The SAAF Forum

More surgery on the Mirage III's to create the IIID2Z.
I am having a little difficulty getting it all lined up properly and a few "fit" problems but it should all go together ok if I do it carefully.

Take your time.
Once it is cut, it's cut. Surgery is the name of the game.

The seats are kit seats, parts of the seat were cut away and replaced by photo etch parts.
The seats are painted up and colour photo etch pieces added.



On the left is the cockpit with Eduard photo etch. On the right, with seats and rear dash loosely placed.



I will be order some IRIS-T missiles.
Other wise she will look kaal gat.

Looks good Jeffrey. Where are you sourcing the Iris-T from? Also, are you located in Canada?

Thanks Gary F.
I'm shopping around at this point.
Yes, Cow Town is a nick name for Calgary, Alberta, Canada. This is beef country with cow boys. Alberta is carying Canada financially with it's oil wealth.

Edit: 05:40
I replied above assuming you are in SA Gary F.
Now thinking of a second drop tank.

Hi Jeffrey,

I'm just a little south of Seattle, for now. There's some Iris-T's in the SkunkModels US/NATO weapons set, and also in Revell's Eurofighter ... cheaper with the weapons set.

Nice and close to Boeing field for a museum visit. A short trip up the I5 to Everett for a tour of the Boeing assembly plant. That is if you have not been yet.

Thanks for the tips on the IRIS-T.

Yep, live about 20 mins S of the museum. Not much in the way of plastic kits there anymore but they do have good selection of books. Some nice display aircraft too. Wife was at Boeing in flight test which is about 5 minutes from the museum.
Anyway, good luck on the Gripen.

I'm trying to finish mine. All that is needed is the "MirageIIICZ" writing in WHITE on the front either side of the fuselage. Anyone have any ideas how to print in white ?

Progress!

Firstly, my apologies for the photo quality, I don't have a camera with me only my "Swartberry"

I attached the lower wing to add rigidity to the fuselage then removed the "C" spine and added a long tab made of plastic card under each edge of the "cutout" to rest the new "D2Z" spine on





Then using the twoseat nose section and the spine together I worked out their positioning on the fuselage and cemented the spine in place.



The air intakes will require a little trimming to shorten them a bit to fit properly but this should pose no problem.
A bigger problem that is looming is the attachment of the lower wing / nosewheel door surround area, looks like I am going to struggle a bit to make it fit properly.

Looking good
I have never seen a SAAF D2Z model....looking forward to it!

Cheers
MAMBA

_________________
MAMBA

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

Indeed, looking good.
I'm currious as to the solution to the arrest hook.

Thanks guys, I have been struggling with the nose section / fuselage join.

Regarding the arrestor hook... I'm going to carefully cut a groove down the middle/rear of the ventral fueltank "bulge" and add a home made arrestor hook, on that note the ventral tank seems to have a more curved profile that on the other Mirage IIIs to I will have to alter it's side profile.

But if that fails I guess I can buy the Eagle Designs resin ventral tank/arrestor hook conversion for the Belgian Mirage 5BA/BR

Well I must say after the last photo's that I posted, I got a bit disheartened.
I was really struggling to make the Heller two seat nose fit the Hobbyboss fuselage and lower wing/nosewheel area.
Eventually I just closed my eyes and jumped in...sort of and "Voila" my preplanning and measuring actually did work out ok, not perfect but workable.

Current state of the build:
Nose section added
Air intake strakes modified and shaped.
Tail fin lower leading edge reshaped to final form
Two seat spine mounted
D2Z ventral tank re-shaped as I discovered that it was indeed a different shape to the other Mirage III ventral tanks, also started cut out groove to later insert arrestor hook.
Area around nosewheel bay blended in, some more sanding to do here and a little re-scribing
Top of main wings attached to fuselage, got a good join on right wing, not so good on left wing but only glued wing fuselage join for now, rest of wing will be cemented today.
Managed to break off a bunch of "petals" off the resin exhaust nozzel!

Again I must apologise, I cannot get better pics with the cell phone, I tried all the settings, close up, prtrait, sport etc but at least you can get an idea of the progress being made.

Re-shaped tailfin

Nice going Greg! Don't let her beat you mate!

How did you make/shape the strakes?

Hope trip is going ok - stay safe