Matt's CFK Mirage ***FINISHED***

[Chris]

Love the crew figures.

[mattbacon]

Thanks, chaps...

The front end is now together, and the IPs installed. Figuring out where to put them was a right pain, since the diagram in the instructions is a little... basic.





Some tape seat belts still to come, and some gizmology in front of both IPs, to busy it up a bit. Great photos in my reference to work from...


That blinking seam is still looming at me...


..but I'm reasonably convinced it will all go together in the end. Only the front is glued so far... I need a bit of flex to get the engine in!

bestest,
M.

[Old_Tonto]

Another day at the office for those boys. Top work.

[Molly-new]

Great work so far, I wish I had room to display the larger scale kits, they look soooo impressive.

[mattbacon]

...well, a Mirage is a quite a small aeroplane...





A few bits of rod and lead wire make all the difference a teeny bit of detail painting and some dry brushing still needed to bring out the detail.



The "engine" painted with Metalcote Steel, polished, and Citadel blue and dark brown washes used for the "burnt metal" look. Mirage's have a ceramic liner on the "petals", and it gets sooty in streaks, according to the very nice reference photo in my book... It's not as crude as it looks here, several times life size!

Should have the main fuselage together today -- fortunately the engine can go in through the wing aperture at the moment..

bestest,
m.

[Old_Tonto]

Very burnt looking exhaust. Hope I can get mine to look so good.

[mattbacon]

Is there a more distinctively shaped post-war aircraft? I guess this is iconic for French aeronuts as a Vulcan or Hunter is for me...

As you can see the fit around the top is great -- a little bit of Citadel liquid green stuff around the spine insert, and some titivating around the radome, and that's more or less it. Underneath, there is as I suspected, a ruddy great gap behind one leading edge, hence the Humbrol filler, which will be smoothed with nail varnish remover when it's dry. The other one just need the green stuff. It's well engineered, though, to hide the seam toward the wingtips under the flaperon fairings. The mix of lightly raised panel lines with a few deeper engravings where appropriate works pretty well, I think.



...and that's the final version of the cockpit. The main canopy had been broken off the the runner in the box, so there's a bit of making good to do there...

I'm going to let the shoulder seam set firm before messing with the intakes at all.

bestest,
M.

[mattbacon]

That's the final stages of airframe assembly complete. The intakes are actually a very impressive fit... there's a lot more filler there than is really needed, and even then, there's not a lot. You can see underneath that I've added the flaperon actuator fairings, the dorsal fin, and had a second go at the wing seams. The two lines of trunking under the nose are provided as separate parts (they are only on the B version), but they fit nicely, with lightly engraved lines marking the position.



A bit of work needed to smooth the seam here, as I suspected there would be, and then it'll be time for some primer...

bestest,
M.

[PaulBradley]

Looking good, Matt.

[Old_Tonto]

That is looking very smart. It really captures the look & feel of this classic delta arrow.

Keep up the good work.

[Molly-new]

Coming along nicely.

[mattbacon]

Thanks, chaps... I've been battling on!






That's a lot of Humbrol Metalcote Polished Aluminium, buffed with a soft pad in the Dremel. The sharp-eyed might notice something adrift with the canopy. I hadn't noticed before, but it's a little bit distorted. Fortunately an appeal to the community has tracked down a pristine "spare" which is now on the way...

bestest,
M.

[DavidWomby]

Nice metal finish there.

David

[PaulBradley]

Very nice, Matt!

[Old_Tonto]

SHINNY.

Love it.