FCM 4829: Mirage Part 1

This next sheet from our friends at FCM is for one of my favorite aircraft, the Mirage III/5. What is a bit of a drag is that there is not a modern kit of this aircraft in 1/48 scale. What one needs to do is use the Italieri or even the older ESCI kit (same tooling) for some, and some bits from a Mirage F.1 for others. To do the two seaters, a Red Roo conversion is available. Pehaps someone will eventually do a modern Mirage III/5 for us. It is only a matter of time.

So let us start with the Brazilian offerings. There are three single seat and two two-seat options on this sheet. All from from 1 G.D.A. at Anapolis in the 1980s. As you can see, these planes has several differences. First off they were all in Mirage Blue-Grey over Light Grey. These planes had the HF antenna addition to the vertical tail, hence the extended fin fillet. You can build them with the Mirage F.1 type refueling probe, with tail codes and as the later planes with black markings and the fin flash moved to the rudder.

Next up is a Venezuelan pair that includes both a single and two seat build. As you can see, for these camouflaged planes, you get both left and right side profiles as well as an upper plan view. These planes have the canard upgrades.

Moving to a really olde Mirage IIIE version is one for the Lebanese Air Force in 1970. These planes saw very little flight time due to a lack of trained pilots and were soon sold off. Standard French paint scheme.

The last one is from the Egyptian Air Force in 1976. Desert scheme with the insignia that have the large center.

As with all FCM decals, these are superbly printed by Microscale and include all the various data markings for one aircraft. A data placement guide is included and you can see that the instructions are in full color.

Once more, a sheet with some very interesting markings options and well worth picking up.

July 2013

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