Aircraft walkaround vol.100: Dassault Mirage 2000 01

Subject: Dassault Mirage 2000 01

Location:Musée d'lair et de l'espace, Le Bourget, Paris 2015

Comments: The Dassault Mirage 2000 is a French multirole, single-engine fourth-generation jet fighter manufactured by Dassault Aviation. It was designed in the late 1970s as a lightweight fighter to replace the Mirage III for the French Air Force (Armée de l'Air). The Mirage 2000 evolved into a multirole aircraft with several variants developed, with sales to a number of nations. It was later developed into the Mirage 2000N and 2000D strike variants, the improved Mirage 2000-5 and several export variants. Over 600 aircraft were built and it has been in service with nine nations.The production of the Mirage 2000 involves three construction sites, all located in Bordeaux, that specialise in different components. The wings are built at Martignas, and the fuselages are fabricated at Argenteuil, with final assembly taking place at Bordeaux-Merignac. However, the first prototype, Mirage 2000 No. 01, was hand built at St Cloud, before being moved to Dassault's Istres facility for assembly. At the hands of Jean Coureau, No. 01 made its first flight on 10 March 1978, a mere 27 months after the programme go-ahead. During the 65-minute flight, Coureau took the aircraft to Mach 1.02 without afterburner, before climbing to more than 12,000 m and accelerating the aircraft to Mach 1.3. By the end of May, the aircraft had surpassed Mach 2 and an indicated airspeed of 650 knots. On the other end of the speed spectrum, the Mirage 2000 proved to be a capable low-speed aircraft, as demonstrated at the Farnborough Air Show in September 1978, during which Dassault pilot Guy Mitaux-Maurourd raised the aircraft's nose to 25° angle of attack as the aircraft slowed to 100 knots. Later tests showed that the aircraft could attain 30° AoA while carrying fuel tanks and weapons.

Racing Vehicles vol.1: Honda RC211V 2006 Casey Stoner

Subject:	Honda RC211V 2006
Scale:	1/12
Manufacturer:	Tamiya
Price	US$ 25,00 plus shipping
Description	Injected plastic model with waterslide decals, ruber tires and some other details
Comments	This is Tamiya's 1/12 scale Honda RC211V model 2006. What a great kit! Detail is fantastic and fit is above standard. Working with several shades o metallic colors made the kit very interesting. Casey Stoner's racing colors added an extraordinary look at the finished model. The only difficulty i had was trimming the decals to fit over the angles of the frame. Lots of setting solution were needed, something i think would make this fantastic kit unfit for the beginner but certainly a pleasure for the average modeler!

Work in progress vol.26: Honda RC211V 2006

Subject:	Honda RC211V 2006
Scale:	1/12
Manufacturer:	Tamiya
Price	US$ 25,00 plus shipping
Description	Injected plastic model with waterslide decals, ruber tires and some other details
Comments	This is Tamiya's 1/12 scale Honda RC211V model 2006. What a great kit! Detail is fantastic and fit is above standard. With these pictures you will see some captions describing details of the construction. I hope you will enjoy it!

The engine fully assembled. It is a kit by itself!

I used several different shades of metallic colors. The base is Tamiya flat aluminium. I added black for darker shades and red+yellow for the golden tone. Details were hand painted with Vallejo acrylics. 

The main aluminium body of the bike with the engine in place.

The engine is firmly placed in it's position with tiny bolts.

Some details were hidden by the frame, but the hole structure looks really nice.

The rear suspension added to the body frame.

The rear bumper can be seen with the metal coil in place.

The front wheel with the brake disks. Very nice details here! 

The body frame and rear suspension with the rear wheel in place.

Same part of the construction seen from the opposite side.

The front suspension almost ready. Look at the brake detail!

Dry fitting of the main components! 

The fuel tank and the engine exhaust in place.

The bike is rady. Most of the parts missing are from the aerodynamic frame.

Radiator and water pump blocked even more the view of the engine, but there are still a lot of details to be seen!

The bike stands firmly over the rear support. It is a nice way to work with the kit and avoid damage by placing it on it's side.

Several small parts of vinyl tube were used for the brake lines.

The exhaust was painted with Alclad II jet exhaust to increase the number of metallic shades.

Upper view of the kit showing fuel tank details.

Here are some  body cover parts already painted and finished in high gloss texture for the decals

The side panels also painted and waiting for the decals.

The decals are in perfect register. However they are poorly trimmed for the body frame. Lots of setting solution were needed to get a smooth finish. Not a bigt problem but this made the project unfit for the beginner.

The fuel tank in place with the decals. Good fit made possible to get the decals in place before gluing the tank to the bike.

I decided to leave the side panels and the bottom cover out of the finished bike to show all the details. 

Casey Stoner racing colors are fantastic and give a nice touch to the finished kit!