Academy 1/48th scale Mirage IIIC Israeli Air Force

micahrogers · May 27, 2014

Hi again, and welcome to the next installment of On the Bench, this kit will be an experiment in acrylic Natural Metal finishes. AV Vallejo has a line of alcohol based metalics called Liquid Metals, and a line of acrylic metals called Model Air Metalics. The Liquid Metal line has the precious metals, Silver, White Gold, Old Gold, and Bright Gold. The Model Air Metalics line has Silver, Aluminium, Brass, Copper, and Gold.

I'll be using the Model Air Metalics Silver as my base color, panels of Aluminium, and call outs in Liquid Silver. I'll have to mix colors to make the jet exhaust effect.

The box says French Air Force markings, but the decals have only Israeli markings.

micahrogers · May 27, 2014

As with most aircraft kits, construction starts with the cockpit.

-there isn't much detail to this kits parts so let's see what painting can do.

Looks ok I guess, next will be the pilot.

micahrogers · May 27, 2014

The pilot has very little detail as well so painting went quick,

and installed in the cockpit,

next the rest of it starts to come together.

micahrogers · Jun 1, 2014

Sorry for not updating recently, my old 8 MP camera died and I had to get a new one. so no interim pics of the the build up till yesterday.

Fuselage built and primed in Tamiya Gloss Black

and first coat of AV Vallejo Model Air Metalics "Silver" sprayed.

more pics as the painting continues.

micahrogers · Jun 1, 2014

while the silver base coat cures I've painted the under-wing stores. I have no research as to what the fuel tanks and missles should be painted like, so I just followed the box art
.

I'm pretty sure it's two under-wing tanks, a center-line Sky-Streak or similar, and two Sidewinders. Feel free to corect me if I am wrong with my ID or colors.

zathros · Jun 2, 2014

That is one old mold. Your painting is excellent. I used to make mold, for different products, but same process. Back when plastic model were relatively cheap, I would buy two, just to cut out the moveable surfaces in one and stick them into the other. Plastic Models are so expensive. Only thing I don't understand is that the production costs have gone down, so why still the high prices.

I used to get Hawgawa, and Tamiya kits mostly. The old Jo-Hann kits, with tons of work, made models that fell into the unobtainium field. Lots of work ahead. Coming out real nice. Hard to put good panel lines in plastic, possible, but hard. I have, new in the box, an original Renwal Visible V-8. I always wanted to find that chassis, but they are up at around $1800.00 dollars now. Far too much for me. I also have a 1/8th Scale Jaguar XKE by Monogram, full suspension, engine details, the Windows even roll down! I had two, but sold one 8 months ago for $300 dollars. It only cost $35 dollars 20 years ago.

Bill Nelson · Jun 7, 2014

One thing is Plastic is made out of oil, when we think of the cost of kits now, as opposed to 40 years ago, I have to remember I could fill up my car for $4.00 fourty years ago.

micahrogers · Jun 8, 2014

to be honest, most of the models I've built recently are coming out of my 14 plus year old stash of kits. The Cadet series ships are new production bought at Hobby Lobby with the 40% off coupons for about $14 a pop, and the Mystery Machine was bought new at Hobbytown USA for about $25.

micahrogers · Jun 8, 2014

detail painting done, panels painted with Steel for a slight color variation. wheel wells painted White, fueling points in Red, and nose cone in Black.
Decals come next

The decals won't take long on this kit.

micahrogers · Jun 10, 2014

Decals are done and clearcoated, had a couple "decal malfunctions" with this one.

in the pic below you can see that even after setting solution's and clearcoat, the side stars rose up and wrinkled.

and in this pic you can see that the fin numbers totally disintegrated
when they came off the paper, so I used a marker to add them in.

next will be weathering...

micahrogers · Jun 10, 2014

Holy Crap!
I didn't realize how close up this new cam will get... you can see the sanding marks left by 800 grit here....
anyway, pics of weathered craft coming

micahrogers · Jun 10, 2014

Okay the final installment of the Mirage IIIC is here, a black wash to bring out the panel lines, then a "grunge" wash to simulate oil and fuel leaks, and finally chalk dusts to simulate dirt and smoke. then the underwing stores were added.