It's a simple lesson to learn, but one that I need to re-learn over and over...   

[Sam]

7 minutes ago, Enzo the Magnificent said:

 

It's a simple lesson to learn, but one that I need to re-learn over and over...   

same here. It‘s a matter of constantly  saying no to „oh well that’s good enough“

[Enzo the Magnificent]

5 minutes ago, Sam said:

same here. It‘s a matter of constantly  saying no to „oh well that’s good enough“

 

That's an excellent comment.  I spent twenty-odd years in the RAF, living my life to the adage "good enough never is". 

 

Although sometimes one can fall into a cycle of ever diminishing returns.  The skill is to be aware of that and to know when to break out.  I recently fell into that cycle in my lifting bodies project.  

 

https://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/235115172-we-have-the-technology/

 

[Sam]

5 minutes ago, Enzo the Magnificent said:

I spent twenty-odd years in the RAF, living my life to the adage "good enough never is". 

Congratulations to your career. We all seem to be cut from the same cloth. 

Edited February 17, 2023 by Sam
Typo

[Rabbit Leader]

Nice start Enzo and although being an active modeller for over 40 years, I’m still learning and trying to be more careful with every build. At times it seems like a slow approach, however getting it right first time does tend to save time with every ‘recovery’ session that seems to occur during most builds. Your Mirage is looking great. 

Cheers.. Dave 

[TEMPESTMK5]

Good morning Enzo

Very good start

Best regards

Patrice

[Hook]

16 hours ago, Enzo the Magnificent said:

I assume one of them is for the forthcoming IIIE kit.

SEPR-rocket equipped and therefore cannonless French IIIC options in the upcoming boxing, I'd wager.

 

Nice progress!

 

Cheers,

 

Andre

[Enzo the Magnificent]

Ready for main assembly.

 

 

et voila!

 

 

Fins fitted and joints polished.  Ready for priming.

 

 

I have really enjoyed these kits so far.  So much so that I am going to start another in the Recce GB at the weekend. 

[Rabbit Leader]

Those two look great and there’s a third on the way!! You’re a Mirage Machine Enzo.. excellent work. 
Cheers.. Dave 

[Enzo the Magnificent]

I applied a pre-primer coat of lacquer and followed it up with grey plastic primer from a rattle can.

 

 

The next step was to spray a base silver coat from a rattle can.  I the sprayed AK Xtreme Metal AK479 Aluminium over the top.  Once sealed with another coat of lacquer, I proceeded to start the masking.

 

 

Masking and spraying is a very laborious process.  Once one phase has been done, it starts all over again!   I have used a selection of AK Xtreme Metal colours: AK480 Dark Aluminium and AK482 Duralumin.  However, I find if they are used straight from the bottle the contrast with AK479 is too great.  I therefore mixed both with AK479 until I was happy with the contrast.  To put things in persepctive, the two fuselage bands (which should be a dark colour) are straight AK480.  The elevons are a lighter colour which is Alcald II ALC-119 Airframe Aluminium.

 

[Rabbit Leader]

Lovely work Enzo. I find that rather than mixing metallic colours to overcome the contrast, an overall light spray of one of the lighter or brighter metals might work to blend things in at the end. Believe me, I’m no NMF expert, but this could be another way around the same issue. These two Mirages are really coming up rather nicely mate. Nice progress.

 

Cheers.. Dave