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air-to-air load are two Matra Super 530 BVR missiles and two Matra R.550 Magic IR-homing missiles (they have since been replaced by the MICA missile).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!