Caught!

[rickshaw]

The year was 1971.  High in the sky, over Europe, almost at the limits of the atmosphere flew a large, black, manta-winged shape at nearly Mach 3.  It was a SR-71 Blackbird, which was tasked with flying a reconnaissance mission over Libya.  The SR-71's crew knew they were the highest flying, fastest aircraft in the world.  At 80,000 feet, it was possible to just discern the curvature of the Earth.  In the front, the pilot was attending to the automatic pilot which was actually flying the aircraft, making sure they were on course.  He glanced out, occasionally looking at the scenery, spread far below him.  It was how he imagined being an Astronaut was.  Indeed, the crews of the SR-71s were given not the normal aviators' wings but Astronaut's wings when they graduated to operational flying of the Blackbird.

In the rear seat was the Electronics Warfare Officer.  He was tasked with monitoring radio traffic, controlling the reconnaissance and the electronic warfare equipment.  The pilot was listening in on the radio chatter and wondering if the The EWO could see the view through his small, narrow viewports in his canopy.

Flying out of Mildenhall, the aircraft had been tasked with a mission over Libya, intended to keep tabs on the troublesome Colonel Muammar al-Gaddafi who had, since coming to power in a 1969 coup had been allowing his country to become a veritable Mecca of various malcontents, revolutionary and terrorist movements.

Suddenly, the pilot heard Istres-Le Tubé Air Base Air Traffic Control, into who's airspace they were just flying come on the air, requesting their call sign, "Aspen-15".  In typically heavy French accented English, the air traffic controller asked their altitude and heading.  This was not unusual, as the French were very careful about whom they allowed to overfly their country, particularly at extremely high altitude.  "The Bastards treat us like we were damned Russkis," thought the pilot. He heard the EWO give the requested information.  A few seconds later, they heard Istres Control calling a different call sign, "Mega-7," requesting the same information.   When the reply came back "Level 800, heading South, speed Mach 3,"  "What the hell?"  He thought.  "Hello Aspen-15, this is Mega-7. Look out your window, please?" Almost immediately came over the UHF.  Startled, he looked around, there pulling up alongside his wingtip was a large, delta-winged aircraft.

After the initial shock, he noticed the aircraft had French roundels and was carrying four air-to-air missiles.  He could see the pilot through the canopy holding his arm up and waving.  "My god!" Thought the pilot, we've been caught!"  For the first time an SR-71 had been successfully intercepted.  Nothing had ever been as fast or flown as high.  It accompanied his aircraft until they left French airspace where it waggled its wings and slowed, descending and turning back towards the French coast.

And so, the USAF learnt, rather painfully that it no longer did it have the best, fastest or highest flying aircraft in the world.  The Mega-Mirage was a product of Marcel Dassault's stable of course and looked like an enlarged, overgrown Mirage III with two engines and big, box intakes.   It was offered as a fighter and as a reconnaissance aircraft, able to protect and to watch.











Ever have a build that fought you every step of the way?  This one did.  Created by using a MiG25 fuselage, with the nose shortened and reshaped, with 1/48 Mirage III wings added, it took half a packet of Milliput and a lot of sanding.  Of course, it might have helped if I'd used a good, quality MiG25 kit.  Instead I decided to be cheap and went with an "Idea" brand one.  Bloody thing wasn't symmetrical.  That took a lot of time to correct.  The wing tanks are from Hiplanes.  The Mirage III was by Academy.  It was a challenge but it seems to have worked out OK, even if the thing is bloody big! 

[Thorvic]

Nice build Rick, i take it thats its 1/72nd scale so that must be quite a beast 

Know what you mean about fighting you all the way, somethimes you get an idea with a scratch build and it just falls together, others the ideas is sound the parts match the drawing and you know just what to do and then the damn thing just won't do as you want 

You could try doing a RAAF version using the Condor kit as basis, which is the better Mig-25 kit rather than the Hasegawa one and its clones, although you might need to see the kit to decide if the actual shape and breakdown is still suitable for your needs.

Cheers

G

[NARSES2]

Nice one Brian 

[rickshaw]

Like many of my builds, this was designed down to a price, rather than anything else.  The MiG25 kit cost $AUD10.00, the Academy Mirage III was $AUD15.00.  The two Hiplanes resin drop tanks cost $5.00 each.  

I agree that some things just fall together it seems, somethings just fight you every inch of the way.  

[chrisonord]

Now that is really nice. A super Mirage it certainly is 
Cheers,
Chris.

[Army of One]

Interesting....very good..great build n paint job....I wish I could think of doing stuff like this......awesome...

[rickshaw]

I was inspired by this picture:



Once the idea caught, it was just a matter of figuring out how to make it happen.  What had big box intakes?  What delta wing could I use?  The rest is just window dressing really.  A *_LOT_* putty and sanding though to fix the faults in the original kit though.  About a 10 days of 3-4 hours a night, off and on!  

For all my griping, I have to admit, it turned out better than I'd feared it would.  The last straw was when the canopy broke.  Luckily I had a vacuformed one of similar shape which worked out OK.

[The Rat]

What a way to start the year! 

[Martin H]

What a way to start the year! 

I couldnt agree more

Luv the model, and the back story.

[Cobra]

Very Cool! Why do i see Some USAF General @ the Pentagon Yelling,"What in Thunder is Going On? The French have a Plane that can Catch Us? Pray those Creeps in Libya Don't Buy Some!" Must have been an RPIA Get all that Stuff Together! Keep up the Great Work :cheers:Dan

[pyro-manic]

That's superb! Looks absolutely fantastic - well done.

Renaud over at Sharkit has done a kit based on that mag cover: http://www.sharkit.com/sharkit/MD750/MD7500.htm It's sleeker than your machine, but nowhere near as menacing.

[Alvis 3.14159]

Tres bon! Me likey, me likey!

Alvis Pi

[Taiidantomcat]

superb job! All of my builds fight me every step... Im starting to think its me! You got the best of this one though in a big way 

[rickshaw]

That's superb! Looks absolutely fantastic - well done.

Renaud over at Sharkit has done a kit based on that mag cover: http://www.sharkit.com/sharkit/MD750/MD7500.htm It's sleeker than your machine, but nowhere near as menacing.

Yeah, I'd planned this build some time ago and started accumulating the pieces when he announced the kit.  I thought I'd go ahead anyway.  I know mine's a bit more chunky but I think it looks better that way.   The Sharkit kit looks a bit anaemic when you compare the two.   

[rickshaw]

Very Cool! Why do i see Some USAF General @ the Pentagon Yelling,"What in Thunder is Going On? The French have a Plane that can Catch Us? Pray those Creeps in Libya Don't Buy Some!" Must have been an RPIA Get all that Stuff Together! Keep up the Great Work :cheers:Dan

The back story originally had a final paragraph describing how the director of the Lockheed Skunkworks got a phone call from the Pentagon telling him what had happened and he then pulled a file out of the bottom drawer of his desk... 

I deleted it though, 'cause I couldn't find any real names to go with the roles.