South African Mirage IIICZ
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Mirage IIICZ South African Air Force
This is the Modelsvit Mirage IIIC (72061) built out of the box with the markings for a South African aircraft of the 2nd squadron “Flying Cheetahs” in 1982. I wanted to use the JP production resin JL100 rocket tank pods for the build and South Africa seemed to be the only airforce who used this weapon.
The build was straight forward with nice detail in the cockpit with PE for the seat belts. The decals worked well for the Instrument panel but I decided to dry brush the side console and tub details which worked very well with the raised detail.
Once the cockpit was installed the fuselage was mated and fit well with the exception of the forward section which required some sanding under the cockpit along the seam with the lower wing. It was near a natural seam but I lost some detail which I did not think needed to be saved or restored as it would have a camouflage finish. Later I would find that I needed to add a ballast weight in the nose to prevent a tail sitter.
There were other fit problems with the upper wings but this was easily fixed with white putty and wet removal with no sanding required. Another fit problem occurred with the ejection seat and the canopy which would prevent closing it. That was fixed by planning an open cockpit.
After major assemblies I primed the model grey and splotched it with Vallejo black using an AK template. Light coats of vallejo air light blue were airbrushed on the dorsal side allowing some unevenness to show through. The bottom was masked and the top received light coats of Vallejo Air sand yellow again with some unevenness showing through. Paper masks were cut out from enlarged plans of the instructions and attached to the sand yellow areas with balls and ribbons of blue tack. Vallejo Air olive drab was lightly sprayed over the entire model and then the mask removed. The pattern was touched up by brush wear needed. The model was given a semi gloss coat and then the kit decals were applied.
Final assembly included landing gear, elevator hinges, and pylons. The PJ Productions JL100 and LAU 32 rocket pods were then attached for a ground attack mission. One problem occured when I realized it was a tail sitter. I added ballast through a hole I made in the dorsal light but it still needed extra weight added to the front wheel well.
The model was then lightly weathered using black pastel powder applied with a soft fan brush in several applications to bring out soft detail in the panel lines, Testor Dullcoat was applied to set it and then the final small aerials and probes were installed along with the windscreen and open canopy,
A nice build happy with the camouflage and unusual in its weapons load.
