Eduard Dassault Mirage III detail Sets. 1:32

[Shar2]

Dassault Mirage III detail Sets
Eduard 1:32

Sometimes we receive items for certain kits for which we have no kit to base our thoughts on. This is the case with these sets from Eduard for the Italeri 1/32 Mirage III. From what I can tell from reading reviews, is that it is a very nice kit, but with some soft details in the cockpit and oddball shapes, particularly the brake assemblies on the main wheels. Well the following sets certainly seem to cover at least some of the problem areas, as you will see.

Interior Set (32859)
Contained on two relatively small sheets of relief etched brass, one is unpainted whilst one comes pre-painted. The unpainted sheet contains lots of new and replacement parts for the seat, including side and front panels, head box panels, linkages, and fittings. The sheet also contains replacement rudder pedals and their links, new lower side panelos for the cockpit tub, and vents for the rear bulkhead.

The pre-painted sheet provides the modeller with a variety of coloured knobs and levers, new side console panels, plus replacement dials for the side panels. The main instrument panels are also pre-painted complete with the instrument faces on the backplate. A little dab of aqua clear or similar will give them the appearance of glass fronts. This sheet also has additional details for the seat, with two styles of upper and lower ejection handles, headbox top with flap detail on the parachute cover. The windscreen surround is fitted with two part compass, whilst the side panales have new canopy locks and emergency release handles attached.

Exterior Set (32385)
The single sheet in this set is quite a bit larger than the previous one, and contains replacement panels that appear to be mostly for the undercarriage bays. Quite a bit of the kits moulded detail needs to be removed before the etched parts can be fitted. All the kit wiring in the main bays has to be removed, before the individual panels are attached and, with the addition of two plastic rods, which the modeller needs to provide the etched wiring loom can be added. The roof of each main undercarriage bay is also given the new panel treatment, both large and small, along with strengthening angle and other fittings. The set also includes new panels of the bay doors, along with new actuator fittings and hinges. Finally there are a number of reinforcing hoops that are fitted into the gun troughs.

Seatbelts (32852)
This small fret of brass comes pre-painted for the most part, but with unpainted clasps, buckles etc. Whilst very fiddly to make, it will give the cockpit a real visual boost. Rather unusually for Eduard, the instructions for these are rather good and show clearly in which order the various belts need to be fitted, and there are quite a few of them. The set comes complete with leg restraints and a very nicely etched quick release unit for the belts to be attached to.

Landing Gear Set (632 076)
Rather than being etched brass, this set is actually from the Brassin range, so, naturally it’s all resin. Each of the two main wheels and the nose wheels are only lightly attached to their respective moulding blocks, and the most noticeable attachment is on the underside of the bulged area, so will be easy to clean up and hide. The main wheels have the option of different styles of inner hub to be fitted, each with a different brake assembly. The details are nice a crips with one assembly having quite prominent hose attachments to which to fit your own brake lines. The hubs aren’t the easiest to remove fromt eh moulding block, but you should be ok using a fine saw , before sanding the backs down to thickness before adding them to the wheels. The set also includes a sheet of masks to help with the painting.

Masks (JX188)
Naturally a set of detail updates wouldn’t be complete without Eduard adding some masks. Made of Kibuki style tape they are easy to use and can help make painting less of a chore.

Conclusion
Once again Eduard have produced some very nice sets for the big Mirage, yet none of them appear to be that difficult to use, as it’s all pretty basic stuff, with very little folding required and the resin parts are also direct replacements, with only a bit of sanding required. That said I think the seatbelt set is probably the most useful, but the modeller has enough of a choice to add as little or as much as they want. Highly recommended.

Review sample courtesy of