RNZAF Mirage IIIC

[KiwiZac]

Hi all,
A quick and easy whiff of the Academy 1/48 (allegedly) Mirage III into a Kiwi one with Ventura decals.

The RNZAF apparently looked at the Mirage III before going with the Skyhawk, in this timeline we went with the delta instead. Aaages ago I did the Tamiya 1/100 in the late-90s green-green-grey, so I felt the SEA-scheme would be a nice change! I got the kit in a post-Xmas sale - Academy kits are already the cheapest on Kiwi shelves - with the intention of doing a IIIO, but I figured I'll get the new Kinetic kit for that.



Thoughts and critiques welcome!

Next up is a 1/48 prop fighter.....

[FAAMAN]

Nice Whiff!

[elmayerle]

Looks plausible, especially if they bought before Australia did and ended up with a variant of the Mirage IIIC rather than of the Mirage IIIE.

[Volkodav]

Interesting, this would mean that when Australia started retiring their Miracles they could have sold them to NZ instead of Pakistan thereby avoiding all the political fall out.  With the ex RAAF airframes, about 40 from memory, NZ could have operated them for years and being higher performance than the Skyhawk I would imagine they could have been retained in service for far longer with suitable upgrades.

[elmayerle]

Interesting, this would mean that when Australia started retiring their Miracles they could have sold them to NZ instead of Pakistan thereby avoiding all the political fall out.  With the ex RAAF airframes, about 40 from memory, NZ could have operated them for years and being higher performance than the Skyhawk I would imagine they could have been retained in service for far longer with suitable upgrades.

Hmm, perhaps updated with more modern and capable avionics, radar especially, and structurally updated much as the Daggers sold to Argentina?  That'd look good in the same camouflage scheme as the last one their A-4's flew in.

[Weaver]

Logical idea - nice one! :)

[KiwiZac]

Thanks guys! I was thinking a Kahu upgrade, like the one we gave the A-4s, would definitely happen. After trying out the IIIC in Microsoft Flight Simulator ha shown me we would need to stretch some runways though!

It was a fun build but the fit sucked, the wings had like 20 degrees of dihedral OOB.

[finsrin]

Gads,,, had to fix serious dihedral !
Was all at wing to fuselage join or elswhere ?
Is looking fine in every way now :)

[GTX_Admin]

[KiwiZac]

finsrin - sure was, had to really shave the fuselage to make it work. I was surprised as I've never had fit issues with an Academy kit.

GTX - 

More pics tomorrow :-)

[KiwiZac]

Just need to get serials on and she's done :-)

[Volkodav]

Nice!

[Brian da Basher]

That's one incredibly sharp, clean build Mango King!

No one does RNZAF camo better and it's always a treat to see those lovely Kiwi markings!

This one has prize-winner written all over it!

Brian da Basher

[KiwiZac]

  Brian, you're too kind! Thankyou.

[taiidantomcat]

That looks great! Love the Mirage III and this looks perfect 

[Weaver]

Thanks guys! I was thinking a Kahu upgrade, like the one we gave the A-4s, would definitely happen. After trying out the IIIC in Microsoft Flight Simulator ha shown me we would need to stretch some runways though!

It was a fun build but the fit sucked, the wings had like 20 degrees of dihedral OOB.

The canards seen on other Mirage upgrades would probably help with that.

How did they manage to get the dihedral off when the lower wing is moulded in one piece? Had it been warped in the box perhaps?

[KiwiZac]

No, the wing was fine until I mated it to the fuse. I think it was the top wing halves, where they mate with the fuse - they seemed a touch big.

Also - given my love of delta canards, I like this plan....maybe when I do a post-Kahu Mirage...