I've never had a pusher prop jet before, so i decided to make my own...a Mirage 2000B. The design is simple, based on a box fuselage and flat wing. I decided to add some canards just for fun.

Length: 45"
Wingspan:29"
Weight: approx 3 lbs?
Power plant: (no idea)

The basic construction is all of foam (bluecore and pink foam). Using some triangular pieces on the inside of the fuselage, and a lot of sanding, I hope to achieve a nice scale look .

The model will be fiber glassed using Miniwax polycrylic (WBPU), and a lot of Spackle, for the look of a nice composite model.

I will try to update the build as much as possible.

Here are some pictures from the first steps.

Canards were cut from bluecore and edged with some thin balsa so that they would not get too dinged up, and to help strengthen them slightly.

I designed the fuselage to be in two sections, a rear and forward set of parts, in order to simplify the build.

The rear consists of everything behind the intakes...

The forward fuse also beings as a simple box fuselage, then is sanded down heavily to achieve the curves

It's coming together nicely ! I got the nose cone attached to the forward fuselage, now I'm just waiting for foam to arrive so I can move on to the wings and tail...

Superb work and attention to detail !

I really appreciate seeing your building techniques, looking so sweeeeeet !

Brilliant to see that not-so-pretty box turn into a work of art! Like tha canard idea...
could pass for a KFIR or SAAF Cheetah...

I got some more done on the Mirage over the past few days. I got the wings and tail pieces cut out, and did some more cleaning up of all the parts. I finished one canard (all it needs now is paint), I'm almost done with the other one.

The canard was finished by an initial coat of WBPU (one or two), a gentle sanding, and then covering with silkspan and WBPU. After this is done you need to do one or two more top coats of WBPU, while sanding (using ~600 grit) in between each coat in order to get a smoother finish.

.5 oz or .75 oz fiberglass will be used for the rest of the model, in order to strengthen it.

Hey guys, I got some more done on the Mirage over the last few days. The area in front of the cockpit needed some reshaping in order to be more accurate. I also got the battery bay installed, which greatly increased the strength of the forward fuselage. The tail has been edged in balsa and is almost ready to be coated with WBPU after being spackled.

Great build, lines of that bird look so slick that I bet its going to fly great. Thank you for showing build pics.

That reshaped nose area looks good. It can be pain to shape every little area with same patience, but in the end it will pay off. Model will look so much better

I used two weeks building, stripping and rebuilding nose and cockpit area of my F22 plug

Thank you guys for all of the nice comments .
I hope to have the model done in another month or so.

Looking great, very impressive work !

Hey guys, sorry for not updating in the last few days, I will have a bunch of pictures up later tonight.

Im a bit worried about the wing design however. I'm not worried about the strength of the wing, but more for the fact that it has no airfoil and the aircraft could end up weighing close to 3.5 lbs... It will not be hard for me to add an airfoil if you guys believe it is necessary, and that the increase in lift will be substantial..

I calculated the wing area to be roughly 330"sq. That is the wing alone...

Thanks,

Shockflyer

Shock,,,, Why would this weigh that much?? I would guess it should be around 1lb.... The plane should fly ok with a flat plate wing. Most of the park jets were designed with a flat plate wing. Good luck. W

Hey Waltjg,

It's been a longg time since a made a model this large, and I'm probably way overestimating the weight of this model. I assumed it might be about 3 lbs because it will be "glassed" (not with epoxy, but with a polycrilic) with .75oz cloth for some strength.

With it being 45 inches long and 29 inch WS, I thoguht it might be kinda heavy...

I was thinking for a bit, and I figured that a weight of 2lb might be more appropriate?

Thanks,

Shock