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Mirage F.1EQ/ED (SH72386) 1:72 Special Hobby The Dassault Mirage F.1 has been a successful point defence fighter for over thirty years, and was developed initially as a private venture by Dassault as a replacement to their ageing Mirage III fighters. It is a single-engined, single-seat fighter aircraft with a high-mounted delta wing and capability of reaching mach 2.2 in short order. Dassault soon found an eager customer in the shape of the French Armée de l'Air, who bought various versions over the years. The B model is a two-seat variant that is 12"/30cm longer than the single seater, sacrificing some fuel capacity to house the second cockpit, and weighing in heavier due to the two Mk.10 ejector seats that were installed. The cannons were also sacrificed, but cannon pods can be used if required. It is predominantly intended as a trainer, but other than the lack of cannons, it is fully mission capable and is wired and rated for munitions identically to its single-seater sibling. The F.1 was an export success, bought by twelve nations, most notably and somewhat infamously, to Libya, Iraq and Iran, some of which were destroyed in the conflicts in the 2000s. The two seat B was sold in smaller quantities to Libya, Spain, Kuwait, Jordan and Iraq, although not all the airframes were delivered to Iraq before they fell from grace internationally. The EQ was sold to both Iraq and Iran, ironically, and the ED was used by Libya, one of which famously defected during the fall of Muammar Gaddafi in 2011. The F.1 is still in service with a few nations although France retired theirs in 2014, and before its retirement it earned the nickname Grandma with the Spanish Air Force due to its advancing years. At time of writing, they are still in use with the new Libyan government, Morocco, and Iran, to name a few. The Kit This is a straight-forward reboxing of the 2021 edition of the kit, the original tooling released in 2016 but with additional parts added along the way. It arrives in a modestly sized top-opening box, and inside are six sprues in grey styrene, a clear sprue, and two bags with twelve resin parts inside, a tiny Photo-Etch (PE) sheet that is bagged with the decal sheet, and the instruction booklet that is printed in colour on glossy paper in an A5 format. Detail is good, and the inclusion of resin and PE add to that, resulting in a well-detailed model. Construction begins with the cockpit, starting with the tub that has the side consoles moulded-in, to which is added a rear bulkhead, instrument panel with HUD that includes a clear lens, the former having a decal that portrays the dials and other controls. The ejection seat is fitted near the end of the build, with a choice of two designs for different decal options. The starboard fuselage half is prepared by installing the three-part exhaust, which starts at the bulkhead with the rear of the engine moulded-in, a straight exhaust tube that has a corrugated and stepped inner face, followed by the exhaust that has petal details engraved to complete the look. The nose gear bay is a single part that also has plenty of detail moulded-in, and that is integrated under where the cockpit is inserted as the fuselage is closed, after painting the side walls and their ribbing detail. There is a choice of two nose cones, each in two halves with probes to the side, one fitted with a refuelling probe, the other without, but a probe on the very tip of the cone. There is a resin replacement for the tip of the refuelling probe that is installed after cutting off the plastic tip according to a scrap diagram, adding extra detail to this prominent area. A pair of inserts under the intake trunks depict the perforated surfaces of the air-brakes in the stowed position, and there is a circular light under the nose with a couple of small clear parts on the front ends of the spine behind the canopy. The intakes and their shock-cones are each moulded as a single part, and they have a small window insert glued into a depression at the rear of the parts, leaving an oval window into the trunking. Each wing is made from top and bottom halves, the upper surface larger to obtain thin trailing edges and the dog-tooth leading edge, cutting off a small raised section near the tip. There is a choice of two styles of tail fin, which is achieved by cutting a section out that is marked in red and extends to three parts, slotting into position on two tabs and inserting a blade antenna near the tip on each side. A pair of strakes are fixed under the aft fuselage, and for some camo schemes, a small resin bump is glued under the fuselage just aft of the wing trailing edges. The landing gear is next, each of the three legs made from one part with extra struts supporting it, and twin wheels all round, each one a single part. The main gear bays have three doors that are curved to the shape of the fuselage, fitted to the top and bottom edges of the bay, while the nose bay doors consist of a solid Y-shaped front door, and a large side-opening door that has a choice of a styrene blade antenna or a PE triple antenna for one decal option. There are two choices of ejection seats that are made from four parts each, two for the frames, one for the cushion, and an inverted and sloped L-shaped rail at the rear. Detailed painting instructions are included, and the finished seat is placed in the rear of the cockpit before the windscreen and canopy are installed, choosing to pose it open or closed. The rest of the parts are a mixture of styrene and resin, creating a pair of two-part drop-tanks with two fins to the rear, another for the centreline with an H-tail on a shallow pylon with two more for optional mounting under the wings. A pair of Matra A2A missiles are fixed to rails on the wingtips, each missile having a pair of perpendicular fins attached to the tail. The infamous Exocet missile is supplied in resin for one of the decal options, with separate exhaust part and four forward fins that fit into slots in the body of the missile, and a resin pylon to mount it under the aircraft. There are also a pair of Super 530F missiles with separate perpendicular fins front and rear, and its own pylon for under the wings. There are a smattering of additional weapons and sensor pods left on the sprues that can be allocated to other projects or left in the spares box for later. Markings There are four decal options included on the sheet, as well as a lot of stencils to add realism to your model. From the box you can build one of the following: Mirage F.1EQ, 4014, No.79 Sqn., Wahda Air Base, Iraqi Air Force, Sept 1981 to 82 Mirage F.1EQ-5, 4577, No.81 Sqn., Qayyarah Air Base, Iraqi Air Force, June 1985 Mirage F.1EQ-6, 3-6211, No.102 Tactical Fighter Sqn., No.10 Tactical Air Base, Chabahar/Konarak, Islamic Republic of Iran Air Force, 2011 to present Mirage F.1ED, 502 (and 508), Libyan People’s Air Force/Free Libyan Air Force, Luqa, Malta International Airport, 2011-2012 The decals are printed using a digital process and have good registration, sharpness, and colour density, with a thin gloss carrier film cut loosely around the printed areas. This means that the carrier film on their decals can be coaxed away from the printed part of the decal after they have been applied, effectively rendering them carrier film free, making the completed decals much thinner and more realistic, and obviating the need to apply successive coats of clear varnish to hide the edges of the carrier film. It’s a great step further in realism from my point of view, and saves a good quantity of precious modelling time into the bargain. Conclusion A welcome re-release of this long-lived fighter aircraft in service with nations that aren’t perhaps as popular as others. Detail is good, and there are some neat upgrade options from Special Hobby’s CMK line, as demonstrated in a little half-page advert at the end of the instruction steps. Highly recommended. Review sample courtesy of