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G'day people, I have cracked the bags on this one. The Dassault Mirage III certainly needs no introduction and this aircraft in RAAF service was affectionately known as the 'Miracle' as in it is a miracle it could fly with such tiny wings! Based upon the Mirage III/E, the 'O' (for "Ostralie") differed mainly in the avionics equipment installed and externally this is manifest by the antenna arrangements, although other differences existed as well. I am undecided as to which scheme I will do but as I have 'several' of these stashed away, I will be a little spoilt for choice. The long career of the Mirage in RAAF service meant that the schemes worn by the "French Lady" (the other moniker) varied from the delivery scheme of natural metal, to doped silver, then a wraparound disruptive camo, which in turn evolved into the 'standard' camouflage scheme. Towards the end of the service life,a number of low visibility schemes were trialed, plus there were several display and test schemes, so no shortage of choice! I will not bother with box and content shots as there are plenty of these about. Well, onto the plastic then, First up, the cockpit. The tub is a simple affair and the detail on the console is adequate, but I decided that a little PE would be better. I sanded off the console details as this would be replaced by pre-painted PE. I am not a big fan but I cannot argue with the crispness. RAAF Mirage cockpits were basically black, so it will be a challenge to make this interesting and get the details to pop as there is the tendency for the details to disappear into the blackness. I shaved off the aft bulkhead details as these are not correct for an RAAF Mirage.The PE additions go some way to making the cockpit more accurate. Some lead wire and scrap styrene details completed the detailing. Four different instrument panels are provided. I ignored the instruction's suggested instrument panel option and instead opted to use part C16, however this part needs modification. The RAAF mirage featured a large central RADAR display. I scraped the details off the centre panel then removed the panel in toto. A small section of styrene was then inlaid at a slight angle. Finally the engine exhaust received some attention. The turbine face detail is nicely executed, but this is moulded integrally to the burner can. In order to simplify the painting, I separated the turbine face. And lastly, the exhaust was dressed up with a very nice piece of PE which required some care to install. The interior nozzle segments were separate items but the central ring and inner vanes and actuators were a single part. removing this item from its fret was a little nerve wracking as it would be very easy to damage this item. cheers, Pappy