I
decided to build FM's 1/48th. Mirage IIIE model as used by the
Lebanese Air Force in the late 60's and early seventies of the last century.
To
give a brief history,
Lebanon
bought from
France
in 1967 10 single seat Mirage IIIE and 2 twin seat versions.
The
LAF did not use the Mirage extensively and ended most of their time stored in
one of the LAF's airbases in northern
Lebanon
.
One
single seat and one twin seat were lost during their operational life and the
remaining 10 were sold to the Pakistani Air Force in the year 2000.
The
Mirages were identical in finish to the French AF in color and did not have a
Doppler radar and lacked the usage of Sidewinders. They had however the Matra
530 capability.
I
was probably one of the luckiest civilians to see and stand by the Mirage fleet
before it went to
Pakistan
……I was an eye witness and bid a day long farewell to beautiful
deltas….but this is a long story.
The
FM model consists of the Heller 1/48th. Mirage IIIC model and FM's
parts to convert it to the E version.
FM
supplies 2 new fuselage halves and a set of resin and metal ones.
The
resin parts are beautifully finished and the metal ones need cleaning as is the
case.
The
wings of the Heller C version go along the FM fuselage.
Since
no aftermarket parts exist for the model, I decided to use the sets included
with Eduard's Mirage III C kit such as the photoetched and masking set as well
as some parts of the model itself.
The
first thing I did was to carefully study the whole process. The construction
looks OK on paper but be ready for LOTS of work…
I
started with the fuselage halves .Being limited run injection parts, the
detail and the panel lines are all there but the plastic is rough and needs
sanding. I had to engrave and deepen all the detail before sanding it as I was
afraid of losing it. I added two plastic beams on the inside of the fuselage to
strengthen the joint and to prevent it from collapsing.
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images below to see larger images
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The
resin sets for the nose and main landing gear bays are worth the whole kit. Very
nice detail….I had to trim as much as possible from the resin and had to thin
the wings to make the fit as good as possible. The resin parts once fitted on
the insides of the wing left a big gap to make room for the fuselage halves to
fit between them, but I elected to close the gaps later with thin plastic strip.
The
Heller wings have some of the detail engraved, but I added all the rivets and
panel lines using photographic references and Eduard's model too. However, I did
notice that some minor panels on the top of the wings do differ slightly on the
"E" from the "C" version. I also had to engrave two holes
for the position lights on top of the wings. The flaprons were freed a bit and
cemented in a lowered position.
When
finished, I sprayed the gear bays with black enamel and followed it with silver
to check for any construction flaws.
The
LAF's Mirage had the antenna on the base of the fin, so I simply cut the one
from the Eduard's kit and added it to the fuselage.
The
intakes were detailed with some plastic rod and engraved a small panel that was
missing from the kit's part.
Emad
Click on
images below to see larger images
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