Cheetah11

The Mirage 2000C I am modeling is one at Dijon at around 1988. Fortunately I have the book Superbase 19 Dijon by John Blackman which details the Mirages on the base at around the time . The cammo pattern at the time was sprayed on and small variation can be seen between aircraft. There is also a fairly large feather between the colors. The only way to model this realistically is to airbrush freehand, hopefully depicting the real painting process in miniature. So time to clean my Iwata HP-B with a .2mm needle and start to spray. Main colors on. Quite a few touch ups still to t

Thanks for all the compliments and interest gents. Just a small update. The Xtra Color did not work for me . There seem to be a bit of green in the shade so I had to mix my own version. This is a representative picture I went with. This color seem to change with every photo. A small setback. The light Grey on the fuselage did not dry completely and remains tacky. Strangely this is only on the spine of the model. It is better today but I will give it a day or two before painting the rest of the fuselage and wings with the Blue-Grey. I airbrushed the

Hi Derek, thanks for the link and suggestion. After a long furlough my wife has restricted my modeling budget somewhat, so I am restricted to what I can find on the internet for the time. I did find this on the Greek Mirages. The above photo also is a great help to verify the pattern on the upper surface. Hi Alain Thanks very much for the photos of the bare metal tanks. Fortunately you stopped me in time just before I painted the tank in light grey. I an happy with my mix. It is close to 36375 but with a little less blue. For the Bl

It depends on the scheme you want to do. I chose an F3 during the gulf war as many stencils and walkways were not present. Many of the Revel RAF version have similar stencils and these were also used. RAF low vis roundels cut, masked and airbrushed. The biggest problem were the white NO STEP signs which I eventually cut with the Silhouette cutter. An easier one is to use Eduard photo etch NO STEP stencils. Not easy but not impossible to do a F3. Hope this helps

Hi Alain Thanks for the compliments. You are right I am almost ready to paint but since I need to do a bit of mixing I have difficulty in getting the right color. I do not have color chips and all the forums have been of little help since there are many interpretation and opinions. Most of the paint mixes called for are not available to me. I found and old bottle of Testors Vodoo Gray to which I added 3 drops of black and this seems to be the closest I can get to the light grey color. Of course it is open to interpretation as the quality of photos, lighting and scale effect all pla

Hi Alain We do get snow, not as often and as much as Europe but even our wildlife have the perfect cammo for snow On to more serious things As can be seen on this photo there is a small gap between the rudder and fuselage which is not present in the kit. I sanded a small amount from the bottom of the rudder. The other addition was to fill the recess of the slime lights as they are too deep. I will still decide if I will use the kit decals or paint the slime lights. Cheers N

Hi Dale What paint are you using ? None of my Iwata's clogged while using enamels. Since using lacquer paints (solvent based acrylic according to the label) I have to remove and clean the tip and nozzle regularly. Nick

Hi Alain Thanks for the heads up. I taped all the major parts together and pivoted it around where the wheels should be. The nose dropped down but only just. I think with the missiles and pylons 10 gram would maybe not be enough. I added 10 grams more just in case. Looking at photos of the undercarriage bays I see the later Mirage 2000 variants (maybe -5 and later) have them in light grey. The photos I have of around 1990 of the 2000C shows the standard silver used on Mir III and F1 as well. The 1300 liter belly tank around 1990 was also in natural aluminum and the lat

Not too much to show for the last two weeks. I spent most of the time on the sanding, filling and smoothing the model. At last I started painting some of the airframe and engine . Alain showed the tip of using toothpicks to paint the streaks in the afterburner section. I would never be able to get them that symmetrical fixing the toothpicks with soft wire, so I 3D printed a section with the 12 cylinders. The printing turned out to be not so successful as the rods were too flexible and moved as they became longer, distorting the print. It was still usable.

Just remember to use the elevators with the extra balance. They are included in the Mk VIII kit.

Hi Scott I see you have joined me in the minefield of the Mir 2000 cockpit. I think you can use the Pavla cockpit for reference but during operation Daguet there was already an avionics box on the port side of the bulkhead behind the seat. I am doing a French AF aircraft of around 1988 and is seems the Pavla cockpit is correct for this era. You will also need to add this type of flare/chaff dispenser. If I look at photos taken during the Gulf War it seems the ones at that time was slightly shorter with only 2 Blocks .

I spent most of the modeling time today priming the fuselage joints and sanding it down . I will still need to do some filling on the wings later. The louvres at the bottom was a hassle to get the joint filled in the center of the louvres, so in the end I cut them off and replaced it with plastic card. Hi Alain. Thanks for the compliments. I glued the plastic covers on the canopy release from the outside with superglue and when set sanded and polished it similar to the inspection light. This gives a seamless finish. These are the dimensions

Back at work with a bang so much less time for modeling. I did a few touch ups on the cockpit after seeing them on the posted photos. The last piece of the cockpit puzzle and one forgotten by KH. The Throttle. (Or thrust lever if you fly airliners ) Another small milestone. The fuselage closed. All my tinkering on the fuselage distorted it slightly so some filling, sanding and scribing needed in the next week. Finally I taped all the large components together to see if there are more surprises with

Thanks for the compliment Matt. The South African Postal system I am ashamed to say. The IP and cockpit finished. I used two Airscale instruments and the rest from the Italeri 1/32 Mirage kit. ( Hint for Airscale to produce French instruments in 1/32) Only piece to scratch build now is the throttle which KH has mysteriously forgotten to add to the kit. Cheers Nick

Hi Jennings All but aero diesel engines. The Russian post war 42 cylinder turbo charged diesel radials for the use in bombers were impressive engineering achievements. When turbo prop engines overtook piston engines in these applications the radials were re-engineered for marine use in fast patrol boats.