Looks really awesome. Great job.
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Well, this is not a real entry for this campaign, I already have added something but I did this for a different campaign on this site, and as this is a part of the IDF history not many people know about…
During Israel’s War of Independence, the U.S. Government had emposed a weapons embargo on all warring sides in the Middle East. Still, Israeli aquisition agents managed to purchase 4 surplus U.S. Air Force B-17 Flying Fortresses, veterans of World War II, and these slipped from watchful American eyes to Ezion, the Israeli name for an air base in Czechoslovakia which aided Israel with weapon sales and shipment. One Fortress was seized on its way in Portugal and so only 3 arrived in Ezion. Having been neglected for a long time, they were devoid of guns and navigational gear, with turret holes gaping open or sealed with wood or plaster. The Fortresses landed in Ezion on June 17th, 1948 and received the most rudimentry of treatments before leaving for Israel on July 15th. On the way home one B-17 bombed Cairo, surprising the Egyptians who thought they were immune to such attacks and so left their capital undefended (Egyptian attacks on Israeli civilian targets stopped after this). The other two bombed Egyptian forces in Gaza and Rafiah. For the rest of the war the B-17 were stationed in Ramat David AFB and participated in operations on all fronts, even against the Egyptian navy.The Fortresses were also the founders of the IAF’s 69th squadron, the “Patishim” (Hammers) which exists to this day.
Although one of the most important bombers of WWII, the young IAF had no need for such a large, long-range bomber. During the 1956 Suez Crisis, the 3 Fortresses went on a small number of sorties, and were finally scrapped in 1958. Source
And this is my finished model, made my version of the 1956 B17… I know the weathering is overdone… and I just installed the turrets and guns… painted the windows in Tamiya smoke because some windows were only a molded on line on the fuselage…
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Indeed. For the past 25 years, the 69th has been flying the F-15I Ra’am, optimized for long range strike missions.
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It may not look like much, but if things go to plan, this will be a very large Israeli Mirage III C1 in about a week.
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Looks good!
Maybe fix that crack in the launchtube. It is quite visible.
Ohh, you already did… 
A factoid I discovered; in the movie “Iron Eagle 2”, I think the Phantoms of 69 Squadron were featured as the “Russian MiGs” that fought along side the Americans in the movie.
Work continues on the Mirage.
Card models are very time intensive. My original goal was 50 parts a day. Actual progress is probably below 25 parts per day. For example, building three parts into a weapon pylon takes about an hour.
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There’s been some great stuff being posted here, but I’ve been preoccupied and am a bit late with my own completion pics! My target tank is done, and I even took it to a model show a couple weeks ago…
This has been a fun campaign!
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Brilliant! Very well done!
Excellent work, Tom!
Just about a week left, everyone. And Happy New Year!
Michael 
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I had hoped to finish my Mirage by today but progress continues to be slow because of the high part count, complexity of the model, and building fatigue. Cutting out 600 parts in a week is hard on the hands.
Fit is very good in most places. Card model frames have a tendency to torque. To prevent that, additional reinforcing members were added inside the fuselage and especially to the wing structure. Unfortunately, in order to fit the wing structure to the fuselage, some of that additional reinforcement needed to be removed. However, the fit of the wing structure to the fuselage is very good, adding back most of the lost rigidity.
The model does not include sufficient detail in the exhaust area. It was possible to look into the body of the model and see the formers. Additional bracing and another former were added inside the fusleage to prevent that. Detail up the tail pipe is actually quite good for a card model.
The hardest part of the model approaches. Five major assemblies–forward fuselage, aft fuselage, left intake, right intake, and wing–must come together perfectly. Failure will result in an ugly seam where the fuselage sections meet. To have the greatest possibility of success, I will make significant internal changes to the model at this seam.
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The Mirage continues to slowly take shape.
This section was extremely difficult to build and required a great deal of modification to achieve a good result. The ejection seat is the most part intensive assembly of the model.
The most difficult part of the model is now at hand–fitting the intakes.
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Incredible to think this is paper…
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impressive
Work on the Mirage should wrap up over the next two days.
Achieving a clean join between the intakes, forward fuselage, and aft fuselage was very difficult. The last major hurdle will require smoothly blending the wings with the underside of the fuselage. That work is underway now.
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Wings for the Mirage are almost done.
This is what things look like on the inside. Dozens of reinforcement strips lock the skin to the frame and keep the skin from warping.
On the outside, only a few seams are visible and the skins are perfectly smooth. The landing gear wells on this model are not very detailed. Fit in the wing section is extremely good. The underside of the fuselage is a fairly complex compound curve and the wings have some negative dihedral. The model elegantly captures these curves.
By the end of today I hope to have all major components together, including the tail. That will leave the canopy and landing gear for tomorrow.
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