Saxon's Pitch Black '84 RAAF Mirage

[Saxon]

Signing up with a 1/72 scale Revell Mirage III, will do it in the colours some OCU Mirages were painted in the 1984 Pitch Black war games exercise which is a green and brown scheme over the usual light grey.

Here is a pic of the real thing until I get a chance to post some of my own.

http://www.adf-gallery.com.au/gallery/M ... USAF_Photo;

[Chris]

Very nice, looks like US tan over dark green.

I have one of those revell kits, it was my alternate in case my argie mirage bombed!

[DavidWomby]

Welcome to the GB! I love RAAF Mirages and look forward to seeing how that Revell kit builds up. It looks detailed and accurate. Is it scaled down directly from their 1/32 one?

David

[Old_Tonto]

Welcome aboard Saxon.

Looking forward to this one - you can never have too many Ozzy Mirages.

[RayS]

Saxon, nice choice. Brings back memories of the trip to Darwin back in '84

Just be aware when it comes time to paint that the 'tan' was brush painted over the dark grey sections of the camo. So in some areas around the roundels and tail numbers you could see the grey where the guys were not that careful.

I have seen a few builds of these aircraft now and the builders have just replaced the grey with the 'tan'.

We used buckets and paint brushes to paint the jets. The 'tan' was just a mix of water based hi vis paints that was usually used to distinguish 'attacking' aircraft from the student's aircraft when a Conversion or Fighter Combat Instructor course was run. So there is no definitive colour for reference. We mixed the paint until it looked close to the tan on the USAF Phantoms that were in Darwin for Pitch Black.

Oh and the 2OCU aircraft did not actually participate in Pitch Black. We just happened to get to Darwin a couple of weeks prior to Pitch Black to be able to fly against the Phantoms that had arrived prior to Pitch Black from Korea. It was a great chance for the students to fly against dissimilar aircraft.

75SQN, the local Mirage squadron had the fun of flying in pitch Black against the Phantoms during the exercise.

[Saxon]

Thanks guys, it is a nice kit and has something the Heller kit sorely lacks - armament!

Welcome to the GB! I love RAAF Mirages and look forward to seeing how that Revell kit builds up. It looks detailed and accurate. Is it scaled down directly from their 1/32 one?

David

Yeah it seems to be the same as the 1/32 one right down to the removable engine.

Saxon, nice choice. Brings back memories of the trip to Darwin back in '84

Just be aware when it comes time to paint that the 'tan' was brush painted over the dark grey sections of the camo. So in some areas around the roundels and tail numbers you could see the grey where the guys were not that careful.

I have seen a few builds of these aircraft now and the builders have just replaced the grey with the 'tan'.



We used buckets and paint brushes to paint the jets. The 'tan' was just a mix of water based hi vis paints that was usually used to distinguish 'attacking' aircraft from the student's aircraft when a Conversion or Fighter Combat Instructor course was run. So there is no definitive colour for reference. We mixed the paint until it looked close to the tan on the USAF Phantoms that were in Darwin for Pitch Black.

Oh and the 2OCU aircraft did not actually participate in Pitch Black. We just happened to get to Darwin a couple of weeks prior to Pitch Black to be able to fly against the Phantoms that had arrived prior to Pitch Black from Korea. It was a great chance for the students to fly against dissimilar aircraft.

75SQN, the local Mirage squadron had the fun of flying in pitch Black against the Phantoms during the exercise.

Oh mate, am I going to pick your brains!

Firstly I am not an expert just someone who likes sticking plastic together. So lets start with my stupid questions..

1. I have noticed two types of nose of RAAF Mirages, a longer one and a shorter one, what is the difference?

2. I would like to add the armament which consists of French style bombs, still looking for references did we use that style of bomb? Here is a shot of the box art so you can see the bombs http://www.scalemates.com/products/prod ... ?id=134055; I might change to the Heller kit if we didn't use them.

3. I will remember to leave some grey here and there, given it is 1/72 it might be a case of poetic licence and leaving it out if it looks odd.

[Saxon]

Been doing some more research, it seems Mk 82 bombs were what RAAF Mirages carried, so a slight change of plan, have started on my Heller Mirage and will still be done in Pitch Black colours, gear up and of course in my usual blacked out canopy style. Here is my start.

[Old_Tonto]

Should look cool with the blacked out canopy.

[RayS]

Thanks guys, it is a nice kit and has something the Heller kit sorely lacks - armament!

Oh mate, am I going to pick your brains!

Firstly I am not an expert just someone who likes sticking plastic together. So lets start with my stupid questions..

1. I have noticed two types of nose of RAAF Mirages, a longer one and a shorter one, what is the difference?

2. I would like to add the armament which consists of French style bombs, still looking for references did we use that style of bomb? Here is a shot of the box art so you can see the bombs http://www.scalemates.com/products/prod ... ?id=134055; I might change to the Heller kit if we didn't use them.

3. I will remember to leave some grey here and there, given it is 1/72 it might be a case of poetic licence and leaving it out if it looks odd.

Saxon,

I posted some pictures on another forum of the load out with Mk82s, I suspect it was to one of your queries

The different noses were either fitted with Radar (shorter) or a recce camera (longer). In my time at 77SQNs I was trained in fitting the Recce nose.

It would be nice to see the aircraft in the green/brown scheme with some sort of armament but for the 2-3 whole weeks they were painted in that scheme we carried no live air to ground ordnance, I think we only had captive Matra A/A missiles fitted. A couple of more shots of the OCU jets at Darwin prior to Pitch Black (my pictures)

[Saxon]

Thanks for those pics and the info, I will restrain myself from arming this one! And yep that was me on Aussie Modeler's asking the same dopey questions lol

Latest progress pic, not a whole lot to this kit especially when going gear up.

[Old_Tonto]

That's great progress Saxon. It is an interesting scheme, was it just used for this one exercise?

I wish I had chosen the Heller kit.

[Saxon]

That's great progress Saxon. It is an interesting scheme, was it just used for this one exercise?

I wish I had chosen the Heller kit.

As far as I know it was just once but Pitch Black is a regular event.

Yeah the Heller kit is brillant!

[RayS]

That's great progress Saxon. It is an interesting scheme, was it just used for this one exercise?

I wish I had chosen the Heller kit.

Yep, It was the only time we did this, had fun washing it all off when we got back to Williamtown after the exercise