Double Z Mirage IIICZ

[Tophe]

In an old box of P-38J 1/32 (that I may finish 26 years after starting...), I have found an old Matchbox 1/72 Mirage IIIC, finished, with surprising colours. I am almost sure this is unreal, with a 3-tone dark-blue camo that cannot be understood on planet Earth nor in the clouds...

I built it when I was probably 13 years old, painted silver with French roundels, then painted it again the next year, like it is now. Funny memories... I was already a what-if modeller, yes.
The roundels were the South-African ones included by Matchbox for the IIICZ version (JMN's aspect at http://modelingmadness.com/contests/frcnts.../JohnH48M3C.jpg , photograph at http://images.opentopia.com/enc/thumb/173/...irage_IIICZ.jpg )

[Tophe]

Well, this is the twin-tail forum, and the Z in CZ MUST now mean Zwilling...
Here we go: Mirage IIIC Zwilling

The 3 roundels on wings (6 with below?) and 4 on sides (8 with opposite?) are funny, now that I build my models with zero anywhere...

[K5054NZ]

Gotta love Mirages. Nice work Tophe! I absolutely MUST get a Mirage III soon....just so sexy!  

[Tophe]

I agree the old Mirage is a gorgeous beauty , somehow better than the modern big-nose 2000 , while I prefer the long nose 5BA  to the III . Heller made a wonderful 1/72 kit  (still available: http://www.hannants.co.uk/search/?FULL=HE80323 ): in the same box, you could build either IIIE, IIIR, 5BA...
For Christmas 2004, I got a lovely caricature of the Mirage 5BA ^_^ , coded 5XT (like X.Toff, Christ.Tophe ), and imagining what it would be, I had played with my computer, playing with beauty ^_^ , see below.
Up: Normal Mirage 5BA
Middle: Compacted Mirage 5BA
Below : Truncated Mirage 5BA

The Mistel-Mirage  linking my dreams is a (temporary or not) vertical twin-tail design, matching this forum focus...
While you may count the "delta with fin" as "tail-less" (like the XP-56 with fin could be seen as a tail-less flying wing), that's a matter of personal opinion...  

[Tophe]

Reading Thorvic's new topic ( http://www.whatifmodelers.com/forum//index...?showtopic=8752 ) title, I was shivering and smiling : a Mirage IV Zwilling? Of course AZ was meaning South-Africa there like for the JMNs'  Mirage F-1AZ (Easy to remember: A for South, Z for Africa... No, I imagine more simply: in French, South Africa is Afrique du Sud, AS, and in English you cannot say an expensive plane is flying like an AS-hole...  so AS was turned AZ!  Yes?). Well, as far as I am concerned, I have turned the Afrique du Zud into African Zwilling...:

[Tophe]

Thanks to Thomas Troestler, great caricaturist of http://www.desinaero.fr.st/ *, I add here a French Mirage-IIICD (for C-Double), another way to mix twinning and caricature...

* : nice site for Mustangs/Mirages/F-14/15/16/Su27 caricatures, click on "English version here" if needed!

[Tophe]

Thanks to Thomas Troestler, great caricaturist of http://www.desinaero.fr.st/

Still from this lovely site, here is an asymmetric Zwilling of mine: Mirage iviiic (or  43C...): cartoon-4 as port fuselage, cartoon-3C as starboard   . Cute!!!  

of course, my opposite, disliking asymmetry and twin-tails, is allowed to see a triplex fuselage here: starboard 3C, central 4, port 3C...

[Tophe]

Thanks to Thomas Troestler, great caricaturist of http://www.desinaero.fr.st/

Still from this nice site, let me present you our Mirage Zwilling family: in the F-1 cartoon branch, Walt-Disney's Rescuers Bernard and Bianca (aged 1/48 of total life including Heaven) had a son: Christophe (myself, now aged 1/72), and we are flying closely linked to one another, with our two tails... This is the true story of the F-1B+C, I swear. ^_^

[B777LR]

my first what if was a USAF draken, also a delta.

[Tophe]

The SAAB Draken (and the later F-16XL, that could be nice in Swedish colours) are mentioned as "double-delta" (thin tall delta inside a sharp short delta), and my Mirage-Zwilling are just another way of "double-delta" (side by side)... Glory to all double-deltas!

[Tophe]

Another one: Mirage 2000Z it seems...

(thanks to http://personal1.iddeo.es/aviacion/fotos/mirage(1).jpg )

[Tophe]

And from the site http://www.cs.wisc.edu/~rajwar/pictures/pl...es/mirage_1.jpg about Indian Mirage 2000s, we must admit there is also a vertical triplex-Mistel-Mirage... It seems this is 1/72 above 1/48 above 1/32, from a modeller-engineer like our dear Evan, but I am not sure, this may be perspective...

[Tophe]

Thanking Deino/Archibald for revealing us the Mirage 6000 of 1969 (see the topic http://www.whatifmodelers.com/forum//index...?showtopic=9681 ), I am presenting the Mirage 6000M of 2006, M standing for Mis-à-jour (Updated): one more Zwilling Mirage, coded as 4000+2000=6000 (the other considered code being Mirage iviiim as IV+III Mis à jour)...

(thanks to http://www.faqs.org/docs/air/avmir2k3.gif )

[Tophe]

As suggested by Archie, I add the head of the zwilling-delta family: the Twin-Concorde...

(thanks to http://www.the-palace.freeserve.co.uk/avia...0to%20Basel.jpg )

PS. You'll tell me: "hey! why are the 2 noses going down, only one crew need to see the runway!!!".  I will smile and explain: Ing. Photopaint (the Canadian cousin of Ing. PhotoShop) told me that there would be an awful aerodynamic balance if one nose is bent down while the other stay straight, so the 2 noses go down, for the pilots (as needed for safety) and for first class passengers in the other fuselage (as enjoyed for fun). OK? ^_^  

[Captain Canada]

man, what a ride that would be...having a first class ticket in the front seat of that !



Great stuff, Tophe