32nd Mirage IIID2Z (with ScaleWorx conversion set)

[Mistral]

Yes, I like it with those large tanks. And then you can put John's canards on for a late mod (MIRSIP ?) and a Chilean Elkan dual..some minor mods like the nose strakes etc. The world's your oyster 

[Mistral]

So then, some more progress today....

 

Firstly, let me explain the assembly sequence - this is my 5th 32nd Italeri/Revell Mirage III so I think I have it correct. What's important is not to follow the kit instructions . This model is best assembled as follows to make the best of the actually good fit between the main airframe components :

1) As noted previously, glue lower wings to the underside fuselage section. Don't worry about the getting the wing angle wrong. Careful gluing takes care of this and there are no seams to fill

2) Glue the rear fuselage exhaust shrouds to the respective fuselage halves - a bit of sanding and scraping helps get a really good fit thus not requiring any filler

3) Glue the two upper fuselage halves together - make sure you only glue the upper seams. Gluing the rear lower seam will cause fit problems later - see photo below

4) Assemble the undercarriage bays, the airbrakes and the little wingtip lights onto the respective wing upper / lower halves. Note that the airbrakes can be left slightly open as was characteristic of (at least) the SAAF birds. Don't worry about these breaking off later - their actuator arms are quite "springy" - just apply a decent amount of liquid glue to the attachment points - in the 4 I've built so far, I've had no issues

5) After a bit of sanding and scraping of the wings, glue the upper wings to the lower wings along the leading edge junction only. Make sure this is tightly strapped up whilst drying - photo below. Don't glue the trailing edges - having these loose is important to facilitate a good wing to fuselage joint at a later stage.

 

 

I'll get to the rest when I have progressed that far.

 

This is dry fit of wings to fuselage - not bad. With some gentle pressure and glue a solid joint is achieved which has no step and requires no filler :

 

 

 

 

Another view of the dry fit on the rear ventral section. This is the reason NOT to glue the bottom rear fuselage halves. Once the wing is glued in place, a thin strip of plasticcard can be used to close this gap. It's actually not a bad fit for the convoluted junction between wing and fuselage here :

 

 

With the engine support bulkhead fitted, the engine can be glued in place. Once the resin exhaust section is pushed in from the rear, the engine becomes self supporting :

 

 

 

Engine sprayed black to make it all dark inside :

 

 

 

For some odd reason, the bulkhead width is too wide. Trying to force it in will complicate the wing / fuselage fit. So you can either shave the bulkhead sides down or make slot in the main undercarriage bays as follows :

 

 

This step is very important to remember when gluing the bulkhead in place - only glue the upper bulkhead to the fuselage halves; do NOT glue the lower bulkhead to the fuselage halves - the fuselage halves must have enough give to spread to ensure a good wing/fuselage junction. By gluing this now, you will end up having to fill the wing/fuselage seam 

 

 

Some more details - Italeri would have the spine curved section follow back to the vertical stab. This is not correct. The fuselage cross section must be continuous at this point (aft of the resin spine insert) :

 

 

 

[Mistral]

Some more wing issues - the inboard pylon location holes are too far inside from the leading edge slot - this is correct for the Mirage IIIB/C wings but not correct for the IIID/E/R wings. In this case the pylons were moved outwards closer to the leading edge slot. Dimensions below are 1:1 and 1:32nd

 

 

 

This is a sketch of the dimensions taken off the Mirage IIIRZ wings at the SAAF Museum at Swartkop outside Pretoria. Lots of nice Mirages to look at if you are so inclined 

 

 

 

Some more details added / done to the wing and fuselage lower surfaces :

 

 

[Mistral]

Dry fit of vertical stab to fuselage :

 

 

 

[Kagemusha]

Thanks for taking the time to pass on the invaluable tips.

[red Dog]

Nice project going on again Mistral  

I'll be following along your progress. That dual seat mirage is tempting ...

[Marcel111]

Thanks for the excellent tutorial and damn that head-on shot is awesome!

 

Marcel

[Madmax]

Your build sequence for the Mirage is very clever Malcom - it really does eliminate some horrendous joins that result from following the kit sequence. One of those strange mysteries of life, since the parts don't change 

 

What is your trick for leaving the main gear legs unattached at this point, and is the nose wheel leg glued in?

[Mistral]

Hi Sean. No, nose leg is still loose. Will only attach once model complete. With respect to main legs, I always attach these at the end. By shortening the spindle ends, you can twist and click in place into the holes. A smidgin of CA glue takes care of the rest. That's how I've done all 4 previous builds of this kit.

[Mistral]

On the subject of SAAF legends, we lost General Des Barker (SAAF retired) and Col Rama Iyar (Indian Air Force retired) today in a fatal crash of the SAAF Museum's Patchen Explorer. These two gentlemen were legends in the South African aviation scene. Col. Rama was well known for his smooth displays in the Museum's Vampire T55. Although I do not think Gen. Barker flew the Mirage III, he did see many operational missions in F1s during the SWA border war. On the same day, we lost Alan Slade, ex SAAF chopper pilot who was awarded the Honoris Crux for action in the same border war - fatal microlight accident. I did not know any of them personally. Not a good day for South African aviation. RIP gentlemen 

Edited March 17, 2021 by Mistral
Edit

[Mistral]

Back to the build. Next step is to glue the forward outer intake trunking to the fuselage. This is to ensure that the two align nicely. It also allows the two halves of the blow in doors to align. Why Italeri chose to have the join line running right through this feature is anyone's guess. That said, these may well change as the two seater intakes were quite a bit further back than for the singles :

 

 

 

 

 

And once again, the bottom section with wings test fitted. Not a bad dry fit....

 

 

 

 

[Mistral]

Before I cut back the kit fuselage, I thought it prudent to assemble the resin two seat cockpit so that I have something to measure against. So this meant a day spent priming and painting the cockpit tub, side walls and seats (although I didn't really need to do the seats now as they can be dropped in later). The SAAF Mirage interiors were painted black. It was only with the Cheetahs that they moved to a more "modern" grey. So after priming with Tamiya grey primer, I painted the base colours with a mix of Tamiya X-18 black slightly lightened with XF-63 grey. I used a combination of old Italeri Mirage instrument panel decals punched out with punch and die set and Airscale dials for the rear and the base kit decals for the front instrument panels. Knobs and switches were picked out with a sharp toothpick and Revell acrylic paints. Revell acrylics are my go to paint  when I need to add paint to a small raised "knob". The seats were painted in a similar fashion to the cockpit. Cushions and straps were painted with Revell acrylics. The only thing I added to the seats were the ejector pull handles and the top blue straps which, characteristically for SAAF birds, were always neatly crossed over the top of the seat by the ground crew to allow the pilot to get into the seat. All of this was finished off with random placards on both the seats and cockpit interior using Airscale placards. These add a really nice bit of interest. I may finally add some Eduard 32nd remove before flight tags but I suspect these are a bit overscale. Final varnish using Tamiya TS-80 matt varnish decanted from the can and airbrushed on. Individual dials were then picked out with Tamiya X-22 varnish. Weathering was kept to a minimum with some scuff and scrape in the cockpit tub. You'll notice in some of the photos that part of the front instrument panel shroud had broken off - this will be glued back on towards the end of the build as I don't want to temp the carpet monster...

 

Oh yes, I added the drag chute and handbrake pull handles either side of the forward instrument panel. The white strap in the image below is a reinforcing strip added after I snapped off the top rear section whilst cutting away the casting block. You have been warned - cut carefully.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[scvrobeson]

Awesome.  The conversion looks good, and it looks like it'll fit together well.  Really some off design choices from Italeri though that needs some remedial scribing and filling.

 

 

 

Matt 

[Renegade]

Wow Malcom, that turned out really great 

Edited March 20, 2021 by Renegade

[Kagemusha]

28 minutes ago, Renegade said:

Wow Malcom, that turned out really great 

 

It really has, wasn't expecting to see such progress, can't wait to see more.