The
Mirage F-1 has well served the Hellenic airforce for more than 25 years. Many
people, as well as me, consider it to be one of the most beautiful aircraft
ever built. In the event of the type's decommissioning a few years ago, two
examples were painted in a quite interesting anniversary scheme. I decided
to built the one depicting the figure of "Talos", a mythological giant
made of bronze!!
The
kit used was the well known Italeri (ex Esci), the only one available in 1/48.
Except of some Eduard red RBF ribbons & canopy rear view mirrors, no other
aftermarket products were used. All improvements resulted from scratchbuilding.
Click on
images below to see larger images
|
|
|
|
The
cockpit tub, side consoles, instrument panel & coaming, hud, oxygen bottle,
were all built from styrene, copper wire etc. The kit's ejection seat was used
as a base to built a more accurate replica of the real thing though was heavily
modified.
The
next area to be modified were the airbrakes, by drilling all the flap holes
& building their wells & actuator rods. The kit depiction of the two
Defa underbelly cannons was very poor so these were cut away, new recess
sculpted from milliput, & barrels from hypo needles & aluminum tape.
Also the u/c wells were detailed as well as brake & hydraulic lines added on
the landing gear legs.
Painting
was effected using Humbrol 27002 polished aluminium as it matches the color
used on the real thing, pretty well. The intake / fuselage flash was masked
& painted red. The tailfin was painted in white / blue / red & then the model
received several coats of future floor polish in order to proceed with the
decals. The decals are a mix of kit ones, spare roundels & the figure
of "Talos" was scanned from a magazine photo, retouched with the
help of Adobe Photoshop & printed on a HP inkjet printer on white decal
film. No weathering was applied on the external surfaces of the model because
the actual aircraft received the anniversary scheme just before it was
decommissioned and on photos appeared exceptionally clean. The cockpit &
landing gear on the other hand were sufficiently weathered.
Click on
images below to see larger images
|
|
|
|
Some
final details like canopy rearview mirrors, navigation lights, pitot tube from
hypo needle & RBF ribbons. Finally the model was placed on a diorama base
made of MDF & a piece of vinyl floor tile(!) which is an ideal surface for
scribing concrete expansion joints.
*Great job with the templates,
made my first post to ARC a piece of cake! I would like to thank you for all
that info & reference you provide in this great site.
Eugene
Click on
images below to see larger images
|
|
|
|