Designed as a fighter, Dassault's delta-winged Mirage III proved a versatile platform that was modified for ground attack and reconnaissance. More than 1,400 were built, and the aircraft saw combat with Israel, South Africa, and Argentina.
The IIIE multirole version in Kinetic's kit has a slightly longer fuselage.
Kinetic offers five versions of the Mirage, including two French fighters and a French recon bird, a Spanish IIIEE, and an Australian IIIO. Don't be alarmed at the number of parts — the kit provides a bunch of optional parts for the different versions; there will be more parts left over than are actually used.
Options include two types of ejection seat, four instrument panels, two styles of main gear doors, and standard radome or recon nose with cameras.
The kit features full intake trunking, complete with engine front, and separate elevons and speed brakes. You get separate control surfaces.
Kinetic gives modelers a nice arsenal to hang under the airplane: two 500-liter fuel tanks; two 1,700-liter long-range fuel tanks; two each of Magic I and Magic II missiles; two AIM-9B Sidewinders; a AS-30L air-to-ground missile; two JL-100 rocket launchers; and two LAU-32 rocket launchers. You also get two RPK-10 fuel tanks with sway braces for Mk.82 bombs (not used).
The cockpit builds easily, but pay attention to the instructions to ensure parts such as the seats, panels, and avionics match the version you are building.
Take care when assembling and installing the intakes in Step 2. Don't glue the rear of the intakes to the fuselage sides; it makes adding the wings to the fuselage easier later.
Step 3 would have you install the exhaust can in addition to the main gear bay, but I left the engine parts off until final assembly for easier painting.
When constructing the fuselage, cockpit, and nose gear bay in Step 5, glue the engine face to the intake halves, not to the fuselage sides. It's easy to do this from underneath after the fuselage halves are joined.
Step 6 indicates installing the intakes, but hold off until the wings are on. Pay attention here to ensure you get the spine insert for the version being built.
The wings go together without problems. But there is a gap at the wing roots when the wings are added to the fuselage in Step 8. It's easily fixed by clamping the wings and fuselage; the pressure spreads the fuselage to fill the gap. If you glue the aft end of the intakes to the fuselage, the solid assembly won't spread and the gap will need to be filled with putty.
Now you can install the intakes. They'll need clamping for a proper fit. Glue the top and rear of the intakes first. When those joints are dry, clamp the bottom wing and intake joint. It sounds tedious, but you'll get a tight joint that won't require filler.
Check the instructions carefully in Step 12; the kit offers a choice of bulged Doppler radar fairing or a flat panel under the nose.
Take care assembling the main gear in Step 14; the actuators (Part C32) are easily broken. I thinned the locating tabs on the gear doors for better fit.
Step 19 concerns the vertical tail options, with a choice of the tail fillets and rudder extensions.
Finally, Kinetic offers different parts to pose the elevons — on the Mirage the wing control surfaces perform triple duty as elevators, ailerons, and flaps — including optional actuators.
After painting my Mirage in natural metal, I applied decals for one of the French air force fighters. The Cartograf decals performed flawlessly.
I spent 27 hours on the Mirage, but there was some downtime due to the clamping needed. The extra work paid off in my having to do very little filling.
The finished model captures the Mirage's graceful lines. I recommend it to anyone with some modeling experience.
Note: A version of this review appeared in the October 2015 FineScale Modeler.