Mark I Models Mirage IIIRS/EBR/5BA/50C (MKM144168L) 1:144

Mirage IIIRS/EBR/5BA/50C (MKM144168L)

1:144 Mark 1 Models

The Dassault Mirage III is one of the most recognisable aircraft to emerge from the Dassault Aviation stable in post war France with its distinctive delta wings and sharply pointed nose. The Mirage III grew out of French government studies for a light weight all weather interceptor able to reach an altitude 18,000 meters (59,500+ ft) in six minutes and able to reach Mach 1.3 in level flight. The tailless delta combined the wing with an area ruled Coke bottle-shaped fuselage to achieve such speed, minimising buffeting and other compressibility related issues that had plagued early supersonic designs. The Mirage IIIC would remain in French service from 1961 until 1988, and although the largest export customer for the Mirage III was Israel, there were many other smaller operators over the years.

Switzerland flew eighteen RS variants, the export variant of the reconnaissance aircraft that was in turn based on the E that was used by the French Air Force.  The EBR variant flew with the Brazilian Air Force in small numbers, and was also based upon the E, but was built locally and referred to as the F-103E in their service.  The 5BA was an R that was built for the Belgian Air Force, while the Chile flew 50Cs, which were similar to the IIIBE.

The Kit

It’s probably been a long time since anyone wrote this in a review, but this kit arrives in a Ziploc bag with a card header, and is a rebagging with new decals of a recent tool from Mark I, originating in 2019, with new parts in 2022.  The header has a profile of the Swiss Mirage IIIRS on the front, and the decal options printed on the back, so make sure you keep it after opening.  Inside are two sprues of dark grey styrene plus a pair of canards on a length of sprue, a small clear sprue, and instruction sheet on folded A4 in colour, with profiles on the rear that show all aspects of the camouflage for completeness.  The four decal options are split two by two by their tail fin fillet, as well as their operating nation.  Detail is good, and I’m starting to sound like a broken record when I marvel at the amount of it that the designers can squeeze into these small-scale kits.

Construction begins with the cockpit, starting with the seat on an L-shaped floor that receives the seat and control column, with a spacer and partial bulkhead below at the rear.  The pilot’s instrument panel has a decal with dials applied, and is inserted below the coaming during fuselage closure.  With the cockpit painted, the exhaust is made up from top and bottom halves with a cylindrical tip and a bulkhead on which to mount it that locates on a rib inside the fuselage.  The fuselage can be closed then, installing the intakes from splitter and trunk on each side behind the cockpit and gluing the single part wings under the fuselage.  The afore-mentioned fin fillet is cut from the spare fuselage half for decal options C & D and applied after removing the moulded-in section from the destination fuselage, all of which is marked in shades of red.  The canopy is a single crystal-clear part, and fits over the cockpit cut-out in the closed position, showing off your work in there, and slotting the pitot into the tip of one of two choices of nose, which are installed after removing the moulded-in nose from the fuselage for all but one decal option.  All decal options utilise the canards from the extra piece of sprue, fitted to each of the intake trunks with the aid of dotted red lines on the diagrams.

The three landing gear struts are each one part, and has a wheel fixed to the axle, with captive bay doors  on the main legs, and two smaller doors on the nose, which also has a captive door moulded into the front of the leg.  A strake under the rear of the aircraft is removed using your favourite method, to be replaced by a new one from the sprues after making good.  While you have the styrene removal tools out, if you are planning on using the Sidewinders, you will need to remove the forward section of the outer flap actuator fairing before fitting the pylon to the front of it.  The AIM-9s are fixed to the rails after gluing two extra fins to the rear, then the characteristic fuel tanks under the wings are made up, with a choice of a single part, or a three-part option with aerodynamic fins at the rear, their location shown in dotted red lines on the drawing.  The last part is a twin landing light that is fitted to the nose gear strut, with one decal option having a domed fairing under the nose that has a grey dielectric panel painted in its centre.

Markings

There are four options included on the sheet, which will dictate whether you use the fin fillet during construction, with plenty of variation in schemes and operators.  From the box you can build one of the following:

The decals are printed in good registration, sharpness and colour density, split into subjects by dotted lines, with a number of stencils provided despite the small scale.

Conclusion

A great new bagging (instead of boxing) of this single-seat supersonic fighter that saw a great deal of service with smaller operators in the 70s and beyond.  Detail is good, decal options interesting, although the pitot probe would look better replaced by some fine brass rod for scale.

Highly recommended.

Review sample courtesy of