Mirage IVAZ

[Hatchet]

Reading Thorvic's new topic 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? What if...). Well, as far as I am concerned, I have turned Afrique du Zud into African Zwilling...:

Tophe, Z is the letter designating it as South African, A is the submodel. Thus, an M F1A in SA service becomes an F1AZ, a M IIIC becomes an M IIICZ and so on. Israeli M IIICs are M IIICJs, the 'J' being for' juif'.

[Damian2]

I'm lovin' it Geoff!!

Who knew our little airforce could provide such great whiffing potential?


-Damian

Not to mention the whole Mirage F-1CZ v UFO hoax to cover the delivery of a US nuclear device...

Umm..seriously?


Alvis 3.1

Yup... I couldn't make this poo-poo up...well ok I could. But in the late 70's early 80's it was reported that two SAAF Mirage F-1CZs intercepted a UFO and in the engagement shot it down...

Here's some history on the SA Nuke program:

>>CLICK ME<<

>>CLICK ME 2<<

And the UFO:

>>Little grey men are comming to get me!<<

Just scroll down to the Kalahari UFO crash

Well there we go...enjoy!

[Radish]

Nice one, Thor.  

[Gary]

SAAF markings look very cool, but especially when everything else is so well done. Very drooly!  

[F-32]

Lovely job as always.

[Roger the Cabin Boy]

I seem to recall that the number of South African nukes corresponded to the number of Buccaneers they had in use at the time. Has there ever been any pictures published on what the nuclear store looked like?

Seem to recall reading somewhere that only one Bucc was nuclear capable.  In the end, attrition reduced the SAAF Bucc fleet to just 5 from 16, iirc.  The one now at the Saxonwold museum, now done up in the original delivery colour scheme, was apparently a (the) nuke capable bird.  There are two others at Swartkop, one in a hangar, in dark grey, the other left outside and sun-bleached to a very light grey.

The Mirage IV would have made a more obvious choice for the role than the Buccs did.  Or as a recce platform, in the same way the French ones have only recently ended their service.  ...in shades of grey with lo-vis SAAF markings. Mmm.

:ar:  

[Tophe]

Tophe, Z is the letter designating it as South African, A is the submodel. Thus, an M F1A in SA service becomes an F1AZ, a M IIIC becomes an M IIICZ and so on.

Oh, I understand, and maybe Z is for Zulu (Zoulou in French), one of the tribe of South Africa. Thanks for the explanation, justifying the writing IVA on the nose: with the roundels that makes IVA-Z, thus IVAZ, logical!

[Dork the kit slayer]

..a shame we havent got "smilies" that do the diner scene from "when Harry met whatsherface"

Nice build  

[Roger the Cabin Boy]

Tophe, Z is the letter designating it as South African, A is the submodel. Thus, an M F1A in SA service becomes an F1AZ, a M IIIC becomes an M IIICZ and so on.

Oh, I understand, and maybe Z is for Zulu (Zoulou in French), one of the tribe of South Africa. Thanks for the explanation, justifying the writing IVA on the nose: with the roundels that makes IVA-Z, thus IVAZ, logical!

Zuid Afrika.  

[Tophe]

Zuid Afrika.

Oh, this sounds German/Afrikaans, I had forgotten that South Africa was not mainly speaking English, but Thorvic will tell us: does your model speak English, yes?

[Tophe]

Zuid Afrika.

Or maybe this is Dutch like our friend Zuijd99, prince of what-if Bf109s and what-if DH88s... It would be nice to have his opinion: what would the Zuijd Mirage IV look like, close to Thorvic's Zuid Mirage IV...    Bubble canopy? Floats?

[K5054NZ]

Have I mentioned that I love this model?

       

[Hobbes]

Zuid Afrika.

Oh, this sounds German/Afrikaans, I had forgotten that South Africa was not mainly speaking English, but Thorvic will tell us: does your model speak English, yes?

It's Dutch for certain. It may also be Afrikaans, dunno enough about that language though.  

[Damian2]

Yes all its Dutch if it were Afrikaans it would be Suid Afrika, interestingly if you look up our currency its listed as ZAR (South African Rands). Must be a throwback to the earliest European settlers to these parts The Dutch...

Now lets try that again in the rest of our 11 official lanuages! :S

The Z designator trend was seen in all of our Mirages: F-1 AZ, F-1 CZ, III CZ, III EZ, III DZ, III RZ etc..and now the whiff IV AZ ( or IVAZ... )

[Ian the Kiwi Herder]

D*mn Thor.....

Nicely finished model, great idea, hope to see it on Sunday.... So what's the kit like ?, never built one m'self and I could easily see one in Australian markings...... D*MN did I say that out loud !

I H-G