LeA Mirage IIIVB - FINISHED!

[Wardukw]

Silver really is a PITA of a colour sometimes..doesn't seem to matter if it's acrylic or enamel getting it to spray smooth and flat can be a mission in itself 
Might be why so many of my builds aren't NMF .

[kerick]

I ended up with two different panel shades of silver once by overspraying some panels with gloss coat and the others with flat.

[steelpillow]

What I hate most about silver finishes is the forums where you get a string of guys saying how easy it is and showing endless immaculately shiny models.
"Well, Brand X cost a lot and I had to blow my pension fund on the thinners, retardant, brush cleaner and  airconditioned safe to keep them in, but it was worth it!"
"Yeah, you can't get Brand Y over here. I was lucky because my cousin visited Outer Paflagonia on business and got mine sent back in a diplomatic bag."
"Used my dad's old stash of Brand Z for this one. Had to dig out his special respirator and buy an unused recharge on eBay."
"I mask them and get them electroplated in the factory next door, where I am a friend of the foreman."

My "Warm gravel? Yer were lucky to 'ave yer gravel warm!" type responses never seem to go down well.

[PR19_Kit]

I used to use Woolworth's Household Silver paint for NMF back in the 70s.

It came in socking great tins, lasted for ever, and once it had dried it was bulletproof. You can't get anything like it now of course.

[Weaver]

Funnily enough, the NMF finish on my BAC Thunderbolt (single-engined Lightning, basically), got some praise, and it was simply brush-painted Hu.56 Aluminium with H.191 Bright Silver contrast panels. Beginning to think I'd have been better off sticking to what I know...

[Wardukw]

I'll admit I'll quite happily cheat if I do another NMF build ..I'll spray the silver..gloss coat it and then use the self adhesive metal for any different shades ..I'll have to check my supplier to see if he's gotten any new stock cause I cleared him out last time I brought it of him 
I now want flat and semi gloss ones 

[zenrat]

Back when I was involved with model car forums I would get very envious when US based members casually mentioned sending parts off to be chrome plated.

What I hate most about silver finishes is the forums where you get a string of guys saying how easy it is and showing endless immaculately shiny models.
"Well, Brand X cost a lot and I had to blow my pension fund on the thinners, retardant, brush cleaner and  airconditioned safe to keep them in, but it was worth it!"
"Yeah, you can't get Brand Y over here. I was lucky because my cousin visited Outer Paflagonia on business and got mine sent back in a diplomatic bag."
"Used my dad's old stash of Brand Z for this one. Had to dig out his special respirator and buy an unused recharge on eBay."
"I mask them and get them electroplated in the factory next door, where I am a friend of the foreman."

My "Warm gravel? Yer were lucky to 'ave yer gravel warm!" type responses never seem to go down well.

Real modellers are those who are brave enough to show their failures in public.  I bet these heroes hid them.

[NARSES2]

Even with the first coat though, the black and white undercoat didn't make a blind bit of difference.

Had exactly the same issue with a couple of USAAF late War types. I've found that the different shades in Humbrol's Metalcoat range work quite well though even when hand brushed as lng as ttey are stirred/shaken for an eon or two 

[Weaver]

Okay it's nearly finished. I used the one-week extension to take things more carefully and give things time to dry. Currently got the undercarriage drying in a jig. The only thing left to do is put the canopy on, but since the cockpit's open to the interior, I'm leaving it overnight for all the glue fumes to dissipate to make sure it doesn't fog.

I got an NMF finish that I'm satisfied with eventually. Sprayed the whole thing with car enamel, then brush-painted select bits with either Hu.11 Silver or a mix of Hu.11 + Hu.56 Aluminium (pure Hu.56 was too dark). Hu.191 Bright Silver was indistinguishable from the base coat. Then I masked off the leading edges and intake lips, which would have the hardest alloy, and gave it a coat of Plasticoat Matt varnish, which flattened the "sparkle" nicely. When I took the masking tape off, it lifted some Hu.11 on each wing, but it didn't go all the way through, and actually just adds "character" to that panel. Luckily, none of the decals were on the bits that I wanted to mask, so they got varnished in the same pass.

[Weaver]

Well that was nerve-wracking - ready to post the final result at 6pm, only to find the forum down for three hours...

Lorelle et Ardee Mirage IIIVB

  The French aircraft company of Lorelle et Ardee (LeA) was founded in the 1930s, and rapidly gained a reputation for outlandish and unworkable proposals, such as a dive-bombing glider, a flying torpedo boat (which landed on the water in order to release it's torpedoes) and a heated nitrogen-filled "safety" airship. None of these were adopted of course, and the company only survived by taking on sub-contract work from other firms.

  Reformed in 1950, the company focussed on vertical take-off proposals including many "flying cars" powered by various combinations of jet engines and rotors, none of which took off (in any sense of the word), whilst building parts for the Citroen 2V in order to pay the bills. When the general fashion for V/STOL strike aircraft took hold in the 1960s, the company felt this was a natural avenue for them to explore, since it was their area of "expertise" (despite never having flown a prototype of their own design).

  LeA came up with an engine concept which was not without merit. Seeing the wide fan of the P.1127 (Harrier)'s Bristol Pegasus engine as a problem, they instead proposed what was later chistened the "tandem fan", in which a normal jet engine exhausted through swivelling nozzles, but instead of driving an oversized fan attached directly to the front of it, it would instead drive a fan of the same diameter as the engine mounted a long way in front of it via a shaft. This front fan would exhaust via it's own pair of swivelling nozzles, while both the fan and the main engine would breath through separate air intakes. Like the Pegasus, LeA's engine used a Bristol Orpheus as it's core, with another Orpheus compressor as the fan. Although in initial versions the fan would be permanently driven, they envisaged future versions in which the drive shaft could be declutched, the front nozzles retracted, and the fan intakes closed by doors.

  Since they had no ability to build a full aircraft on their own, LeA sought help from other manufacturers. However most of these had their own V/STOL projects and were unwilling to help. Eventually, and via some political lobbying which has never been adequately explained, Avions Marcel Dassault was prevailed upon to assist. LeA wanted them to build what was essentially a Mirage F1 fuselage for them, but Dassault insisted that this was far more expensive than the help they'd been told to provide. However, following an exchange of letters which was characterized by the vagueness and ambiguity for which LeA were duly famous, a large container arrived at their factory.

  On opening the container, the LeA staff were dismayed to see that Dassault had sent them an old Mirage IIIC aircraft, with it's characteristic low wing, rather than the custom-built high-wing airframe they needed. However, with a stand at the 1967 Paris Air Show booked and the show only a month away, they had little option but to make do (well they could have just cancelled the stand, but apparently that was too obvious). The Mirage III was duly modified, with holes being cut to mount the nozzles, the intake splitters and cones being removed for "extra air flow" and a fake dorsal intake being fitted on the spine. A plywood tail cone was fabricated with holes in it for "RCS jets" and a similar hole was drilled in the bottom of the radome, which was painted silver.

  The intention was not to present the aircraft as a flyable prototype, but merely to show how the engine concept fitted into a "normal" jet fighter fuselage instead of the wide Harrier one. Unfortunately, due to the mad rush to get the thing finished in time for the show, M.Lorelle (now in his 70s) completely forgot to order the notice boards, posters and press-packs which would explain this. Thus when the aircraft was exhibited at the show, without explanation, it was greeted with howls of derision by the international press and embarrassed hostility by the French press. Chistened variously "The French Penguin" and "The Dassault Dodo", Dassault very publically disowned it, and M.Lorelle, a timid and nervous man at the best of times, was utterly shouted down when he tried to hold an impromptue press conference to explain. Eventually he had to be escorted away by M.Ardee, who was heard to remark, "well this is a fine mess you've gotten us into" as they left.

  LeA survived the debacle, but only by virtue of it's founders retiring and the company changing it's name. It was subsequently bought out by Citroen, who continue to make parts at it's site.

Here it is in it's jig, for fans of gettin' jiggy. The "cage" in front of it is to protect the nose probe from getting accidentally whacked as I was doing other things on the bench:

I made two other jigs earlier, which held it upside down at 45 deg, left wing down or right wing down, which made various bits of fitting and painting easier.

Kit: Airfix Mirage IIIC
Nozzles: Airfix Harrier GR.3 (the old one!)
Tail cone: Airfix F-4B/C/E Phantom radome
Dorsal intake:  half of an Airfix F-4B/C/E Phantom radome
Internal structural and blanking work: sponsored by Evergreen
Paint base coats: car paint white and black
Paint main coat: car paint aluminium
Highlights: Humbrol Hu.11 Silver, Hu.56 Aluminium, Hu.11+Hu.56 50/50 mix, HU.28 Aircraft Grey (dielectric panels), Hu.33 Black, Hu.67 Tank Grey (tires), Pigment ink marker pen (dielectric panel edges).
Decals: Mirage III, slightly modified.

[PR19_Kit]

An absolute HOOT H! I LOVE it!             

The backstory is totally brill too, not to mention the names of the two owners of the company.   

[Rheged]

Zut alors!     Why can I hear "Dance of the Cuckoos" faintly in the background?

[Wardukw]

Great build ..a beautiful looking bird   

[steelpillow]

Zut alors!    Why can I hear "Dance of the Cuckoos" faintly in the background?

For me it's the Muppet chickens clucking their way through "In The Mood".

Mais, mon Dieu! Quel horreur diabolique! Ça me donnera les cauchemars!
Une modelle belle, néanmoins. 

[NARSES2]

Thats terrific H (glad you got it posted)