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This will be another one of my verrry verry slow builds.

I have two Imp Mk-2's and two Mk1's on the go at the moment.
The Imp Mk2's and one of the Mk1's are new builds and the one Imp Mk1 is a refurbishment.

Firstly a not very good attempt at the Matra F2 68mm rocket pod, the nose side profile needs to be more curved and the rear section needs to be more tapered, where is Bladerunners F2 pods when I need them!
Its looking very rough but will hopefully clean up ok and I can cast a bunch of them.


Next up the flaps, my Imps will all be "parked" so I need to drop the flaps.
Here are three sets of Impala flaps being made, maybe I should have just made one good set as a master for a mold and cast the rest.

1-Cut them from the wings and they then look like step one of the photo.
2-Fill the offset gap with scrap plastic and Tamiya putty
3-Sand and file to an aerofoil shape.

Although I will most likely close the cockpit, I would like the "drivers office" to be a bit more detailed than what comes in the kit, the Neomega set looks very nice I don't have one with me so I decided to do a limited upgrade myself.




I noticed that the kit instrument panel is set too far back under the decking so I nipped the long sections of the IP off and repositioned it closer to the control "stick",




Using cockpit photo's I roughly sketched the main features positions in the "pit" and fashioned a throttle quadrant which was then cemented into place, its a little big at this stage but will be sanded down later




Here is where I am at the moment, added the most prominent "knobs" they are not visible in the photo but should be ok when painted, the rest of the buttons and knobs I will paint on.
The the new white side consol panels do not show up nicely in the photo but they match the panels in the photo's of the real thing.

Nice Greg. Good to see more Imps in production.

Thanks Mistral, I have a whole herd of Impalas lined up!

Again apologies for the very poor photo quality but its all that I can do for now.

Anyway, I busied up the cockpit, the its not 100% but should be ok when the cockpit is closed and its a lot better than what the kit supplied, I will use the decal for the main control panel though.
I hope that I remember to paint the wood colour floor boards and side pockets before I close her up.

So here is where I am at, thats an MB4 ejection seat for my Mirage IIID2Z, I will modify a similar one to resemble the Imps seat.

So here are some blurry pics....

Very nice going Greg - research efforts paying off!

You are doing well there Greg, nice detailing.
I take it the Mk.4 seat you have used is close enough for the Imps Mk.6 seat?
I just compared Pavla's Mk.6 seat between their Buccaneer and M.B. 326 seats, they are quite different in appearance according to what they have.

I read somewhere that the Mk6 version used in the Impalas was not too different from the early Mk 4 versions as used in our Mirage III's, and to be honest I am not going to be too fussy about it, I will modify the profile of the top of the seat and add some canopy breakers and leave it at that, it will still be a very big improvement on the kit seat.

I am enjoying this build, its so much easier than the IIID2Z conversion, bit I will stop once the fuselage is together and add the wings when I get home.

Once I have done with the Imp fuselage I have the fuselage of a 1/48 Mig-21UM two seat conversion to do until the end of my trip so once home I can finish all three kits fairly easily and get to painting them.

The cockpit has been installed and the fuselage assembled, I will use the decal for the main control panel and then install the throttle handle,control stick and ejector seat.
The fuselage went together very nicely, no filler needed, just a very light sanding along the top and a bit more on the bottom.
The tape is to protect the detail around the area being sanded.

.
Some progress on the Imp Mk2 and some better quality photo's.

I placed the main control panel decal after the fuselage was assembled and damaged it and the decal should be a bit lower down on the control panel, I will cut a decal from somewhere else to patch it up but it does not look too bad for now and the cockpit will be closed anyway.













Here is where I am at for now, I lost the left flap and had to swipe one from another kit, its not finished yet which is why the left one is full of putty.

Hi Gregair,
the Matra F-2 pods are very tiny compared to the aircraft. On the old Matra website the diameter was given as 242 mm which would make a 5mm tube of plastic tube pretty close. I worked out the length as 29 mm in 48th but could not find the length on the new website to confirm it. The color was olive green,sand and med to dark grey till about 1982 when they were painted dark green and light blue as they went thru major overhaul. Depending on what period you want to model it was common to see a mix of the two color schemes on the same a/c.

hope the info helps

Joker

Thanks a lot for that info Joker
I will check on the measurments of my "pods"

My pods are 7mm wide and 32mm long, a little too big but I may just leave them as they are.

I have to add the light to the tail fin and then she is ready for painting.
The ejection seat and weapons will be added a little later

hi gregair

You have not mentioned what make of kit your impala is...
I would like to know since the kit looks very nice and as you have shown a little extra will do a lot.

The build is coming very well. Keep it up!

Cheers
MAMbA

_________________
MAMBA

Keep your feet on the ground, and reach for the skies!

My apologies, its the Italeri 1/48 kit, I have changed the thread title accordingly