1/48 Academy Mirage IIIR 

by Neil Commerford

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  South Africa Freedom Day 2006 

 

This is my Academy Mirage III R also known as the Mirage IIIR2Z in South Africa. The aircraft type came into service with the SAAF in 1974 and was part of the famous 2 squadron. The kit is very basic and contains no internal detail. I built the kit OOB except for the addition of a spare 1:48 scale Ejection seat, some small aerials and a bit of detail to the wheel wells.

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The paint scheme I used was applied to almost all the SAAF Mirages and is very difficult to replicate. The deep buff is a mixture of Humbrols light buff with a bit of gloss black added to achieve a close match to the correct colour. The green is also a Humbrol colour which was modified. I painted the bottom of the model with light blue colour. I used some of the decals provided with the kit, e.g. the warnings, but the rest are from a SAAF Castle decal sheet.

The kit looks great once completed but if you are looking for detail then this is not the kit for you. Also it's not a great one if you are looking for a simple build as lots of filler was required particularly on the wing root and under the fuselage.  Overall it's not the best kit I've ever built but I'm happy with the end result.

Neil

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Photos and text © by Neil Commerford