KIT:

PJ Productions 1/72 Mirage III BE/D2Z

KIT #

1018

PRICE:

?

DECALS:

One French, one South African

REVIEWER:

Jean Paul Poisseroux

NOTES:

Resin multimedia kit with photo-etched and metal parts with vacuformed canopy

After the the modification of their single seater Mirage IIIC in IIIB for the training, Dassault offered its customers an identical service for the IIIE, called BE. Turned mainly to 1/72 scale, the well known Belgian craftsman  PJ Production offers us this time ,after the Mirage IIIE/S the two-seater version of it. Only seven sequences are required to produce this superb airplane with unique shaped delta wing. The major contain are the 2 half fuselages and the one piece wing. Before closing the airframe, you 'll have to insert the superb rear exhaust (with p/e actuators), and add some weight in the nose to prevent "tail sit". The interior detailed sides, molded inside  will be carefully painted overall black with touch of color, according to your reference pictures (I mention that the excellent Verlinden Lock-On for the mirage VBA will cover the 2 seater version too).

Think to paint the air inlet inside at this stage. The second stage lead you to install the "office" with the dashboards, seats and control sticks. With the nose, the flaps, and the rudder glued then, you'll have in short time the "in-flight" version of the aircraft facing you. For safe handling and painting stage i suggest you to leave aside for a moment the front "Chafois" antenna, the canopy, the seats and other pitot tubes which would disappear during manipulation. On the  underside area (phases 3 to 7)you'll deal with the gears ,bays ,doors, fin (don't forget the hook arrestor included for the South African version ), the chock waves canon busters and the aileron servo fairings. For this stage ,it will be better to mount the gears completely aside the main frame, and add at the final stage.

Thanks to your pics you'll add brakes wiring on main ,and landing light cables on front leg. All lights ,such landing and navigations (at wing tips) could be turn from clear sprue for realism. The choice of decals is exotic with a South African in green/light tan upper camo based at Pietersburg AB in 1975, or a French air force  belonging to the Escadrille de Chasse 1/13 Artois based at Colmar in 1990 in the traditional green/grey upper surface. If documentation on the South African AF is relatively rare, the one I own about French AF  lead me to congratulate PJ for the decal sheet precision. At 1/72 scale all readable stencils are there. The final stage will be reserve to all fragile items you left aside during construction. You will finish by adding the 2 500 supersonic liters tanks or the 1700 liters more conventional. The access ladders in p/e will add obviously live to your model. PJ also propose 1/72 pilots figures that could be inserted to it. The verdict is simple; with good shapes and dimensions, hi quality parts and details, you have on the workbench the best two seater Mirage III model at the moment, and for a long time in this scale. PJ confirm with this kit its high level in mastering resin technique, and is on the way to become the leader on the target.

A very hightly recommended kit.

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