ALF18 Posted May 22, 2014 Share Posted May 22, 2014 (edited) After the poll has produced a few results, I will get started on the kit. The Mirage is the same kit, with options for natural metal schemes. The Aussie ones were natural metal at first, then silver-painted; I would do a natural metal one. French ones were natural metal. The Sabre would be a natural metal scheme as well. Looking forward to seeing which one wins out! ALF Poll closed. Thanks for voting. The RAAF Mirage III won handily. Now it's time to build it! Edited May 25, 2014 by ALF18 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Neo Posted May 23, 2014 Share Posted May 23, 2014 Kangoro all the way Quote Link to post Share on other sites
ALF18 Posted May 23, 2014 Author Share Posted May 23, 2014 It's looking like a Mirage so far... I'll still allow another 24 hrs of votes before deciding. Thanks to those who have participated so far. ALF Quote Link to post Share on other sites
AX 365 Posted May 23, 2014 Share Posted May 23, 2014 I bet you can deduce which one I voted for. :lol: Which ever it is, I look forward to it. Mike Quote Link to post Share on other sites
ALF18 Posted May 23, 2014 Author Share Posted May 23, 2014 I bet you can deduce which one I voted for. :lol:/> Which ever it is, I look forward to it. Mike Yup. It's not looking like it will be your choice this time... But I will definitely do it soon. I want to do it right, so maybe it's best not to have only six weeks to do it. The subject deserves more respect than that! ALF Quote Link to post Share on other sites
phantom Posted May 23, 2014 Share Posted May 23, 2014 I bet you can deduce which one I voted for. Which ever it is, I look forward to it. Mike You and me, both I should think. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
ALF18 Posted May 25, 2014 Author Share Posted May 25, 2014 You and me, both I should think. For you and Mike, Shawn, I will do a better job on the Sabre than I have time for in this GB. And the winner is... (drum roll): the RAAF Mirage! Thread to be started soon. ALF Quote Link to post Share on other sites
AX 365 Posted May 26, 2014 Share Posted May 26, 2014 I'll get over it. Looking forward to your next project, Mr. Alclad! Mike Quote Link to post Share on other sites
ALF18 Posted May 27, 2014 Author Share Posted May 27, 2014 Here's the kit boxtop. Looks like an easy build, with minimal cockpit detail. There are decals for the instrument panel and side consoles, but I don't mind; it makes it easier for me to do that part, and the cockpit of an aircraft that I am not too personally connected to is just not worth spending too much time on for me. The kit has raised panel lines, but the demarcations are in the right places to give the effect you can see in this linked image. I don't have any free-use photos I can put in the thread, but I am going for this look. http://www.hsgalleries.com/gallery04/images/mirageiiiofranzi05.jpg ALF Quote Link to post Share on other sites
AX 365 Posted May 27, 2014 Share Posted May 27, 2014 And they're off... I like what you're striving for ALF. I like the red speed brakes / spoilers on the wings. A hint of colour to break up the NMF. Mike Quote Link to post Share on other sites
falcon20driver Posted May 27, 2014 Share Posted May 27, 2014 Can't wait to see this one come together. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
ALF18 Posted May 27, 2014 Author Share Posted May 27, 2014 And they're off... I like what you're striving for ALF. I like the red speed brakes / spoilers on the wings. A hint of colour to break up the NMF. Mike I love these schemes, Mike. The French natural metal scheme is quite similar, actually. The red flashes around the intakes, etc. I remember seeing some of these in Europe, and thinking they were some of the most beautiful jets around. The Mirage III, with its pure delta shape, is on my top 5 list of sexiest fighters ever. The Sabre is on that list, as is the 104. The shape is just so clean and sleek looking. ALF Quote Link to post Share on other sites
CorsairMan Posted May 30, 2014 Share Posted May 30, 2014 I loved "flying" the III in Jane's IAF game. Loved the NMF on it too. A little difficult to land though! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
ALF18 Posted May 30, 2014 Author Share Posted May 30, 2014 I loved "flying" the III in Jane's IAF game. Loved the NMF on it too. A little difficult to land though! Deltas have high approach speeds (no flaps, relying on "ram's head" vortices to generate up to 30% of their lift on approach), and a high angle of attack for the approach. Definitely challenging to fly on approach for real, and undoubtedly tough in the game. I think the Mirage III is one of the all-time most beautiful fighters ever made. I saw many of them around Baden in the 70s, both in natural metal and camouflaged, mostly French Air Force, but some Belgian and Swiss (not in Germany, of course!). Here is some progress. The kit is going together fairly easily, with a few exceptions. This is the decal scheme (at the bottom of the sheet). The cockpit is quite basic; I painted it dark grey and black, and used the kit-provided IP and side console decals. The fuselage was simple to put together, and the nose cone will require some fishing weights. I like it that way; putting the weights into a close nose cone is easier than hoping they will stay in place within a more cavernous fuselage like a Sabre. I used a trick I learned from WW II fighter builds for the upper wing to fuselage gaps. I glued the upper portions in place first, then followed up with the one-piece lower wing. Here is the first wing upper in place, with masking tape to help keep the gap closed while the Tamiya Extra-Thin sets. Here's the result on top; almost no gap! The other wing was warped. More after lunch on that. ALF Quote Link to post Share on other sites
ALF18 Posted May 30, 2014 Author Share Posted May 30, 2014 The left wing did not cooperate as much. I glued on the aft portion, and noticed that the front part was warped... or rather it was straighter than it should have been. So I waited for the aft portion to set, then persuaded the rest to conform to where it should sit. Now the bottom half of the wing can be attached. I like the design of this kit, in that all the deep, ugly trenches are hidden underneath where they belong. Even if not well filled, they won't show. Got the nose glued in place, and the lower wing portion. Also trimmed the little wedge-shaped piece in the front of the vertical stabiliser, to ensure a better fit. The nose wheel must be glued in place with the strut, because the two halves hold it in place. Therefore, I attached all the wheels right away, instead of waiting to the end like I usually do. The main gear comes in about 4 pieces, and the locator holes are not exactly deep or solid, so I will have to be careful when handling this one as it gets masked and painted. You can see where I need to trim and fill things on this lower portion of the wing. You gotta love the sleek delta shape. Thanks for stopping by. Gear doors are next, followed by masking of the canopy. I will close up the cockpit, to facilitate painting, as well as to hide the lack of detail inside and minimize dusting breakage over the years. ALF Quote Link to post Share on other sites
AX 365 Posted May 31, 2014 Share Posted May 31, 2014 Looking good buddy. Great progress. Mike Quote Link to post Share on other sites
ALF18 Posted May 31, 2014 Author Share Posted May 31, 2014 I have finished the assembly, and am painting. First step, Tamiya light grey primer everywhere. I will then mask and spray some panels with different hues; gloss black for some, dark grey for others, and the Alclad will be Airframe Aluminum, which should give a varied aspect. Time to go for a bike ride. It has stopped raining, and is up to 16C (about 60F, which is about average for this time of year here in the frozen North). ALF Quote Link to post Share on other sites
ALF18 Posted June 20, 2014 Author Share Posted June 20, 2014 It has been a long time since I updated this. With the advent of my two-month long "summer" vacation (I teach ground school at an Aviation College for a living now), the list of jobs around the house has become very long. I put summer in quotation marks because 75% of the days in the last 3 weeks have been quite cool and windy... 17 to 18 Celsius, with showers, is not what I call summer. We've had about 3 days in the high 20s to almost 30 C. Ugh. But enough complaining. Time for some progress. After the overall light grey Tamiya primer, I masked off large areas and sprayed some Tamiya TS 14 black. After it dried, I masked again, and sprayed some Krylon medium grey. Here is the model just before spraying the medium grey. After the medium grey, here it is unmasked. The two grey colours are very close in hue, so the difference in panels will be subtle. I also had some bleeding here and there. Normally I would have touched it up, but I plan to go for a slightly-weathered look, as if the aircraft had spent some time in the Aussie sun... the land where their winter is nicer than our summer! Here is the effect when the Airframe Aluminum Alclad is sprayed. Not too bad, and not too clean with the imperfections underneath. The only area I am not happy with is the cylinder in the aft area; I will fix that up later. The right leading edge slats are mottled. The real reason for this is impatience; I masked it while the black paint was a little tacky. However, it gives a nice weathered look to the final result, so I am not fixing it. More soon. ALF Quote Link to post Share on other sites
ALF18 Posted June 20, 2014 Author Share Posted June 20, 2014 (edited) Almost there. I brushed Future all over, and have applied the decals. The pitot boom is moulded into the nose cone on this kit. What a pain. Any time I sat the jet on its back to do something, it was putting undue stress on the pitot boom, and it broke off. A little CA glue fixed that, at the end of the process. The canopy is drying, more CA glue there. I like the way the decals bring the finish to life. More pics when the sun comes out and I can shoot it outside. ALF Edited June 20, 2014 by ALF18 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
AX 365 Posted June 20, 2014 Share Posted June 20, 2014 Looks really good to me ALF. You are becoming very adept at this Alclad stuff, aren't you? Another fine job, my good man. Next! Mike Quote Link to post Share on other sites
falcon20driver Posted June 20, 2014 Share Posted June 20, 2014 Oh yea! I like the effect that different underlying colors has on the Alclad. The Mirage looks sharp in a NMF scheme. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Trojan Thunder Posted June 21, 2014 Share Posted June 21, 2014 Nice finish ALF, pity the Italeri roos look like pregnant rats! I have only just seen the thread and I have a couple of observations, pity I did not see this before. RAAF Mirage IIIs did not have the bulged doppler radar fairing under the nose. The RAAF aircraft had a flush mounted fairing. The second thing is the tail cone, it looks like one from a IIIC. I built this kit a long time ago and can't recall if 2 different sized tail cones were included. Oh, one more thing, the orientation of the wing roos is not right. They always face head into the direction of airflow and feet towards the fuselage Check out the diagram below I used to work on these aircraft so this things stick out to me. Like I said nice build though Quote Link to post Share on other sites
ALF18 Posted June 21, 2014 Author Share Posted June 21, 2014 Thanks Mike! Here is the finished product. I'm glad I didn't attempt a more complex build; I ran out of time to do a great job, but it looks like a slightly-weathered RAAF Mirage. It's a "good from 3 feet away" model that adds to the variety of aircraft in my collection. One thing I took away from this GB: if you want a shiny metal surface, use a gloss black undercoat at all costs. Using the light grey gives a dull aluminum look, which is OK for aircraft that are not highly polished, but not the way I like them. Thanks for stopping by. ALF Quote Link to post Share on other sites
falcon20driver Posted June 21, 2014 Share Posted June 21, 2014 I think the finished product looks darn good. I certainly appreciate your participation in this group build. I learnt quite a few lessons for my future builds from your WIPs. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Neo Posted June 22, 2014 Share Posted June 22, 2014 Lookd great Finish looks spot on love the color variation Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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