The
Mirage III R2Z entered service with the South African Air Force in 1974.
It was used extensively over the Angolan theatre, flying recce and
post-strike BDA missions. Typical mission were flown ultra-low level
(30ft) at penetration speeds of 500 kt, if needed directly over known SA-3
sites. A single airframe was lost to AAA. Mirage III R2Z’s differed from
usual Mirage III R or RZs in having Mirage F1 subsystems, the most
important of which is the far more powerful Atar 9K-50 engine (ala F1,
with 71kN afterburning thrust ).
The
kit I used is the age-old Revell Mirage III kit of late sixties vintage.
To convert it from the kit Mirage III R option, all I needed to do was
scratch build the swept leading edge intake splitter plates and fit
F1-style antennae and RWR receivers on the vertical tail. And of course
scratch-build the cockpit and fit an appropriate after-market seat (by
Cutting Edge) accordingly. Fortunately, the Atar 9K-50 is externally
identical the Atar 9C (more on that below).
However,
the basic kit required very extensive upgrading. Panel lines had to be
re-scribed and the kit exhaust was replaced by a brilliant after market
set produced by MC-One in Switzerland (www.mc-one.ch).
The model would not have been the same at all without that set (thanks
Robi). Apart from that, the modifications, from the front of the plane to
the back, are as follows: Use Al and brass rod to model the nose pitot;
scratch build camera bay and cameras, scratch build front wheel well (the
kit only features a partial wheel well floor but no well sides); add
lights and detail to the front undercarriage; scratch build the pitot
tubes in front of the windscreen from syringe needles and brass; scratch
build entire cockpit, including instruments under windscreen, and rear
cockpit bulkhead; give the intake cones a more pointed look with Tamiya
ceramic putty; scratch-build the intake ducts all the way to the
compressor face with Tamiya ceramic putty (not entirely necessary, since I
can’t actually see all the way to the engine even when using my most
nifty little penlight); scratch-build, drill/recess the DEFA 553 30mm
cannons (made from AL tubing); scratch build the cannon blast supressors
(“Dremeled” from brass tubing); sand the supersonic tanks to the
correct, more slim shape and also use tips turned from Al to ensure a
crisp look; detail the main wheel wells and undercarriage.
Click on
images below to see larger images
I
used Tamiya colors to for the Deep Buff (4 parts orange X-6 to 5 parts
buff XF-57) and Olive Drab (XF-62) shades, respectively. Polyscale
Australian PRU Blue, or something like that, was used for the Light
Admirality Grey (special thanks here to Louis Vosloo who provided me with
actual SAAF color samples many years ago). Quite a few coats of Future
were needed to achieve the desired pre-decaling coat, and the decals were
applied using Future in the same way I used to use Microset/Sol. I applied
the decals this way due to some of the terrible decals I was using, but
the technique proved to be so good I will use it on all of my projects
going forward. As for the decals themselves, I primarily used a Leading
Edge 1/32 SAAF Sabres set (LE3204, great set, and these decals went on
very nicely), but had to augment those with the Revell decals (very thick)
and also some terrible dual language home made things I had lying in the
spare parts for 10 years. There is no way these would have gone on without
using the Future technique.
After
re-coating with Future, I washed the model very lightly using a soapy mix of
dark Tamiya paints. The final coat was mixed using Future and some Tamiya flat
base—the original aircraft were delivered in a gloss coat, but dulled from sun
exposure with time. Coating the model in too glossy a coat definitely ends up
looking wrong, in my opinion. The tanks were painted using SnJ Al and various
buffing powders. I used SnJ for the first time and am very pleased with the
result, both the look and the resilience of the product. However, it did take
some getting used to. I also used SnJ for the outside of the exhaust.
The inside
of the exhaust was primarily airbrushed with Humbrol Gun Metal and weathered
using a mix of white, black and rust-colored pastels.
I
selected only two supersonic tanks as external stores—I wanted to preserve the
very sleek, fast look of the Mirage III. Fortunately, I found reference photos
proving that this configuration was used operationally (which is the way I like
to load out my models).
I
hope you enjoy my first submission to ARC. I would like to thank Kevin Smith for
helping me find the indispensable Leading Edge decal sheet and also Greg McEwan-Marriott
and Neil Commerford for providing me with much needed detail photos.
Marcel
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images below to see larger images
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