The first Super Mystere model is an old Airfix kit that was first released in 1972. It was decided to start with the older Airfix model and to build it straight out of the box.

The kit parts are basic, but the model shape looks accurate. 


The decals are simple and were old, this being an old box. Decals for 2 French and 2 Israeli air force aircraft are in the kit. 

But new decals will come to the rescue. 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? 

OK, let us start the build.

The fuselage cockpit was kept simple, just adding some details from plastic card like the side consoles

I did not bother to add an intake duct, just painted the area black.

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. 

Inside the main gear bay I closed the sidewalls, only to find out later that was not needed as the main gear doors are almost always closed with undercarriage out.... So a bit of time waisted here. 

The nose bay wheel well was closed in as well, which also was not needed as the rear nose wheel doors are also mostly closed...

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.

Early aircraft delivered by the manufacturer Dassault were I think metallic gloss aluminium (later on in the 1960s the aircraft were probably "painted" in an aluminium paint for easier maintenance). 

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. 

 
Over this grey base coat followed a coat of natural metal using ALCLAD II polished aluminium metallic coat no. 105 using the airbrush a t a low pressure. When dry, it showed a good sheen.

After drying and some polishing, the coat is ready glossy to take the decals.
My friend Peter gave me a set of spare decals from the BERNA  72-52 set with mainly the typical red cheatline. 

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. 

It was now time for detailling and finishing the Airfix model.

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 VERY tiny brush.

and the result.... 

The canopy part 52 was cut in half with a fine TIGER razorsaw. The rear canopy opens upwards, as seen here:
....
A swivelling bar is at the rear that fits in a slot aft of the seat. This slot was suggested by painting this area black on the model. The canopy got some detailling with tiny mirrors and edges were hand painted in an aluminium colour. The windscreen was blended in its area with white glue, made flat with a water wetted finger.

Inside the canopy, I added 2 tiny mirrors cut from thin metallic sheet, glued with super glue. 
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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 gear legs were set on the model and painted metal. Small door retraction rods were added from stretched sprue. Brake lines were added made from metal wire on the gear legs.

The main doors do not fit 100%, gaps were closed with white glue and after drying painted aluminium. The wheels have brake details on their outward facing hubs. I used other finer wheels from my spares box but added the brakes with some card. 

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Some panels (of flaps and elevator) got a wash of tinned black paint to show them. 

In the wing tips small notches were cut out for the anti-collision lights. On the left a red dot, on the right a blue dot was painted and the notches filled with Microscale Kristal Clear to get suggestions of "lights".

Two wings tanks from the kit were added now as well. The opened air brakes that have several rows with holes were added. New nose pitot tubes were added 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.

So here is the result.....

The anti-collision wing tip light can be seen here clearly

The raised panel lines retained as on the old Airfix model do not look bad at all I believe.

  (click on some of the pictures for a larger view...)

 Often, on French aircraft of the period, bird emblems are shown