Dassault Mirage III RS Swiss Air Force

R-2118 of fighter squadron 10 (Fliegerstaffel 10), stationed at Buochs airfield in Switzerland between 1965 and 2003.

This model in 1/32 scale is based on ILARAK Solutions' excellent design, whose instructions I bought.

After having built the model initially following the instructions, I have made quite some changes to the design to better represent the real aircraft with the identification R-2118:
- The first and main alteration was to move the wheels of the main landing gear outwards to represent the real Mirage's design. I also added landing gear bay covers to the struts.
- The nose landing gear now is much sleeker.
- Smoothed out the underside of the aircraft and added several details like vents. At the same time I was able to add representations of the two DEFA 30 mm cannons.
- Smoothed out the shaping around the cockpit and incorporated a new glass design.
- More detailed engine nozzle and vertical stabilizer.
- More realistic fragmentation of the control surfaces on the trailing edge of the wing.
- Slightly smoothed out the camo scheme.
- Added various under wing details like antennae and payload.

The landing gear is still fully functional, with the little drawback that with my chosen solution, the wheels are no longer able to rotate.

The under wing and fuselage details consist of (beginning at the wing tips):
- 2 x Radar warning antennae
- 2 x AIM-9B Sidewinder for self defense
- 2 x external fuel tank
- 2 x 4 JATO rockets for short take-off from partially destroyed runways
- Centerline reconnaissance pod

The Swiss Mirage III S and RS are a derivative of the French Mirage III, with "S" standing for Switzerland and "RS" for reconnaissance. Most of the Swiss Mirages were built in Switzerland under license. Changes over the French original included US avionics (thus the Sidewinder), reinforced structure for JATO take-offs and duck vanes added with combat value increase program.

There were 18 Mirages of the RS variant, numbered R-2101 to R-2118, with my model representing the last of the series. They featured four optical cameras in the nose section that could be equiped with different lenses and placed at different angles. Each camera had a film roll for 360 frames.

R-2118 carried the nickname "Mata Hari", the famous Dutch female spy of World War I. The name is painted on the left side of the cockpit section together with an owl.

Mirage III RS R-2118 still exists and is on display at the Air Force Center in Dübendorf near Zurich, Switzerland. My model represents the loadout of the real aircraft as exhibited.

To better display the details of the underside and the working landing gear, I built a display stand that shows the plane during take-off.

Taken on: August 4, 2024

Tags:

Dassault

Mirage

Mirage III RS

R-2118

Swiss Air Force

Luftwaffe

Fliegerstaffel 10

AMIR

Buochs

LIRAS

JATO

Sidewinder

LEGO

aircraft

airplane

fighter plane

reconnaissance

AIM-9B

Mata Hari

Dübendorf

Air Force Center « less

Sets appears in: • Dassault Mirage III RS Swiss Air Force

Groups appears in: • LEGO • Lego Air Force more » • Lego Aircraft • Swiss Airforce • SwissLUG • Scale LEGO Airplanes • [LEGO] deutschsprachige Enthusiasten « less

Camera: Olympus E-M1MarkIII, f/13.0, 1/6 sec, 31mm (=62mm), ISO 200 (more info) (hide info)

Camera:	Olympus E-M1MarkIII
Lens:	OLYMPUS M.12-40mm F2.8
Aperture:	f/13.0
Exposure Time:	0.167 sec (1/6)
Focal Length:	31mm (35mm equivalent: 62mm)
ISO:	200
Exposure Bias:	0 EV
Flash:	On, Did not fire
Exposure Program:	Aperture-priority AE
Exposure Mode:	Auto
Metering Mode:	Multi-segment
White Balance:	Auto
Color Space:	sRGB
Software:	Adobe Photoshop CS6 (Windows)
Show full info

Stats: 3,774 views / 4 comments