Scale Aviation Modeller International – September 2019

engine and nacelle were glued
into one half of the fuselage.
The fuselage was then closed
up and the internal cones for
the air intakes glued into place.

SEAM CLEAN UP AND

WINGS

As this is a standard aircraft

kit, there was a long seam line

running along the top and

bottom where the fuselage

halves were joined. This was

cleaned up using a Flory

Models Blue Sanding Sponge

followed by their Green and

White Polishing Stick. It didn’t

take much efort to remove

with only a little iller required

on the front, lower fuselage.

Once the iller had dried, the

excess was sanded away and

polished. After the fuselage

had time to dry, it was time to

remove both the wing halves

and the lower part of the wings

from the sprue along with the

internal landing gear. I primed

the landing gear and the

internal room to the landing

gear bay in black before gluing

them into place. The it was

very good and only required a

small drop of cement to hold

in place. I immediately glued

the top half of the wings into

place and then itted this to the

fuselage. We now have a fully

formed Mirage. The next steps

were to mask up the canopy

and glue this into place. I also

glued in the outer sections of

the air intakes and painted the

landing gear bays in white.

PRIMER & PRE-

SHADING

After letting the model settle

for a few hours, it was time to

apply the irst coat of primer.

I have used many diferent

primers, but I have found

that Mr. Surfacer 1500 mixed

with their own brand of Self-

Levelling Thinners works best

for me. I then sprayed the entire

model in several thin layers of

white primer, allowing around

10 minutes between each coat.

Normally, I prefer black basing

my builds, however given

the light(ish) colours for the

camoulage, I decided to pre-

shade all the panels lines using

MRP Grey. I discovered that

the grey was too light so went

over the pre-shading with MRP

Black. I tried to keep the lines

a neat as possible but keeping

them random at the same time.

CAMOUFLAGE

The camoulage is a three-tone

pattern of sand, dark tan and

green. The irst coat I used was

the sand which was applied to

As this is a standard aircraft

kit, there was a long seam line

running along the top and

bottom where the fuselage

halves were joined

The cockpit pitted very well into

the fuselage halves

I painted the

wheel wells

silver

Masking off the canopy

SCALE AVIATION MODELLER INTERNATIONAL • SEPTEMBER 2019

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