Profile Photo
Marc Barris
97 articles

1/32 Scale Cheetah D

May 31, 2015 · in Aviation · · 15 · 3.1K

This is a Cheetah D of the South African Air force. I used the old Revel scale Mirage 3 kit as the base to work with.

I scratch built the whole cockpit tub with instrument panels and seats, vacuum formed the canopy and I used lead strips to make the canopy frames. I scratch built the ejection seats.

I also modified the wings and scratch built the canards and scratch built the undercarriage with brass tubing.

The nose of the aircraft was first carved from balsa wood to get the correct shape, then vacuum formed.

The exhaust nozzle was also scratch built as well as the missile and ECM pod. The chaff flare dispenser was also scratch built, Phew that was a lot to say, the project took me almost a year to complete. I hope you enjoy the pictures.

Reader reactions:
8  Awesome

7 additional images. Click to enlarge.


15 responses

  1. Phew, Marc, I've just finished admiring your Skyraider, and then this appeared! You're obviously a busy man, and all in 1/32 scale...
    It looks like another masterpiece to my eyes, a lot of extra work has gone into this one.

    • Hi George, this started out as a challenge between Tappie and myself, it started out as a discussion and then ended up in an obsession, I would build the 'D' model of the Cheetah and he would build the ''Ç'model. Hopefully he will be posting his kit soon, they look great together. Thanks for the comment.

  2. I can only echo what George has said, Marc...beautiful "scratch" job all around.

  3. Greetings :
    Nice work as well as it's markings, it is so refreshing to see other countries markings, it gives the hobby a sense of expansion.

  4. Well done Boet. I just want to add to your bragging rights. It wasn't a year you took to build it, it was more like 52 Friday's in The Zone. Now I have to post my Cheeta C for all to see.

  5. said on June 1, 2015

    Bakgat Marc. I like it very much.

  6. Nice! I've been wanting to build a Cheetah in 1/72 but didn't really want to have to scratchbuild so much...

    • OK - now I'm really disappointed - I found out there "was" a 1/72 scale Cheetah D - from High Planes - but it's out of stock and I can't locate one anywhere! To be soooo close...

  7. Give it a try, it helped keep me awake at night!. Thanks Greg

  8. Hard to believe, thats the old Revell kit. Great work !

  9. The helmets with the masks! Is this legal? And so well detailed?
    Great modeling Marc. I really like this a lot.
    California Steve

    • Steve, we have a saying "' n Boer maak 'n plan" meaning we always have to improvise since not everything is at hand. Thus we have learned to make what we can't get, Besides it is more fun and a hell of a lot cheaper. After this helmet job we have quite a number of spares that didn't make the grade. Marc is meticulous when it comes to this kind of extras.

Leave a Reply