Matchbox 1/72 Dassault Mystere IVA

MATCHBOX 1/72 DASSAULT MYSTERE IVA

Reviewer: Dave McDougall (crustyoldseadog@aol.com)
Kit Review submitted: 7 December 2001

Dassault Mystère IVA (Matchbox 1/72^nd #40061)

Aircraft History

One of several swept-wing Mystère fighter and fighter-bomber developments based on the earlier Dassault Ouragan, the Mystère IVA was the most successful production variant. Powered by a Hispano Suiza Tay Turbojet rated at 2,850 kp thrust, the prototype first flew in September 1952. In 1953, under an U.S. funded offshore procurement programme, 225 machines were ordered but the French government, the first one flying in 1954.

The initial 50 aircraft retained the Tay 250 A engine as standard, all subsequent aircraft having the more powerful Hispano Suiza Verdon 350 engine (rated at 3,500 kp thrust). The French government also ordered a further 100 machines and the type entered large scale service with the Armée de l’Air from 1954; a total of 241 serving with the various squadrons of Nos. 2, 5, 7, 8, 10 and 12 Wings. Later used in the training role, the last Mystère IVAs served with E. C. (T)8 until they were replaced with Alpha Jets from 1982.

By 1978, many of the retired aircraft, originally ordered under the U.S. funded programme, were transferred to USAF ownership. Israel and India, which had both used large numbers of Ouragons, were the only export customers for the type; from 1956 60 Mystère IVAs were supplied to Israel, where they were used to great effect as fighter-bombers, The Indian Air Force received 110 aircraft from 1957; these also serving in the ground attack role.

The Mystère IVA had a maximum speed of 1,110 km/h at seal level. It was armed with a pair of 30mm DEFA cannons and could carry underwing fuel tanks or bombs. Wing Span: 11.12m; length: 12.89m.

The Kit

This is a very straightforward kit from Matchbox. My boxing was from the Revell era, copyrighted 1998. I believe that the kit dates back to the early/mid eighties. Open the top-opening box and you’ll find the various contents rattling around loose inside. No sealed bags here! The kit is molded in metallic grey plastic and has lightly raised panel lines. There twenty-six parts, plus a 2 part clear cockpit canopy. There are no options provided in this kit, unless you decide not to install the wing-mounted drop tanks!

The instructions are of the familiar standard that we’ve come to expect from Revell. These comprise two small (about A5 size) sheets, written on their usual cheap and nasty paper and giving eight sides in total. Of these, four sides are given over to the usual warnings in about 200 languages, one side to a good potted history of the Mystère, two sides to the painting instructions and finally, one side to the build instructions. The latter comprise six steps and are easy to understand.

You get a choice of two aircraft to paint-up. These are 1) “Escadre de Chasse, French Air Force, Cazaux Air Base 1976”; and 2) “Indian Air Force 1958”. As usual, all painting instructions are given with Humbrol colours only. Paint call-outs are given for Revell paints (both the number and name are given e.g. ‘Stone Gray matt 75’).

Kit Detail

Inscribed (in Matchbox’s usual fashion), overscale panel lines. At least they're not too overscale (unlike some Matchbox kits!)

Don’t expect much in the way of interior cockpit detail, as there isn’t anything except for a generic seat, no instrument panel or anything. This is a bit of a pity as not only is the two piece cockpit canopy quite large, but it’s also nice and distortion free.

Similarly, there is no wheelwell detail although at least these are not left open. The undercarriage is also simplified, particularly the front wheel assembly.

Building the Kit

The kit doesn’t have many parts and was easy to build. I followed the sequence most people seem to adopt when building aircraft kits by starting with the cockpit and fuselage halves, progressing through the wings and tail and finally finishing off with the undercarriage (I always build my models wheels down). There’s not much to say here, as I didn’t encounter any problems. A few notes:

Fit of the parts was excellent with the exception of the wings. I had to use a little bit of filler on both the upper and lower wings where they fitted onto the fuselage. No real problem.
No hint is given as to what colour(s) to paint the cockpit interior. After some deliberation I simply went for matt black on the grounds that it would hide the absence of any detail. I’ve no idea whether that’s the correct colour, but there you go.
The undercarriage was easy to assemble. Plus marks to Matchbox/Revell for providing a little drawing showing the correct angle that the completed undercarriage should be fitted onto the aircraft.
As the instructions indicate, I needed to drill a hole into the wing to fit the pitot tube.
The two piece cockpit canopy is a good fit. A pleasant surprise given my experience of the average kit canopy parts.
Like most jets, this aircraft is a tail sitter so make sure that you put some weight into the nose. The instructions don’t mention this so you’ll have to judge the amount. I used a mixture of blu-tak and airgun pellets and squeezed in as much as I could.

Painting and Decals

Both aircraft are basically polished bare metal. The Indian Air Force example has a matt black coloured band at the top of the tails whilst the French aircraft has a black anti-glare panel in front of the cockpit.

The decals are printed by Revell and are reasonably comprehensive; including a fair bit of stencilling and warning panels. I found them to be of excellent quality. - They are crisply printed and in register. They came of the backing paper easily and went on the kit very well. 10/10 score here in fact.

Kit Accuracy

I’m not a great subscriber to the “measure it to the nth degree” school of kit builders. Instead, I’m more inclined towards the “if it looks right, then it is” school of thought. Rule fans will be disappointed to note then that I didn’t bother checking this kit’s scale.

However, I did compare if to a number of photographs of Mystère’s in both French and Indian airforce service. I can report that I didn’t spot anything that was obviously wrong, with one exception. –

Compared to the photographs I looked at, the underwing drop tanks supplied in the kit are considerably too short in length. Now it may be that various different size tanks were used on this aircraft. And then again, it may not.

Final Comments

Although basic in detail, when built, this kit is a good representation of a Mystère. It’s easy to build and therefore I recommend it to beginners. Tamigawa detailing fans won’t give it the time of day. However, I rather like it.

Useful URL's

Paul Nann’s site has some good pictures of Mystères; see (http://www.paulnann.com/country/France/Mystere.htm). The Military Aviation Database has specs at (http://www.csd.uwo.ca/~pettypi/elevon/gustin_military/db/)

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Airfix 1/72 Super Mystere B.2

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