Mirage 2016 1/48

[Richard/KeroJP4]

Hi all !!!

My first post on the topic disappeared, so I am gonna start the story again...

By the year 2000, Dassault and Lockheed Martin decided to cooperate building a brand new aircraft out of spares they had in their catalog. The reason is they could neither export their too expensive latest (Rafale) nor could they develop alone a cheap aircraft for use in the 21st century's market. Thus was the Mirage 2016 born...
Dassault brought its latest Mirage 2000D in, and Lockheed, the ultimate variants of the ageing F16, to give a low cost, highly efficient multirole fighter bomber.
The vector thrust technology being very well dealt with and dominated by 2005, the Franco-american joint-venture licensed built the Snecma M53-2016PV (PV stand for Poussée Vectorielle, the french for vectorial thrust, not for Pas de Vent, to be translated by No Wind...   ) engine, that offers some 15 tons of bulk thrust with AB. The fact that the Mirage sports cannards, may have endangered the airflow to get in the intake by Dassault, therefore the design included from scratch the F16 intake, to prevent the engine from stopping in high G manoeuvres...

Now we're in 2010, and Egypt is the first country that has ordered the Mirage 2016 to enter its Air Force. Here is the kit of the aircraft...

I dealt with only 2 kits : Mirage 2000N by Heller, and F16A by Italeri, both at 1/48 scale. No PE, no detail set, just original parts and putty, and putty, and putty...

Here we go with the beginning of the model, heavy surgery !!!


Watch your six !


Then where I am at the moment :













Nearly over, but not yet ! How do you feel about that camo ?

I'm looking forward to getting your reactions here...  


Regards,

Richard

[Radish]

Oh baby it rocks!!  

[lancer]

Bloody beautiful. Love the Egyptian markings as well...

[Ollie]

C'est une sacré machine ça!

J'en ai peur!




   

[BlackOps]

Great job all the way around!  The front cannards looked too big at first but the more I look at them the more I like them just the way they are. The paint work is beautiful!



Jeff G.

[Sisko]

Cool model

Like the weathering looks very subtle.

[PolluxDeltaSeven]

Bravo pour le camo!!

Well done, I hope you'll do other What-If in the early future!!!   B)  

[Richard/KeroJP4]

Bravo pour le camo!!

Well done, I hope you'll do other What-If in the early future!!!   B)

Hi PolluxDeltaSeven, Hi all,

you bet I will !!!

I thank you all for your comments. I will post some more pictures when it'll be completely over.

All you guys in here have given me the whiffing virus ! I enjoyed that build and was really excited doing so !   B)

I dunno what next may be, but I got spare kits in stock that... would meet... when originally shouldn't... I could deal with an F111 Raven, a Mig-23, a kamov 50, a Tomcat...

The concept will involve swing wings, but how, with which final look

Help welcome...  

Regards,

[proditor]

Holy crappola that thing is amazing!!!    

And beyond the brute force look of that plane, the camo is just perfect.  Awesome job!

[noxioux]

Wow.  That thing gives me a full-on evil robot chubby  

[Tophe]

How do you feel about that ?

I feel good!    

[Hobbes]

Wow, that looks beautiful. Well done!
What are those small white pods between the missiles and the fuel tanks?

to prevent the reactor from stopping in high G resources

for next time B) :
'reacteur' = engine
'resources' - I think you meant 'manoeuvres'  

[Richard/KeroJP4]

Wow, that looks beautiful. Well done!
What are those small white pods between the missiles and the fuel tanks?

to prevent the reactor from stopping in high G resources

for next time B) :
'reacteur' = engine
'resources' - I think you meant 'manoeuvres'

Hi Hobbes,

Thanks for your comments !

The small white pods between the missiles and the fuel tanks are MERs (Multiple Ejector Racks), each one will receive 6 mk82 bombs, that are not painted yet... or I dunno if I will get back to her sporting 2 AS Kormoran german missiles...

Pictures of the finished model will follow soon (before saturday for sure !). Wait & see

I also thank you so much for your correcting my text because you exactly said what I actually meant, so sorry about that. I sometimes got the too easy french word coming to my mind, that misleads the meaning of my sentence.  

Best regards,

Richard

[gooberliberation]

Good lord, now thats the kind of plastic surgery I WISH i could do!

[nev]

That Egyptian camo really sets off a kick donkey piece of kitbashing