Scale aviation modeller international

Colour call-outs are for Ammo

of MIG only, although there is a

conversion table to Vallejo Model

Color, GSI Creos Mr. Color, Tamiya

and Humbrol, and the decals are

designed by Syhart and produced

by Cartograf. The instructions are

clear, but typically sparse in terms

of background information, and,

disappointingly, are monochrome

only. There are some small colour

illustrations on the side of the box,

but for the purposes of this review,

an appeal to Kinetic produced some

colour profiles which could usefully

be made available as downloads.

Whilst only the Swiss and

Australian versions are shown with

any active weapons, (Sidewinders), I

decided to model the South African

-D2Z version, mostly for its sand

and green scheme, but also since

the SAAF were known to have used

their Mirage III extensively in the

ground attack role, and I speculated

that their trainers would at some

point have carried rocket packs for

live ground target practice (there’s

at least one air-to-air photograph of

two-seater #849 carrying a JL100R).

The rather poor moulding of

the kit’s ordinance, as well as the

end of the build coinciding with

Scale Model World 2017, prompted

me to acquire PJ Productions’

JL100R (481220) and LRF-

(481218) resin rocket

sets to hang under

the wings. I used a few

other aftermarket bits:

Reskit wheels (RS48-0029)

to replace the rather bland

and skinny kit versions, the

superb Master turned brass pitot

probe (AM-48-030), and the Aires

MB Mk4 Ejection seats (4587).

BUILD

There aren’t many aircraft kits

where the build starts with

anything other than the cockpit,

and this isn’t one of them. The

first stage is the construction

of the ejection seats. The kit

items aren’t too shabby,

but they don’t include

the complex belt

arrangement of the

Martin-Baker

Surface detail is well rendered and not overpowering

The resin wheels and hubs have much more

detail than the kit plastic.

The jet pipe has some disconcerting

shrink marks, but not to worry, they’ll be

hidden by the rear fuselage

There are lots of parts not used, a legacy of previous versions. The instrument

panels are quite heavily textured, but unfortunately, there are no decals, so

careful painting is needed.

The new sprue for the two-seater has distinctly

sharper moulding than the parts imported from

the earlier fighter issues, seen here in a comparison

of the early and later (right) pilot’s sticks.

The kit’s wheels are a bit bland and skinny, so

a Reskit set was used, together with the superb

Master brass pitot

The kit’s seats aren’t bad, but the Aires resin

versions add another level of detail, albeit at

the expense of serious PE bending. There’s a

distinct size difference!

There’s a pretty complete

intake ducting, but not

much will be seen.

The cockpit parts look good

when painted up. Airscale

decals were used to add some

life to the dials.

16 • MARCH 2018 • SCALE AVIATION MODELLER INTERNATIONAL

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