Kinetic 1:48 Mirage IIIs J-2327

[jonf45]

Hi,

Completed this Kinetic 1:48 Dassault Mirage IIIS recently. Built OOB, and finished as J-2327 of 16 Staffel, Sion AB, Swiss Air Force, circa 1996. Airbrushed using Mr Color Acrylics and weathered using Mig Ammo washes.

The kit went together really well to begin with, the fuselage and engine parts went together snugly,  but when i was joining the fuselage to the wings there was about a 2mm gap!! So i effectively had to  break the fuselage open to get it to fit a bit better before copious amounts of filler, ugh. The canards didnt fit particularly well either, and i broke the pitot tube about 4 times!!!

This one was chosen as its one of the frames that came to the ACMI deployment RAF Waddington in 1996, and thus has the orange training rounds and supersonic tanks  




1.48 Mirage IIIs J-2327-2 by Jonathan Francis, on Flickr



1.48 Mirage IIIs J-2327-5 by Jonathan Francis, on Flickr



1.48 Mirage IIIs J-2327-4 by Jonathan Francis, on Flickr



1.48 Mirage IIIs J-2327-7 by Jonathan Francis, on Flickr


1.48 Mirage IIIs J-2327-3 by Jonathan Francis, on Flickr


1.48 Mirage IIIs J-2327-12 by Jonathan Francis, on Flickr



1.48 Mirage IIIs J-2327-9 by Jonathan Francis, on Flickr



1.48 Mirage IIIs J-2327-8 by Jonathan Francis, on Flickr



Thanks for looking

Jon

[paddyboy]

Hi Jon

Yet another stunning job

Well done you

Patrick

[Sparts99]

That's really nice, panel lines and weathering not overdone.

[DanBeeden]

Very nice build, shame about some of the fit issues you experienced with the kit. I've built their Prowler and Hawkeye kits in 1:48 and whilst the fit wasn't bad, it was nothing like as good as Tamiya or Hasegawa. One thing that caught my eye was the tyres - it looks like they are a satin or gloss black? I've been using Tamiya XF-85 Nato Black for tyres for a while and I found it looks so much better than on my earlier kits that I had done in just flat black.

[3Greens]

That's a lovely job Jonathan and I have great shots of that ACMI detachment at my nearby Waddington.
Always a lover of the Mirage III, particularly the French.
We had EC-5 with silver frames in Binbrook many moons ago, but I always loved the really worn/weathered camo 'C's detached to Djibouti / Africa.
I have the French aviation mag "Air Action" which coverred a great article of the changeover of IIIC's for F.1C's in the August 1988
Fortunately I've just found a Heller 1/48 Mirage IIIC in desert scheme so going to give that a good go now you've spurred me on !

Thanks for posting
Keith (3Greens)

[cj9ru]

That looks very good indeed
Chris