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Italeri Mirage IIICZ SAAF, FINISHED!!


ericg

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sanding sticks are you friends mate.

Sanding sticks - indeed - and a sheet of 240 wet and dry!

 

Oh - and Milliput and superglue!

 

Mine hasn't gone together as easily as I'd expected when I opened the box! ;)

 

Looking great - again - Eric!

 

Iain

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Excellent work so far Eric! A question to everyone working on this one, especially if you're doing a bare metal finish: Are you feeling the need to sand the entire surface due to the texture or do you think (or have you found) that priming does the job? I plan to use a black base myself on a bare metal finish. 

 

Michael

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Thanks for the comments guys.

 

Michael, see the photo of the close up of the underside in my Black base post. I didn't do much smoothing it and it turned out OK. Having said that, some areas will need a bit of work put in to reduce the grainy texture of the plastic but certainly no more work than any other kit requiring a bare metal finish.

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Guest Peterpools

Eric

Holy Smokes , the weathering is looking just incredible. I've never really been a fan of pre and post shading but Matt's technique really seems to come so very close.

brilliant work on the detailing and corrections.

Keep 'em coming

Peter

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Rynier was kind enough to scan some photos of his time on the Mirages for me including some more of the damage sustained during the mission and the moments after landing. Apart from being quite remarkable photos of an interesting moment, some small details are evident such as the lack of fin flash and the soft demarcation of the camouflage in the black and white photos. To me this sort of stuff is an awesome way to build a model, to connect with the man behind the machine and to be able to put much more than just an inanimate object in the display cabinet. I hope that Rynier also gets a kick out of somebody from across the other side of the world looking him up and taking the time to get his aircraft right, drawing out some long lost memories and putting them into an art form.

 

I have posted these pictures with Ryniers permission. Thank you sir!

 

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It was time to apply the camouflage.

 

The SAAF Mirages involved in the bushwar seem to have some different variations of the two tone upper cam patterns. This is my interpretation of a few different photos of the Mirages during this time frame. It also seems that there is some differences between aircraft that have most of their markings removed. They seem to have soft edges to their cam colours and also vary in pattern to their earlier counterparts. I will be depicting one from the early 80's, where there were very minimal markings applied to the aircraft. In essence, the model will have less visual appeal due to not having much in the way of colour but will more than make up for it due to the underlying story about this particular Mirage.  

 

I made up a custom mix of the deep buff colour, using Tamiya Buff, Orange, yellow and white. I free handed it onto the model.

 

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I then sprayed Tamiya Olive drab over the top, constantly refining the edges until I was reasonably happy with the result. I felt that it needed to be a bit greener, so touched up and shaded it with Nato green. I should point out, that at this stage in the build I have not added any nose weight to the model and it is sitting on its nose gear fine.

 

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Thanks guys.

 

I have topped off a busy day in the workshop (on home reserve) painting the weapons. You will also notice some subtle changes in the cam pattern as I discovered a period photo of 811 via google.

 

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Test fitted.

 

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I have progressed further on the seat by painting some details in preparation for shading and wash.

 

IMG_8558_zpscdvcx6ra.jpg

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