I blame Spiros (@fiveten) for this build. He is constantly posting really cool photos of the various planes flown by the Hellenic Air Force, along with their really cool paint schemes. It was inevitable that I would be enticed into building one or two of the planes. I will be moving to a new house this summer, so I am slowly packing up all of my models. I came across this Hasegawa Mirage F.1C in my garage, and decided to see what I would need to convert it to a Hellenic Mirage F.1CG. This kit, dating back to the 1990s, still appeared to be a decent kit, with the only negative being the sparse cockpit typical of Hasegawa kits from the 1990s. The differences between a standard Mirage F.1C and a CG seemed to be very minor, so the plane ended up on the workbench. Before I started, I wanted to get some canopy masks, some photoetch, and the appropriate decals for this version. The ejection seat in the kit was basically a slab of plastic, so I found a resin seat in my stash that looked like it would work. I also ordered some AIM-9 missiles, which I would need for the CG version.

I did a little research on the internet, and found that 40 Mirage F.1Cs went to Greece in 1975, and served with 334 and 342 Squadrons. The main difference between the Greek version, designated the F.1CG, and the standard version, was the use of the AIM-9 missile rather than the Matra Magic. The Hellenic Air Force retired the F.1CG in 2003, after 28 years of service and 160,000 flying hours. I searched Google for some photos of the plane in Greek service, and found that the plane was usually parked with flaps and speed brakes up, and that the planes normally flew clean (without tanks or pylons). This gives us a clean airframe without a lot of pylons and tanks hanging everywhere. Yeah!

It only took a week for everything to show up, and the build commenced. The decals, from Xtradecal, are for a F.1CG stationed at Tanagra Air Force Base in 2003, belonging to 342 Squadron, 114 Combat Wing. It is painted in a really cool 3-color camouflage that should be fun to do. The Eduard photoetch and canopy masks were for the Special Hobby F.1C, but I figured I could make them work.

As usual, work started on the cockpit. The ejection seat wouldn't fit between the kit's consoles, so I cut them off and rebuilt them with plastic strip. I added some plastic rod and strip to the back of the cockpit tub to make things look a little busier, everything was painted black or dark gray, and the photoetch was added. I used the Eduard F.1C seatbelts on my ejection seat. Everything was then added to the cockpit tub and it was sealed into the fuselage.






The sidewalls of the cockpit looked a little bare after the tub was added to the fuselage, so I added some rails, gauges, and a couple of handles to hopefully mimic the real thing.



Engine intakes went on with just a little filler. I added the "police light" to the left intake. I had no idea what these were until recently, when Spiros added one to this F-16 build. Although not overly common on American fighters, many European fighters have these police lights to aid in night identification during aerial intercepts. Who knew? I also drilled out the holes in the speed brakes, which are very prominent in photos of the actual aircraft. I also filled the holes in the wings and fuselage belly for the various pylons and tanks, which I wouldn't be using for this build. The last bit to do before I close down for the day is to open up the troughs for the belly cannons, which are totally absent except for the trough. I will add something to represent the cannons, which are fairly prominent in photos.






Well, it's time to go pack a few boxes. Wings and tail surfaces to follow soon. Thanks for visiting.

Fantastic work, George @gblair
That cockpit is true craftsmanship, especially in this scale.
Creating those holes in the airbrakes is an absolute improvement.
Looking forward to your next steps.

Thanks, Tom (@tcinla), John (@johnb), and Spiros (@fiveten). I should have realized that this was a rare paint scheme. 95% of the online photos show the F.1CG in an all-blue paint scheme. I figured this camo was developed near the end of the service life of the plane, so not many received this pattern. But it was even more rare. Cool. You are right about the various planes and paint schemes in the HAF. I still want to do some other HAF airplanes, such as the F-4, the Mirage 2000, and the T-2. Some of the planes from just after WW2 are also cool.

Thanks for the kind words, John (@j-healy).

I got a little bit done today. The wings went on fine, with no need for filler.

Apparently the speed brakes are designed to be open only, because they don't fit into their space in the fuselage. The depression in the fuselage for the lower speed brake arm was nothing more than a slight depression, so I had to completely remove this arm on the speed brake and then fill the depression. The speed brake and remaining arm had to be seriously thinned with some sandpaper before it would fit flush with the fuselage. This seemed to work well.

The sprue attachment points for both canopies extended into the glass portion, so I have been trying to sand and polish the offending sections in an effort to make them look acceptable. I plan to finish up with a dip in some Future.

I discovered the Eduard photoetch has replacements for the two small nose gear doors. These doors are molded as part of the fuselage on the kit. The doors were nice, and included very tiny hinges to be added to each door. My vision isn't what it used to be, so I managed to get them glued and into place using the Braille Method (sense of touch only, since I couldn't really see them).

The mailman brought me a Christmas present yesterday. It is a set of Hataka Orange Line colors specifically for modern Greek aircraft. They also have a set for the "Vietnam" camo used by the HAF, but I didn't need that one. These are acrylic lacquers, so I think they will work really nicely.

More tomorrow. Everyone stay safe.

Thanks, Spiros (@fiveten). You are right. I originally planned to replace the molded nose gear doors with thin plastic card, but then I discovered the doors on the photoetch set. When I am using photoetch on a model for which it wasn't designed (does that make sense?), I sometimes don't pay a lot of attention to the Eduard instructions. So finding the doors was a nice surprise. The holes in the speed brakes really stand out in photos, so I am glad I took the time to drill them out.

Thanks, John (@johnb).

Yea - gotta thank Spiros (@fiveten) - great work George. Things are looking amazing!
Great paint set!

George, what a great build. All the details and some "by touch only" - brilliant work!

I have to admit that the F1 is on my wish-list too when I run out of 109's 🙂 (I have a fes of the SpecialHobby kits in the stash)

Never had any great experiences with acrylics (my dinosaur methods do them no good), so I'll be looking forward to this being painted.