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Mirage 2000C 1/32 KH


discus

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Hello

 

The lock down built... and a bit more since we are unlocked since 11th may in France.

 

A lot was already said on this kit: weird/wrong choices on some parts (extended slats only forcing to some surgery to correct this), many mistakes in the instruction sheet (wrong part items, left and righ side inverted, etc) poor decal sheet, etc.

 

Anyway, in the end the kit is not so bad. It is rather a good one and I had a lot of fun building it (despite the negs mentioned above).

One important thing when building a KH kit: you need to be well documented. The box is full of stuff but if you want to be accurate you need to do some research by yourself.

 

I used decals from Berna. One slight issue; the white background on the stencils is misaligned and is visible. but it is still way better than the original sheet from the kit.

 

As I did not wanted for the Eduard Pe to be available for the seat harness, I decided to use the pilot provided with the kit. It is quite nice, I just added a visor screen on the helmet and with some leftover PE from previous kit I DIY'd the seat belts and harnesses.

 

Paints are as usual handbrushed. The new thing is that I used Xtracolors instead of the usual Humbrols. (Because the Humbrol are now more cr*p than paint...)

I left one week between each coat to be sure it was really dry so the whole painting process is quite long. But its worth waiting, the Xtracolors give a really nice result.

 

For the color, the is a highly scientific  random mix... The Mirage 2000 colors are really difficult to catch and they change a lot with the ligh/shadows.

 

Light grey: X395+X136+x141 (60%-30%-10%). X395 is supposed to be mirage 2000 light grey but I found it too dark and not blue-ish enough so I added some light compass grey x136 and lightened with a bit of white.
Blue grey: X396+X124 (60%-40%). X396, same thing, it is supposed to be Mirage 2000 dark blue grey but it looked greenish in the can soI mixed it with blue fs15109 (X124).

 

Radome is in Humbrol 64 and engine exhaust in Humbrol metalcote.

 

Edit: for the wing pylons : Hu 56+Hu 24 (75%-25%) and the missiles Hu196.

 

I am looking forwar to get my hands on the twin seater.


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And just for fun, showing the different between 1/32, 1/48 et 1/72

There is also a noticeable difference in the quality of the built.. :lol:

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Edited by discus
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Excellent build, love every bit about it. I'm glad you've mentioned the Berna decals, I have that sheet myself

and was wondering how they'd behave.

But I do indeed have to raise my hat to your paintwork, I couldn't believe that the model is all handpainted.

All in all :bow:

Lothar

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Thanks guys.

I forgot to mention one last addition to the kit: the pitot comes from Master. They have not yet release a Mirage 2000 specific pitot, I used an old mirage 5's. It is much longer than the 2000,  I did not want to cut it so what you see is only the emerging tip, all the rest is inside the radome.

 

4 hours ago, Lothar said:

Excellent build, love every bit about it. I'm glad you've mentioned the Berna decals, I have that sheet myself

and was wondering how they'd behave.

 

Appart from this misalignement between the white background and the color of the stencils they are fine. A bit thick maybe.. this is most visible on the smaller ones.

I had some doubts at first because when looking at the on the sheet and right after applying them, the decal film does not seem really smooth, I was afraid of silvering but once you apply a coat of gloss, it totally dissapear (provided they are properly set on a gloss coat as well.

 

I had one drama with the very last decal remaining to set: the code 5-OZ on the RH side of the nose: I don't know what happened, but I dipped the decal in water as usual, and when I applied it on the model, the Z started to roll over itself until there was no option but to cut it out and replace it. :wacko: And of course no other Z available so it is a mix of bits and pieces from other letters.

 

Edited by discus
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  • 2 months later...

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