AMD Mirage III BE/DS/D2Z/5BD

PJ Productions, 1/72 scale

Reviewed by Mark Davies

cyber-hobby's 1/72 scale Sea Venom is available online from Squadron.com

No Introduction Necessary

Dassault’s Mirage III / 5 family and its numerous derivatives must surely be one of the most successful and widely used jet fighter designs of all time. Information on the design and its derivatives is readily available, including an outline history here at Wikipedia.org.

High Planes Models & PJ Productions

The review kit tooling is shared in common with PJ Productions and High Planes Models, with, I understand, High Planes producing the main styrene parts, and PJ Productions taking care of the resin details when provided with the kit or sold separately as after-market items. Each producer appears to produce of their own decals.

PJ Productions is a Belgian brand best known for its resin aircraft kits and crew figures. Their resin kits are decent efforts that can produce very nice results. They have previously kitted the Mirage III, and by way of example, is Thomas Muggli’s build of their Mirage IIIS/BS here on HyperScale.

High Planes was an Australian brand, previously best known for limited-run kits that were usually very accurate, had very fine surface detail, and included white metal or resin parts. They had very heavy sprue gates, a significant amount of flash and often needed considerable adjustment and trimming for a good fit. This said; they could result in excellent models. High Planes has previously kitted the Mirage III and its derivatives; a finished example of their old limited-run Mirage IIID by Mike Burton can be seen here on Internet Modeller. The brand was sold and moved to Singapore in recent years, and began to realise new kits in association with PJ Productions.  

Previous Miarge III BE & D kits & Conversions in 1/72-scale

Whilst there have been quite a number of Mirage III kits in The One True Scale, there have only been a few BE/D variants as far as I am aware. As mentioned earlier, High Planes issued a limited run kit, whilst PJ Production offered one in resin. Falcon, Graphy-Air, and Eagle Designs offered conversion sets to make a D using a suitable base kit. (I have ignored III B kits and conversions, as the B is two-seat version of the C, whereas as the D & BE are related to the E).

Contents

The kit comes in a large flip-top box with digital artwork. The sprues are enclosed in a single heat-sealed plastic bag, with the clear parts further protected in their own smaller bag. The main parts are on four light grey sprues with a single clear sprue. The parts are very cleanly moulded, and the sprue gates are fine enough. The decals and their cover-paper are loose within the box.

Detailed photos of the plastic parts may be seen in my earlier review of the High Planes Mirage IIID kit, which are identical to the plastic sprues in this box.

Resin caters for some cockpit detail and drop tanks, with these items bing nicely mastered and well-cast. The PE frets provide two boarding ladders and a few minor details, these too being well-made. 

The English instructions lack a parts map, something that would have been quite handy when there are so many parts supplied that are not to be used; however, the well-drawn constructional diagrams are easy to follow. The painting and markings guide is in colour with four views per scheme. Colours are described using mainly generic names and FS-595 numbers, along with paint codes that are matched to the Humbrol Gunze, and Tamiya paint ranges.

The Kit

The basic kit has already established a good reputation for accuracy, and constructional ease; as evidenced by Mick Evans’ Mirage IIIO build review here on HyperScale

Certainly, the appearance of the parts suggests that fit will be very good, as the kit appears to be very well engineered. But an unavoidable impression is that the surface detail is way too heavy (my first thoughts were a flashback to a Matchbox Viggen kit I once had!). The problem is linked to the soft rounded edges of the panel lines, as much as it is to their depth. I would be inclined to avoid natural metal schemes as the risk of the finished model looking like a die-cast metal model is all too real.

The kit's cockpit has a styrene tub, and in resin, a pair each of instrument panels with combing, control columns, and ejection seats; all nicely detailed and cast. (They replace the styrene parts that also come with the kit, as used by the High Planes boxing, which lacks any resin or PE detail extras.)

There is a clear internal windshield that fits between the seats, and a clear HUD panel for the front position. There is only minimal detail on the cockpit sidewalls, which are by necessity very slim.  For most, the kits very nice resin bang-seats, instrument panels and control columns will enhance this area sufficiently.

The underside of the cockpit tub provides the nose wheel-well with some piping and other internal detail provided in relief. Unlike its sister-boxing by High planes, the instructions fail to advise the insertion of 3-grams of weight in the spate nose to prevent tail-sitting later.

The cockpit area is separate from the main fuselage halves, as is the nose cone, and tailfin. This reflects the modular nature of the tooling, as it must cater for a multiplicity of versions across the two kit brands. A separate rear collar surrounds the engine exhaust nozzle, which is quite nicely done, and blanked off by a turbine face. The kit lacks full intake trunking; instead the intake shock-cones mate to a flat blank surface. Painted matt black, this arrangement should be fine as the openings are quite small.

The wings consist of three parts and include adequately detailed main wheel-wells. There are four flight control surface actuators and a large ventral strake to be added, along with a nicely done undercarriage. The twin landing lights are provided as a clear part to fit to the nose-wheel leg. Three choices of drop tank style are provided in styrene, and two nicely cast resin Israeli-pattern tanks for the BD option. These are the only underwing payload options offered.

All that remains are little details like pitots and a small ventral intake; plus of course the two-piece canopy, which is clear and acceptably thin. Unlike the High Planes boxing, JP provides a couple of PE rear-vision mirrors and some internal decals for the canopy. Also provided as PE parts, are some rather too two-dimensional pitots, and a couple of nice boarding ladders. Again, these are features not offered with the High Planes boxing.

Overall, this appears to be a very well engineered kit. The build reviews I have read indicate that it is a simple and trouble-free to construct. Just as importantly, the PJ Productions/High Planes Models Mirage kits have established a good reputation for accuracy, and seemingly are considered the best in 1/72-scale in this respect.

Colours & Markings

Four decal options are provided, these being:

• Mirage IIIBE - French Armée de l'Air, ECT 02/002 "Côte d'Or", Dijon 1982,

• Mirage DS - Switzerland, Payerne before 1989,

• Mirage IIID2Z  - 85 Sqn SAAF, Pietersburg 1975, and

• Mirage 5BD - 2 Sqn Belgian Air Force, Florennes 1985.

The decals are branded PJ Productions and appear to be excellent in all respects.

PJ Production vs. High Planes Models

Since they share the same sprues, and if you ignore the fact that they cover different versions by virtue of their decals, you may wonder which brand offers best value. In reality this will be largely governed by postal cost for each kit if you mail-order; but I intend to ignore this factor for now, and just compare the variation in kit contents.  
 
The PJ Productions boxing is a little better than the High Planes Models boxing, mainly because of its resin cockpit details (the seats especially). The PJ Productions decals provide four as opposed to two colour scheme options, and seem to offer more a few stencil markings than High Planes do. The PE adds a little extra benefit to the mix, but unless boarding ladders are really your thing, it does not add that much. You would think that these benefits come at a price premium, and sometimes they do, up to 33% more from one stockist that carries both brands; but also surprisingly, for 6% less in the case another stockist with both brands.

So assuming you are not drawn by the versions the kit decals cater for, and depending on which stockists you buy you from, the PJ Productions kit may be worth buying for its resin and lesser extent PE. But postage cost considerations may preclude choosing the cheapest stockist price, in which case the High Planes kit and a couple of after-market bang seats may offer the best value.

Accurate, dead easy to build, nice detail parts, and an attractive subject to boot; all spoiled by dreadful panel lines. If only PJ Production and High Planes Models had retained the fine surface detail of their resin and limited-run kits respectively, I would not be able to praise this kit highly enough. Let us hope that they do rediscover this finesse in any future projects they may realise.

As things stand, I still feel the urge to build this most attractive subject, if only to treat myself to a simple and truly trouble-free build. However, I feel that the exaggerated surface detail precludes finishing in any natural metal schemes. I also confess to being tempted to fill all of the surface detail and have an accurately outlined smoothie; but I guess that rules out the simple trouble-free build part! 

From some stockists the PJ Productions boxing would appear to offer better value than the High Planes Models kit because it costs fractionally less and offers better resin details. However, prices for both brands vary widely, and perhaps more significantly, so do postage costs between stockists, and of course shipping locations. So do your homework, as here is no clear answer for everyone.

I recommend this kit, provided that you can accept the entrenched panel lines. If you cannot, look for an old PJ Productions or High Planes kit, or fill in the panel lines and finish your model as a smoothie!

Thanks to PJ Productions for the review sample

Text Copyright © 2014 by Mark Davies
Images Copyright © 2014 by Brett Green
This Page Created on 3 March, 2014
Last updated 3 March, 2014

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