Mirage mach 3 (or MegaMirage, or Mirage 6000)

[Archibald]

How I narrowed it ? first time I did that to a kit, but no choice in this case!
warning, it is quite complicated (particularly if I try to explain that in english!)

Well you have the fuselage behind the cockpit and intakes.
Basically this was cut in three parts : the central  spine (behind the cocjkpit) was left intact, but both sides were separated from it  up to the intakes
I then narrowed these sides, and glued them below the dorsal spine (which mask the devastation )
Result: a narrower fuselage.

Then, the intakes : the cockpit was left intact, so the intakes were now much too large. Each intakes is made of two parts, one on the side of the cockpit, the other external (which carry the horizontal part of the intake).
I kept the external part and narrowed it. a new "internal" part was made from cardboard... the result is much smaller intakes, more adapted to M53 engines

Well this very raw picture is a view of a MiG-25. Green "boxes" roughly correspond to what was cut

[Rafael]

I wonder what ol' Artem I. would say?

Serge and Marcel surely would laugh at him.

And did you make any changes in the exhaust department?

[Archibald]

The Exhaust were all the problems! Mind you, narrowing this MiG-25 was a pain in the... neck! So why do it ? simply because the fuselage was built around enormous engines... much larger than the M53 I picked for this build! So I adapted the fuselage to the exhausts (adapting the exhausts to the fuselage was nearly impossible).
To say the things simply, MiG-25 engines are so big that M53 exhausts just fit IN!
So the MiG fuselage literally shrinked to adapt Mirage exhausts.

I plan something exotic for the camo

[Tophe]

What an incredible result, so clean, after so much work! You could (should?) have taken pictures of your middle steps, to convince us plainly that you did not get a very rare kit of MegaMirage ready to be built... The result is too perfect for us to believe your butchering a MiG25...  

[Archibald]

You're right Tophe I thought about that, too, but Stephanie had the custody of the digital camera last week  
Hmm as Thorvic mentioned about its HS 681, digital camera tend to mask paint flaws in models. nope, thanks for the cheers comments

A question : do you think a tigermeet paint sheme would fit on this aircraft ? This idea came to my mind after seeing Nev "Tigermeet" TSR-2...
Much less boring than grey, but also much more difficult to make (albeit I have so much yellow paint left )  

[Archibald]

Hello! New paint sheme applied this morning. Hope it look good like this

[nev]

why does it remind me of the Avro Arrow?  B)  

[Archibald]

The Arrow had a high mounted wing, this one has a low wing... do you like this Tiger meet camo ? Or do you think its "too much" ?

[Tophe]

I agree these tiger colours are beautiful, while - as far as I am concerned - I prefer a neutral plain colour featuring mainly the original shape. So... your model is 1/ more beautiful now  2/ less pleasant now for me, sorry...  

[Archibald]

Tophe, are you interested by the final theme of Lucky Luke ? (you know, "Lonesome cowboy"). I'm actually listening it
Lets go back to the Mirage Super Delta... I agree for the plain color, but I found that the old dark blue was so sad...and well, the disrupted pattern of the Tigermeet mask the defect (and the black, too).

External loads and decals to add tomorrow... stay tunned!
Nev, I remind what you said about the Arrow... well, this plane is really a kind of french CF-105 (or Delta-III, or F-108...)

[Rafael]

A-W-E-S-O-M-E ! ! ![/size]

 

[Brian da Basher]

Wow that Tiger Meet scheme is as sharp as a tack, Archie! I am very impressed with your skill in pulling this off! I'm not sure I would be brave enough to attempt it myself. Bravo!

Brian da Basher

[Archibald]

Thanks for the cheers comments!  ^_^
Decals planned for today (still have two french roundels send by a member here, i think it was you, Brian... as you can see, I have put your decals to ggod use, on the Vulcan and on this plane)  

[Archibald]

And thanks Nev for his superb "Cambresis" TSR-2, which gave me the idea of making this Tigermeet paint sheme  

[Phnx28]

Looking good! Tiger Meet schemes are always a hit with me, and this a/c should get some especially good 'roars' in showing off and buzzing the brass' stand.