1:72 Special Hobby Mirage F.1B - French Air Force 505/5-AE (1983)

[Mountain goat]

Hi!


 

Here for your perusal is Special Hobby’s two-seat iteration of their new Mirage F.1 series of kits - which judging by the ridiculously fast sell-out times must be a successful investment for them. I’ll go into the kit below, but do have a look at the Work in Progress thread here for the build and excellent contributions from forum members to improve accuracy.

 

For those who are not familiar with the type: it’s an interesting version of the Mirage, being the only one without the typical Mirage-esque delta-wing configuration.

 

 

This is the specific ‘bac’ I’ve made to represent, the fourth AdlA F.1B built: number 505, or 5-AE:

 

 

Dassault-Breguet constructed twenty F.1B (B for biplace) operational trainer versions for the Armée de l’Air between 1980 and 1984, entering service initially with the test squadron, CEAM (Le Centre d'Expériences Aériennes Militaires), at BA 118 Mont-de-Marsan, but subsequently all twenty served in 3/5 Comtat-Venaissin, based at BA 115 Orange-Caritat in the South of France, until 1988. My model depicts one from the latter unit *.

 

The Special Hobby kit goes together well. It's excellent for having an accurate shape and for being generally accurate in detail, with some notable exceptions such as the panels on the spine behind the cockpit. So it’s not without faults, both in terms of fit and nitty-gritty accuracy. But still, all in all I was surprised how easy the build progressed; especially the cockpit tub deserves mention as that fits like a glove. Haven’t had that in a while. Also nice was how some other clever solutions for fitting parts together actually worked. And the excellent decals - they deserve mention too. A really nice kit. In plastic, fit and quality, I'd compare it to Italeri, maybe Esci.

 

Things to watch out for: one area for particular concern during the build were the lower kit parts of the wings, which needs considerable thinning, particularly at the edges, to get it to sit flush with the rest of the wing. And it needs to sit flush - because the F.1’s wings were quite thin, and you want them to look thin otherwise the effect is lost. Another problematic thing was the windscreen. You kind of plop the transparency on the nose section, but fit - well it doesn’t really. I used Mr Surfacer to deal with that.

I used no aftermarket stuff apart from bits of several Berna decal sheets. Also used: stretched sprue and wire.

 

 

 

 

Thanks for looking, Jay

 

*In case you’re not familiar with the French Air Force structure as used during the Cold war: ‘3/5 Comtat-Venaissin’ denotes: 3rd Escadron of the 5th Escadre de Chasse - Comtat and Venaissin are the two escadrilles which are historical units (flights) to which pilots belong - aircraft are maintained on escadron level - hence the differing symbols on each side of the aircraft’s fin.

Edited November 23, 2016 by Mountain goat
formatting corrections

[FatFlyHalf]

Simply stunning!

[Meatbox8]

A great looking Mirage and a very slick looking paint finish. Dassualt really have built some of the most attractive fighter aircraft.

[AdriaN (MLT)]

A mirage F1... dream build.

[TEMPESTMK5]

Good morning Jay

:wow:very you have done with this two seater

Patrice

[batcode]

very nice Mirage, paint and finish looks great

[IGKent]

Looks nice! Superb!

[ArmouredSprue]

Superb!

You did a really stunning job with this kit.

Congratulations

[russ c]

Really nice F.1 there Jay, looks superb

[Wez]

Jay,

I said it on your WIP thread but feel the need to repeat myself here. This is a cracking build and provides great inspiration for the proposed Mirage GB.

Thanks for sharing with us, look forward to your future projects.

Wez

[MikeR]

Very sharp!

Mike.

[F-32]

That is a lovely piece of work

[Reini78]

noice! especially for a Special Hobby kit, congrats!

[Mountain goat]

Meatbox, Adrian, Patrice, batcode, Igor, Paulo, Russ, Wez, Mike, F-32, Reini - thank you all!

Jay,

I said it on your WIP thread but feel the need to repeat myself here. This is a cracking build and provides great inspiration for the proposed Mirage GB.

Thanks for sharing with us, look forward to your future projects.

Wez

Quite alright -cheering me on me on did me and the Mirage lots of good!

noice! especially for a Special Hobby kit, congrats!

Thanks Reini! This kit isn't the old short-run variety though - nowadays Special Hobby use metal molds for specific kits and the quality of those, including this kit, are quite reminiscent of Italeri quality (but more accurate) and have nothing like their former short-run feel. (I wouldn't compare it to Airfix as the plastic is rather different in texture.)

PS I'll add that observation to the description above. May be of some interest to some.

Jay

[Vultures1]

A beautiful model of a beautiful aircraft - well done!!

[Billydick]

A fantastic Mirage. Thank you.

BillyD

[mirageiv]

Could easily be 1/48, really great details and finish! On top of the amazing job you have done Special Hobby really seemed to have nailed the elegant shape of this jet very well indeed, top work Jay!

David.

[Brandy]

That really is stunning!

Top quality all around and definitely one to be very proud of.

Ian

[Rich G]

Really nice build, the info you gave on the kit and the build was very interesting to read, I bought the F1.CG kit a few months ago and am looking forward to building that, hopefully mine goes as smoothly as yours did.

Rich

[Fanakit]

Awesome ! Great work performed, I like the rendering of ejection seat. Also very nice blog, add in my favorite !

Ivan

[bearmatt]

That is a real beauty! You've nailed it and the RBF Signs are the final touch to it. Congrats

[Bjorn]

Brilliant! Brilliant! Brilliant! Absolutely brilliant! I have to start mine soon!

[Mountain goat]

Bjorn, bearmatt, Ivan, Rich, Ian, David, Billy, Vulture--

Merci beaucoup!

Could easily be 1/48, really great details and finish! On top of the amazing job you have done Special Hobby really seemed to have nailed the elegant shape of this jet very well indeed, top work Jay!

Thanks David - I agree, Special Hobby have indeed done a cracking job accuracy-wise.

I bought the F1.CG kit a few months ago and am looking forward to building that, hopefully mine goes as smoothly as yours did.

I'm curious as to your results - HAF aircraft offer such nice weathering possibilities.

That is a real beauty! You've nailed it and the RBF Signs are the final touch to it. Congrats

Thanks Colonel Danny! The tags were done with Nutella foil as well by the way.

Brilliant! Brilliant! Brilliant! Absolutely brilliant! I have to start mine soon!

Thank you Bjorn. Have fun - lots there to be had in this kit!

Jay

[Mountain goat]

Awesome ! Great work performed, I like the rendering of ejection seat. Also very nice blog, add in my favorite !

Ivan

Cheers, Ivan - appreciate that.

Jay

[jrlx]

Hi Jay,

Congrats on a superb build! Very well done!

I've followed your WIP thread with great interest and have bookmarked it as a great reference for a future build.

Cheers

Jaime