1/48 Heller Mirage IVP

by Eric Fauré

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The Mirage IVP has just been retired from French Air Force last month.  After more than 40 years in service for peace in nuclear dissuasion forces and as a strategic Recce vector since 1996, I decided to devote around thirteen months building this model with an amount of personal work to reproduce the M IVP N°23 AV after recovering from a training flight in November 2004. 

This picture shows you while equipping the nose wheel well with all electric, hydraulic and pneumatic systems. Wells are first painted and only after, all wires, devices and lines are glued in their respective places.

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The airplane is ready for its post flight ground check. Therefore, I modified the kit to open the main landing gear wheel well doors, the hydraulic system and refueling access doors, and the engines lower access doors. The wheel wells are scratch built with most of the part of the cockpit. Some pics had been shot before fixing the CT 52 Recce Pod. The overall model is unengraved after painting to represent the fineness of the real aircraft.

Eric

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Photos and text © by Eric Fauré