Dassault Mirage F.1B - 1:48 Kitty Hawk

[Mike]

Mirage F.1B
1:48 Kitty Hawk

The Dassault Mirage F.1 has been a successful point defence fighter for over thirty years, and was developed initially as a private venture by Dassault as a replacement to their ageing Mirage III fighters.  It is a single-engined, single-seat fighter aircraft with a high-mounted delta wing and capability of reaching mach 2.2 in short order.  Dassault soon found an eager customer in the shape of the French Armée de l'Air, who bought various versions over the years.

The B model is a two-seat variant that is 12"/30cm longer than the single seater, sacrificing some fuel capacity to house the second cockpit, and weighing in heavier due to the extra Mk.10 ejector seats that were installed.  The cannons were also sacrificed, but cannon pods can be used if required.  It is predominantly intended as a trainer, but other than the lack of cannons, it is fully mission capable and is wired the same way as the single-seaters for munitions.

The F.1 was an export success, going to twelve nations, most notably and newsworthy recently, to Libya and Iraq.  The two seat B was sold in smaller quantities to Libya, Spain, Kuwait, Jordan and Iraq, although not all the airframes were delivered to Iraq before they fell from grace internationally.  Fewer than 60 were built, with 20 going to the Armée de l'Air as Operational Conversion Trainers in the early 80s.  The F.1 is still in service with many nations including France, and has earned the nickname Grandma with the Spanish Air Force due to its advancing years.

The Kit
Kitty Hawk have been with us a very short time, but have put out some interesting kits in that time, with the Jaguar A, another French aircraft being their most recent.  The Mirage F.1 has been promised now for a few months, and is a welcome replacement to the ageing ESCI kit that has been around for many years.  Arriving in a diminutive box, the kit is shoe-horned into the available space by the folding of the large sprues along a convenient centre line.   I was concerned that this might have caused some warping of parts, but all it does is make it tricky to get to some of the parts before cutting the fold to create half-sprues.  I will deal with the sprues as if they have been cut already, as without this step, it would make the job much harder.  After cutting there are seven sprues of mid-grey styrene, two separate fuselage halves (minus nose) and a clear sprue.  A small brass Photo-Etch (PE) fret, two sheets of decals, and KH's usual glossy covered instruction booklet complete the package.

 

Perusing the sprues, the kit is reminiscent of the recent Jaguar, so if you've seen that you'll know what to expect in terms of detail.  Panel line detail is fine and copious, and small recessed rivets are engraved on access panels etc.  The nose is a separate assembly to provide maximum use of the sprues for single-seat variants, there is a full-length engine provided, and there are two sprues filled with weapons and drop tanks.

Construction starts with the nose gear/cockpit parts, as these are moulded in one piece.  As is KH's previous style, the landing gear parts are added at this stage, although the nose gear leg cab easily be left off until later.  That said, I've not found the early installation to be a problem on the Jaguar, so don't necessarily assume that it's desirable to leave it off.  The gear bay is well detailed, although some rib detail could be added to the sidewalls, as the main doors will be left open after construction.  Turning the assembly over, the basics of the cockpit tub are moulded on the other side.  On first look, it doesn't impress, but adding the instrument panels with their PE faces, the rudder pedals and the rear bulkhead improves the look immensely.  The side consoles are also skinned with PE parts, improving the detail again, with the internal sidewalls added later, including sill detail and ribbing to complete the look.  The two Martin Baker Mk.10 zero-zero ejection seats are supplied, but also a pair of the earlier Mk.4s are included, although I don't yet know why, other than some airframes may have been fitted with the old seat?  The cockpit is then enclosed within the nose halves, but as I did with the Jag, I would be tempted the mate the front and rear of the fuselages prior to the rest of the build, partly because text-fitting of the two halves will be tricky, as the front attaches to the rear with a click-fit system of wedge-shaped no-return pips.  If you don't remove these before the initial test fit, it's dubious whether you'll be able to remove it to fettle the seam without causing damage.

The engine is next on the list, and unusually, it is supplied as a long tube running back from the front of the engine all the way to the exhaust exit tube.  Within the length you will fit the front compressor face, plus the rear of the engine and the burner ring, all trapped in place by the closing of the halves.  A set of stator vanes and bullet fairing attach to the very front, while an inner exhaust ring is covered with three segments of the outer exhaust petals, which then fix to the rear of the exhaust tube.  This whole assembly is held in place within the rear of the fuselage by moulded in bulkheads.

Main gear bays are again very similar to the Jag, and fit into recesses within the fuselage, after installation of the landing gear.  Whether these can be left off, and whether that's a good idea is moot at this stage, and best tested at time of fitting.  Once both bays are fitted, the rear fuselage can be closed up, trapping the engine and exhaust between them.  At this point the nose is added unless you've taken my advice and added it earlier in the build.  The engine intakes are separate assemblies, made from two parts in the shape of the outer intake shell, and the inner splitter plate/bullet fairing.  Painting inside the intakes will be necessary, as there's no real way to accomplish the task later.  The intakes blank at their rear, so the engine won't be visible behind them, but as they are very narrow at best, that shouldn't be much of an issue.  Chaff and flare wedges, the ventral strakes and gear bay doors are all added next, and all bay doors are posed open, with just a narrow ledge to glue them to.  Because of the differing shape of the spine due to the additional seat, the spine is a separate part, which slots into a recess on the top of the fuselage, tapering to nothing just forward of the tail.    The twin coamings are installed into the cockpit, hiding the backs of the instrument panels from view and completing the cockpit ready to accept the canopy later.

 

The wings are supplied as full-width uppers, which includes the thinner tip area, and a roughly three-quarters lower wing.  Posable flats and slats are provided, plus a PE spoiler that sits above the flap-bays on the wing.  Clearly, this is duplicated on each side!  The horizontal all-moving elevator pegs glue into large holes on the side of the fuselage, and the vertical tail with movable rudder attach via two pegs into a recess in the top of the fuselage after adding the detail parts such as leading edge bullet fairing and other sensors.  I noticed that the wings also have a one-only pair of spring-clips next to their mating tabs, which I suspect will prevent the wings from being removed for fettling if the joint isn't perfect.  I intend to test-fit these into the fuselage before it is joined, and take it from there.  If the fit isn't quite perfect, I will nip off the triangular retaining sections so that they can be fitted and removed easily.

 

The canopy is a four part assembly, with a fixed windscreen and centre section that also has a moulded in blast screen to prevent cooking of the pilot when the first ejector seat fires.  The two openers have PE rear-view mirrors added, and can be posed in the open or closed position using the tabs moulded into their rear.  A rather neat addition to the sprues is a crew access ladder, which builds up from two parts and can be propped or glued to the fuselage to provide a little extra visual interest.

After fitting the slot-in pitot probe (allowing it to be left off until later), the stores are all that is left to build before painting begins.  The instructions should a pair of Matra 530F Air-to-Air missiles, and a choice of either 1,200 litre or 2,000 litre belly tanks, with the outer pylons empty, although plenty of other stores are included on the two weapons sprues.  A pair of R550 Magic missiles are included, plus an Exocet, some LGBs and other items that I'm not too familiar with.

Markings
Decals for two rather striking examples are included with the kit, one from 3/33 celebrating the 60th anniversary of D-day, sporting a set of black and white invasion stripes, the other from 33-FS with a red-white-and-blue striped tail.  The painting and decaling instructions are spread between the front inner and back covers and both aircraft wear the same basic intermediate blue over silver colour schemes.  There is only a scrap forward fuselage profile of the starboard side of the second scheme, while there are two full-size profiles of the first.  The second scheme doesn't have an underside plan-view, although I'm pretty sure it will share the majority of decals with the first scheme.  This is the second Kitty Hawk release that have had less than complete painting instructions, which leaves me feeling a little confused - something that's quite easy to do these days.  It's not a major quibble, but one that causes me a little consternation.

 

The decals are well printed, with good register and a thin carrier film with a matt finish.  Under magnification the orange-yellow of the 60 ans (years) decal shows that it has been made up from yellow and red dot patterns, presumably to avoid the cost of an extra colour on the sheet.  It can't really be seen at 1:1, so it shouldn't be a problem for 99% of us with normal to poor eyesight. The D-Day stripes are covered on the second sheet, although whether you'd prefer to mask and paint these is down to personal choice.

Conclusion
Another solid release from Kitty Hawk, rendering another ageing tooling to the bargain bins and offering the potential for a single-seater in due course.  Looking at this aircraft soon after the Jaguar reminds me that there are more than a few similarities between it and the F.1, even though the aircraft are distinctly different in many other ways.

If the kit schemes don't appeal, there should already be plenty of decals out there for the old ESCI kit, and even more to come once the kit gets out in the wild and falls in the hands of the aftermarket decal companies.

Highly recommended.

 

 

Available from Hannants in the UK soon

 

Review sample courtesy of and available soon from major hobby shops

[stringbag]

Nice one Mike.

One of the sexiest aircraft ever in my opinion.

 

Chris.

[mobydog]

Want it! Now.

[Homebee]

I see four outer intake shells? Why?

 

V.P.

[Dave A]

"A pair of R550 Magic missiles are included, plus an Exocet, some LGBs and other items that I'm not too familiar with."

 

It would be great, wouldn't it, if kit-makers actually named all the ordnance they supplied, for all of us who don't have a copy of the Big Book of Obscure Pointy Things...?

 

Saying that, I think the 2 thingies top-right on the sprue with the Exocet are probably Durandals...

[rafju]

Mike

Many thanks for this great quality review! What beautiful photos (the crystal parts!!!)

Looks like a great kit.

Can't wait to get one

Raf

[Julien]

"A pair of R550 Magic missiles are included, plus an Exocet, some LGBs and other items that I'm not too familiar with."

 

It would be great, wouldn't it, if kit-makers actually named all the ordnance they supplied, for all of us who don't have a copy of the Big Book of Obscure Pointy Things...?

 

Saying that, I think the 2 thingies top-right on the sprue with the Exocet are probably Durandals...

yes they are Durandals. there also appear to be some French BAP 100 anti runway bombs as well.

Mike are there more than one of these weapons sprues? As neither two Durandals or the six BAP 100's I can see would constitute a 'full load'

Julien

[Bo hermansen]

Great review Mike

 

I am also surprised at the sight of Python 4 Missiles, are they perhaps the South african copy?

It also looks like AGM 65 Mavericks......

ANd how come no Matra Magic 550 ?

 

Bo 

yes they are Durandals. there also appear to be some French BAP 100 anti runway bombs as well.

Mike are there more than one of these weapons sprues? As neither two Durandals or the six BAP 100's I can see would constitute a 'full load'

Julien

[Marlin]

Great review.

Looks like another one for the stash.

/Bosse

[Mike]

Mike are there more than one of these weapons sprues? As neither two Durandals or the six BAP 100's I can see would constitute a 'full load'

 

Just what you see pal, just what you see

[Greased Lightning]

I'm no fan of the Mirage F.1 but even I may be tempted by this.

[Antoine]

I am also surprised at the sight of Python 4 Missiles, are they perhaps the South african copy? 

SAAF do not use python 4, I think they use python 3 only.

Probably for Ecuadorian air force Mirage F1.

[avro683]

Thanks for another excellent review Mike. That would look really good next to their Jaguar series.

Edited January 21, 2013 by avro683

[Mike]

Glad you're finding them useful

[jenshb]

Have you had a chance to check the kit against the potential issues raised in the threads in the Rumourmonger and Modern Aircraft subforums?

Jens

[Mike]

Not yet... things are rather busy here at HQ

[song]

mike,will you paint it after Jaguar?

[Viking]

Nice looking model. Tempting, very tempting.

Good to see such a comprehensive range of underwing stores supplied.

 

John

[Radleigh]

Looks great, these Kitty Hawk kits certainly look the part IMO.

[Stephen]

SAAF do not use python 4, I think they use python 3 only.

Probably for Ecuadorian air force Mirage F1.

SAAF used the Kukri missile for their Mirages.

[Bo hermansen]

SAAF used the Kukri missile for their Mirages.

Yes but Kukri looks like a Matra 550, these look mostly like Python 5 (perhaps 4), I think they might be for the Ecaudorian F-1

But weapons are still strange at best

The super Matra 530 makes sense, but where are the Magic 550, they are almost the definition of an Mirage F-1 armement

The exocet makes much sense, but how come Kittyhawk put american AGM 65 Mavericks in the kit?????

Bo

Edited January 27, 2013 by Bo hermansen

[Antoine]

And the FAE F1 does not use the python 4/5.

So what's the point to have those missiles there?

Error from Kitty Hawk, or common sprue with another kit?

[Mike]

I'd postulate common sprue, mainly because there are other parts that suggest that's the case.

[Bo hermansen]

Its the only F-1 operator that also own Python 4

Other than that no Python 4/5 owners operate Mirage F-1

I think Mike is right with common sprue

But what future release are they meant from?, a 1/48 Kfir?

sorry Mike, back on track

Bo

And the FAE F1 does not use the python 4/5.
So what's the point to have those missiles there?
Error from Kitty Hawk, or common sprue with another kit?

Edited January 27, 2013 by Bo hermansen

[Antoine]

Common sprue with some spares, then, as there are also 530 family missile on this one. Without speaking about the maverick.