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

[PR19_Kit]

Would an acceptable compromise be to build up the level of the sill so the SU-27 canopy would work?
Not raising the floor or seats, only the cockpit wall?
Just a thought...

That's what I did with the 2 seat Vought Pancake when the Jaguar canopy looked too low, and it worked quite well. But the shape of the coaming itself is important or it ends up looking artificial.

[Gondor]

Taken from the picture that Weaver posted from Secret Projects Forum. The picture below shows what I am roughly aiming for, which is more like the Tornado canopy, just a bit longer, unfortunately.

[Gondor]

After looking at the picture below, from the Secret Projects Forum, and also looking at the instructions for the Mirage 4000 single-seat aircraft, I have realised that the rear cockpit is too far aft.



Despite my thinking that it would be very difficult to remove the rear tub from the fuselage, it came out fairly easily and with no damage. I have since modified the front underside of the tub so that it clears the rear of the nose undercarriage bay. A dry fit of various canopies I have is making me lean towards using the F-14 canopy, with modifications, of course.

These will include removing the edge of the canopy frame where it meets the fuselage. The F-14 canopy has a slope where it looks as if the Mirage does not. I can shorten the canopy a bit now, and the underside of the canopy can be raised at the front as well. I don't know if the existing mid-canopy frame is in the correct place yet, but if it is not, then there is not much to remove and polish out if needed.

So a small backwards step that should lead to a few steps forward.

[Gondor]

OK, change of mind. I am going to use the canopy from an old Monogram Tornado kit, which, going by the artwork, dates back to the days of the early production machines. I did look at using this earlier, but with the rear cockpit in the wrong position, it would have been too much work, now though.

There is no MDC (Miniature Detonation Cord) in the canopy, and as you can see from the pictures below, the only thing I really need to do is to widen the spine I have to add to the fuselage.





It's not perfect, but as I intend to have the canopy open, it doesn't have to be, just close enough, which it is, at least for me.