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paint on

I'm sick of cutting out paper masks, so decided to give the blu-tac worms & masking tape method another go. In the past, this has given me a demaraction between the two camo colours that i viewed as too harsh (I love a diffuse line between the colours which i get with paper propped up with little balls of blu-tac).

However, most of my ref pics show a hard demaraction line, so i went with that and it worked out OK. I think with the right airbrush to surface angle (ie 90 deg) you could get a more diffuse result, but i tended to get the angle down to 45 deg and shoot under the edge of the blu-tac worms a bit.

BTW i had a pot of Tamyia dark gull grey, but had to mix the dark green myself using MM USMC Green with a bit of Tamyia flat black added.

Sorry - pretty crap pic again - my photography skills are disappearing

Camo0004.jpg

Edited by Thommo
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:D, Zotting around in the back seat of a Miracle at Mach 1.6 Ray? You lucky bugger. The closest I ever got was being all suited up ready to walk out the door with helmet in hand when the Orderly Room Sgt walked in and said "LAC Blackford, you won't mind giving up your ride for a female journo will you?" From memory my reply went something along the lines of "The hell I won't. I've waited 4 1/2 years for this ride and I'm posted in 3 weeks. She can wait." To which he said "Well that's just tough luck mate, you're going to give her your ride whether you like it or not." About a week later I was sitting in the mess with one of the Safety Equipos and he told me that the reason why she had taken my ride was she was sleeping with one of the "bograts" and wanted to do a story on flying the Mirage for one of the local rags." Suddenly she didn't seem so attractive as she had when I first saw her.

:soapbox:,

Ross.

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:D, Zotting around in the back seat of a Miracle at Mach 1.6 Ray? You lucky bugger. The closest I ever got was being all suited up ready to walk out the door with helmet in hand when the Orderly Room Sgt walked in and said "LAC Blackford, you won't mind giving up your ride for a female journo will you?" From memory my reply went something along the lines of "The hell I won't. I've waited 4 1/2 years for this ride and I'm posted in 3 weeks. She can wait." To which he said "Well that's just tough luck mate, you're going to give her your ride whether you like it or not." About a week later I was sitting in the mess with one of the Safety Equipos and he told me that the reason why she had taken my ride was she was sleeping with one of the "bograts" and wanted to do a story on flying the Mirage for one of the local rags." Suddenly she didn't seem so attractive as she had when I first saw her.

:cheers:,

Ross.

Sooooo....my quip about the brunette in the back seat was pretty close to the mark perhaps ;)

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Nice looking Miracle there Thommo. What colours did you use for the camo? Here's a link for Aussie Mirages that I started over at AMI that you may wish to add yours to later but in the mean time use for reference.

http://www.aussiemodeller.com/pages/Galler...ialGallery.html

Regards

Andrew :D

i used Tamyia dark sea grey for the top camo grey (as indicated in the Hiplanes decal sheet i got), mixed MM USMC green & Tamyia flat black for the green. Underneath i used MM light ghost grey, lightened further with a bit of Tamyia flat white.

good link thanks Andrew :cheers:

i can't see an A3-101 on there, so if you like you can add a pic of mine when it's done

i think i'm gonna have a few problems with the alignment of the Hiplanes yellow tail decal after doing afew measurements and the decal that the Rescue arrow points to is wrong for a 2 seater, but i'll improvise ;)

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Ah yes, I had that issue to with the 'rescue' decal and canopy release decal with my 1/48 twin seater (A3-105 on the AMI site). When done email it to me via my email addy off AMI with your references etc and I'll get it added.

Regards

Andrew

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:P, Zotting around in the back seat of a Miracle at Mach 1.6 Ray? You lucky bugger. The closest I ever got was being all suited up ready to walk out the door with helmet in hand when the Orderly Room Sgt walked in and said "LAC Blackford, you won't mind giving up your ride for a female journo will you?" From memory my reply went something along the lines of "The hell I won't. I've waited 4 1/2 years for this ride and I'm posted in 3 weeks. She can wait." To which he said "Well that's just tough luck mate, you're going to give her your ride whether you like it or not." About a week later I was sitting in the mess with one of the Safety Equipos and he told me that the reason why she had taken my ride was she was sleeping with one of the "bograts" and wanted to do a story on flying the Mirage for one of the local rags." Suddenly she didn't seem so attractive as she had when I first saw her.

:salute:,

Ross.

I saw my fair share of that happening as well, not even journos but female RAAF memebrs form other units onthe base. We were peeved that 'foreigners' were getting our rides! I was lucky in that 77SQN had all the duals and hours to burn, so the CO tried to put as many troops in back seats as possible before ops wound up and the SQN converted to Hornets.

Edited by Trojan Thunder
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:P,

Grrrrrrrrrrrr!!!! This incident happened in 1981 when OCU had all the duals and hours to burn. About the only female members to get rides then were OCU staff and they got on the end of the list when they were posted in and waited their turn like the rest of us.

:salute:,

Ross.

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;),

Grrrrrrrrrrrr!!!! This incident happened in 1981 when OCU had all the duals and hours to burn. About the only female members to get rides then were OCU staff and they got on the end of the list when they were posted in and waited their turn like the rest of us.

:doh:,

Ross.

well all this talk about girls in the back of miracles only justifies my decision to leave the rear throttle quadrant out ;)

what is OCU? is that a training division in the RAAF?

also, i note some pics of the twin seaters show a sort of windshield behind the front ejection seat - was this standard in all 2 seat mirages? If so, i might have to scratch something up.

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well all this talk about girls in the back of miracles only justifies my decision to leave the rear throttle quadrant out :whistle:

what is OCU? is that a training division in the RAAF?

also, i note some pics of the twin seaters show a sort of windshield behind the front ejection seat - was this standard in all 2 seat mirages? If so, i might have to scratch something up.

Hey Thommo,

OCU is Operational Conversion Unit

:monkeydance:

Brendon

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:). Or to give it its correct name Number 2 (F) OCU, the (F) standing for Fighter, so it's Number 2 (Fighter) Operational Conversion Unit and it's based at Williamtown. However since the demise of No 1 ( B ) OCU (B for Bomber) Canberra Conversion Unit in the early 1970s the fighter OCU has since generally been known simply as OCU.

:unsure:,

Ross.

Edited by ross blackford
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well all this talk about girls in the back of miracles only justifies my decision to leave the rear throttle quadrant out :cheers:

what is OCU? is that a training division in the RAAF?

also, i note some pics of the twin seaters show a sort of windshield behind the front ejection seat - was this standard in all 2 seat mirages? If so, i might have to scratch something up.

Thommo as you can see from the last few posts, OCU stands for Operational Conversion Unit, but in relation to the shield you talk about all RAAF duals had them. Off the top of my head I can't recall why they were fitted. Also that knob on the port side panel in the cockpit didn't exist from the pics I have of RAAF duals but if you didn't know don't worry about it. I actually have the front instrument panel from a dual seat Mirage which if I had've seen your post early in the piece would've sent you a pic of for reference. If you're going to build more RAAF Mirages in the future may I suggest you try and get yourself a copy of "Mirage IIIO-Colors and Markings" by Darren Mottram and Paul Mason. It is THE BIBLE for all things Mirage in RAAF markings.

Regards

Andrew :monkeydance:

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And this is what I've got to work with - kit via Ebay (bloody expensive too :rofl: )

Hi Thommo, I picked up the same kit about four years ago with the exact same intention that you have! I found mine in a toyshop on Norfolk Island though, for about $8-9 AUD.

They had a few on the shelf (along with the Matchbox BF-109E which I also picked up), one or two are probably still there....

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thanks for all that info guys

my sister-in-law lives at Bobs Farm which is just down the road from Williamtown, so i see the RAAF fighters zotting around there a lot when we visit. There is (was?) a bombing range across the bay from them and as their house is high up in the sandhills overlooking the bay, you can watch the fighters lining up for their runs and going around

looks like i'll have to build that windscreen too

Mumbles - i'm looking for a 1970's Matchbox Mirage for my collection (the single seater). See them on ebay from time to time, but the prices are crazy.

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:D, Zotting around in the back seat of a Miracle at Mach 1.6 Ray? You lucky bugger. The closest I ever got was being all suited up ready to walk out the door with helmet in hand when the Orderly Room Sgt walked in and said "LAC Blackford, you won't mind giving up your ride for a female journo will you?" From memory my reply went something along the lines of "The hell I won't. I've waited 4 1/2 years for this ride and I'm posted in 3 weeks. She can wait." To which he said "Well that's just tough luck mate, you're going to give her your ride whether you like it or not." About a week later I was sitting in the mess with one of the Safety Equipos and he told me that the reason why she had taken my ride was she was sleeping with one of the "bograts" and wanted to do a story on flying the Mirage for one of the local rags." Suddenly she didn't seem so attractive as she had when I first saw her.

:cheers:,

Ross.

Hi Ross, my brother in law is a maintainer in the RNZAF, currently on UH-1's with 3Sqn, but spent most of his career before that on Skyhawks either with 75Sqn or the AMS at Ohakea. He has a similar story to yours about backseat rides in A-4's in their last couple of years of service, and how various hangers on with no particular association with the aircraft kept getting rides ahead of the guys who really deserved them. He got bumped a few times before making some noise about it, no doubt mentioning he had been working on the aircraft for close to ten years, and finally got an hour in the backseat of a TA-4K as a result.

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Mumbles - i'm looking for a 1970's Matchbox Mirage for my collection (the single seater). See them on ebay from time to time, but the prices are crazy.

Been a long time since I've seen one of those. I got given one in 1984 or so as an 8th birthday present (it proudly wears both SAAF and Armee de l'aire markings to this day, on unpainted plastic naturally).

The shop on NI only had the duals, otherwise I would have grabbed a single seater as well. If the prices on Ebay are too crazy, maybe the NZ equivalent www.trademe.co.nz would be worth a look for you. Old matchbox stuff comes up fairly frequently, and the prices often stay within the realms of sensibility. I picked up the Matchbox JU-87D a couple of days ago for the princely sum of $12 NZD.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Finished

not my best attempt, but OK. Was a little dissappointed with the decals, they silvered a bit and some had white edges outside the decal colour. I also had some trouble with the nose antenae - busted it off twice during the build B)

Final0016.jpg

Final0014.jpg

Final0010-1.jpg

I've started the Norseman i won in last years raffle now, will do as an OOB to try to get done in time.

Edited by Thommo
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<_<, You and me both Ray. Thommo, that is a beautiful job mate, almost brings a tear to my sentimental old eyes. You've got the look just right and I especially like the windshield between the cockpits and the beautiful clear canopy.

:whistle:,

Ross.

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