Cheetah11

Hi Rog Here are the photos as promised. You can see the extra bump should be easy to remove. F-18A F-18C Strange the Kinetic kit is almost unknown in South Africa and the only example I saw was twice the price of the Academy examples. Nick

Hi Rog I will be home tomorrow and will send you photos of the different tails . I have the C and A+ in my stash. If you get a C I think sanding the extra bumps off should not be a problem. Nick

I totally agree Radu and that is why I am curious as to see what the He 219 in the NASM looks like once assembled. The fact that the He 219 stood tall on the undercarriage and most photos were taken from ground level complicates things and make the relative position of the nacelles difficult to judge. Just as an observation the Revell nacelles are the same angle as the Tamiya 1/48 kit. I am using the rear tip of the nacelles as reference and that seems to line up with the center of the fuselage. I also looked at these two photos as a guide, and decided when I build the Revell kit in my stash I will not try and adjust the angle of the nacelles as it seems too close to bother correcting. Cheers Nick .

Looking at the first photo I don’t see the downward angle of the SWS kit. On the one side-on photo I found of a He 219 I don’t see it either, so I will go with Revell. Nick

Hi Rog Try and get the Academy USMC F/A-18+ if you are making a single seater. It should still be available and has the right tail fins. I am not an expert on the Australian Hornets but the above kit should be the closest to an A.

At last I can make a decision on the nacelle angle. Who will be closest? Revell or SWS.

Hi Sean Great modeling and I can't wait for the next history installment. BTW when is Lionel publishing the book? Nick

Fantastic model John.

Nice work on the JL-100 John. I am sure the Mirage models will look much better with these rather than with the skinny ones in the Italeri kit.

Hi red Dog I will see if my modeling friends still have the mold for the nose. Failing that I have the master and will be doing some resin casting at the towards the end of of August. If you need a nose I will cast you one. Using the Isracast conversion to do a Kfir will make thing easier as it includes some of the scoops and antennas and the wheels as well as the J79 afterburner. The windscreen can have the frames sanded down and then polished up again. The cross section will not be totally accurate but close. Other option doing one using vacu-forming. I am doing a Cheetah C which is easier than the Kfir to convert but has the same nose as the Block 60 ( or C-10). Regards Nick

Hi Alain, I hope you are well. How is the Corsair progressing? For the fix on the nose there are two easy possibilities and one other is to modify the master. The one is to cut the Revell nose section behind the cockpit and graft it onto the Italeri kit if a donor kit can be obtained. The other is the solution I used and was to cut (sand) 1 mm from the top and 1 mm from the bottom from the front fuselage sections on the Italeri kit. On the Kfir the fuselage does not need to be extended, making it a lot easier. Here is a photo of all the parts taped together and as you can see it looks the part. But there are a lot more small detail differences between the Mirage and Kfir than is apparent at first. Here is the side in view of the nose. There is a small overhang at the bottom which is a small vent. Regards Nick

Hi Red Dog The Italeri kit is a better starting point for this conversion. There are a few points to take note of depending on the amount of detail you want to add. The faults of the Italeri kit will need to be corrected. The Isracast set should provide some of the detail you require but as the set was made for the Revell kit things like the undercarriage bays are not needed. They are way too shallow anyway. The Kfir undercarriage is a larger unit than the one found on the Mirage III with a compression rod to compress the larger oleo on retraction and other detail changes. At least the Isracast set can supply some of the vents and pylons. Additional vents and panels will still need to be added as well as wheels. I do not know about the Isracast wheels and nozzle but the Aires F-104 nozzle can be used. I do not see any photos of the Colombian Kfirs with the 1700 liter tanks. The tanks in the pictures are 1300 liter tanks but of Israeli origin. They have a different tail to the French build ones. On the Kfir they are about 12 inches further forward than on the Mirage and also on a different pylon which makes them almost horizontal instead of the nose down attitude of the Mirage tanks. The Italeri tanks are a bit small with the Revell 1300 liter tanks correct but with the pylon wrong. The pylon for the Kfir needs to be scratch built anyway. The 500 liter tanks can be used as is. The nose is a bit tricky as it has a couple of interesting contours and additions. Maybe you can get this one as a starting point from John at Scaleworx. He is on the forum as Renegade. Nick

Hi John I will be following your build with interest as I plan to do a SAAF Mustang from The Korean conflict sometime in the future. Just a point of interest about 90 percent of the photos I found on SAAF Mustangs does not have the radio fitted behind the seat. Maybe the fit was only implemented later in the conflict. Nick

Thanks for the comments gentleman. The Skyflash missiles are next to be fitted but I needed to make a cap at the end as evidenced in the photo of the real thing. One of my favorite tools is the punch and die set by RPToolz. My set only goes up to 2 mm and I needed a 3 mm disc from plastic card. The big set from RPToolz has this but has been out of stock from the local supplier for at least a year. Postage from RPToolz will be prohibitive and take at least 4 to 5 months. So after a prototype this is what I came up with. It is made from perspex and works like a charm on plastic card and paper. Cost less than 10 Dollar. Enjoy Nick

Thanks Marcel. For the windscreenof the Cheetah C I will have to venture into the dark art of vacu-forming. I have tried to sand and polish a Revell (old)canopy but without luck. In the mean time I need to finish the Tornado. I managed to finish the tanks and missiles today. The Tornado F3 initially carried the larger 2250 tanks. I gave the set on my kit away as I initially was doing a German ECR. Fortunately the RAF had solved the problem for me by swapping tanks between GR-1 and F3 Tornado aircraft later in the Gulf War as the mission profiles changed. So I can fit standard 1500 liter tanks and still have an accurate Gulf War F3. Only thing was the tanks were not repainted and retained the Desert Pink color. Here are the tanks and pylons all dressed up and ready to be fitted. Enjoy Nick