Pete Fleischmann Posted February 6, 2021 Share Posted February 6, 2021 I fought the Dijon Mirages in my F-16 back in 1992. Good fun- this build brings back great memories! coming along beautifully!! cheers Pete Mr Matt Foley, Out2gtcha, Anthony in NZ and 4 others 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cheetah11 Posted February 6, 2021 Author Share Posted February 6, 2021 1 hour ago, Pete Fleischmann said: I fought the Dijon Mirages in my F-16 back in 1992. Good fun- this build brings back great memories! coming along beautifully!! Hi Pete thanks for the compliment. I am glad the build could bring back good memories. BTW l hope the Mirages did not wax your tail. Cheers Nick Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete Fleischmann Posted February 6, 2021 Share Posted February 6, 2021 10 minutes ago, Cheetah11 said: Hi Pete thanks for the compliment. I am glad the build could bring back good memories. BTW l hope the Mirages did not wax your tail. Cheers Nick not a fair fight actually/- they were pretty bad cheers Pete Cheetah11, Jack and Derek B 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jack Posted February 6, 2021 Share Posted February 6, 2021 Pete, you were flying F16s, but back in the days of the 104 we had this squadron exchange with a french Mirage F-1 sqd, and these guys had "no problem" finding the 104's up there showing their smoke trails too frequently.......i guess times changed...... Derek B 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete Fleischmann Posted February 6, 2021 Share Posted February 6, 2021 1 hour ago, Jack said: Pete, you were flying F16s, but back in the days of the 104 we had this squadron exchange with a french Mirage F-1 sqd, and these guys had "no problem" finding the 104's up there showing their smoke trails too frequently.......i guess times changed...... The 104 was easy to fight too- smoked like hell, couldn’t turn, and had a miserable radar. The Mirage 2000 guys I fought suffered from horrible tactics and shot discipline- plus they were pretty bad at a close-in, visual fight- cheers Pete Derek B, Anthony in NZ, Kagemusha and 1 other 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marcel111 Posted February 8, 2021 Share Posted February 8, 2021 Nick you really have turned this kit into a beautiful model! Looking forward to the final stretch! Cheetah11 and Derek B 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cheetah11 Posted February 20, 2021 Author Share Posted February 20, 2021 Thanks for the compliment Marcel. The final stretch seems to always take a little longer. Work and a few modeling distractions made progress a little slow over the last two weeks. Mainly the ejection seat holding up the progress. I did finish the external stores and most of the decals, as well as paint the canopy. The weapon pylons from the period were manufactured from unpainted aluminum alloys, all with a different anodizing. A few different mixes of brown and silver were used to try and replicate this. (not as successful as I hoped for) The silver tank is a bit unusual for French aircraft. Thanks to Alain I found the facts and some reference photos for the French Mirage 2000C with bare metal tanks. Mirage tanks are generally delivered in bare aluminum. The customer then decides to paint it or leave it in bare metal. Greek and Iraqi Mirages amongst others have bare metal finishes. (BTW some operators like the SAAF used to put a clear protective coat on the tanks which yellowed with age, adding another variation) The French drop tanks were painted the same color as the belly of the Mirage 2000 as soon as practical. Until they could be painted they were used in bare metal. So not common, but an interesting difference to the standard. Enjoy Nick Brett M, Renegade, F`s are my favs and 17 others 20 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alain11 Posted February 20, 2021 Share Posted February 20, 2021 hi Nick wow !! that looks very nice , I like the last photo !!!! I see that you haven't glued the windscreen yet at this stage , are you confiding about its fit ?, ... I just glued this part on my build , , okay , the fit is no so bad , but however , I 've needed some putty and sanding to get a perfect fit Alain Derek B 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cheetah11 Posted February 21, 2021 Author Share Posted February 21, 2021 19 hours ago, alain11 said: hi Nick wow !! that looks very nice , I like the last photo !!!! I see that you haven't glued the windscreen yet at this stage , are you confiding about its fit ?, ... I just glued this part on my build , , okay , the fit is no so bad , but however , I 've needed some putty and sanding to get a perfect fit Alain Hi Alain Good to hear from you and thanks for the compliment I try and fit the windshield last because for some reason I always get dust inside if I fit it earlier. As you have found the windshield is not a perfect fit and mine was also shortened. To get a good fit I widened the windshield slightly by dipping into warm water and widening it. After two tries the fit was as good enough to live with. Here is the windshield resting in place without glue. I might still have to put a small piece of Perfect Plastic putty into the seam. Cheers Nick scvrobeson, Landrotten Highlander, alain11 and 4 others 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alain11 Posted February 21, 2021 Share Posted February 21, 2021 hi Nick that seems to be okay !!! , I note that you added the gasket joint , as well the canopy locking system just for the fun , here is a nice picture of the belly and the NM ( dirty ) tank Alain Marcel111, Cheetah11 and Derek B 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scale_artisan Posted February 22, 2021 Share Posted February 22, 2021 On 1/4/2021 at 8:12 AM, Cheetah11 said: Cheers Nick Hi Nick, Very good work mate! You would expect from KH to at least apologise for this essential detail that's missing from the kit. Anyhow, thank goodness we have scale modellers such as yourself, to show us how we can fix this short of things. Cheers, Bill Cheetah11 and Derek B 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cheetah11 Posted March 6, 2021 Author Share Posted March 6, 2021 It has been a slow two weeks on the modeling front. I had three days off but the misses had not seen her family in almost a year due to Covid restrictions, so we had to do a visit. I also had the pesky bi-annual exam and test at work which took up most of the modeling time. At least now I can work on the Mirage again. The last remaining problem to be solved was the ejection seat. None of the AM seats I had fitted, so onto modifying the kit seat. A main gun was added to the rear. I doubt it the undersized one would lift the seat clear during an ejection. The padding on the seat is a bit flat, obviously designed to have a pilot in. I added plastic card ones and contoured them with a Dremel bit. I started adding belts . Hopefully painting it in the next week. I hope you won't be too critical of the effort Derek, I have not seen a Mk10 in a long time. Cheers Nick Derek B, Landrotten Highlander, scvrobeson and 4 others 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derek B Posted March 6, 2021 Share Posted March 6, 2021 You are doing a good job Nick (anything that will improve the kit supplied seat is good in my book). Derek Cheetah11 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alain11 Posted March 6, 2021 Share Posted March 6, 2021 no pictures here Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scvrobeson Posted March 6, 2021 Share Posted March 6, 2021 Are the belts made out of tape, or is that epoxy putty? They look excellent and very natural. Matt Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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