32nd Cheetah E (ScaleWorx resin conversion set)

[Cheetah11]

 

Hi Malcom

 

Nice fix on the Mk81 bombs and the pylons look great. You might want to change the fuses as the SAAF changed over to electronic and air burst fuses in 1985. The style of fuses on the Trumpeter bombs were mainly used on demonstrations and for practice bombing.

 

Here is an example of the air burst fuses.

 

 

Cheers

 

Nick

 

 

[Mistral]

Ag nee man Nick - top late . I've already painted them all. Oh well, I'll leave them on the assumption that the SAAF may have expended old bombs at weapons camps or the annual demo at Roodewal 

[Mistral]

Here are the bombs - c'mon Nick. those little butterfly fuses look nice :

 

IMG_6189 - 800 by Malcolm Reid, on Flickr

 

Main undercarriage bay is white. Odd thing with this Mirage (and the Iralri F-104) - note the variable fineness of deter between the port and starboard wings. One is sharp, the other looks like someone spilt a bottle of Tamiya extra thin over it - I kept the weathering to a minimum :

 

IMG_6187 - 800 by Malcolm Reid, on Flickr

 

 

 

 

Edited September 6, 2020 by Mistral
Edited text

[Mistral]

OK, so moment of truth - time for paint. There are four constants in life - these are death, taxes, prostitution and the fact that no one photo of a Cheetah will show the same grey. This varies based on the lighting conditions, the camera settings and the base paint itself. I've seen photos of Cheetah Es from a light neutral grey to a very dark grey with a distinct purple hue. It also doesn't help that most of my modelling is done after work under artificial lighting conditions. So I took all the greys I had in my collection (around 30) and airbrushed each colour onto a large white plastic spoon. These were spread out and compared to the various photos I have. The best reference photo I believe I have is the one below - why is it good ? Well, look at the white of the clouds and the 707 - it's, well, white, indicating that the camera has captured the tones nicely (in my limited understanding of photography). There are also references variably to the Cheetah E being painting in some FS and BS greys. The Es were painted in a single tone dark grey, similar to the early Cheetah Ds - which is what we have in the foreground of the photo - so that was the colour I was going for, but maybe a bit lighter for scale effect. Note the distinct purple hue to the D's grey :

 

20200508_111049 - 800 by Malcolm Reid, on Flickr

 

Photo below taken under artificial light so does not look the same as in the pic...ho hum...

 

IMG_6194 - 800 by Malcolm Reid, on Flickr

 

Nick kindly donated his old Revell Mirage III/V wing tanks. These are the correct diameter, the Italeri ones being 1 to 2mm smaller in diameter which I can live with - I prefer the detail on the Italeri ones :

 

IMG_6192 - 800 by Malcolm Reid, on Flickr

 

I used the Uschi van der Rosten airbrush templates to spray on a random mottling of a box of lighter and then darker grey. This is then over sprayed with a thinned coat of the base grey just to pull everything together and minimise an over-obvious mottling. More specific weathering will still be added :

 

IMG_6191 - 800 by Malcolm Reid, on Flickr

 

OK, I challenge anyone to tell me my grey mix is wrong 

Edited September 7, 2020 by Mistral
Text changed

[Kagemusha]

You got the grey mix spot on, but more importantly  you spelt it correctly. 

[Madmax]

Lovely work going on here! If you have a purple undertone to the grey, you have it right Malcolm.

 

Pleased to see the remaining pandemic toilet roll collection is being put to good use... 

[BLACK MAMBA]

19 hours ago, Mistral said:

OK, I challenge anyone to tell me my grey mix is wrong 

 

Your grey mix is wrong.

 

Only kidding of course - It looks very good to me, Malcolm.  Clearly plenty thought went in selecting the mix and the results looks pretty accurate - even under artificial light.

 

Regarding the bomb fuses - I'm pretty sure 5 Squadron made plenty trips to Roodewal. Would not want to waste expensive electric air burst fuses on each of those trips! Old stock goes first...

 

Oh, and Hi MikeMaben! Thanks for the welcome. I don't bite unless provoked!

[Mistral]

20 hours ago, Kagemusha said:

You got the grey mix spot on, but more importantly  you spelt it correctly. 

 

Thanks, but there's another way of spelling it ?? 

 

From dictionary.com :

Grey and gray are both accepted in the English language. They refer to a color of a neutral tone between black and white, and can also be used metaphorically to convey gloom and dullness. However, gray is the more popular spelling in the US, while grey reigns supreme in the UK as well as Ireland, Australia, and other places that use British English.

 

Gloom and dullness  ???...

 

Anyway, I guess with South Africa being an ex-colony, we'll stick to grey....now back to the regular programme...

[Mistral]

7 hours ago, Madmax said:

Lovely work going on here! If you have a purple undertone to the grey, you have it right Malcolm.

 

Pleased to see the remaining pandemic toilet roll collection is being put to good use... 

 

Thanks Sean. One never knows when one will suddenly need the white-gold. Always be prepared...

[Mistral]

Thanks Black Mamba. Yup, get rid of old stock on trees and anthills first....

 

I gave the paint job a very gentle rub down with wet 12,000 grit micro mesh cloth to get rid of the slightly fuzzy, rough finish of airbrushed matt paints. 

 

IMG_6196 - 800 by Malcolm Reid, on Flickr

 

A bit of random airbrushing of thinned dark paint to add some more character - the mottling from the airbrush mask is very subtle. This is a new technique for me and I like the result :

 

IMG_6201 - 800 by Malcolm Reid, on Flickr

 

All bombed up and ready for a flight to Roodewal 

 

IMG_6199 - 800 by Malcolm Reid, on Flickr

 

 

[Marcel111]

Looks great... and really menacing in that gray.

 

Cheers,

Marcel

[Youngtiger1]

Nice project. I sure will be interested in this conversation as well once it’s released. Love that delta profile. 

[Mistral]

Thanks Marcel and Yountiger 

 

So, a bit more progress. I've done some of the detail bits and pieces. Painted the nose black, the cats-balls (yes, you heard correct) RWR antennae black, the EW antenna above the exhaust in light grey etc. The tip of the vertical stab is in white. According to Daan, this was a throw over from the 5 Squadron aircraft in WWII. Some of the aircraft had this white toned down later with a grey.

 

 

 

And then a heavy gloss coat using Tamiya X-22 Clear - I use the acrylic version of this paint thinned with their yellow cap lacquer thinners - works like a bomb. It goes over an enamel base paint with no issues and, being acrylic, allows one to run an oil wash over it without damaging the underlying enamel paints. It's the best gloss varnish I've used...so far. After a day left to dry, the decals went on effortlessly. The decals are from MavDecals in South Africa. I assume these are printed on MircoScale decal sheet and need to be sealed with a few coats of gloss varnish to seal the ink. I use the same gloss varnish recipe as noted above. The printing is clear and in register but a bit pixellated on the lighter colours. The decal comes off the sheet almost 10 seconds after dipping in water and blends onto the surface beautifully care of some Micro Set and Sol. So happiness for a modeller who generally dislikes decalling immensely .

 

So here they are - they need to be blended into the overall dark grey with a couple of light misted coats of the base grey :

 

 

The ejection warning triangle is from the Italeri kit decals. I still need to add numerous NATO standard symbols on the underside. These were orange on the dark grey Cheetah E. Again, will be toned down with oversprays on base grey.

Edited September 15, 2020 by Mistral
Images added

[Mistral]

OK so for some reason, Flickr images are now not showing. I see the LSP webpage seems to have changed ? Is there an issue linking images ?

[Landrotten Highlander]

10 minutes ago, Mistral said:

OK so for some reason, Flickr images are now not showing. I see the LSP webpage seems to have changed ? Is there an issue linking images ?

With the transfer some methods of posting images no longer work.

Have a read at this link as I think this is where your problem lies.