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The story starts at the Peterborough model show with this one. Ah, what memories, those were the days when we had real model shows to visit! I'm sure those times will return! I was rummaging through a box of old Matchbox kits & was spotted by a venerable member of the Mirage SIG handling the Mirage IIIB. The decision was made there & then, especially when the Mirage SIG leader is there next to me! So a random peice of artwork was chosen from his French Air Force bible full of profiles, "i'll build that one!" This is a Matchbox kit in 1/72. Rescibed a few but not all panel lines, some existing panel lines were OK. No cockpit present, so boxed up something with side consoles. The underside rear fairing was non existent so I used one of the kit options from the Heller kit & added an arrestor hook. The Heller kit thankfully has plenty of options which allowed me to build both this & the 5BA. Also thanks to Special Hobby for providing multiple options in their F1 kit. For the instrument displays employed artistic licence & scavenged some consoles from Special Hobby Mirage F1 kits along with the Mk.IV ejection seats. The tanks were from the Heller kit I used for the Belgian black anniversary 5BA kit. I think they're strengthening rods that appear under the cockpit, I added them with brass tube. As a couple of pitot tubes extend from the both of them I flattened the tubing & added wire to them to represent the pitot's. Also added blade aerials from plastic sheet & some old left over PE aerials from old kits. I added some extra scrap plastic to the undercarriage legs to represent a bit more detail & some extra details to the undercarriage bay doors. Paints; Ammo Mig - upper colours & Vallejo Metal Colour Aluminium undersides. All the decals were taken from the Model Art sheet 72-067 & used some color reference photos from the Osprey Aerospace book "Mirage! Dassault's Mach 2 Warriors". Squadron marking references I worked from, were EC 1/13 at Colmar under the assumption that the roundels & upper wing markings would be similar, & the decal sheet had everything I needed. Looking at the photos in the book, the paint on the fuel tanks had peeled off great deal & there was a fair bit of weathering. Really look forward to a new tool 1/72 Mirage IIIB which I believe is on the way, so I can use the rest of the decals from the sheet. Markings are for Dassault Mirage IIIB No.217 2-FT EC 02/02 at Côte-d'Or Dijon-Longvic Air Force Base 1983 So some of the older Matchbox kits are worth a go, especially if they are the only option. In hindsight I could have found a correct length & shaped nose cone from somewhere as the kit profile does look a little too short. A note of warning to anyone planning to build this kit, the jet intakes are way too thick & don't taper in at the front, so they had to be sanded & shaped so that the intake lips are nice & thin. Thanks for looking & have fun with the older kits! Martin

AML is to release a 1/72nd Dassault Mirage IIIB/BJ kit - ref. AML 72020 Source: http://www.aml.cz/en/coming.html AML single-seat Mirage IIIC review: http://www.internetmodeler.com/2007/october/first-looks/aml_mirage.php Source: http://umm-usa.com/onlinestore/product_info.php?manufacturers_id=49&products_id=2663&osCsid=c2e6b018bba7ef49652a81380a0dca6d V.P.