Go big or go home: Revell 1:32 Mirage III

[Tentacles]

Not my usual subject, not my usual scale. And this is my first WIP, and this is my first group-build. So there is plenty of scope for messing up & fauxes pases (sp???). Be gentle with me.

 

I am going to attempt this:
 

 

(Note battle-damage to box from the lively Christmas party I was gifted this at)

Today has been about cleaning up parts & squiriting some Tamiya flat black, which I hope will act as a basecoat & pre-shade for the shiny, silvery bits:

 

 

 

This build is going to be OOB, and in the box-art scheme. Colour/paint choices will be driven by "close-enough" as I'm cluttered with too many pots & tinlets & want to use some up.

 

I usually do 1:72 single-seat props, but it's nice to be working with pieces I can actually see for a change. However, I've no idea where I'll put it when it's done. It's... big.

 

I started it on a whim this morning and then saw this group build by chance. So it seemed like fate. Thanks for having me.

 

 

 

Edited February 11, 2023 by Tentacles

[Wings unlevel]

 

1 hour ago, Tentacles said:

Not my usual subject, not my usual scale. And this is my first WIP, and this is my first group-build.

Glad to see you’re going the whole hog! I love that scheme, I’m sure you’ll finish up with a beautiful result.

[Sam]

Welcome to the GB world @Tentacles!

Thank you for adding a big bird to our flightline!

 

I‘ve never built a 1/32 scale myself, but it‘s certainly on my to-do list. 
 

Looking forward to your build. 

[TEMPESTMK5]

Good morning Tentacles

Welcome aboard have fun and enjoy your build ..

Best regards

Patrice

[Tentacles]

Thanks all for your kind words.

 

12 hours ago, Sam said:

I‘ve never built a 1/32 scale

Me neither, but I'm enjoying it so far. Less fiddly.

 

So, earlier today I was here:

 

...with all U/C gubbins etc basecoated ready for a coat of aluminium, as per the instructions. Not sure this is totally correct - online references seem to vary. Hmm.

 

By this evening, I had got to here:

 

 

This is fast, for me. Not sure I like the seat colour - the green seat cushion is too dark and too shiny to my eye, and again references seem to differ from the instructions. But as I plan to dirty it up with a wash, it'll do for now.

 

Thanks for looking. Tomorrow's plan is to pick out tiny spots of colour in the cockpit tub.

[exdraken]

wow, great start!

 

indeed looks big and plentyful!

 

 

boxart scheme looks fantastic! great choice by REvell and yourself

 

 

[The Spadgent]

Looking good. Two to follow and three being built. Wowza fantastic. Good luck with this big bird. 🙌🤩

 

Johnny

[bianfuxia]

looks amazing - are they truck tyres on those sprues? The tread looks pretty epic.

[Tentacles]

On 2/14/2023 at 11:10 PM, The Spadgent said:

Looking good. Two to follow and three being built. Wowza fantastic. Good luck with this big bird. 🙌🤩

 

Johnny

Thanks! Seems we have a very small groupbuild of a very large kit

 

19 hours ago, bianfuxia said:

looks amazing - are they truck tyres on those sprues? The tread looks pretty epic.

Kinda - I won't be using it, but there's an option to display the engine on a trolley. Like this:

 

Not much* progress to report tonight, life has been getting in the way of modelling. Not to mention nearly forgetting about Valentine's day... More soon...

 

*ie: none

[Tentacles]

Small progress following a long sessions last night and today. Mainly, I have been spraying silver things:

... plus a load of other bits still on the sprues.

This took ages, I forgot I hate airbrushing Humbrol enamels even more than I hate  hairy-sticking Tamiya acrylics. This took all night, as the airbrush kept getting blocked. The finish is not great, especially on the larger areas like jet pipe internals. I hope these'll mostly be hidden. Despite what I said earlier about reducing my paint stocks, I think I'll have to get some other paint for the overall NMF finish.
 

Picked out a few details in colour, mainly speculatively:

 

Cockpit decals are nice, and seem to be reacting well to Revell Decalsoft. Decals for the seatbelts are also included, but not sure I'll use them, I'm not sure they'll look 3D enough for this scale.

 

I'll give the wheelwells a wash with black watercolour, still not decided if best to do this before or after assembly. I'm keen to start glueing more things together.
 

Finally, I've been a bit distracted the last couple of days, as we have a new family member - my daughter's new minature daschund puppy. Ceaser is 3 months old, and already a real lady-killer:

 

 

 

 

 

[Sam]

 

Nice detailing work in the cockpit. I especially like the way you painted the seat. 

Edited February 19, 2023 by Sam

[The Spadgent]

Looking good. I’d glue stuff together before doing washes. It’ll help getting grime into the corners and such. But ‘Tis your kid and you can do as you please. Ceaser looks like he’s going to be quite the hand full. 🦴

 

 Johnny

[Wings unlevel]

Great looking instrument panel. Gorgeous looking puppy!

[Tentacles]

11 hours ago, Sam said:

Nice detailing work in the cockpit. I especially like the way you painted the seat. 

Thanks! I'm still not 100% happy with the seat cushion colour, but I've been on this part of the build for a week, so time to move on. Just realised that if I'm not going to decal it, it needs a matt coat now.

 

8 hours ago, The Spadgent said:

Looking good. I de used to glue stuff together before doing washes. It’ll help getting grime into the corners and such.

That was my original idea, but then I realised I want the (simulated) shadow at the top of the wells, and that's easiest done before they're built. So I had a go with some dilute humbrol enamel wash to see how that would make them look. Meh, so, so... I'm not great at washes anyway. I'll probably chuck a load of very dilute black paint over them once they're assembled to grime them up a bit.

48 minutes ago, Wings unlevel said:

Great looking instrument panel.

Thanks - it's all down to the decals which seem really good.

 

49 minutes ago, Wings unlevel said:

Gorgeous looking puppy!

Isn't he?

[ScheF15]

Hi @Tentacles, I pulled up a chair! Great fun to see how you are getting along with the same kit I am building. Your results thus far look better than mine 😅

 

Cheerio,

Rob

[Rabbit Leader]

Apologies for getting onto this thread so late. Thats a big brave kit to start off as your first GB, but your’e making a great start,  so well done and keep going. This will look amazing once built. 

Cheers.. Dave 

[Tentacles]

On 2/23/2023 at 1:33 PM, ScheF15 said:

Great fun to see how you are getting along with the same kit I am building. Your results thus far look better than mine

Thanks! I'm not sure I'd agree, considering how much you've assembled while I've been agonising over the cushion colours. (Lucky that Mirage cockpits don't also have a carpet & curtains, or I'd never get anywhere...)

 

On 2/23/2023 at 5:52 PM, Rabbit Leader said:

Apologies for getting onto this thread so late. Thats a big brave kit to start off as your first GB, but your’e making a great start,  so well done and keep going. This will look amazing once built. 

Cheers.. Dave 

"Hello Rabbit Leader - thought you might come in from the sun!"

 

I took some photos last night. I started off here at about 9pm:

 

The cockpit sidewalls and backplate were a bit fiddly to get together. The sort of job that really needs 3 or 4 hands to do. I put blobs of stringy old-school cement in the corners to hold things in place while I flooded the seams with TET. I was worried that the liquid cement might wash through and ruin the decals & paintwork, but I got away with it.

 

 

Although part of me wonders if I shouldn't have made more effort to add seatbelts, I'm well pleased with the cockpit. [Glances over shoulder, leans in and whispers:] sometimes if I'm doing something in 1/72 with one of those ancient, thick canopies, I don't bother with a cockpit at all.

 

The front wheel well buts onto the back of the cockpit tub, which then joins to the fuselage thus:

 

 

It's just resting in position here, I'll glue it later on in the build. The fit seems very tenous indeed, especially around the front, so am considering options here. I might also add some nose-weight into the area under the seat, although the instructions would have  you put it in the nose-cone.

 

By 11:30pm, I had got to here:

 

 

It pays to take your time with the intake trunking, as the fit is not at all obvious, at least to a predominantly props guy like me.

 

Next up - dirtying up the wheel wells, and then some more assembly. I would love to get this closed up by Sunday night, but we shall see. Might post more later on.

 

[Biggles87]

Some fast progress there.

I like the cockpit and seat, you’re a little limited with black ‘pits but there’s enough variation with the seat and IP to break it up.

Lovely puppy too.

 

John

[Wings unlevel]

4 hours ago, Tentacles said:

Glances over shoulder, leans in and whispers:] sometimes if I'm doing something in 1/72 with one of those ancient, thick canopies, I don't bother with a cockpit at all.

Your little secret is safe here! 

[Tentacles]

So, time to update. It's still not closed up, but some progress, mostly fiddly...

 

 

Some surgery needed to add a pitot (?) to the leading edge of the fin. In hindsight I should've cut more roughly and done more fine tuning with a file, as iit needed some filling with PPP, and then some more PPP, and then after about 3 rounds of this and some Mr Dissolved Putty to fill the gaps until I got to here:

 

 

I'll see how it looks under a squirt of primer before deciding if it needs more tidying and/or rescribing, as resinstating that panel line risks completely losing those rivits, which'll then have to be reinstated, and I don't know if I can be bothered.

 

More excitingly:

 

Trunking is installed, and the top halves of the fuselage are together. I wasn't happy with the fit at the rear, and had to split it open and  redo. It's slightly better now, but probably port fuselage side of this model is slightly warped. (I know the modeller is).

 

The fit of the engine was vague as a vague thing, and it look a lot of whittling before I was confident of getting any kind of fit here. It's held in place with lashings of sprueglue, as inspired by @The Spadgent

 

Probably not the last time I will steal his ideas during this build. If you like Mirages, do check out his excellent thread.

 

Cockpit is installed, supported by yet more sprueglue, and further supported by loads and loads and loads and loads and loads of PVA which is holding 20g of fishing weights in place. So far, at least.

 

 

Since taking these pics, I've also shaved a few seams, glued a few subassemblies..  and then:

 

 

Slapped a load of Tamiya basic putty on the fuselage seam last night, as I just wasn't happy with it. This'll need quite a sanding obviously but luckily there are very few fuselage seams to worry about, so I'm about to have at it. Got the house to myself this afternoon, so might post more later.

 

[Biggles87]

Good job on the fin pitot, I noticed that @The Spadgent‘s build doesn’t have one, does it come as an optional part?

 

John

 

[Tentacles]

2 hours ago, Biggles87 said:

Good job on the fin pitot, I noticed that @The Spadgent‘s build doesn’t have one, does it come as an optional part?

 

Thanks! Yes, it's an optional part in mine, and looks like it was added as an afterthought. We're doing the same kit, but different boxings and versions - he's doing the original Italeri IIIC, I'm doing a  Revell IIIE repop.

[The Spadgent]

Looking grand!🤩

be careful of that step on the intakes it’s a real pain to Jimmy into shape. I think I did mine in one big wallop. Not hard to fix just a nuisance. Cockpit looks ace. I wish I had decals for mine.  @Biggles87 yeah nothing to add to my one on the tail. I think there are a few differences between boxing’s. My tail pipe is different too I believe. 

[Tentacles]

Sometimes it's just one damn thing after another, isn't it? Sorry to leave you all hanging. Now where was I? Big, pic-heavy update incoming.

 

I did't get round to posting it at the time, but about 3 weeks ago, I did get her closed up...

 

...and I spent a happily mindless hour rotating the wheels around a well used scalpel blade:

 

 

...and developed significant forearm strength working on the delicate details:

 

Those tabs inside the jetpipe did not come off without a struggle!

 

On 3/5/2023 at 1:16 PM, The Spadgent said:

that step on the intakes it’s a real pain to Jimmy into shape

 

You're not kidding!

 

They're far from perfect, but after about 2 hours of grappling with them I decided to fill, sand back fairly agressively, and (maybe) rescribe the lost detail. You might also notice that the black & yellow ejector seat handle has (inevitably!) snapped off. But I maneged to retrieve it, and am pretty sure I can stick it back later.

 

Not only is the fit of the intakes absolutely minging (techincal term), but it wasn't until the glue had cured that I noticed that I hadn't painted them completely.  Grr!

 

 

I will point an airbrush at it and hope for the best. Back up plan is to fashion FOD covers.

 

It's probably my mistake more than the kit's, but this one is taking up a lot of filler. Here's a picture of the masking, as it looks nicer than the filling:

 

 

You can now just about discern that there's an aeroplane shape underneath all that filler:

 

... and I managed to spill acetone on it as well. But at least it's together now. I have a feeling that this one is going to soak up putty like a sponge, and that nose cone needs some remedial work. I've just ordered a scribing template, and a load of sandpaper - there's a chance this one's going to be closer to 1/72 size by the time I'm done with it.

[Wings unlevel]

There’s a fine line between pleasure and pain! Looking good from here though.