Mirage III Speed build

Donald Dickson II
OK, so the Christmas meeting for the IPOMS chapter I belong to is themed for the show. Its always build the same subject. They pick a plane and a target and everyone builds that. The club gets a deal on a bulk buy and will supply the kits at a low cost. or you can build your own. Soooooo...

This year was the Mirage. III or F1. Im not much of a Mirage guy, so I didnt think about it. But late Sun night I realized, oh I do have a III in the stash. What the heck, Ill get it done. I have until Wed at 4 PM. This is the Academy 1/48 Mirage III R kit. And wow, junk.

This thing was originally released in 86. Man, its lacking detail and bad fit. They need to stop re boxing this junk and do a new tool. You can see the white in the wheel wells. Thats plasticard I cut and put in simply so you arent looking into the gaping holes there. There is NOTHING there. The cock pit is a complete joke. And the helmet on the pilot looks like a Spanish conquistador helmet.

I have the camo on. I think I went too dark with the gray, but I like how it is looking. Have to do some touch ups then I will be spraying Future and decals. No time to mess with weathering.

Greg Baker
I've seen this one (like almost all Academy kits) on the shelf a lot here in Korea and have been curious about it. I don't build 1/48, but it's super cheap so it's been tempting... but now I know why.

Donald Dickson II
Yeah, its cheap for a reason. 1 full tree of parts, a small tree and the Clear parts. All 2 of them. Oh yeah, forgot to mention. All the holes in the nose for the cameras? There are no clear parts for them. Including the end of the nose. Gonna try to fill with Krystal Klear.

Greg Baker
I look forward to the magic show. 🙂

Nikolaos Kouzinis
I make a same one last week. You have right for all problems and with a big hole to the engine position, For the clear parts of nose I used zelatin and interior silver semiclear zelatin of mobile phone screen

Nikolaos Kouzinis
fotos
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I put a led in black engine hole

Nikolaos Kouzinis
...and pilot's height like "price index" for Procrustes bed

Donald Dickson II
Nikolas, you did a fine job with this pig! I got her done. I will post pics when I get back from the meeting.

And Nikolas, it looks like the decals acted much better for you than for me. Horrendous.

Nikolaos Kouzinis
The decals roundels are from other kits. Its was for the garbage cans

Nikolaos Kouzinis
Ι making a Mirage IIIc now, has the same parts with IIIR except of fuselage (nose) and two sidewinders and one matra 550. The others pigproblems are the same

Donald Dickson II
Nikolaos, you are a brave man sir! I will NOT touch this kit in any form again.

OK, so here is my pig. Probably one of the worst you will see me post. BUT, I did it in just 3 days. And considering the absolute crap this kit is, I think I managed OK in that time.

As I mentioned, the decals were some of the worst I have seen. I may grab an after market set some time down the road if I can find them cheap. NOT interested in putting any kind of money into this thing.

My solution for the exhaust that was simply a ring amounting to another hole straight into the fuselage was to use a part from the PE set for the B-1. Since I wasnt using that portion, I cut it down to size. It is, obviously, completely wrong, but it looks a lot better than NOTHING.

The Krystal Klear worked as expected for the camera windows. Now imagine all those holes just empty. Thats what they left us with. And yes, the underside is awful. I know.

Spanjaard
nice job specially considering the circumstances 🙂

Donald Dickson II
Spanjaard, you are too kind. No matter what Greg says. 😉

Nikolaos Kouzinis
Thank you Donald. Sometimes Ι concider challenge to make a kit with problems, sometimes and aftermarket (second hand) as one in my album the TU22 Backfire which had missed parts at half. If you see it in my album (scalemates), it is scratced all of it. But it has something good these situations. You put the mind to solve problems using strange materials for scratching.

Greg Baker
I agree with that. That's why I love kitbashing, scratchbuilding and general WHIF projects. Figuring out how to successfully marry the front of Spad XIII with the bottom of a Me163B Komet and create the Pirate Flapter from the animated film Castle in the Sky is a very satisfying bit of work.

Donald Dickson II
Oh, doing something like that is completely different Greg. There you are creating something unique and of interest to you. So the mindset is different. As are the goals.

And with Nikolaos point, yes, but ONLY if its a subject I have an interest in. Then I will gladly putwork into it. If this had been something like an F-15, F-4, Tornado or Jaguar then yeah, I will go all out. I might bitch about it, but thats only because I like bitching. 😉

Greg Baker
Good point. I was focused more on the idea of scratchbuilding vs. Hyperdetailing using aftermarket add-one. Both can be satisfying for different goals and reasons, as you say.

Donald Dickson II
Yep. And this one was solely can I get it done in time and not look like an epileptic 12 year old did it.

Nikolaos Kouzinis
It looks good Donald.

Martin Oostrom
You're a magician Donald 😉

Donald Dickson II
Nikolaos and Martin, thank you! And you are far too kind Martin. 🙂