PAINTING THE BLUE DELTA

When the Editor suggested that I build Italeri’s recently released 1:32 Mirage IIIC, I was rather excited, as I had dreamt for a long time about building a model aircraft that had been created with today’s technology. As a child, like many others, I built Matchbox kits in 1:72 plus some military vehicles, sometimes even painting them! I’m colourblind and using the correct colours is not easy for me. Moreover, since the age of twelve, I have not touched a military subject.

However, although I only build cars and the occasional figurine these days, I read a lot of books on military modelling and weathering techniques. With the Mirage IIIC, the opportunity presented itself to try out some techniques.

While perusing the ‘AMMO by Mig’ website, I saw the ‘Encyclopedia of Aviation Modelling Techniques Volume 3’, a book dedicated to the painting of model aircraft. Using Mig products is a personal choice due to my colour blindness and nothing else, but without the book, I do not think I’d have reached my goal. However, as this article hopefully shows, you will see that I adapted the techniques described in the book in my own style, which gave birth to something slightly different to what is described. In any case, I hope that my approach and explanation will convince undecided modellers to embark on the exciting adventures of military aviation!