Atlas Cheetah E SAAF

High Planes Models, 1/72 scale

Reviewed by Graham Carter

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Arguably one of the finest supersonic fighters of the mid to late 20th century, and France’s most successful military design, the Mirage III appeared in numerous variants for numerous air forces, both legitimately and without factory support. The latter resulted from political sanctions against Israel and South Africa and led to some radical domestic designs in the Kfir and Cheetah series of airframes.

The South Africans had to develop their own replacement for the ageing fleet of Mirage IIIs supplied by France in the 1960-70s before anti-Apartheid sanctions came into force. They turned to Israel who’s Kfir suited their needs and the local ATLAS company clandestinely developed the Cheetah E in 1985. Converted from Mirage III EZ airframes sixteen Cheetah Es were produced and served only with 5Sqn SAAF between 1988 and 1992 for air defence work. Other versions of the Cheetah were to follow and the last of these only retired a couple of years ago in the famous spotty cheetah and South African Flag schemes.

(Source - instructions and my own knowledge)

Those modellers familiar with the old Australian-produced High Planes Models Mirage series of kits will recall their accuracy and fine surface details, backed up with nice resin, good decals, very clear Vacformed canopies and a generic PE set to cover aerials and other small parts. These attractions were offset by the short-run nature of the kits which had lots of flash around their pale blue parts, a lack of location pins and internal moulding runs that required a lot of preparation work by the modeller but which would always result in an accurate replica for those who persevered.

Just to refresh your memories, here some images of one of the earlier Mirage kits, including the box size difference and two sprue shots in HPM’s lovely forget-me-not blue!

What a pleasant treat is was to receive this kit produced by HPM who are now based in Singapore, and who appear to use higher pressure moulding apparatus with harder steel moulds(?) to reduce the usual short-run issues. This kit, in mid-grey plastic, features the same lovely surface detail of the originals but with different parts break-down, and supported by very nice resin and PE embellishments.

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Presented in a largish strong top-opening box with a great colour rendition on the lid, the kit’s parts are enclosed in a non-resealable plastic bag and comprise one large sprue and one slightly smaller one for the main airframe parts. Also provided is a darker grey small sprue with different noses, rear fuselage and ejector seat parts.

The main detail differences for the Cheetah E are provided in the bag of nice, bubble-free resin parts.

There is also the same PE set used in all early Mirage kits, a clear canopy sprue (no vac from canopies here!) and nice set of decals which feature four schemes - a real treat for an aircraft with only a run of sixteen examples!

This is clearly a special version of the Mirage III as the kit includes masses of unused parts for other variants - noses, tail fin, exhausts, tanks and weapons will boost the spares box. HPM commendably recognise this and list all the parts that can be used to produce an earlier Mirage IIIEZ using another kit as the base. So in effect, one could produce two aircraft from this kit with the addition of a basic Mirage airframe.

All parts are really well moulded, with very fine surface and moulded detail and no flash as far as I could see. Parts should fit together well despite the usual lack of locating pins, just remember to test fit all parts as you go along.

Instructions fill eight sides of A4 paper and clearly identify and indicate the location of various plastic, resin and PE parts. I liked the way the correct location of some parts is indicated by a shaded shape on the airframe. Painting details are provided in each construction step but modellers may go looking for more details in the usual books, magazines or on t’internet. Paints are quoted for all major manufacturers - Gunze, Humbrol, MM, Revell, Tamiya and Xtracolour - a very nice touch.

A detailed explanation is included to show you how to bend the white metal IFR rod to the correct shape but good luck in drilling a 1mm hole in the 1.4mm end of the resin mounting shape! A bit beyond my shaky fingers I’m afraid. 

Colours & Markings

Decals appear to be nicely printed in-house with good density and no misalignment of colours and provide four schemes, all shown in colour four-view drawings.

These are:

• E842 - a preserved Museum example

• E832 - 5Sqn initial service scheme - all in grey schemes

• E823 - 5Sqn low-vis scheme 

• E823 - 5Sqn 50th Anniversary scheme, 1989 - overall sand

This is a very nice kit of a low-production version of the Mirage III, making great use of different modelling media. Recommended to those modellers of aircraft of the SAAF or the Mirage III series.

Thanks to HPM Hobbies for the review sample.

Review Text & Images Copyright © 2018 by Graham Carter
Page Created 12 November, 2018
Last updated 12 November, 2018

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