Falklands/Malvinas War 30th Anniversary GB

Thank you Azorean. I really wanted to do this aircraft justice. I have read quite a bit about the Mirage and Dagger sorties, and really am building this as a tribute to those daring aviators.

stikpusher

 unless those Aztec Decals are issued in the next few days, I will be running a bit past the deadline myself.  

They say in the end of this week beginning of the other the decals will be available.

Great camo paint you made.

Thank you Vance. I do like Humbrols paints. Their colors are very nice! As a side note, unless those Aztec Decals are issued in the next few days, I will be running a bit past the deadline myself. Now that I am commited to doing a later batch Mirage, I need the new numbers... and stll need the Grupo insignia even if I went with what I do have on hand.

Well today was touch ups and corrections on yesterdays work

Overspray on the nose and tail areas cleaned up

The lowers all done

And the topside pattern corrected, touched up for overspray, missiles primed, and drop tanks touched up and finished...

I just need to mask off and paint a couple details on the tail and the radome and then she will be ready for a coat of Future and decals.

Stik - gorgeous airbrush work, the colours are looking good.
Mike - no problem if you need to pull out, I don't think anyone would mind if you ran past the deadline though.

Stik -- one sweet Mirage! Your freehand airbrushing is excellent, I wish I had as much control!

It's with regret, guys, that I must withdraw -- my first withdrawal from a GB ever. There's no way I can get to my Sea Harrier in time, and honestly I can tackle neither the Fujimi nor Airfix kits on their own merits... I'm sorry not to have an entry in this historic build -- an Argentine Skyhawk would have been my alternative and I'm sure I could have done an excellent job with Aztec decals on a Hasegawa or Fujimi kit. But I have way too much on my plate and something has to go...

Best wishes, and I'll be following this GB to the finish!

Mike/TB379

Looking good stik.

Well done Stik great attention to details

Stik layed down lots of paint today...

First up, the drop tanks. In pics I saw some camo'd in green and tan, others in sand and tan, and some in plain NMF. I liked the added colors of sand/tan so I went with that.

The Mirage IIIEAs were painted in a USAF SEAstyle colors and pattern with the lowers in FS 36622 (which I painted yesterday) and the uppers in Dark Olive FS 34064, Medium Green FS 34102, and Tan FS 30219. So, working from lightest to darkest on the aircraft itself, again using Humbrol Enamels, I started with Tan 30219

Next I airbrushed on Medium Green 34102

And finally the Dark Olive- Humbrol does not make 34064 in their line up, but they do have the RAF BSC equivelant BSC-641 in a satin finish. That is why the darkest color has a bit of a sheen here.

And thats enough for today. Lots of humidity issues during the airbrushing session for me so that was enough. Tomorrow I will go back and do touch up for overspray on the Tan and Light Gray.

And Stik is laying paint down!! Looking good.

You can't beat a bit of throne research. I haven't seen that movie yet, was going to watch it last weekend on Sky, but the other half is very Anti Maggie, so maybe when i am on my own one evening.

Shes looking good, always nice when the paint start to go on.

Bish

stikpusher:

Bish, the blade antennas were not included in the kit. This particular IIIE boxing was for a different variant and did not have the parts peculiar to the Argentine III EA. Instead it makes a III O (Australia), III EE (Spain), III E (France), or a III S (Switzerland), which all have a different tail configuration and a doppler radar bulge ahead of the nose wheel well. Thank goodness for World Airpower Journal and Wings of Fame.

 

Right, and shows the benefit of a bit of research.

dupes, looking forward to seeing the progress.

And my wife thinks I am just passing time with all that reading on the porcelain throne. It is honest to goodness research. But tends to make the simple quick builds extend out as I decide to add just one more detail or correction...

As a side note, I saw "The Iron Lady" two nites ago. Pretty good movie about old Maggie and I think it is the first mainstream moie that I have seen that has the Falklands War included.

And now back to our regularly scheduled build. First up the last fiddly bits added:

the outboard missile rails

vents on the upper and lower fuselage

canopy, windscreen, and instrument pressure probes

overall bottom and top with missiles

In the midday I began airbrushing the first colors. I am using Humbrol Enamels. FS# 36622 Camouflage Gray on the lower surfaces, and as primer for the rudder and bare fiberglass antenna areas on the tail.

Then I mixed a custom Off White for the bare fiberglass areas and painted the rudder in Insignia Yellow

And finally I airbrushed a base coat of Flat Black for the inner surface of the canopy and windscreen frames

Tomorrow after I get the rudder and antenna areas masked off I can begin applying the topside colors

I'll do my best. It has been a few years. Out of the 3 AFV types we had, Warrior, 432 and CVRT, the latter is the only one i never trained to drive on. But i was around them a bit do i will rack my brains as best i can.

Warrior driver? Really? AWESOME!

I've got several Accurate Armour kits in both the CVRT series and FV430 series as well as a couple of Stormer chassis' that I'm sure I'll need some help with. Glad to know I've got a source!

I used to be, i was in an Armoured Inf battalion for 12 years and spent 6 driving Warriors. So i will of course help if i can. My current unit work with Helo's, but we do have a couple of CVRT's for training loads.

Bish - don't remember exactly what your job is...are you around armor very frequently? Got a bunch of things in the stash that I have questions galore about, wondered if you'd be the man to ask.

stikpusher

Bish, the blade antennas were not included in the kit. This particular IIIE boxing was for a different variant and did not have the parts peculiar to the Argentine III EA. Instead it makes a III O (Australia), III EE (Spain), III E (France), or a III S (Switzerland), which all have a different tail configuration and a doppler radar bulge ahead of the nose wheel well. Thank goodness for World Airpower Journal and Wings of Fame.

Right, and shows the benefit of a bit of research.

dupes, looking forward to seeing the progress.

Lots of good last-month work going on! The Scimitar is next up to move into the "finish" pile on my bench...will put something up as soon as I can.

Bish, the blade antennas were not included in the kit. This particular IIIE boxing was for a different variant and did not have the parts peculiar to the Argentine III EA. Instead it makes a III O (Australia), III EE (Spain), III E (France), or a III S (Switzerland), which all have a different tail configuration and a doppler radar bulge ahead of the nose wheel well. Thank goodness for World Airpower Journal and Wings of Fame.

Great work stik. Were those blade antennas not included or were the kit ones not very good.

My last bits were completed today before I can start painting. Windscreen masked and glued on, canopy masked and tacked in place, last few fidely bits (some vents and pitot tubes) glued into place. Tomorrow the airbrushing will commence. And more progress pics then...

Great work everyone. I really enjoy these Gbs when everyone is working together to a deadline.

Another non-photographic update on the Sheffield. Most of the spray painting is complete, I just need to mask the hull and spray the main deck.

Once I'm through that it'll be worth posting photos again.

Cheers

Tony

Great work around here guys!! it is nice to see that there will be more finished models before the due date.

Azorean, the SUE looks great so far, but I think you can try with a lighter color instead of black (too much contast), just a personal oppion.

Cheers,

Jere

VanceCrozier

I know flightdecs.ca carries Aztec's products, I have no idea if they have anything yet though, their site is 'filtered" at my office.

Ok, I will look there. I am starting to get  bit antsy here for the mid month cut off finish line.

And now back to the Mirage. Lots of progress pics so far today.

first up, the completed long range drop tanks with pylons and tail fins mounted,

Then, while looking at some cockpit shots of a Mirage IIIE, I noticed that there is a prominent hood for the radar scope, so I scratchbuilt and painted one during the week.

I installed it today along with the gunsite (Mirage IIIE was pre HUD)

Then it was off to the outboard pylon missile rails. The first 10 Mirage IIIEAs were not wired to carry the Matra R550 Magic AAM. But the next batch were, and the forthcoming Aztec Decals include aircraft that were from the second batch. this issue of the ESCI kit did not have the outboard pylons or rails, so I took some from a Hobbyboss Mirage IIICJ (along with a pair of R550s) But the rails on the IIICJ are not mounted the same as on a IIIEA. On the IIIJ the rails are installed verticly dirctly below the pylon while on the IIIEA they are mounted at an angle ofset to the outboard. So a bit of cutting, sanding, and the addition of an angle strip was in order.

First the original pylon/rail parts

then the first pylon/rail seperated

Both pylons/rails seperated and with a strip of wedge styrene added to angle off the rail

and finally both pylons with the repositioned rails

Then I built the blade antennaes that are mounted on both sides near the top of the vertical stabilizer from strip styrene. I have no good line drawings of them so they are a guestimate based off photos.

Then I glued them in placed

Almost time for paint now...

stikpusher

 

 

OK, I keep checking Aztec's website every day, since this post went up and still no sign of these decals. Does anyone know where they are available yet?

I know flightdecs.ca carries Aztec's products, I have no idea if they have anything yet though, their site is 'filtered" at my office.

Azorean Thats looking great. What did you use for the wash.

Azorean

OK, I keep checking Aztec's website every day, since this post went up and still no sign of these decals. Does anyone know where they are available yet?

Thunderbolt379

Inpsiring, Azorean! I must get one of these! (Italeri, right?)

Meanwhuile, the Fujimi Sea Harrier may very well be the first kit I ever bin...  The engineering is attrocious, the only thing it has going for it is fine engraved lines and Cartograf decals. I might revert to the Airfix kit and put up with the trenches!

Mike/TB379

oh no! Well, if it comes to that, Airfix's new-tool Sea Harrier is very buildable, the "trenches" are the only downside. Not too bad to deal with though, I tried to darken the area around the panel lines rather than use a wash - the shadowing kinda took care of the effect.

Perfect washing Azorean

Inpsiring, Azorean! I must get one of these! (Italeri, right?)

Meanwhuile, the Fujimi Sea Harrier may very well be the first kit I ever bin...  The engineering is attrocious, the only thing it has going for it is fine engraved lines and Cartograf decals. I might revert to the Airfix kit and put up with the trenches!

Mike/TB379

Looking good!! Display base will be the ocean's surface? Great idea, the SUE in it's natural environment!