Subject: Re: Gallery Article - 1:48 Mirage IV
From: "Steve Bamford" <[email-masked]>
To: "Aibara Darius @Consult" <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 6 Mar 2003 16:03:31 -0800

----- Original Message -----
From: "Aibara Darius @Consult" <[email-masked]>
To: <[email-masked]>
Sent: Monday, March 03, 2003 5:37 AM
Subject: Gallery Article - 1:48 Mirage IV

Gallery Template #05
"1:48 Heller Mirage IV"
by "Darius Aibara"
--------------------
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Heller have produced some inexpensive and reasonably well detailed kits of
modern French Aircraft in 1:48 scale - particularly the Etendard/Super
Etendard series.  I had been interested in building the twin engined Mirage
IV for some time and obtained the kit from Hannants when it was reissued
last year.  The kit has raised panel lines which are not too bad (similar to
those on Monogram Kits), nicely detailed undercarriage units and an OK
cockpit.  I trawled the internet for pictures and found some good ones of
the undercarriage but none of the cockpit.  As such I built the kit out of
the box with few modifications.
As the aircraft is a scaled up Mirage III the kit components are similar but
larger than those for the smaller delta -  fuselage split vertically with
integral tailplane, complete lower delta wing, upper wing halves and
separate nose.  I added fuselage struts made from kit sprue to ensure a good
fit between the wing roots and the upper wing joint but still needed filler
to finish the connection.  Filler was also used to fair in the nose
connection, engine intakes and exhaust fairings to the fuselage.  The main
gear incorporates four-wheeled bogies on each leg and to ensure that all
eight  wheels made simultaneous contact with the ground I carefully
separated each bogie from the gear leg and fabricated an articulated joint
using a steel pin shaft - which works as designed.

Click on images below to see larger images
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I primed the fuselage with grey acrylic primer from a spray can and then
spray applied Humbrol dark sea grey.  Over that I brush painted a mix of
various dark green enamels to match the green in the internet photos - a
risky process as colours could be distorted in this medium but it looks
about right - perhaps a touch too light.  The kit decals were applied  with
the additional Mirage IV logo on the nose formed using butchered spare
Mirage III decals.
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Photos and text © 2003 by "Darius Aibara"

 <<Mirage IV.zip>>
Regards

Darius Aibara
TPS Consult

Tel:  020 8256 4090
Fax: 020 8256 4082

www.tpsconsult.co.uk

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