Mirages

[RayS]

Go Graeme!

[hrtpaul]

They looks awesome mate

[Michel]

Looking very good

[Graeme H]

OK, a bit of an update

first masked and painted the undercarriage bays silver



then masked the canopies and sprayed the frames black



Then painted the uppersurface Dark Sea Grey, It's supposed to be Extra Dark Sea Grey, but mine are weathered



Then spent a few hours masking and painting the 2 Seater, and reused the masking on one of the single seaters, had to modify the single seater as no 2 are exactly the same



2 now painted and a third to go, this making stuff sure takes time



These 2 wil be 3 Sqn for the 2 seater, and 79 Sqn for the single

That's all for now

[Michel]

Getting there Graeme ! looks pretty good !

[hrtpaul]

They look awesome mate. Nice work

[Tony P]

They are looking really good Graeme. Great to see you fiddling on the bench. Only wish I had the time!

[RHB785]

Very nice work there Graeme. I'm watching this thread with interest. Just a couple of things. The capacities of the "big jugs" was 286 gallon and 374 gallon and yes the supersonic 110 gallon tanks were just called "supers". From memory I think you're right about the 374s being canted slightly outwards to miss the main undercarriage. They were used on the wing pylons with a 286 on the centreline pylon when needed. Sometimes they would just use 2 374s on the wings and sometimes 2 286s on the wings. A cousin of mine is married to an ex-sumpy and he told me that apparently when they were going form Williamtown to Butterworth once the aircraft were fitted with 3 374s, 2 on the wings and 1 on the centreline. One young pilot overrotated and took the bottom out of the tail of the centreline tank and lost all his fuel from that tank so they had to land at Darwin and refue and then again somewhere in lndonesia. After that incident they were very rarely fitted to the centreline.

Ray I did hear about that different tanks on the same aircraft incident. I saw one that I think was even more interesting than that. A bunch of us were standing at the door of one of the OCU hangars one day as some birds taxiied out and there was one bird that obviuosly had something wrong with it but none of us could see exactly what it was. Just then an airframe SGT that we'd nicknamed "Whipper" came up and ask dwhy we were all standing around like a bunch of stale bottles. When we told him he had a look and said "Yikes. That things got no gun bay tank." Straight into the office and on the dog and bone to the tower and got him stopped and returned to the lines

Regards,
RHB.

[Graeme H]

Thanks for that info, I fhink Ii knew oI had the size wrong somehow
Regrettably I'm away from the workbench at the moment, I sort of got some decals on the 2 seater, but had to drop everything in an emergency, so when I got back to the bench I found that some nasty little bugs had eaten most of the decal sheet I left on the bench
I do have another one of these kits and will finish it when I get home a d back into them
I have taken a few photos, but being away it may be a while before i can upload them

Bought a new tablet today, so a lot easier than my fat fingered attempts on my phone

[RHB785]

Sorry to hear about the decals Graeme. I ahve a lot of cockroaches in my garage where I keep my stash. Periodically I have to spray the area around where the model boxes are packed inside bigger boxes to try and keep the cockies out. I've had the same problems as you. I have an Italeri Su-34 that's now living inside the house. The cockies got at its decals and had a wonderful feast. Not to worry, I intend to do that one up in RAAF decals to go with an alternative history of the RAAF from 1954 after the Petrov affair. I'll let that one hang for now. The Su-34 will be one of the models I do in the next 12 months. There will be more in this vein in years to come.

I wouldn't worry too much about having big fingers. I have fine almost girly hands and fingers and I still often hit the wrong keys when I'm trying to sMS someone.

Regards,
RHB.