Eduard 1/48 Mirage 2000C, by Spiros Pendedekas

The origins of the Mirage 2000 can be traced back in 1965, when France and Britain agreed to develop the "Anglo-French Variable Geometry" (AFVG) swing-wing aircraft. Two years later, France withdrew from the project on grounds of costs, after which Britain would collaborate with West Germany and Italy to ultimately produce the Panavia Tornado.

Dassault focused on its own variable-geometry aircraft, the Mirage G8. Called ACF (Avion de Combat Futur), the type would replace the popular Mirage III in the Armee de l'Air (AdA). However, it soon became apparent that the interdictor and incapable of dogfighting Mirage G8 would not align with AdA’s requirement of a Mach 3 pure fighter.

Dassault then went on designing a twin engine, fixed-geometry derivative of the Mirage G8. The resulting Super Mirage G8A would prove too ambitious and expensive, being not only two and a half times the price of the Mirage F1, but also over-engineered, especially compared to the General Dynamics F-16 that had just won orders from a number of European countries. Consequently, during a meeting of the National Defence Council on 18 December 1975, the Super Mirage was also cancelled.

The cancellation of the Super Mirage gave room to the single engine Mirage 2000, which had started out as a secondary simpler project in 1972. Initially named Delta 1000 and designed as an interceptor with strike capabilities, the resulting Mirage 2000 was offered to the AdA as a simpler, affordable yet potent fighter. The AdA liked it and in March 1976 issued a set of official requirements whose parameters matched those of Dassault's performance estimates of the new fighter, followed by an initial order of 200 aircraft, with the first to be delivered in 1982.

Though the previously built swept winged Mirage F1 proved to be a very successful design, Dassault decided to return to the first-generation delta wing Mirages, but with several important innovations to solve their shortcomings. The first prototype made its maiden flight on 10 March 1978, a mere 27 months after the program go-ahead, exhibiting very promising performance. Dassault constructed three more prototypes, with the last one embodying lessons learned from the earlier aircraft. The first production Mirage 2000C (C for Chasseur - Fighter) flew on 20 November 1982, with deliveries to the AdA beginning in 1983.

The type was further developed to the 2000N nuclear-strike variant, which would carry the Air-Sol Moyenne Portée (ASMP) nuclear stand-off missile, followed by the closely derived 2000D conventional attack variant. By the late 1980s, the Mirage 2000-5 was developed, essentially a vastly improved Mirage 2000 in terms of avionics and weapons capability.

The Mirage 2000 is considered a potent, successful fighter, with quite a few operators having acquired it worldwide. All in all, 601 examples have been built, with the last one delivered on 23 November 2007 to the Hellenic Air Force.

Mirage 2000s of the Armee de l'Air were used during the Gulf War, where they flew high-altitude air defence for USAF U-2 spy aircraft. There is photo evidence of one of these Mirages, s/n 74, having its blue/gray topsides overpainted with sand/dark earth, loosely following the existing camo pattern. Apart from a commemorative similar camo that was later applied to a two seater, no other photo evidence exists of French Mirage 2000s bearing this camouflage, making a very interesting one-off subject!

THE KIT

This is the 2007 Eduard reboxing of the venerable 1991 Heller mold. Per the usual (and very welcome) Eduard policy, this reboxing includes many goodies (resin, PE, masks, a multi-option decal sheet, upgraded instructions) and for a look at its contents you may read our Editor's preview, found at the ever growing MM archives.

The specific copy was handed to me in 2024 by a member of my local (Chalkis, Greece) modeling society. The kit was missing the resin, PE and also the styrene instrument panel. I was attracted to the aforementioned desert scheme, so I decided to tackle it.

Having built the same kit a couple of times before and to avoid too many repetitions, I will redirect you to my initial review for the main construction, with the things I did differently explained below.

First, I wanted to scratchbuild an instrument panel and for that I used styrene sheet pieces to recreate it. The top coaming was similarly scratchbuilt. For the instruments themselves and the side consoles I used the very nice and similarly looking Eduard PE set for the Sepecat Jaguar which I happened to have in my stash, hoping that the result will be passable under a closed canopy. For the seat, I used the set’s equally nice PE seat belts.

The kit contained the 2000lt wing tanks, so I assembled them as well. For the rest, construction was identical with my aforementioned review, meaning I separated the elevons to pose them drooped, which is their normal stance upon engine shutdown.

Overall fit was so-so, with the kit leaning towards the limited run category, meaning test fit three times before gluing once. The gaps were initially treated with liquefied styrene and then with a few rounds of “normal” filler, before the French beauty headed to the paint shop!

Opting for the one-off French desert scheme, from the net available pics I ran into, it became pretty obvious that the topsides were hastily repainted with a combination of tan and sand shades, loosely following the existing blue/gay pattern.

First thing I did was spraying the nose cone Hu64 Light Gray. After masking it off, I gave the undersides a coat of Hu127 Ghost Gray, then freehanded the topside camo with Hu63 Sand and hu118 Tan. Admittedly, both the tan and brown shades observed in pics looked lighter (but also heavily weathered), with my approach being that my model would represent the specific plane with relatively less weathering. A coat of Future prepared the bird for decals.

I used the very nice Eduard sheet, to represent the aforementioned one-off French desert scheme. Decals, despite their age, behaved nicely, easily detaching from their backing sheet and, with the help of mild softening solution, nicely adhering to the model’s surface, with a coat of Future sealing them.

As a note, the Mirage 2000 carries a myriad of stencils on all surfaces. Pictorial evidence of my example indicates that only the roundels, codes and “SAUVETAGE” (rescue) signs were applied on the topsides, with a plausible explanation being that they were overpainted with the field applied camo. So, only those were applied at the topsides. Since the undersides were not overpainted, my assumption was that all stenciling was carried there.

The main landing gear was assembled and attached in position, with the bird proudly standing on its feet. Legs, struts, and wheel rims were painted “steel”, brake housings were painted gunmetal, bays and door innards were painted light gray, tires were painted black while the oleos were highlighted with a fine tip silver pen. Tires were filed down to look weighted. I added brake lines and some wiring from stretched sprue. The quite prominent rods that connect the dragged main doors to the gear legs were fabricated from stretched sprue as well. Suitably cut mesh pieces were applied to the flat looking top bay walls, to add some interest.

The nice looking wing tanks were attached in position, followed by the outward missile pylons.The exhaust nozzle had its rear end sawed off and replaced by a more inspiring one (I think it was from a Hasegawa 1/48 F-104). It was then painted Mr Hobby Burned Iron and attached in position.

The various front located dorsal and ventral antennas were attached and accordingly painted. More detail painting included the fin located VOR fairings and the dielectric fin tip fairing, which were painted off-white, the equally fin located ECM and RWR fairings that were painted linen and dark gray respectively and the ventrally located turbo starter exhaust openings, which were painted black to add a sense of depth. I forgot to paint the pressure equalization valve located at the lower starboard cockpit area silver, it may have been overpainted with the camo color anyway. Oh well, next time…

Desert conditions were harsh, taking their toll quickly, so I was not too discrete in weathering. First I applied a generous a black wash to accentuate all engraved detailing and, especially, give all undersides a used, oily look. Then I applied dark brown and black dry pastels at all areas where dirt, soot and the like would reside, with the most prominent area being the oil breather exits bilaterally to the fin base, which very quickly would give the area a sooty look. An almost matt coat gave the desert bird its final hue.

The transparencies had their well defined frames hand painted and attached. As usual with this kit, fit of the windscreen was good, but the canopy needed judicious trimming in several areas, in order to sit (sort of) flush.

The wingtip lights were represented by tiny blobs of red and green clear paint. The fin located position light was provided as a solid fin protrusion and was replicated by painting its front part black and its rear (transparent in reality) silver. Same for the dorsal and ventral anti-collision lights, which were merely shallow bulges and were painted silver, with a blob of clear glue on top.

The front pitot tube and the two small temperature probes bilaterally to the cockpit area were attached and painted steel with Testors burned Metal tips. I could not resist fabricating from stretched sprue a third probe located left from the fin base before calling the sleek Delta Fighter done!

Your other quarter scale Mirage 2000 options are the Esci (reboxed by Italeri), Monogram (reboxed by Revell) and Kinetic offerings (there is also the scarce to find Kiddyland offering, for which the only info I could obtain is that it is a copy of the Monogram kit). I would say that the Heller mold has an edge on the Esci and Monogram in terms of accuracy and with the Kinetic kit being the modern, more detailed (and more expensive) offering, but reported to be plagued with fit issues.

The Heller mold, though elderly, is still a good kit of the iconic Mirage 2000, with its correct shape and engraved details at most areas being its main advantage. For the rest, molding is not too sharp anymore (as the molds get elderly), fit will require your attention (best treated it as a limited run kit), detail level at the key areas of cockpit, landing gear and exhaust is average and transparencies are clear, but the canopy will require judicious trimming to fit. Nevertheless, with some effort (as this kit is definitely not suitable for an absolute beginner), a very nice Mirage 2000 will emerge.

Now, regarding the Eduard reboxing, it is a certainly generous, attractive package that contains many extras, promising to liven up your build, its only shortfall being the roundels for the Indian version that should have been outlined in orange than in red. Not that easy to find nowadays (2024) if you come across one at a good price (it was rather pricey when first released), you may consider buying it and building it.

KIT #:	1129
PRICE:	$55.00
DECALS:	Six Options
REVIEWER:	Spiros Pendedekas
NOTES:	Reboxed Heller kit with extras.