Quand un mirage n'est-il plus un mirage ? Quand il transporte un rayon de soleil

[Gondor]

When is a Mirage, not a Mirage? When it carries a bucket of instant sunshine.

I have been messing around with the idea of building this for a number of years. To me, it is a logical development of the aircraft I am using as the basis of this build.
Comparable in size to the F-15, the twin M53-engined Mirage 4000 first flew as a private venture in 1979. With the Iranian revolution that year, and with Saudi Arabia buying Tornadoes, and the French Air Force happy with the Mirage 2000, in the real world, the project was cancelled. But what if the French saw the potential of the aircraft as a two-seat replacement for the Mirage IV?

So, what have I gathered for this project?



A Modelsvit Mirage 2000D was also added to the mix, along with a few parts from their Mirage 2000N.

First off, I assembled the nose undercarriage bay and cockpit, without the pedals or instrument panel.



The instrument panel is a spare from somewhere, as now I am recording this, I can't find where it came from by finding an empty space on a sprue    Anyway, it was modified to look like a Mirage 2000N cockpit panel.



This is the main part of what was robbed from the 2000D kit. The underwing fuel tanks were also taken, as they have better detail than the resin replacement ones I had bought, which had no panel lines at all.



And this is roughly how the two areas will fit together.

I also had a problem with how to fit the main weapon to the aircraft, as there was no pylon fitted under the centre fuselage on the real aircraft, so one was not provided in the kit. I eventually, with some moral support, have used pins. This was taken from the 2000N, obviously, which also has a conventional weapon load-out available as well. A second kit was purchased so I can model the 2000N with the bucket of instant sunshine fitted as well.



That's as far as I have got so far. A little bit of building is done now and then as the mood takes me, which is how I am doing my modelling at the moment. No pressure, just what I feel that I want to do, when I want to do it. Now I just have to make up my mind whether to paint the interior of the undercarriage bay now or later.

[PR19_Kit]

Will your 'bucket' be an AN-11 or 12, or an ASMP missile?

IIRC the 2000N comes with an ASMP in the kit, doesn't it?

[Weaver]

Interesting. I too have a 2-seat Mirage 4000 in mind, although for a very different role.

How do you intend to do the canopy? I don't fancy grafting the 2000's spine onto mine, so my theory is that an F-15B/D/E canopy will do the job.

[Gondor]

Will your 'bucket' be an AN-11 or 12, or an ASMP missile?

IIRC the 2000N comes with an ASMP in the kit, doesn't it?

It will get the ASMP as it fits the timeline

Interesting. I too have a 2-seat Mirage 4000 in mind, although for a very different role.

How do you intend to do the canopy? I don't fancy grafting the 2000's spine onto mine, so my theory is that an F-15B/D/E canopy will do the job.

That's exactly the route I am taking. No other option really.

[PR19_Kit]

Magic, I like the look of the ASMP, it's very much of the time line.

I scratchbuilt one to go under a RW Mirage IV some years ago, and of course Heller brought out the Mirage 2000 kit with one about six months AFTER I'd made mine. 

[Weaver]

Interesting. I too have a 2-seat Mirage 4000 in mind, although for a very different role.

How do you intend to do the canopy? I don't fancy grafting the 2000's spine onto mine, so my theory is that an F-15B/D/E canopy will do the job.

That's exactly the route I am taking. No other option really.

Got my attention even more then! 

[Gondor]

Interesting. I too have a 2-seat Mirage 4000 in mind, although for a very different role.

How do you intend to do the canopy? I don't fancy grafting the 2000's spine onto mine, so my theory is that an F-15B/D/E canopy will do the job.

That's exactly the route I am taking. No other option really.

Got my attention even more then! 

You just want to find out how I do it so you can copy my method, don't you, as well as any other pitfalls along the way.

[Weaver]

Interesting. I too have a 2-seat Mirage 4000 in mind, although for a very different role.

How do you intend to do the canopy? I don't fancy grafting the 2000's spine onto mine, so my theory is that an F-15B/D/E canopy will do the job.

That's exactly the route I am taking. No other option really.

Got my attention even more then! 

You just want to find out how I do it so you can copy my method, don't you, as well as any other pitfalls along the way.

Maaaaybeeeee......

Although by the time I get around to it, I'l probably have forgotten it all again.

[Gondor]

Interesting. I too have a 2-seat Mirage 4000 in mind, although for a very different role.

How do you intend to do the canopy? I don't fancy grafting the 2000's spine onto mine, so my theory is that an F-15B/D/E canopy will do the job.

That's exactly the route I am taking. No other option really.

Got my attention even more then! 

You just want to find out how I do it so you can copy my method, don't you, as well as any other pitfalls along the way.

Maaaaybeeeee......

Although by the time I get around to it, I'l probably have forgotten it all again.

Perhaps you should do what I do. Bookmark the page and add it to your Favourites. I daren't open all the tabs for builds I have saved, my browser would die with each tab being a bout one pixel wide. 

[Zero-Sen]

Some variants of the 4000 I have played with over the years. I have tried variants with the 2000's spine, but for whatever reason, I think it just doesn't fit the 4000's lines.



You cannot view this attachment.

On the later one, I have tried a canopy ala 'Rafale B'...

[kerick]

So are you going with a standard French paint scheme?

[Gondor]

So are you going with a standard French paint scheme?

Yes. My premise is that it was decided to use a twin-engined two-seat aircraft for the nuclear role rather than a single-engined version of the Mirage 2000. So everything is the same as reality, other than the airframe being based on the Mirage 4000.

[Gondor]

Progress is slow. This is in part due to the kit being a "Limited Production" kit, so no locating pins, and lots of sub-assemblies not having much in the way of any guide to help locate them correctly. I have just rebuilt part of the rear cockpit, again, although not the same section as I had to rebuild previously. The inside of the top of the main fuselage sections has had a piece of plastic card added to provide structure and location for the flat fuselage there. The back of the intake shock cones, open into the empty fuselage, so some kind of blanking plate needs to be added. I have been thinking of trying to cut some plastic card to fit, but I am also starting to lean towards using some foam instead, far more flexible to go with the inside of the curved intake.
Another after-market choice of accessory has been put to the side. I am going to use the 2000D's ejector seats rather than the Metallic Details seats I had bought. They are lovely, just a touch too wide to fit into the cockpit tub. Talking of which, my fitting of the tub and forward fuselage is now starting to look as if I can squeeze the rear cockpit in. The rear of the provided cockpit, which is the start of the spine on the 2000D, will be removed, but later when the cockpit has been fitted into the fuselage so I know how much to lop off. Far more to do before then though.

[Rick Lowe]

Dizzy uses black foam and it seems to fit the bill sufficiently. 

[su27rules]