Mistral

Back to some regular programming . Cheetah D now painted in base colours as follows :
 
Light grey - Mr. Colour 306 (FS367290)
Dark grey - Mr. Colour 305 (FS36118) (x3) + Mr. Colour 366 (FS35164) (x1) + Tamiya X-2 white (x1), then overpsrayed with thinned 366.
 
The SAAF has not published official colour designations for the Cheetahs and I approximate these using reference photos where the white balance in the image appears to be accurate. In this case, I think the colours work. Most Cheetah Ds with the original Mirage IIIE/D undercarriage and framed windshield were painted in an overall medium grey. One of two were painted in the later two-tone grey camouflage prior to being upgraded to 16 ton undercarriage and single pice windshield (and Atar 09K50 engines). One of these was #841 which will be the subject of this model.
 
So, base light grey on and now masking prior to applying dark grey diamond - I use stuff called "Prestic" in South Africa (blutac) rolled into thin worms to give a nice soft edge :
 
 
 
 
Masking removed :
 
 
I've used mottling mask to provide a random patchy appearance to the base colours :
 
 
 

As an interlude to slicing and cutting, I completed the assembly of the cockpit including painting the interiors. Cheetah D cockpit were painted a light grey and not black like the Mirages.
 
 
The instrument panels can be wiggled into position later.
 
And now for the major interface of resin to kit - this required a lot of trimming, sanding and test fitting to get the resin forward fuselage to fit neatly into the kit fuselage :
 
 
 
Snug fit :
 
 

Next is to cut off the lower fuselage intake trunking - once again that vicious little cutter makes its appearance :
 
 

 
Based on my experiences having built 5 other Italeri 32nd Mirage III derivative kits, the best way to avoid a potential nasty wing to fuselage joint is to do the following :
a) Glue each wing lower half to the lower fuselage section and
b) Glue each wing upper half to the upper fuselage sections
With a bit of prep work, the fit is excellent requiring no filler.
 
I've also glued the airbrakes into place allowing them to have a slightly open position as was characteristic for Mirages and Cheetahs at rest. These will not break off as the arms are quite springy - I've had no issues with this in the past 5 kits I've built.
 
This is then followed by cutting away the kit outboard leading edges to take the resin dog tooth sections as can be seen below :
 
 

 
The white strips on the wing leading edges are where I've filled in the slot which the Mirage IIIs had. On the Cheetah D, this was covered and a small wing fence added at that location. These fences are fragile items and will only be glued in upon final assembly.

So next step is to start cutting away the forward fuselage and intakes. The kit intakes are a few mm too long and ScaleWorx provides correct length items as can be seen below :
 
 
 
The forward fuselage is cut away using a circular blade in my dremmel tool. The spine aft of the cockpit must also be removed to allow the two seater spine to be inserted :
 
 
 
In the image above, the prominent intake scoop is of the incorrect configuration - I actually started this model 5 years ago as a Cheetah E conversion which had that shape intake on the starboard side (similar to the Mirage IIIE). The Cheetah D had two larger and more angular shaped intakes in that area each side of the spine - this will be rectified.
 
 

The first operation with the kit parts is to glue the two fuselage halves together. I only glued the top seam. The rear bottom seam near the exhaust is kept unglued as there is some flexibility needed when gluing the wing bottom section. This is then followed be several cuts where the resin parts must be inserted using the ScaleWorx instruction dimensions as a guide :
 
The area in the image below is where the dual seater resin spine must be inserted. The double curvature on the kit upper fuselage is incorrect and must be a smooth curve. So this will require a bit of work once the resin part is glued in place :
 
 
 
Test fitting the vertical stabiliser - the Cheetah D had the same vertical stabiliser shape and size as the Mirage IIIDZ/D2Z. The reason for the resin replacement part is that ScaleWorx has corrected the inaccurate rudder dimensions (kit = too short in span, too deep in chord), corrected the dreadful kit rudder actuator fairing and has provided the rectangular inspection panel which can be seen on the port side of the Cheetah D vertical stabiliser. The Cheetah D EW antenna at the top of the vertical stabiliser is also included :
 
 
 
The resin vertical stabiliser was slightly warped to one side as can be seen below but this was corrected with some hot water persuasion.
 
 

Test fitting the dual seat cockpit section - nice detail and will look great once painted. Note the Mk.10 seats.
 
 
Very loose fit of droopy nose to forward fuselage - it doesn't look great in the image below but actually turns out better once glued in place as later images will show :
 
 
 

The resin parts are indicated in the image above. ScaleWorx supplies the MB.Mk.10 ejection seats used in the Cheetah D. These replaced the Mk.4s used in the Mirage IIIs. Oddly enough, the later (more advanced) Cheetah C used MB.Mk.6 seats 
 
So then, the bad part of any resin set was tackled - removing the bits and pieces from their casting blocks. I did this with a combination of a dremmel operated circular cutter and other methods (and a face mask...).
 
 
I decided to start with the nose gear bay. The two seat Mirage III / Cheetah nose gear retraction system was different to the single seat Mirage III / Cheetah. The resin nose gear bay is lacking in detail and the detail provided is very soft and needs help. The kit retraction arm also needs to be shortened significantly. The kit nose gear leg is a bit of an abomination and needs lots of work.
 
 
 
I added just enough detail with plastic rod, card and fishermans lead wire to create some interest. You can see that the retraction piston has been shortened - not entirely correct but you get the idea... :
 
 
 

Back to some regular programming . Cheetah D now painted in base colours as follows :
 
Light grey - Mr. Colour 306 (FS367290)
Dark grey - Mr. Colour 305 (FS36118) (x3) + Mr. Colour 366 (FS35164) (x1) + Tamiya X-2 white (x1), then overpsrayed with thinned 366.
 
The SAAF has not published official colour designations for the Cheetahs and I approximate these using reference photos where the white balance in the image appears to be accurate. In this case, I think the colours work. Most Cheetah Ds with the original Mirage IIIE/D undercarriage and framed windshield were painted in an overall medium grey. One of two were painted in the later two-tone grey camouflage prior to being upgraded to 16 ton undercarriage and single pice windshield (and Atar 09K50 engines). One of these was #841 which will be the subject of this model.
 
So, base light grey on and now masking prior to applying dark grey diamond - I use stuff called "Prestic" in South Africa (blutac) rolled into thin worms to give a nice soft edge :
 
 
 
 
Masking removed :
 
 
I've used mottling mask to provide a random patchy appearance to the base colours :
 
 
 

So, time for another foray into the Cheetah sanctuary. This time, to give my Cheetah E a friend, I am busy with the Cheetah D. This is based on the Revell reboxing of the Italeri 32nd Mirage IIIE/R as the donor kit and the ScaleWorx Cheetah D resin conversion set :
 
The kit should be well known by now, so no image of the box art is necessary 
 
The ScaleWorx conversion set arrives like this :
 
 
 
Standard baby-blue resin parts - these are not 3D printed but rather of the moulded variety. The set also includes two vacform parts - the canopy and windshield as one item and the wind deflector between the front and rear cockpit. The set is comprehensive in providing all the major and fiddly parts to do an accurate Cheetah D conversion :
 
 
 

Back to some regular programming . Cheetah D now painted in base colours as follows :
 
Light grey - Mr. Colour 306 (FS367290)
Dark grey - Mr. Colour 305 (FS36118) (x3) + Mr. Colour 366 (FS35164) (x1) + Tamiya X-2 white (x1), then overpsrayed with thinned 366.
 
The SAAF has not published official colour designations for the Cheetahs and I approximate these using reference photos where the white balance in the image appears to be accurate. In this case, I think the colours work. Most Cheetah Ds with the original Mirage IIIE/D undercarriage and framed windshield were painted in an overall medium grey. One of two were painted in the later two-tone grey camouflage prior to being upgraded to 16 ton undercarriage and single pice windshield (and Atar 09K50 engines). One of these was #841 which will be the subject of this model.
 
So, base light grey on and now masking prior to applying dark grey diamond - I use stuff called "Prestic" in South Africa (blutac) rolled into thin worms to give a nice soft edge :
 
 
 
 
Masking removed :
 
 
I've used mottling mask to provide a random patchy appearance to the base colours :
 
 
 

Back to some regular programming . Cheetah D now painted in base colours as follows :
 
Light grey - Mr. Colour 306 (FS367290)
Dark grey - Mr. Colour 305 (FS36118) (x3) + Mr. Colour 366 (FS35164) (x1) + Tamiya X-2 white (x1), then overpsrayed with thinned 366.
 
The SAAF has not published official colour designations for the Cheetahs and I approximate these using reference photos where the white balance in the image appears to be accurate. In this case, I think the colours work. Most Cheetah Ds with the original Mirage IIIE/D undercarriage and framed windshield were painted in an overall medium grey. One of two were painted in the later two-tone grey camouflage prior to being upgraded to 16 ton undercarriage and single pice windshield (and Atar 09K50 engines). One of these was #841 which will be the subject of this model.
 
So, base light grey on and now masking prior to applying dark grey diamond - I use stuff called "Prestic" in South Africa (blutac) rolled into thin worms to give a nice soft edge :
 
 
 
 
Masking removed :
 
 
I've used mottling mask to provide a random patchy appearance to the base colours :
 
 
 

Back to some regular programming . Cheetah D now painted in base colours as follows :
 
Light grey - Mr. Colour 306 (FS367290)
Dark grey - Mr. Colour 305 (FS36118) (x3) + Mr. Colour 366 (FS35164) (x1) + Tamiya X-2 white (x1), then overpsrayed with thinned 366.
 
The SAAF has not published official colour designations for the Cheetahs and I approximate these using reference photos where the white balance in the image appears to be accurate. In this case, I think the colours work. Most Cheetah Ds with the original Mirage IIIE/D undercarriage and framed windshield were painted in an overall medium grey. One of two were painted in the later two-tone grey camouflage prior to being upgraded to 16 ton undercarriage and single pice windshield (and Atar 09K50 engines). One of these was #841 which will be the subject of this model.
 
So, base light grey on and now masking prior to applying dark grey diamond - I use stuff called "Prestic" in South Africa (blutac) rolled into thin worms to give a nice soft edge :
 
 
 
 
Masking removed :
 
 
I've used mottling mask to provide a random patchy appearance to the base colours :
 
 
 

Back to some regular programming . Cheetah D now painted in base colours as follows :
 
Light grey - Mr. Colour 306 (FS367290)
Dark grey - Mr. Colour 305 (FS36118) (x3) + Mr. Colour 366 (FS35164) (x1) + Tamiya X-2 white (x1), then overpsrayed with thinned 366.
 
The SAAF has not published official colour designations for the Cheetahs and I approximate these using reference photos where the white balance in the image appears to be accurate. In this case, I think the colours work. Most Cheetah Ds with the original Mirage IIIE/D undercarriage and framed windshield were painted in an overall medium grey. One of two were painted in the later two-tone grey camouflage prior to being upgraded to 16 ton undercarriage and single pice windshield (and Atar 09K50 engines). One of these was #841 which will be the subject of this model.
 
So, base light grey on and now masking prior to applying dark grey diamond - I use stuff called "Prestic" in South Africa (blutac) rolled into thin worms to give a nice soft edge :
 
 
 
 
Masking removed :
 
 
I've used mottling mask to provide a random patchy appearance to the base colours :