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Progress!
It’s been a while and high time to continue with the model. Life has been rather hectic in the past few weeks and there was hardly any time for modeling. Needed to create space to display my latest models and I hang a few cabinets on the wall for additional storage and display. Well, that’s done now and my modest collection of the last two years is finally properly stored as you can see in the first pictures. That’s one of the things that kept me busy and now back to the Mirage.
First something about the paper I printed the model on. I used 160 grams (A4 size) paper, which is also recommended by Yoav. At first I printed it on 200 grams but the feel of it is just too thick, making the parts more difficult to flex. I also made a test print on the standard 80 grams printer/copier papier and both paper sizes may perhaps become useful at some point.
Building the ejection seat was no problem and I laminated the inside of the cushions with 0.5mm thick cardboard to get a “gluing edge” for the curved head and back rest surfaces.
Then continued with the nose cone by building from front to back and had problems with the fitting of the second ring. Somehow it was too small in diameter to fit with the next ring, part no. 3, and I had to cut it open, which leaves a gap of about half a millimeter. Still have to do the repair work and I may simply replace the nose cone all together as I forgot the fit a tube inside the cone, which will make it easier to install the pitot tube as the final part. Anyway, the nose section is black and the gap hardly noticeable.
For the cockpit assembly I deviated somewhat from Yoav’s instructions. I glued the cockpit to the aft bulkhead first and then glued both fuselage sections together instead of the other way around as per the instructions. Dry-fitting is an absolute must here. This allowed me a better control over aligning and fixating the cockpit. Also I glued the ejection seat to the cockpit floor before installing the cockpit, as well as a small strip of 1.0 mm cardboard to the bottom of the floor to make it more rigid.
Still have to finish the last details but the relatively difficult task of assembling the front section parts is complete now and everything fits just nicely; only had to trim some of the formers by fine grain sanding.
For edge coloring I’m using Tamiya German grey XF-63 for the cockpit and for the camouflage colors simple Staedtler felt pens. I like the sand yellow – brown – green livery, as these are truly the colors of the Israeli landscape as I remember it from my visits in the early nineties.
Last but not least, the other fuselage rings are ready to be assembled (the aft ones already are); something for the next episode and I’ve been studying how to make a vacuum box for the canopy. The making of this model will definitely be an interesting journey!
Erik
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