In July 1985, Greece signed a contract for 40 Mirage 2000, comprising 36 single-seat aircraft and 4 two-seat trainers. Apart from the planes themselves, the almost $1.5 billion contract included weapons, equipment, as well as industrial offsets that permitted the Hellenic Aerospace Industry (HAI) to produce parts of their M53-P2 engines. Delivery of the aircraft to 114CW Tanagra Air Base commenced from June 1988 onwards.

The Mirage 2000 Grèce version was officially called Mirage 2000EGM (BGM for the two seaters) and featured a Thomson CSF RDM multirole radar and an ICMS Mk.1 defensive countermeasures suite. It would carry the Magic II and S-530D air-to-air, as well as the Exocet anti-ship missiles.

331 Squadron HAF was founded on 18 April 1988, in order to accept the Mirage 2000 EGM/BGM, with the first examples arriving one week later. The Squadron was initially manned by experienced pilots from other HAF aircraft types. Its main operational role was all weather interception, which was later expanded to air-to-surface with the implementation of the AM-39 Exocet anti-ship missile.
 
In 2007 the Squadron switched to the vastly upgraded Mirage 2000-5, which, among others, featured modern weapons (MICA EM/IR air-to-air and SCALP air-to-surface missiles) and superior ICMS MkIII countermeasures suite.

Never fired a weapon in anger, the Squadron is going strong, having achieved excellent results through the years during military exercises and evaluations. Its emblem is Thisseas, a Greek mythology divine hero whose myths, journeys, exploits and friends have provided material for storytelling throughout the ages.

This is the venerable Heller kit, with its origins traced back in 1991 and at times reissued ever since. Clearly an elderly kit, with sparse or simplistic details at areas like the cockpit, landing gear and exhaust nozzle, but with very accurate general shape and sufficient external details, which are of the engraved type. The molds are showing their age, with details becoming softer and flash being increasingly present at many places, deeming clean-up of practically all parts a necessity, with the soft plastic being an ally. In fact, it will not be far from the truth to consider the kit as “limited run” nowadays.

The specific kit (together with a couple more copies) was bought around 2005 from an (still going on) Athens hobby shop and for a more in depth look at the kit contents, you may read the preview of the exact same kit, found in the ever growing MM archives.

Having built the same kit in 2022 but without ordnance, pilot and with different markings, to avoid repetitions I will redirect you to that review for the main construction, with the things I did differently explained below.

I attached a leftover good looking pilot in the otherwise identical cockpit. He had gray helmet, oxygen hose and gloves, black goggles and shoes, a home brewed “flesh” face, white scarf, green uniform, yellow survival pack straps and steel buckles, while the seat belts themselves were a combination of olive drab and blue, as are (sort of) observed in reality. To make the pilot look more natural, his head was repositioned, his mask was only partly attached to his face, while his left arm was cut and glued at an angle to simulate that he is grabbing the throttle.

As the pilot was in, I assumed the engine was running, so no need to separate the elevons (they rest at a downwards angle upon engine shutdown). Also, since I was opting to add underwing ordnance, I attached the four missile pylons at this time, as well.

For the rest, the main construction was identical to my aforementioned build linked above, meaning I experienced the same challenging fit issues with a variety of gaps or mismatches, which were first treated with liquefied styrene and then with a few rounds of normal filler. After a final sanding, the sleek bird was ready to visit the paint shop!  

I first gave the radome a coat of Hu64 Light Gray, then masked it off and gave the complete bird a coat of Hu127 US Ghost Gray. The darker “blue gray” was freehanded, using Hu145 Medium Gray, which, to my eye, comes closer to the real shade than the Hu144 Intermediate Blue I had used in my previous build. A coat of Future prepared the bird for decals.

I opted to depict 331 squadron’s s/n 239 bird during its early HAF days. For the insignia and a few stencils, I used the excellent Icarus Productions 48002 decal sheet “Hellenic Air Force Jets Pt. 1”, while for the rest of the (too many) stencils I used the kit supplied decals, which, while sufficient, they could not match the quality of the Icarus ones (to my understanding the latest Heller decals are of excellent quality, as well, so, if you depict a recent reboxing, chances are that your decal sheet will be excellent). A coat of Future sealed the decals.

The main landing gear was assembled and attached in position, with the bird proudly standing on its feet. Legs, struts, bays and wheel rims were painted “steel”, brake housings were painted gunmetal, 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, while the only thing I added to the average looking landing gear were two rods from stretched sprue that connected the dragged main doors to the gear legs.

The four missiles were next attached in position. The short range Magic II missiles were painted Tamiya XF-2 White, with their seeker heads replicated with blobs of orange clear paint. The medium range S.530D missiles were painted Hu127 US Ghost Gray, with their seeker heads painted white. All four missiles had their bland exhausts first drilled, with their plastic plugs seen in reality replicated with blobs of white glue which were afterwards painted a suitable beige shade. The exhaust nozzle was painted Mr Hobby Burned Iron and attached in position at this time, as well.

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 white, the also fin located ECM and RWR fairings that were painted linen, the pressure equalization valve located at the lower starboard cockpit area, which was painted silver and the ventrally located turbo starter exhaust openings, which were painted black to add a sense of depth. As a note, in the Greek Mirage Deltas there are another two small upper fin located radar deflectors that I missed to scratch build. Oh, well, next time…

Time for some weathering, first consisting of an overall black wash which added depth to all engraved detailing and also gave an oily look at areas like the landing gear and various hinges. Next  there was an application of dark brown and black dry pastels at all areas where dirt or grime would reside, with a satin cote giving the bird its final hue.

The transparencies had their well defined frames hand painted and attached. 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. Finally the front pitot tube and the two small temperature probes bilaterally of the cockpit area were attached and painted steel with Testors burned Metal tips, before calling the sleek Delta Fighter done!    

Though elderly, this is still a good, solid kit of the iconic Mirage 2000, with its correct shape and engraved details at most (if not all) 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, transparencies are clear (but the canopy will require judicious trimming to fit) and decals in my (not that recent boxing) were usable but could have been better registered (decals of recent Heller reboxings are freshly printed and very good). Due to the challenging at areas fit, the kit is not suitable for beginners.

The Icarus Productions Greek insignia decal sheet, thoroughly researched and superbly printed by Cartograf, lived up to the expectations. Though long out of production till recently, most of the Icarus decal sheets are now (2024) reprinted, which is good news for Greek examples builders.

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 could say that the Heller kit 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.

This leaves the elderly Heller kit in a position that can still hold its own today, with its later reboxings featuring good decals and still offered at very logical prices. Though it will require your extra attention during construction it can be turned into a good model even out of the box, while the big amount of aftermarket will help you (at a price, of course) beef up the sparse at areas details.

Happy Modeling!

Spiros Pendedekas

9 December 2024

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