SinuheH Posted September 16, 2020 Share Posted September 16, 2020 Nice work, Malcolm - odd to see those high vis castles on an otherwise muted airframe - look forward to seeing more. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mistral Posted September 16, 2020 Author Share Posted September 16, 2020 Thanks Sinuhe. The Cheetah Es came out with blue castles and gold bokkies. These were toned down variably it would seem. I have photos of the E with castles ranging from a dull blue to almost imperceptible. I sprayed a base coat filter over mine to tone them down a bit, but not too much. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mistral Posted September 18, 2020 Author Share Posted September 18, 2020 Onto her undercarriage. After the weathering I treated the model to a coat of Tamiya TS-80 matt clear decanted from the rattle can, slightly thinned with Tamiya lacquer thinner and then airbrushed on. The result is a noticeably lighter grey with a slight satin sheen. I'm happy as it is : Undercarriage took a whole hour to get in place : And with wing tanks on : The artificial light is messing with the photos. The closest colour in reality is what you see on the right wing in the image above. A nice faded grey. Now to tackle the windshield .... SinuheH, Renegade, blackbetty and 10 others 12 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cheetah11 Posted September 18, 2020 Share Posted September 18, 2020 Hi Malcom The Cheetah is coming along nicely. You can try adjust the brightness and contrast before posting if you want a better representation of the color. Cheers Nick Out2gtcha 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kagemusha Posted September 18, 2020 Share Posted September 18, 2020 Mighty impressive. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alain11 Posted September 18, 2020 Share Posted September 18, 2020 very nice job ! I like !!!!!!!!!!!! will look impressive with all the loads .......... do you have a FS paint ref that can match with your own paint I cross fingers you won't have troubles with the windscreen , gluing it at this stage could be tricky , some joins could need putty Alain Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gregair Posted September 19, 2020 Share Posted September 19, 2020 (edited) On 9/16/2020 at 3:52 AM, SinuheH said: Nice work, Malcolm - odd to see those high vis castles on an otherwise muted airframe - look forward to seeing more. Hi SinuheH, yes it is indeed odd as they were usually pretty strongly toned down however Mistral is correct that there was the odd anomaly see below Ok I am having no luck posting the pics, hopefully the links will do The more usual low viz Castles Hi Viz Castles Edited September 19, 2020 by gregair SinuheH, Renegade and Greg W 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SinuheH Posted September 19, 2020 Share Posted September 19, 2020 Thanks Greg - a picture indeed says a thousand words! I would have expected them to follow the same scheme as on the Mirage F1CZ in its air superiority scheme - or perhaps its just that I have such fond memories of visiting 3 Sqn SAAF after the Lanseria air show at that time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mistral Posted September 19, 2020 Author Share Posted September 19, 2020 22 hours ago, Cheetah11 said: Hi Malcom The Cheetah is coming along nicely. You can try adjust the brightness and contrast before posting if you want a better representation of the color. Cheers Nick Hi Nick. I photo edit all my piccies. The problem is the variable intensity lighting from one side of the model to the next. I'll take decent photos of the finished model when complete. I also adjust colour input to vary the hue. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mistral Posted September 19, 2020 Author Share Posted September 19, 2020 Thanks Kagemusha and Alain Alain, there is no FS reference. I understand that the SAAF used BS mixes or locally produced colour mixes. I used 3 parts Tamiya XF-66 grey and 2 parts Humbrol H125 grey. It seems to be the closest match to the images which I think looked correct. It's a minefield though as the quality of the various images I have is incredibly variable, showing Cheetah E colours from dark grey to a light blue grey to a light plain grey. Look at the first image Gregair posted above. You can see in the image that the colour ranges from a blue grey on the rear of the aircraft to a lighter grey with a yellow hue towards the front of the aircraft. This is more likely a photo print problem. The blue grey on the left looks best to me. Similar to the debate about the toning down of the blue castles - again, the various images show these to have been variable from one photo to the next of various Cheetah Es. Another factor is the amount of exposure the individual aircraft had to the sun and the paint's chemical composition propensity to fade under harsh UV conditions. In addition, who knows what was done at squadron level. Daan Conradie advised that those Cheetah E which had the fin tips painted white, later had these over sprayed with an opaque grey layer. This may have coincided with similar treatment to the markings. So, bottom line, nothing is 100% sure. Greg W 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mistral Posted September 19, 2020 Author Share Posted September 19, 2020 5 hours ago, SinuheH said: Thanks Greg - a picture indeed says a thousand words! I would have expected them to follow the same scheme as on the Mirage F1CZ in its air superiority scheme - or perhaps its just that I have such fond memories of visiting 3 Sqn SAAF after the Lanseria air show at that time. Greg, thanks for your comments A picture does speak a thousand words. Just imagine the variation when you have 50 pictures all with different photo quality ... Sinuhe, the F1CZ had a three tone colour scheme. The Cheetah C and later Cheetah D colours were two tone but much greyer in hue than the Mirage F1CZ blue-greys. Anyway, all will be revealed when I take photos of it in natural outside light.... SinuheH 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mistral Posted September 20, 2020 Author Share Posted September 20, 2020 Here comes trouble.... The canopy sections are around 5mm too wide at the base. Luckily a bit of treatment with a hairdryer sorts that out... I added some plastic card detail to the canopy. Tamiya tape used to mask. The canopy breaker is the little white part - it goes on the port side of the canopy. Here's a lovely little piece of art : In place, unpainted : V3Bs and launchers. Need to still paint the IR seeker heads : Looking like it means business.... Greg W, Anthony in NZ, scvrobeson and 7 others 10 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mistral Posted September 24, 2020 Author Share Posted September 24, 2020 Another one finished. Final bits added included the emergency canopy release handles - made from thin wire and painted red, with small pieces of clear plastic for the windows - single pitot probe ahead of windshield, drag chute cone and another blade antenna on the spine. The refuelling probe is loose fitted with a brass rod for strength. Canopy also left loose. Nav lights also painted green/red. I'm very happy with how it looks - she wears that grey suit well : I really like those intake pylons and bombs Photos of exhausts show them to be rather silver and shiny : Supersonic, LSP_Kevin, dodgem37 and 2 others 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mistral Posted September 24, 2020 Author Share Posted September 24, 2020 Apart from the obvious patch work paint finish, I kept her clean i.e. no oil leaks. The SAAF really maintained their aircraft in good condition : Greg W, red Dog, dodgem37 and 5 others 8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Supersonic Posted September 24, 2020 Share Posted September 24, 2020 A true Masterpiece ! Thank you for all the useful information about the Cheetah. SP Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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