Heller RAAF Dassault Mirage IIIO  By Lee Yates IPMS QLD

Technical Data.

Aircraft History

The RAAF (Royal Australian Air Force) began looking for its first supersonic fighter in the late 1950’s. The aircraft was to replace the F-86 “Avon” Sabre. After consideration of the Lockheed F-104 Starfighter, Northrop F-5 Freedom Fighter, McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom-II and the English Electric Lightning the Starfighter was announced the winner in late 1959. A late lobby from the French manufacturer however countered this decision and on the 15^th of December 1960 the Mirage was announced as Australia’s new fighter. In all 100 single seat “O” models and 16 “D” model two seat versions would enter Australian Service. The aircraft would be based in Australia at RAAF Williamtown and RAAF Darwin as well as RAAF Butterworth in Malaysia. Squadrons 3, 75, 76,77 & 79 would fly the Mirage as well as No2 OCU and the ARDU.

 Construction

This exercise being the first “serious modification” of a kit undertaken by the author outside a resin cockpit set I approached the model with some caution. Having read through the Red Roo instructions several times and reviewed the Heller instructions on what is really quite a simple kit I made a start. The Heller kit allows to build either the single seat “C” model or the dual seat “D” version. The kit has the rear fuselage from about level with the intakes as a common assembly, with either of the variants as separate assemblies from this point forward. The conversion actually used the two seat components to make the single seat “O” model. The first task is to remove what would be the rear instrument bulkhead from the two seat nose of the Heller kit. A resin plug is used behind the cockpit to create the new fuselage shape along with the two seat Heller fuselage spine. The Australian “O” model also varies from the typical “C” version in the tail. The “C” has a crank running forward at the base of the tail as it meets the top of the fuselage. The Australian version removed this crank with the line of the leading edge of the tail running directly down to the top of the fuselage. Out came the steel rule and the unwanted plastic was cut away. The Heller plastic is quite soft compared to other manufacturers so the surgery was simple with a blade.

The Red Roo conversion includes a one piece moulded resin rear fuselage section, which includes a representation of the rear of the engine. The two fuselage halves need to be cut to allow the resin component to be fitted to the halves after they have been assembled. The Red Roo instructions indicate the cut to be made level with a raised panel line on the kit. I rubbed a water based marking pen over the line then smeared the ink with my finger to highlight the line. As mentioned the Heller plastic is quite soft so using a No11 blade rolled back and forth on the fuselage over the line created a nice neat straight cut. A bit of sanding to clean up and some dry fitting indicated a nice marriage of resin to plastic would follow. The instructions caution that cutting the plastic may relieve stresses and encourage the plastic to roll out of shape. This didn’t happen with the kit I used but I did find I needed to put a piece of plastic spur “brace” across the front end of the fuselage just behind the intakes. This became apparent when dry fitting the wing parts with the fully assembled fuselage. The fuselage at the intakes wanted to roll in not fitting down on the one piece underside wing part. The base of the tail beneath the rudder has a curve as the tail flattens out onto the top of the fuselage above the exhaust. When fitting the resin tail “cone” this lower tail section was to low. I cut the small piece off the bottom of the tail from the rudder down. The top of the small piece was then trimmed to fit the gap between the underside of the rudder and the top of the resin plug. This ensured that the radius at the base of the tail was maintained as it flared out onto the top of the fuselage.

The assembly of the front of the fuselage continued using the Heller two seat components. Cockpit detail is a little sparse but frankly the Mirage cockpit is so small it is not easily seen anyway. Simple dry brushing and a little wash and the cockpit was completed. Red Roo provide a very nice resin seat for the conversion, which is neatly detailed. The overhead ejection handles where added by drilling the resin seat and inserting some suitably shaped copper wire. I love the black and yellow stripes on these handles; they add some colour to the cockpit. A check of references showed the Martin-Baker Mk4a also had a single handle between the pilot’s legs. This was also added with copper wire. The conversion required the use of a solid moulded resin nose section so the usual nose weighting had to be done in the front section of the fuselage behind the instrument panel. I use small sinkers from the local tackle shop to weight all my kits. I have no idea of the weight of each sinker or what number they may be called, simply they are the smallest I can get and I use as many as will fit on every kit. I stuck them in with super glue whilst ensuring the resin nose section could still fit up to the fuselage section without fouling the sinkers.

The front fuselage section was mated with the rear and the resin plug behind the cockpit inserted. Only minor sanding was required to make the junction neat. Then the fuselage spine was fitted. As mentioned above, I braced the fuselage to the correct width to join the lower wing part at a point just behind the intakes with a piece of spur.

More dry fitting and creative partial gluing and setting ensured that the wing / fuselage junction was neat and free of need for filler or sanding. I glued the wings from the front junction at the fuselage back to the rear in small portions at a time, which ensured a neat junction.

The undersides of the wing top parts have detail that appears in the main undercarriage bays. The one-piece lower wing section also plugs nicely into the gap between the two fuselage halves to form a solid looking main gear bay. This is a nice touch, which makes the whole kit assembly quite solid. This thing is starting to look like a sleek delta in the photos!

 Hinges for the control surfaces were then fitted with the outer set needing to be cut to fit the missile rails for the Sidewinders. I understand these to be unique to the RAAF IIIO version Mirage. The Sidewinders where a late update to the Avon Sabre which preceded the Mirage as Australia’s interceptor / fighter. The rails are another component of the Red Roo kit and conform well to the underwing shape. A ventral fuel tank was used on the Mirage IIIO. The need for range in Australian service, made fuel capacity of paramount importance. The resin part was fitted to the underside of the fuselage with no drama at all. The last small plug of resin goes in at the rear of the front gear bay to shorten the effective length of the bay. A matching reduction in length of the front gear door was required on the Heller component. Vents to the sides of the guns under the intakes where covered with shrouds on the IIIO. These are included as small resin components also. Four of these small items where fitted using reference photo’s as a guide.

Painting and Decals

The actual aircraft now largely assembled it was time to start painting. I use almost without exception Model Master enamels. BS638 Dark Sea Grey and BS641 Dark Green make up the top fuselage camouflage colours. The underside is referenced as BS627 Light Aircraft Grey, but being unable to buy this off the shelf the cross reference charts indicate it as being the same as Light Gull Grey FS36440. So the FS colour was used and looks about right when compared to reference photos. The camouflage scheme is the last “high vis” scheme seen on a RAAF fighter aircraft. RAAF F111’s originally had the South East Asia three colour scheme before adopting the all over Gunship Grey and the F/A 18 Hornets are all “low vis” so I wanted some colour out of this model. Some colourful tail flashes adorned aircraft of the seven units that operated Australian Mirages. I had wanted to use the yellow and black flash of No2 OCU but my decals registered badly and the black and white “Magpie” flash of No 75 Squadron was the next most bold. The Magpie should face to the rear of the aircraft and the on the starboard decal it does. On the port side decal it faces forward which is incorrect according to my references (I’ll be counting rivets next!).

 Paint, clear coat (Johnson’s Shine Magic, Aussie equal of Future) and I was into decals. The Roo Decals that started this whole exercise where a little thick and quite brittle. I did buy them at a swap meet so I have no idea how old they where. The Mirage has little in the way on compound curves for the decals so it was a near painless exercise for decals with one exception. Each of the aircraft airframe numbers is a unique decal and lining them up was difficult. This did however provide the opportunity to do almost any aircraft in the fleet from the decal sheet. A photo of A3-36 in flight inspired its selection as the subject of this model. The actual aircraft crashed near Darwin on 27/05/85 after a compressor stall. The pilot, FLTLT A.J.Quaife ejected safely.

The final fiddly bits remain. The undercarriage had been assembled and painted during sessions of paint drying periods. This was mounted up with the position of the main gear legs needing to be humoured a little to have them stand “vertical” from the front. Gear doors on, being cautious to ensure the inner doors of the main gear only opened to about 10 degrees from vertical. They stopped short of vertical to provide clearance for a centreline tank or ordnance. Last of the Roo resin was the pitot tube that matched the resin nose section nicely. I used some old clear lights from the parts box to replicate the twin landing lights again unique to the IIIO. These are pitched down at quite an angle that accommodated the high angle of attack the aircraft required on landing approach. Sidewinders from the parts box where painted up to match the live examples in my references and fitted to the missile rails.

Two types of external tanks were used on RAAF aircraft, the 500 litre (total) fixed supersonic capable tanks are used on this model. The Academy Mirage IIIC kit provides the jettisonable JL-100 280 litre sub-sonic tanks. The Sidewinders and small tanks appeared to be typical interceptor load out. The panel wash was kept light as the Mirage airframe I have seen at RAAF Amberley is so neat and smooth, heavy lines would have looked wrong.

 Summary

I enjoyed my first attempt at a conversion. The conversion kit fits in with a minimum of cut and fill. The colour scheme is interesting against other Australian aircraft in my collection and you just have to love that classic delta shape. It’s a sleek and clean looking aircraft that makes my RAN Skyhawk beside it look like an overweight slug. I am happy with the outcome and as usual enjoyed learning about the aircraft and their RAAF service as much as building the kit.

 A special thanks to fellow IPMS Queensland club member, Gary Heinemann for providing not only some great reference material but managed to find a photocopy of the original Roo Decal instructions as well!

 References –

Meteor, Sabre and Mirage in Australian Service - Stewart Wilson

Aerospace Publications Pty Ltd 1989

 Model Aircraft Monthly

SAM Publications – Volume 1, Issue 6, June 2002

 www.adf-serials.com

 www.aircraftwalkaround.com

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