Paul's Swiss Two-Seater **Not Quite Finished**

[PaulBradley]

I'll be building the venerable Matchbox kit, in it's two-seater form, from when Matchbox was converting their single-seat jet moulds into twin seaters:




A simple kit, it has a mix of fine raised panel lines and not-so-fine engraved ones....:





There's not a lot of interior detail, and, truthfully, I won't be going to town inside this one - but I will replace the seats, which are terrible...Outside, there are a few minor exterior mods to take care of, and these are detailed on this fine little instruction sheet from a High Planes model, which someone on here (sorry, I plum forget who! ) kindly sent me, along with some excellent replacement decals. . I also need to replace the 'eyelid' exhaust with a 'petal' one, and I have a spare J79 exhaust from a Phantom kit to take care of that. The main mod is the new canard foreplanes - I'll probably make those with plastic card sanded to airfoil shape.



I'll be starting this one a little late, as we're away next weekend, but I'm hoping for some good bench time on the weekend of the 23rd/24th.

[Old_Tonto]

Very cool Paul. Those canards add a certain style to the old girl.

[Saxon]

I have one of these in the stash, will be good to see how it comes out.

[PaulBradley]

OK, finally made a start on this during the week. Dating from 1973, this is a very simple kit with fine raised panel lines for the most part, but some terribly deep and ill-defined trenches on the wings and fuselage, representing removable panels of some sort. First step was to get rid of much of the surface detail, and thin the wing leading and trailing edges. Here, you can see the port wing before and starboard wing after work:



Same with the fuselage - I also thinned the rear fuselage lip:



As usual, I will rescribe only the most important panel lines, because 1. You wouldn't be able to see most of them at normal viewing distances and 2. I'm lazy...

Started working last night on the afterburner - these used a later 'petal-type' can rather than the kit supplied early 'eyelid-type'. Pics of that later. I'll also be working on some sort of cockpit interior - the comfy armchairs need replacing with something more utilitarian, while there's nothing else currently in there - no tub, no sticks, no instruments at all. Makes you wonder what Matchbox thought pilots did with their time while sat in their comfy armchairs....

[Chris]

Those matchbox kits, always with the strangest plastic colors.

[DavidWomby]

Hey Paul,

I am no expert but weren't the later Swiss Mirage Bs engined like their IIIS? If that's so, might you need to trim some length off the rear fuselage as well as change the jet pipe?

David

[PaulBradley]

Yes, it looks as if the very rear will need to be a little shorter and vertical. Shouldn't be too difficult - thanks for the heads-up, David.

[Old_Tonto]

Just that bit of sanding and filling makes a big improvement.

I have one of these in the stash so am keeping tabs on this build.

[PaulBradley]

Sorry for the lack of progress or updates - I haven't had a lot of bench time over the past few weekends.....

I cut away 5mm from the rear fuselage, also cut off the forward part of the fin fillet, which wasn't broken as per the kit. I also replaced the eyelid exhaust with a standard petal one. The intakes were added after severe thinning. That's where I'd got to as of this morning. As I say, things have prevented me from working on this (or anything else) for the past few weeks. If I am to get this one done this year, I need to B;itz it this weekend.....

To that end, I just glued the fuselage together, abandoning plans to add basic cockpits, and painting everything black instead. I'll still replace the seats and may add IPs - the canopy IS rather big after all...

I also added the nose cone, which will need to be blunted as per Swiss AF fashion. The model is currently all clamped up:



Hoping to get the wings and fin on this arvo, finish up the cockpits and fuselage ready for a coat of light grey later.

[PaulBradley]

"...She's a Filler....Queeeeen..."






This is not the ideal kit for a Blitz....

[Old_Tonto]

She looks like a Mirage now Paul.

Do you need an extension?

[PaulBradley]

Probably; thanks, OT - I surely won't be able to get the paint and decals on today.

I'll know more this arvo...

[PaulBradley]

Seamwork not too bad - just a couple of spots to tidy up, then I can add a real coat of paint later:

[DavidWomby]

Looking good. It will look so different when you add the canards.

David

[PaulBradley]

Lots on since the last update - the canards (cut from 20 thou plastic card), nose strakes (10 thou), pitot and canopy have all been added. The canopy was masked up, and paint sprayed on:





The contrast between the Light Ghost Grey and Dark Ghost Grey is very fine - almost doesn't show up in natural light. I may spray a slightly darker grey in a little bit.