Mirage 2000-5F EC 1/2 Cigognes - finished, phew!

[Wings unlevel]

A timely delivery in today's mail - my Modelsvit Mirage 2000-5F. I was planning to build Modelsvit's Mirage IIIO in this GB (and hopefully I may still) but after the encouragement and endorsement of @Wez and @Col. in the GB chat, I'll join with this most modern of Mirages!

 

This kit was only released last December. I ordered mine almost as soon as I could in January from the official Modelsvit website, and barely three weeks after its despatch from Bulgaria, here it is, just in time for the opening weekend of this GB.

 

 

There was lots of plastic-y goodness tightly packed into that little zip lock bag - perhaps too tightly packed. The decal sheet, masks and PE were also inserted inside the bag and the masks have a few marks on them from being compressed against the plastic. The decals look to be fine though, thankfully.

 

 

There are nine grey and one clear sprues, including a new 2000-5 specific sprue (bottom right) with the the -5's vertical tail and pitot probe-less nose (which I've just realised means removing the existing nose from the fuselage halves...😧).

 

Apart from that small challenge though, it looks a beautiful kit. Gorgeous details.

 

 

I'll probably build mine in this EC 1/2 special scheme from 2019 marking 10 years of Mirage 2000-5 operations - I'm quite taken by the tail art with the double Mirage profiles - a little more arresting than EC 1/2's traditional (albeit historic) stork (cigogne) emblem.

 

I'm excited for this one. It is a beautiful kit and I can tell this will be a fun GB to be a part of.

 

Bonne chance à tous! (And Slava Ukraini!)

 

Gerard

Edited June 11, 2023 by Wings unlevel

[Wez]

Welcome to the GB Gerard, with a Mirage 2000 - what a surprise!

 

I hope you enjoy the kit, it looks a Bobby Dazzler!

[TEMPESTMK5]

Good evening Gerard

Welcome aboard with this new Mirage 2000 kit ..

Enjoy your build and have fun ...

Best Regards

Patrice

[Wings unlevel]

Thanks for the warm welcomes, @Wez and @TEMPESTMK5, I’ve been looking forward to making a start, which I was able to today.

 

 

Not too much to show, but I’ve begun assembling the cockpit tub/nose wheel bay assembly. And to do that, I removed the two fuselage sides off their sprues to make sure I had everything lined up properly for when it’s installed.

 

That’s been enough to form a few impressions of the kit - it’s beautifully detailed, a little complicated and fiddly to assemble, there’s more flash than I would have expected, and not many locating pins/slots. All pretty much in line with what you’d expect from a modern shorter run kit I guess.

 

After dry fitted the fuselage halves together I can see I’m going to have an ugly join to fill along the fuselage spine. Both sides had a lot of flash from behind the cockpit through to where the tail will mount, which I’ve cleaned up, but I’ve probably removed more material than I needed to in places (the perils of softish plastic and a new knife blade!).
 

And attaching the nose will require some caution. I have to cut off the existing nose and butt join the new 2000-5 specific nose (which lacks the nose pitot probe and has the little strakes on it). And that’s after butt joining the two halves of the new nose together.

 

There’s a great looking model in the offing here, it’ll just take a little care and attention on the way through.

 

Cheers,

 

Gerard

 

[TEMPESTMK5]

Hi Gerard

I am very pleased to see that you managed to start your build ..

Best regards

Patrice

[Wings unlevel]

Some plastic surgery and a nose job!

 

 

I think I referenced above that you have to cut the nose off the fuselage sides to fit a M2000-5 specific nose. Following the old “measure twice cut once” adage I was very careful to check exactly where to make the cuts, as the joint isn’t where the radome attaches to the fuselage on the real thing, it is actually a little aft. I initially thought that inset line inside the nose corresponded to the radome join. But Modelsvit clearly created the M2000 mole with the -5 in mind. You do indeed cut up to that line, and it looks the new nose will attach fairly cleanly.

 

 

Not sure if my explanation makes sense, but after a bit of cleaning up with the knife and a sanding stick the nose job looks pretty clean. So I think I’ll get a nice join between the fuselage and new nose, whenever I come to doing some assembly.

 

So that’s one little fear with this kit overcome!

 

Now back to trying to get the ejection seat put together! 😱

 

[Rabbit Leader]

Just found this thread Gerard so apologies for the late acknowledgment. I had no idea a ‘2000-5’ existed so will follow on and see how this one goes. My Mirage 2000 knowledge bank sure needs some help and these threads are great for all that. Nice start and that’s a clean cut to get the new nose to match the rest of the fuselage. 
 

Cheers and best of luck.. Dave 
 

 

[Wings unlevel]

5 minutes ago, Rabbit Leader said:

My Mirage 2000 knowledge bank sure needs some help and these threads are great for all that.

Cheers Dave, as you can probably guess the big change introduced with the -5 was a new radar, hence the nose job. You can tell a -5 by the small strakes on the nose (bit like on the F-16) and no nose pitot probe. France’s -5Fs we’re all upgraded Cs, so I guess it’s appropriate to lop the kit’s existing nose off and attach a new one!

 

Gerard

[Rabbit Leader]

Appreciate the additional notes Gerard. I’ve just received an original Heller Black Box edition 2000C and have noticed it doesn't come with that prominent refuelling probe. I’ve been searching various websites trying to work out if this was a slightly later fit (.i.e - did they enter service without probes) or is this just an omission by Heller? I’ll keep searching to see what I can find, however if you know the answer, happy to hear your thoughts as well. 

Cheers.. Dave 

[eclipse]

5 hours ago, Rabbit Leader said:

did they enter service without probes

Right!

 

5 hours ago, Rabbit Leader said:

if you know the answer

This black box has been produced before the real aircraft entered in service. And indeed, even when they arrived at Dijon air base in 1984, aircrafts were delivered without IFR probes. The latter being delivered separately, had to be mounted later by mechanics on the base itself.

[Wings unlevel]

5 hours ago, eclipse said:

This black box has been produced before the real aircraft entered in service. And indeed, even when they arrived at Dijon air base in 1984, aircrafts were delivered without IFR probes.

@Rabbit Leader I was wondering if Heller based its kit on the prototype, which didn’t have the probe. Thanks for the explanation @eclipse, and the lovely photos!

[Rabbit Leader]

6 hours ago, eclipse said:

This black box has been produced before the real aircraft entered in service. And indeed, even when they arrived at Dijon air base in 1984, aircrafts were delivered without IFR probes. The latter being delivered separately, had to be mounted later by mechanics on the base itself.

 

Excellent and very interesting explanation @eclipse. Thats something to seriously consider when building my classic kit. Now to source some better decals as the Heller ones aren’t the best and if released in 1982 (two years prior to entering service), are ‘possibly’ not representative of an in-service machine. The fun’s all in the research. 

 

Apologies too for the thread drift Gerard! 

Cheers.. Dave 

[Wings unlevel]

24 minutes ago, Rabbit Leader said:

Apologies too for the thread drift Gerard

Not at all, Dave. If anything, seeing those lovely images of the early EC 1/2 2000Cs has firmed up my decision to finish my -5F in the standard EC 1/2 scheme.

 

 

It has a classic look to it.

 

[eclipse]

With heavy load only seen during Harmattan over Libya with six Mica (3xRF, 3xIR) and three additional fuel tanks and Eclair-m decoy launcher replacing the brake parachute. But I think the latter is not present in that Modelsvit box (however, its previous  version in PE was included in the Mirage 2000C box for Daguet operation liveries).

[Cookenbacher]

My Modelsvit 2000-5F arrived recently and I'm grateful to have to this thread to follow as my Mirage knowledge is severely lacking!

[Wings unlevel]

18 hours ago, eclipse said:

Eclair-m decoy launcher replacing the brake parachute. But I think the latter is not present in that Modelsvit box (however, its previous  version in PE was included in the Mirage 2000C box for Daguet operation liveries)

Thank you, Eclipse. I shall do some research on this.

 

4 hours ago, Cookenbacher said:

My Modelsvit 2000-5F arrived recently and I'm grateful to have to this thread to follow as my Mirage knowledge is severely lacking

It’s a fairly complex little kit but I think it has the potential to yield a beautiful result - just like the Mirage 2000 itself!

[eclipse]

1 hour ago, Wings unlevel said:

I shall do some research on this.

What you're looking for! 😉

https://www.mbda-systems.com/product/eclair-m/

[Hook]

21 hours ago, eclipse said:

Eclair-m decoy launcher replacing the brake parachute.

Would this be the same item as on the F.1? If so, there's one in the SH kit.

 

Cheers,

 

Andre

[eclipse]

Unfortunately no, it's not the same... 

[eclipse]

Here the different decoy launchers available for Mirage F1:

Alkan LL5020 Corail under the wings closest to the fuselage and Phimat pod under the outer point of the right wing. 

https://www.dstorm.eu/pictures/nose-arts/mirage/france/33-ng_2.jpg

Lacroix decoy launcher located just above the exhaust. 

[eclipse]

With the except of Mirage 2000D, on mirage 2000s all decoy launchers are located on the lower part of the fuselage: near the trailing edge and under belly, just in front of the exhaust. 

[rom1]

Hello Gerard!

 

With my friend Eclipse here, you will benefit from usefull advices

 

He helped me a lot on my 1/32 Mirage 2000 builds:

 

 

cheers!

 

Romain

[Wings unlevel]

On 26/02/2023 at 20:17, eclipse said:

What you're looking for! 😉

https://www.mbda-systems.com/product/eclair-m/

Ah thank you. Was the Eclair-M fitted permanently, or only for Harmatan? 
 

23 hours ago, rom1 said:

With my friend Eclipse here, you will benefit from usefull advices

 

He helped me a lot on my 1/32 Mirage 2000 builds

Thanks Romain, the sharing of knowledge is one of the best aspects of this forum, for sure! I do very much appreciate it.
 

Although I know my build will be nowhere near the level and standard of yours - they are superb!

 

Gerard

 

[eclipse]

1 hour ago, Wings unlevel said:

Was the Eclair-M fitted permanently, or only for Harmatan? 

No, due to the fact, it replaces the brake parachute. So, it is only present for specific operations. AFAIK, Eclair-M has only been used only with Mirage 2000-5F during Harmattan over Libya and for the raid against chemical facilities in Syria in 2018, called 'opération Hamilton'.

[Wings unlevel]

18 hours ago, eclipse said:

No, due to the fact, it replaces the brake parachute. So, it is only present for specific operations.

Ah that makes sense, thank you.