Yoav's Mirage 3C 1:33 scale

[Erik Zwaan]

Hello and back again from a week's break in Paris. Always great to visit the city and the weather was simply wonderful. Didn't visit the papermodelers site for some time and still need to catch up with what's been happening in the mean time .

Yoav's comment on the slightly visible edges on the canopy was a good one. I decided to give it another try and polished the mold with very fine grade sandpaper to get rid of the lines. A hair got in between the foil and mold and the vacuuming left a perfect imprint of it in the canopy so I had to make another one. Here's the result, and that's it, next time the frames will be glued in place. However, there's very little time to spare, again, for modeling in the days to come. Another update may therefore take a while.

Erik

[milenio3]

Very nice addition on the vacuum canopy, Erik!

And I bet you enjoyed yourself in Paris!

Keeping an eye on your thread. thanks for sharing!

[Erik Zwaan]

Hello again,

It's been a while as I hardly have any time for modelling these days, let alone scanning the site for updates of great builds....

Thanks Gerardo for your interest in this project!

Finished the frames on the canopy and used the mold to position them properly. Before closing the cockpit I added a few details to the instrument panel and glued the HUD again to the anti-glare panel. Parts like these have a persistent habit to break off .

I followed Yoav's instructions to start gluing the canopy to the fuselage by starting from the rear side. To ensure proper aligning I also glued the front side during this process and put a rubber band around the nose to keep it in place. Although the dry-fit showed a nicely aligned canopy, the end result is a somewhat tilted canopy . Haven't glued the sides yet so maybe there's still a chance to correct. Otherwise, too bad, a secret only known to the builder..... Well, something to work on this week.

Erik

[YOAVHOZMI]

nice addition to instruments panel....looks good.

in your permission a little tip for the next time:
when i am building a closed canopy, i don't use the black Lower inner frame, because it makes the lower frame to much thick and the canopy frame becomes noticeable from the body....if you know what i mean.

i cut the Lower inner frame from the black inner frame assembly and only paint it inside with black, and that way the frame is very thin and close to the body.

another thing i do....
i polish the lower side of the clear canopy, so it will be as muce as thin it can be.....so the lower side of the clear canopy and the lower side of the frame will be together very thin as possible.



if i am building an open canopy, all the things above is not important.
and i use the all black inner frame, because the canopy is full opend and we can see the black inner lower frame very well.



regards

YOAV

[na120372]

Hi Erik

Your Mirage production is very delicate and sharp and accurate work.

Forming a canopy is also very good.

I look forward to the completion of your wonderful Mirage.

I also admire the passion for your model.

Regards

KW KIM

[Dick]

Canopy is splendid !

[McTschegsn]

looks great I fitted the inner frame on my kfir canopy too. Does fit neatly if one is cautious Yes... I have to continue my Kfir :(

[Erik Zwaan]

Hello fellow PM's,

Thank you for your reactions and I'm glad to tell you that the canopy is done. Those are good points to consider Yoav, I must admit I forgot to sandpaper the bottom edges of the canopy, which I normally do. For the inner frames I used thin paper (80 grams), which is very useful for this purpose.

The air intakes are a great challenge. I had prepared them already some time ago and had followed the instructions carefully. During dry-fitting of the completed air intake assemblies however, I found it would be very difficult to glue them properly in place in one go and to obtain a seamless joint to the fuselage. Just too many variables to get a good result.

So I decided to start all over again. This time I assembled the air intakes in stages and started with attaching the skin section to the fuselage first and then the section with the inlet cone. It's a long story but by doing so I got a better span of control and less risk that things would go wrong. As I was too concentrated to get it done there are no pictures of the process.

In any case, here a few pictures of the left air intake. Not fully finished yet as the inside lining still has to be glued in place but I'm glad that the skin joint has turned out smooth. Pfff.....!

Next is the right side one. Yoav you'll probably agree with me that the air intakes are the challenge of this model.

Erik

[YOAVHOZMI]

at the end you did very good job on the air intake no matter what technique you used.

my technique is only recommended, and from our experience every one used his own technique for the best results.

keep on the good work.

YOAV

[busoramas]

Fantastic job, well done!