Dassault Mirage III O(F) Ex RAAF A3-44 arrived in Scone in February 2021 as an addition to the Hunter Fighter Collection after a large transportation exercise. The Mirage will be placed on display in the Hunter Warbirds Aviation Centre, ready for the opening of the centre March 2022.
Since then, the magnificent Fighter has been under the care of Hunter Fighter Collection (HFC) undergoing an extensive refurbishment and restoration by a team of dedicated HFC volunteers to bring her up to a professional display standard. The tired cockpit has undergone a thorough clean and repaint, the ejection seat and instrument panels have been restored and a new canopy has been fitted to replace the cracked item fitted previously. The Mirage is externally back to its service condition and will be refitted with its armament and external tanks. The HFC volunteers also turned their attention to the exterior of the aircraft and many hundreds of panel screws required replacement before all the fairings could be refitted correctly. The parachute can was also removed and refurbished.
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- Mirage enters the paint shop
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- HFC volunteer sanding Mirage
Finally, after all the above work was completed, taking many hundreds of hours of hard work by the HFC volunteer team, it was time to prepare the aircraft for repainting. As the aircraft was thickly layered with crazed and oxidised paint having been utilised as a refinishing training aid at one time in the RAAF the rubbing down of the surface has taken six weeks to complete but is now ready for the paint shop.
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- Repaint of Mirage by Bennii Walters
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- HFC volunteer removes tape
HFC is extremely lucky to have been able to have the Mirage refinishing and painting completed by Bennii Walters of Pay’s Aviation who is a very highly skilled professional and has been invaluable in his advice on the surface preparation. In the coming week or so the aircraft will undergo the repainting in its current markings and all its stencils will be replicated and re applied. Once complete, it is expected that the aircraft will be an immaculate example of the breed and will be placed in the Hunter Warbirds Aviation Centre in March.
The HFC team of volunteers should be highly commended for the excellent standard of work completed on this aircraft and it marks the completion of their first full aircraft project – the first of many.
Hunter Fighter Collection are particularly indebted to Ross Pay and the staff of Pays Aviation and Vintage Fighter Restorations, Matt Clark and Scone Aero Club for the huge amount of assistance provided to the HFC Volunteers and the Upper Hunter Shire Council for ongoing support of this project.
© John Parker 2022