Arab Israeli Aircraft


Following the apparent success we had with Downtown I decided to add some Arab Israeli aircraft to use with the Elusive Victory scenarios, as well as my new found interest in CY6-Jet Age.

Early shots of my first foray into Arab Israeli Aircraft.  These have no where near as much detail as the USN aircraft (yet!)  I am building up my library for BuNo details on the Mirages and Phantoms.  There are 4 A-4 waiting to be done along with a load of Arab MiGS.  More to follow

 

 

 I am looking at later stuff though because I prefer the 3 tone scheme and it fits into work we are doing for later scenarios such at Lebanon in 1983

 

Silver (Version 1)

 

I wasn't too sure about doing Silver aircraft, but Tom Ballou asked me a question about how Red decals come up on a silver aircraft so a minor project producted a pair of samples.

 

First problem I came across was a reaction between my acrylic spray varnish and GW Metallic paints, which caused the base coat, shade and top coats to merge into one.  The second example had a coat of 'ardcoat instead. (I use a coat of varnish after base painting to give the decals something to sink into).

 

The first sample is a later Mirage III C (Serial 745) and is only there to try out some ideas.  I did a decal for the Mirage III C on the noses in 2pt which is difficult to make out (I know its there!).

Fuselage strips were easy to make up and went on next, followed by the Star of David.  A bit of hand painting to add the edges around the intakes and then the 745 on the tail.  The decals for the numbers is too big and I need to resize for the next version.  Not too bad for an experiment. 

 

Red decals look quite dull which is possibly down to the colour output from the printer but you need to have quite a light base colour.

 

More to follow. 

Silver (Version 2) 

 

This is the second version.  The aircraft was finished in a silver rather than a gun metal which is my normal finish for metal aircraft.  This one will be 779 and will have a red tail flash rather than side stripes.

 

Base coat, shade and top coat went on okay followed by 'ardcoat (learning my lesson from the first one.

 

Star of David will go on next so I can start using the aircraft, followed by the Tail Detail.  I have had to resize the decal down already as the TD model stabiliser is a little over scale, but nothing new there.

 

Hand Painted engine intakes aren't good.  A result of leaving my Glasses in Kandahar waiting for a flight home and now having to do all my painting with contact lenses which isn't good for close up work.

 

I MIGHT have a look at a decal for these on the next version I do depending on how this goes.

 

 

 

My 1973 era Neshers.

As to painting guide 

  • I undercoat the model white to start with.
  • Then I cover the upper surfaces with a thinned Vallejo Iraqi Sand
  • Then add the brown camouflage elements using GW Calthan Brown
  • Then add the green cam using GW Knarloc Green
  • Wash the model with Devlan Mud
  • Make a 50:50 mix of GW Blazing Orange and Iyanden Darksun and paint the triangles on wings and tail
  • Varnish the model
  • Apply the decals which are just black lines and numbers
  • Microsol the decals
  • Then taking the Iraqi sand again touch up all the sand areas to light and remove any orange peeping out from under the decals
  • Add Dom's Decals National Insignia
  • Varnish again to seal the decals in
  • Dullcote the whole thing


I thought about using the white decal paper but to be honest it is a lot thicker and as such doesn't sit well.  Some people get on with it so it is a personal preference.

 

The tail art is trimmed pretty tight to fit and the serial number is part of one decal which made fitting a lot easier.

 

Again not quite finished.  I have two more in progress which MIGHT have more done to them.  The big black aerial looks way ott so might get removed completely or painted a more inconspicious colour