Italeri 1/48 Dassault Mirage 2000C

ITALERI 1:48 MIRAGE 2000C

Reviewer: James Garnett (rec.models.scale)
Kit Review submitted: January 2006

Kit Details:

Italeri 1/48 Mirage 2000C - No.2614

Aircraft History:

With so many versions, updates and different production techniques it is not possible to provide a brief historical overview of the Mirage 2000 in this short area. So a quick spiel on the variant being modelled is all that is needed here.

The Mirage 2000 was developed to replace the Mirage III and F.1 interceptors and regarded as the third generation Mirage series. Prototypes first flew in March 1978 with an updated tail fin introduced during the testing phase which characterised the first production version Mirage 2000C, a single seat interceptor variant. This variant first flew in November 1982 and became operational in mid 1984. Three squadrons were equipped with the Mirage 2000C with a total of 121 aircraft serving with France.

In 1994 three dozen of these aircraft were upgraded to Mirage 2000-5 standard which included updated avionics and nose radar systems. This became the true multi-role version of the Mirage 2000 to that time, and subsequently similar aircraft were built and designated Mirage 2000E as an export version.

The Kit:

I believe this is a reissue of the Esci's 70's kit of the Mirage 2000C but which has been revised to today's standard. Inside the box are no less than 70 grey injection molded parts which contain fairly nice engraved surface detail. Some parts of the kit, such as the tail fin, have raised panel lines confirming that the kit is a mixture of Italeri and Esci. There are also half a dozen transparencies in the kit which are molded nicely. Overall it looks very nice in the box without any flash but there are the usual minor sink marks and injection mold marks to deal with.

Instructions:

What can I say other than they follow Italeri's typical fold-out sheet format. There are eight assembly steps, brief history overview, symbol explanation and basic modelling information, sprue map and the colour and marking diagrams. The painting for internal and external areas is quoted from the Modelmaster range with generic names and FS numbers provided also.

Construction:

The cockpit is fitted out with a tub that contains side consoles onto which a small joystick and throtle can be attached to either side. Decals, albeit inaccurate, are supplied also for the main and side panel consoles. A reasonable but still rather generic four-piece ejection seat is glued into the tub along with a control stick and a rear bulkhead is supplied. A clear part rounds out the detail as a HUD but it must be trimmed in order for the windscreen to fit later. The cockpit is then painted in the suggested light ghost grey and I prepared some noseweight ready to insert.

I decided to move onto the wing sub assembly next which is made up of the standard lower delta wing with two upper halves. The sub assembly fits very well together and later, after the fuselage halves are closed, the wing assembly fitted very nicely with only a very small amount of filler required around the wing roots. The wings almost snapped fitted into place.

The intakes were added onto the fuselage sides and these surprisingly fit quite well. A bit of care and attention was needed for the tiny canards before the halves were closed with the cockpit and some small noseweight inserted and again the fit was very good. The wing assembly was then glued into place as was the exhaust.

For underwing stores the kit supplies a centreline fuel tank plus a pair each of Matra Super and Matra Magic AAMs, which are attached to underwing pylons. I used reference photos to paint these missiles up as the Italeri painting instructions are questionable, particularly with reference to a black nosecone whereas photos suggest they should be white. Some clean up of the stores is required to remove the ejector pin marks which are also found on the undercarriage parts.

With the airframe complete it was time to install the undercarriage. Each gear is comprised up of no less than five parts, with landing lights from the transparencies to be attached to the nose gear leg. The jacks and hydraulic parts are supplied and overall these parts look very good and again install quite well.

Apart from some painting the final stage of assembly was fitting the nose probe, inflight refuelling probe, pitot tubes and the main canopy. The canopy comes in two parts with the windscreen and fits well, plus a jack enabling it to be displayed open.

Colour Schemes:

There are four examples to choose from which include two French air force, one Greek and one Republic of China (Taiwan). Apart from one of the French versions, all are finished in the standard two tone grey scheme although the instructions will have you believe that the starboard Greek side was finished in desert colours. Respectively they are a tiger squadron version with tail fin tiger emblem and lady on one side; an EC.5 example in two-tone brown over light grey undersides based at Orange, used in the Gulf War, 1990; a Greek 222 example and a 2000-5 Taiwanese example.

Decals:

The instructions are a bit ambiguous in areas when it comes to decal placement so some extra photos and reference material were consulted to assist here. As often the case with Italeri's decals the sheet provides roundels, some stencilling and unit numbers which are reproduced in good register with thin decals. The only question mark is over the lady which comes across a little blurred. Otherwise the decals provided no problems to apply and bedded down well with Microset/sol.

Accuracy:

There are a few faults with the kit but overall the lines of the Mirage 2000 are captured very nicely. From what I can tell when comparing to reference material, the rear ducts which should be on the spine and either side of the fuselage just in front of the tail fin are not present in the kit. The various antenna need to be studied closely to see that they are not perfectly in the right spot and that their size is questionable. The nose probe is also oversized compared to the real aircraft and the radome itself looks longer and sleeker than photos of the real plane suggest. There are also some additional antennae and aerials that have been added over time that are not present, probably because they weren't present when the kit was originally tooled. The kit comes out slightly overscale in length and likewise underscale in span from what I can tell but otherwise as I said looks a dead ringer for the Mirage 2000. The only other comment that I need to make is that the Taiwanese air force have extensively modified their Mirage 2000Cs with additional antennae, relocated aerials and the like, so to build one a lot of scratchbuilding and other work will be required to make it accurate, since building the kit out of the box will omit all these.

Overall Recommendation:

Recommended! The kit goes together very well and was a joy to build. As it is effectively a reissue of a 70's kit it means that you are not going to get state of the art or highly detailed parts and the molds in many areas are quite generic. But it is a reissue of an Esci kit which in its day would have been high on the recommendations of many modellers but over time with the updating of the real life plane will not have every panel or antenna placed correctly. So in conclusion it is a solid kit, that is a great build but has been around for a while and should be purchased on that knowledge and basis.

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