Mirage 2000 C/-5F

Kinetic, 1/48 scale

Reviewed by Mick Evans

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Kinetic has followed up their release of their 1/48 scale Mirage 2000 B/D/N with this version the single seat Mirage 2000C. 

The Mirage 2000 B/D/N was first released about two years ago and was a vast improvement over the much earlier Eduard re-boxing of the Heller Mirage 2000C and 2000B/D/N. 

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Prior to Kinetic’s release of their 2000 B/D/N, there were many HyperScale Forum postings highlighting inaccuracies in the canopy for their kit.  Even before the kit was released as a production run there were many opinions put forward on the shape of the canopy with some suggesting that the canopy did not have an accurate blown canopy, being more U shaped rather than a subtle omega shape.  The actual Mirage 2000 canopy shape is somewhere in between the two, not U shaped but not very blown either.   

The same can be said for the 2000C canopy where the waisting just above the canopy frame is about one to two inches and one could question whether the extra cost of capturing this in the mould and the inconvenience of a seam line down the middle of the canopies as a result would really be worth the extra cost that would be passed on in the kit price. There will always be perfectionists who will criticise this point, but at the end of the day it is the builder’s choice as to what is acceptable, but that being said the rest of the kit is quite accurate to the drawings and photographs as detailed below.

Another area of controversy was the anhedral of the wing and although many people think that the wing lower surface slopes sharply away from the fuselage it is almost dead flat.  Like the 2000 B/D/N kit the wings have no anhedral being totally flat and due to some mould distortion the upper wings cause dihedral when married to the lower wings.  Details on how to correct the anhedral can be found in my build feature detailed by following this link.

The 2000C kit features:

• Detailed cockpit and seat
• Separately moulded tires and wheel hubs that allow for easy painting
• Positionable elevons
• Canopy can be positioned open or closed
• Open and closed engine exhaust nozzles

Most of the comments for the detail in the Mirage 2000C kit are the same as those written for the Mirage 20000B/D/N so I will only address the differences in the two kits.  The new sprues contain the single seat cockpit and fuselage halves.  A new fin and belly insert are also supplied.  The final addition is the four Mica missiles and fuselage pylons.

Ordnance

The weapons and stores provided in this kit are as follows:

• 2 x Magic 1 air to air missiles

• 2 x Magic 2 air to air missiles

• 1 x centreline fuel tank

• 2 x wing fuel tanks

• 2 Export version wing fuel tanks

• 2 x AS-30L Laser Guided missiles

• ATLIS targeting pod

• 4 x Mica air to air missiles.

Similar to 2000 B/D/N kit I had some reservations around the 2000 litre wing fuel tanks as these have a prominent bulbous nose.  I also detailed a simple solution to enhance the tanks in the 2000 B/D/N build review.

Markings

These decals are crisply printed and include a good level of airframe stencilling and weapons markings.  The painting instructions are based on Gunze paints.

This release has eight options for colour markings:

1. Mirage 2000-5F, French AF EC 01/002 Cigognes, Souda Air Base, Crete during operation Harmattan in 2011 in Dark Grey and blue upper surfaces and pale grey lower surfaces.

2. Mirage 2000C, French AF EC 03/002 Alsance, Dijon Air Base in 1995 in Dark Grey and blue upper surfaces and pale grey lower surfaces.

3. Mirage 2000C, French AF in EC 02/005 Ile de France, Orange Caritat in 2006 in an Airshow Special Scheme in Dark Grey and Green scheme Dark Grey and blue upper surfaces and pale grey lower surfaces.

4. Mirage 2000C, French AF EC 03/005 Ile de France, Orange Caritat in 2008 in Dark Grey and blue upper surfaces and pale grey lower surfaces. (First Mirage 2000 delivered to French Air Force.

5. Mirage 2000-5F Mk2, Hellenic AF 114th Combat Wing Tanagra Air Base, 331st fighter Interception Squadron “Theseus” in Dark Grey and blue upper surfaces and pale grey lower surfaces.

6. Mirage 2000EGM3, Hellenic AF 114th Combat Wing Tanagra Air Base, 332nd  fighter Interception Squadron “Yeraki” in Dark Grey and blue upper surfaces and pale grey lower surfaces.

7. Mirage 2000-5EDA, Qatar Emiri AF Souda Air Base, Crete, Operation United Protector in Dark Grey and grey upper surfaces and pale grey lower surfaces.

8. Mirage 2000-9A, United Arab Emrites AF Decimomannu Air Base, Italy, Operation United Protector in Dark Grey and grey upper surfaces and pale grey lower surfaces.

This is another very nice kit and certainly an improvement over all previous releases of the Mirage 2000C.  The non-bulged canopy may bother perfectionists but then 12 years ago no kit had a bulged canopy.  I think Hasegawa was the first manufacturer to release a bulged canopy in the 1/72 scale F-18 kit and everyone complained about the seam line up the middle of the canopy.  For me the blown canopy is neither here or there and the wing anhedral is easy to correct. 

The kit looks great and I am itching to build it after some of the woes of building both of the earlier Eduard/Heller kits.  As with the Mirage 2000B/D/N kit, Kinetic will most probably follow this kit with an etched metal detail set for the cockpit.  The simple thing is modellers of all levels of skill can easily build this kit and turn out a great result.

Excellent work from Kinetic and I hope they keep rolling out the nice kits.

Thanks to Lucky Model for the samples

Review Text Copyright © 2013 by Mick Evans
Images Copyright © 2013 by Brett Green
Page Created 18 February, 2013
Last updated 18 February, 2013

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