![]() ![]() 1/72 scale kits of the Dassault Super Mystere |
kit
review / modelling report
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![]() ![]() The Dassault Super Mystere was the successor of the Mystere of the nineteen fifties for the French Armee de L 'Air. It became an entirely different aircraft with a swept wing for higher speeds and also a larger oval nose intake. The swept wing was discovered to help with drag reduction at high speeds and as such the Super Mystere was the first series-built West-European fighter that could achieve a supersonic speed in horizontal flight. It had a single SNECMA ATAR 101G engine installed with afterburner. Armament was two DEFA canons in the nose with some payload below the wings. The first prototype , the Super Mystère B.1 flew in March 1955 with a British Avon engine. The Super Mystere was made in some variants but the B2 was the most well known type and about 180 were made with the more powerful French SNECMA Atar 101G engine. The French Air Force extensively used the aircraft and it was the primary interceptor of its day during the Cold War. The type was replaced in the early seventies bij the swept winged Mirage F-1 ![]() Some 24 Super Mystere aircraft were also sold to Israel and used in the 1968 "six day" war. These aircraft later got Pratt & Whitney engines and new avionics. |
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![]() OK, what 1/72 scale models are on the stack? First I have the new kit of AZ
Models of a Supere Mystere B2 with Israeli decals and another exhaust
pipe. The kit was issued in 2012 also in other boxed versions. (THIS MODEL
STILL TO BE MADE).
In 1/72 , I also found an old Airfix
kit, no. A110/1 in the "loft". It was decided to start with the older Airfix
model and to build it straight out of the box. My friend Peter was doing
the same and it looked quite nice despite its age with the raised panellines
and lack of detail. Peter also had some spare BERNA
decals left for my kit, so what was to stop modelling this kit?
The kit parts are basic, but the model
shape looks accurate.
OK, let us start the build.
Quickly, the fuselage halves were
glued together. Some clamps were needed.
Next came the simple wings, but I
decided to separate and droop/raise the ailerons.
The wing fit to the fuselage was surprisingly
good! This enabled a minimal sanding as I was to retain the raised panel
lines as much as possible.
Only filling was needed mostly at
the fuselage joints and minimal sanding is needed. The various smaller
intakes found on the airframe were drilled open with a fine hand drill.
The model now got a coat of light grey to checks for any filling errors and irregularities. Some tiny filler corrections were made and the model was ready for another grey base coat.
It
was decided to make an early delivered Super Mystere in a metallic
gloss aluminium metal scheme. First a couple of grey layers
were airbrushed. I did not put on
a black gloss undercoat as the model is small and I thought a too gloss
sheen would not look realistic. After drying and some polishing, the
coat is ready glossy to take the decals.
It has decals for a Armee de L'
Air Super Mystere B2 aircraft from EC 2/10 Seine based at Creil around
1962.
The French roundel replacements came from MODELDECAL sheet 62. The decals are splendid with I think a correct blue hue of the rudder flag. The model really gets nice while adding the decals. I always "drag each decal" through an amount of Johnson Future . This minimizes "silvering" and helps adhering to the model surface. The red wing walkway lines were made from cut to size red decal strip from a XTRADECAL set.
Inside the cockpit , instrument panels were suggested with spare decals. A control stick for the pilot was added as well as a throttle and food pedals from thin card. The cockpit was mostly painted black inside. The kit seat is very simple, but can
be used to start with. With a TIGER razorsaw the seatpan was cut-in and
this enabled to set a lower seat pan. With some scrap plastic and rod,
details were added. painting was done and straps and belts added made from
tape and coloured decal. The ejection handle was made from thin yellow
electric wire with black stripes painted with a VERYYYYYYY tiny brush.
The canopy part 52 was cut in half
with a fine TIGER razorsaw. The rear canopy opens upwards, as seen here:
Inside the canopy,
I added 2 tiny mirrors cut from thin metallic sheet, glued with super glue.
The undercarriage legs anti-torque
bar/ scissors are a bit rough and were cut off. From another kit, a couple
of spare etched metal scissors that were attached with super glue.
The main doors do not fit 100%, gaps
were closed with white glue and after drying painted aluminium.
Some panels
(of flaps and elevator) got a wash of tinned black paint to show them.
Two wings tanks from the kit were added now as well. The opened air brakes at the rear were added as well as new nose pitot tubes. Their tips were made from metal needles. Some upper antenna spine panels were painted off-white/light grey as well as the fin tip with a black edge. Finally the model got a decal protecting coat of Johnson Future with the airbrush.
The raised panellines retained as
on the Airfix model do not look bad at all I believe.
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Another nice addition to the Cold War "jet collection" in the 1/72 model collection. Although using the old AIRFIX kit, not bad at all. (The AZ model of the Super Mystere will be made in the future) |
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Created this page
May 20, 2012 |