Mirage For The Millenium

Historical Background

The Mirage 2000 can trace its origins in the defunct Anglo-French Variable Geometry aircraft project of 1965. Following the fiasco, Avions Marcel Dassault worked on several new concepts evolved from the Mirage G prototype. This resulted in a design called Avions de Combat Futur (ACF). The Armee de l'Air issued a requirement to develop the ACF and Dassault offered their 'Super Mirage' design. However it was too costly and was cancelled in 1975. At the same time Marcel Dassault had been working on a smaller, simpler and cheaper alternatives to the ACF. These designs congealed into an aircraft known originally as 'Super Mirage III' and finally as 'Mirage 2000'. After the cancellation of the ACF, Dassault offered the Mirage 2000 as an alternative. The French government accepted the proposal in December 1975. The prototype first flew on 10 March 1978 and in the same year's Farnborough Airshow, the new aircraft displayed excellent handling characteristics. It also showed full controllability while flying at 204km/h and at an angle of attack of 26°, proving that fly-by-wire technology was able to overcome the delta wing's shortcomings.

The Mirage 2000 featured a thin, low-set delta wing with cambered sections and a 58° leading edge. Two small strakes were placed just behind the air intakes. The Mirage 2000's design is naturally unstable but with a redundant fly-by-wire automatic flight control systems, it has a high degree of agility while having easier handling. The aircraft was powered a SNECMA M53 low by-pass ratio turbofan producing 14,000 lb dry thrust and 22,000 lb with afterburner. The Mirage 2000 is equipped with two 30mm DEFA 554 cannons with 125 rounds each and can carry 14,000 lb of stores on nine pylons. The usual air-to-air load are two Matra Super 530 BVR missiles and two Matra R.550 Magic IR-homing missiles (they have since been replaced by the MICA missile). The attack versions of the Mirage 2000 can carry a wide array of weapons, both guided and unguided, including nuclear weapons. The Mirage's main sensor is the multi-mode Thomson-CSF RDM multi-mode radar (for export and early French aircraft) or the same company's RDI pulse-doppler radar. The Mirage 2000-5 variant uses the more advanced Thales RDY multi-mode radar.

The first variant to enter service was the single-seat Mirage 2000C (Chasseur = fighter) in 1984. The first 37 airframes were completed with the RDM multi-mode radar and powered by a SNECMA M53-5 turbofan engine. The 38th airframe onwards were powered by upgraded M53-5 P2 engine. In 1987, the RDI radar entered service. This radar has a range of 150 km and allow usage of Matra Super 530 SARH missiles and improved look-down/shoot-down capability. A two-seat operational conversion trainer, the Mirage 2000B was also acquired for crew training. The two-seat B was further developed into dedicated strike variants - the nuclear-capable Mirage 2000N and the conventional attack variant, the Mirage 2000D. By the late 1980s, the basic Mirage 2000 design was beginning to age compared to fighter designs from elsewhere. Thomson-CSF then began a privately-funded update of the Mirage 2000C, designated Mirage 2000-5. A Mirage 2000B and a Mirage 2000C were reworked to this standard, which entered service in 1997. Improvements include Thales TV/CT CLDP laser designator pod, RDY radar (which allowed detection of up to 24 targets, simultaneously tracking 8 and engaging four of them separately using Matra MICA missiles).

The Mirage enjoyed some export success, being bought by the air forces of Brazil, Egypt, Greece, India, Peru, Qatar, Taiwan, Qatar and UAE. French Mirages were used during the Gulf War, operations over The Balkans (where one D model was shot down) and during Operation Harmattan in Libya in 2011. Greek Mirages were used during the tension between Greece and Turkey in 1996, shooting down a Turkish AF F-16D on 8 October. The Indian Air Force used their Mirages during the Kargil War in 1999, performing well despite the altitude and that their 'Vajras' (the name given to the Mirages) have only limited interdiction capability (the Indian Mirage 2000H were basically Mirage 2000C fighters and not the 'D' version). The Armee de l'Air Mirage 2000s were being replaced by the Rafale omnirole fighters, beginning in 2006.  

The Kit

The 1/72 Italeri kit of the Mirage 2000C was first released in 1992 and was re-released by Tamiya in 1994. The parts are spread among two light grey and one clear sprues. The fuselage was split vertically while the wings have a one piece bottom and separate upper halves. Details were generally OK although I feel like the panel lines were too deep.  The seat was oversized and best replaced with an aftermarket one. External stores include a  centreline fuel tank, a pair each of Matra Super 530D BVR missiles and Matra R.550 Magic IR-homing missiles. Also included is a cluster of Durandal anti-runway weapons, which weren't used in the C version. Decals provide markings for two aircraft; one from the Hellenic Air Force and the other from the Armee de l'Air. I can't read Japanese so I had no idea which units are they from. The French one, based on the aircraft ID number, is probably from GC I/5 'Vendee'. Whatever units they were from, the markings were seriously boring, as will be explained later.

Construction

As usual with aircraft kits, work started at the cockpit. The cockpit parts were painted XF-19 Sky Grey (instead of the suggested XF-20 Medium Grey) for the simple reason that I don't have the latter. The side consoles and the instrument panel was painted XF-1 Flat Black. Lack of decals made me use dots of Flat White to represent the 'dials' and 'switches' as best as I can. As mentioned before, the kit seat was oversized, so it was replaced with a resin replacement from Aires. It was actually an SJU-5 for the F/A-18 but I found out that the SJU-5 was a license-build version of the Martin Baker Mk.10, so it was OK. The parts were then cut off the sprue, the paint touched up and were then assembled. Before closing up the fuselage, 10 grams of weight (I use fishing weights)  was placed inside the nose cavity. The fuselage was then closed, taking care to avoid visible seams along it. Holes were then drilled into the lower wing to accommodate weapons and fuel tank pylons.

As per the instructions, the single-piece lower half of the wing/fuselage bottom was attached to the main fuselage assembly. The upper wing halves were then cemented. Having done that, I believe the upper wing halves should be cemented to the fuselage first - by cementing the lower wing half first, it created a step at the blended wing-fuselage joint. While I puttied them, there is still a faint step remaining. The intakes were assembled and thankfully, no fit problems were found here. The intakes were also engineered so that the joint between them and the fuselage fell on a natural panel line. Pylons for weapons were cemented to the fuselage, and so are the VOR aerials on the fin and strakes on the intakes.  The instrument panel shroud was then cemented, followed by the windscreen. Fit between the windscreen and the fuselage was not good, requiring some putty. The rest of the parts were however left off until after painting and decalling have been done.

Painting and Decalling

Both marking options in the kit featured the same colours, even patterns, so I didn't have to finalise my choice beforehand (I already made up my mind beforehand anyway, it's going to be the French airctaft). As usual, Tamiya suggested colours from their own paint line and so I used XF-20 for the radome, XF-66 Light Gray for the lighter portion of the camo and XF-18 Medium Blue for the darker colour. The landing gear wells were painted Gunze 8 Silver. However, looking at photos of Mirages, most show a darker shade of grey for the radome. Not sure what shade though, I simply used a lightened Tamiya XF-63 German Grey. The jet nozzle was painted Burnt Iron. Tamiya also have you paint the external fuel tank XF-56 Metallic Grey but after consulting photos, many of them showing grey, I painted it the same colour as the aircraft, namely XF-66 Light Grey.

The decals, as usual from Italeri, are very nice and respond well to decal setting solutions. I however goofed up with one of the 'walk/no walk' decals and have to paint diagonal lines using X-7 Red. The warning stripes and the various warning / emergency canopy jettison signage provide the extra colours to the model. While many photos of the Mirages of the 'Vendee' escadrille show them looking very bland, many other photos show them with distinctive unit markings. Perhaps the Italeri development team only have photos of the 'Vendee' during their 'boring markings' period. And at about this time I found out that the Mirage depicted by this kit was a development, rather than production aircraft and it was evidenced by panel lines which were no longer in place in production aircraft but was depicted in this kit, especially around the nose. I decided to do nothing about the panel lines but will do certain modifications later.

Finishing

As usual I started by assembling the landing gears first, to allow the model to stand on its own. As the parts have already been painted beforehand, some minor touching up were needed. I forgot to mention that the inner main wheel doors were moulded in the closed position. This is however not a problem, as the inner doors are always closed whenever the aircraft is on the ground. The cannon barrels were then cemented into place. I however removed them immediately when they look like two rods placed at the bottom of the fuselage as an afterthought. After consulting photos, I halved the major portion of the 'cannons', leaving the muzzle intact. They were then re-glued to the model and I shaped new fairings. Needless to say, the work entailed more retouching of the paint. The in-flight refuelling probe was next. However I felt that the instructions had it in the wrong place (that, or I misinterpreted the drawing). After consulting photos, the probe was placed closer to the windscreen; good thing it was butt-jointed so no need to drill and/or fill holes.

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The weapons were next. Instead of using kit weapons, I used the Matra Super 530D and Magic missiles from Heller's aircraft weapons set. Not only better looking, the Heller 530Ds were cast as one piece plus decals were available for all the weapons. There were two types of centreline fuel tank, and I chose the finless type. The fit is however, bad, leaving gaps either at the front or the back of the tank....Hmpphh...more filling and paint touch-ups! I also believed that the pitot tube was too long. It was cut and repositioned on the nose. The model then received a watercolour sludge wash and once dry were sprayed with Tamiya Semi-Gloss Clear.

Conclusion

Italeri kits (this is after all their kit) are virtually hit or miss affairs. They are bold enough to kit subjects others would only touch with a barge pole. Sometimes they got a winner, others, turkeys. As for the Mirage, I think it was both a hit and a miss. A hit as there aren't that many 1/72 Mirage 2000s in the market, the general shape is nice enough and accurate enough to be a Mirage 2000. The misses are some fit issues, that oversized ejection seat, some missing details in the cockpit and the pre-production aircraft features. Technically the last mentioned wasn't their direct fault as their kit was actually a re-boxed ESCI kit (OK, they should have checked first). Anyway, as I looked at the big picture, it does look like a '2000 and furthermore my build philosophy is 'as long as it looks good from three feet away, then it's good enough!' Hahaha!

Grunt-Level Tank

Historical Background

The Sino-Soviet split, beginning in the 1960s (and finally ended in 1989) signalled a worsening of relationship between the Peoples' Republic of China and the Soviet Union. It reached a nadir in 1969 following a series of border clashes. By the 1970s the Chinese felt that their Type 59 tanks, derived from the Soviet T-54, were long in the tooth and were outclassed by the newer T-64 and T-72. The Peoples' Liberation Army requested a new tank, designated the Type 69, incorporating technologies gleaned from a captured T-62. Despite being a successful export item, the Type 69 was not well-received by the PLA. A new tank was sought and the first in the second-generation of Chinese tanks was the Type 80. The Type 80 incorporated new design ideas such as fully welded turret, a new diesel engine licensed from a German design and armed with a Type 83 105-mm rifled tank gun, a licensed copy of the famous Royal Ordnance L7 gun.

In 1988, China North Industries Group Corporation (Norinco) in association with 201 Institute (now China North Vehicle Research Institute), unveiled their version of the Type 80: the Type 85 in 1988. The PLA however was not interested, although the tank was further developed for export to Pakistan as Type 85-IIAP and Type 85-III. However, following the receipt of (allegedly) captured Iraqi T-72s from Iran, the PLA changed its mind. While finding that their L7-derived tank gun could penetrate the armour of a T-72, the T-72's 2A46 125-mm gun can penetrate the armour of the Type 80 and this was further reinforced by the performance of T-72s during Operation Desert Storm, when the PLA found that their contemporary tanks were inferior to the Western MBTs. The Type 85 was accepted into service, with the Type 85-IIA subtype re-armed with a domestically developed 125mm gun. The improved Type 85 was ordered into production as the Type 88 MBT. At the same time the engineers were developing another new version, the Type 90. It was not accepted into PLA service although it formed the basis for Pakistan's Al-Khalid MBT. In 1995, the Type 85 was upgraded to Type 85-III standard which includes a 1,000hp diesel engine, ERA blocks, enhanced armour and the fitting of a Image-Stabilised Fire Control System. In this form, the tank was accepted into service as the Type 96 and replaced the Type 88 on the production line in the same year.

The Type 96 (also known as ZTZ96) is of a conventional design, with six double roadwheels on each side of the tank. The lower hull was protected by a saw-toothed armoured skirts and the front was protected by a well-sloped glacis plate. Armour details however remain classified. The armour also has well-sloped facets. The tank is armed with a fully-stabilised 125-mm smoothbore gun. Like many 'Eastern Bloc' tanks since the T-72, it was also equipped with an autoloader. Although not documented, the gun may probably be compatible with cannon-launched missiles such as the 9M119 Svir or 9M119M Refleks (NATO AT-11 Sniper). Secondary armament was a 7.62mm machinegun mounted co-axial with the main gun and a Type 85 12.7mm heavy machinegun on the commander's cupola. The main gun was laid using a computerised fire-control system incorporating laser rangefinder and automatic target tracker. A bank of six smoke grenade launchers were fitted on either side of the turret. The 1,000-hp diesel engine can propel the tank up to 70 km/h and having a range on internal fuel of up to 450 km. External fuel tanks can increase the range to 600 km. The tank is also equipped with NBC protection and automatic fire suppression system.

In 2006, an upgrade of the Type 96, designated Type 96G/A was introduced. It was fitted with ERA blocks and a new thermal imaging system for all-weather operations, It is believed that the Type 96G/As approach the 'high-end' Type 99 MBT in terms of firepower, mobility and protection. The Type 96 is currently in use with the Peoples' Liberation Army (roughly 2,500 in service), Sudan (200) and Morocco (150 VT-1A variant ordered).

The Kit

In 2009, Hobby Boss came up with a rather large number of PLA subjects (perhaps in conjunction with the 60th anniversary of the Peoples' Republic) and the main-force ZTZ-96 (as the Type 96 was also known as) was one of them. This kit represents the early/basic version of the ZTZ-96 without the extra ERA blocks (the ERA-equipped ZTZ-96 was released a year later). The kit comes in fairly large box and consists of 348 parts in tan plastic, 217 separate track links in brown plastic, 24 brass PE parts, a length of braided copper wire, a length of vinyl tubing and a length of single-strand copper wire plus the usual decal sheet. The kit is well-moulded and have good detail. The separate-link tracks would be tedious to assemble as they need to be cut off the sprue and cleaned up before assembly - but as with most modern tanks, the ZTZ-96 is equipped with side-skirts, so one can cheat by simply assembling the visible portion of the tracks only! The painting instructions shows a three-colour camouflage scheme and the decal sheet provide markings for just one vehicle '602' of an unknown unit. The only other distinctive marking was a pair of Chinese Red Stars. A 'number jungle' is provided should fancy any other three-digit tank number.

Construction

The instructions have you assemble the running gear first. While I did start with the wheels, it was restricted to painting the tyre parts (while still on the sprue) XF-63 German Grey. The next step was attaching the external fuel tank mountings and spare track links on the rear hull panel. I also skipped this and proceeded to attach the suspension parts to the hull. The idler mount is a two-piece affair and it was also rather loose in its slot. The rear hull panel, less the fuel tank mountings was then cemented to the lower hull. Next, instead of completing the wheels and tracks, I add the roof of the hull first. Dry-fitting showed that the fit is not good. I cut off the large locating pins on the glacis plate and also removed the locating tabs on the roof/upper hull. The roof can fit better now although the there is a step on the forward hull where the roof meets the lower hull. The headlight brush guards present problems as they are moulded in two parts and extremely hard (if not impossible to get a good match-up). In the end, I cut off the bars, leaving the basic u-shaped guard. The cut bars were replaced with styrene rods.

Next, the turret was assembled. I started by mating the turret shell with the lower side. The covered gun mantlet was trapped between the turret halves but with the way it was engineered, It could only be posed in the zero elevation angle. Then various turret fittings were cemented. A few of the parts are made of brass PE but it seems that bending lines were not etched into them. However they did bend easily. The commander's cupola has separate periscopes and commander's sight. However they were all made of solid plastic and needed painting to simulate glass. Furthermore, there aren't any positive raised stopper for the periscopes so the height of the periscopes may not be uniform, if one is not careful. The placing of the cupola however makes me wonder; it looked like the commander's main sight is placed facing the rear. There are however photos on the internet showing the AA MG mount instead facing the rear, so I guess it was rotatable. The cupola was cemented with the MG mount to the back of the hatch.    

The turret stowage brackets posed some problem due to thick sprue gates. In fact the sprue gates are inconsistent; some being of the 'regular' (fairly small) while some others were akin to those typically found in short-run kits (apart from the turret stowage baskets, the thick gates can also be found on the track return rollers). As it happened, the sprue gates for the stowage rack are thick and I had to use razor saw to cut it off and and having a more tedious cleaning up. The smoke grenade launchers are fairly OK although there is an ejector pin mark on the reverse side of each mounting, which needs to be filled and sanded. The machine gun ammo box holder on the turret side has a hollow bottom and is quite visible. I have to cut a piece of plastic card, trim it into shape and glued it to the bottom of the said item. The AA MG was assembled but left separate to facilitate painting.

With modern tanks I took a different approach before general painting. The lower hull was painted first and this was followed by the running gear and track assembly. The road wheels are of separate type but not the usual wheel/tyre split. The tyres were moulded together with the main wheel dish and with a separate rim. Before building this kit, I looked around the internet looking for tips for building this kit. I found out that the major glitch is concerned with the sprocket wheels - it was too narrow to fit the slots in the track link. The repair work is easy though, just push Part C9 partway into C2, check whether the teeth on C9 and C10 are aligned with the slots in the link, glue it and cover the gap with putty. The separate-link tracks were then assembled the normal way. But since the ZTZ 96 has side skirts, I cheated by not completing the track run - I left almost the entire top run off! The running boards and side skirts was then assembled and cemented to the hull.

Painting and Decalling

Just one colour scheme is provided - a tricolour of sand, light green and dark green. I deviated from the instructions by using a 50:50 mix of XF-57 Buff and XF-59 Desert Yellow for the sand, a 50:50 mix of XF-4 Yellow Green and XF-58 Olive Green for the light green (Hobby Boss erred badly by suggesting Tamiya XF-20, Medium Grey, for this colour!) and XF-13 JA Green for the dark green. Before going any further I took a look and did some touch-ups where it was required. To tie-up these colours, a filter layer of XF-57 Buff was applied. The decals was then applied. To ease things, I simply used the '602' tank number decal rather than combining the separate numbers to create a new tank number. Afterwards the model received a wash using the usual black-brown mixture. The machine gun was painted Flat Black and then was 'polished' using graphite powder. The ammo boxes (if that's what they are) were painted Olive Green and Flat Black.

Finishing

For the ZTZ 96, this stage is mainly concerned with the rear of the vehicle. Although Hobby Boss provided a twisted copper wire to make the tow cable, I decided to use leftover lengths of twine from previous kits. To my horror, I found that the only one left was from my abandoned Merkava III project (my costliest white elephant, as it involved the Legend Productions' resin turret set, but that's another story). They look thicker then what were used for the ZTZ 96 but I decided to use it anyway. It was cut into the required lengths, superglued to the ends, painted metallic colours and stuck to the model. As the cables were thicker, I have to modify the brackets on the hull. The instructions show that spare track links were placed on the front and rear of the lower hull, but after looking at photos on the internet, I decided not to add any spare track links as many photos show ZTZ 96s without them.

The extra fuel tanks were then cemented onto their brackets on the rear hull. The plumbing for the tanks were provided in the shape of vinyl tubings. To stiffen the tubes, Hobby Boss included copper wire to be inserted inside the tube. The tubes were then painted H77 Tyre Black. The periscopes were painted gloss black. Although not mentioned anywhere, the commander's sight on his hatch was also painted the same colour. With most of the parts installed, it was time for weathering. Although not a weathering process, I started by applying pin wash using the usual black-brown wash mix. The tracks were given a wash of AK Interactive Track Wash. The lower hull, wheels and the tracks were than liberally covered with a mixture of Mig Productions' Russian Earth and Gulf War Sand pigments suspended in tap water. When dry, the excess was removed.

Conclusion

Hobby Boss's ZTZ 96 is fairly simple kit to build and the instructions are also clear, allowing rather pleasurable build. The subject matter is also interesting as it featured a vehicle not seen in other companies' catalogues. On the other hand, there are some snags like the thick sprue gates, solid optics, the two-part light guards and the narrow sprocket wheels. Anyway, it was still a nice kit and one I would recommend to others.