Heller 1/72 Mirage F.1CG

The origins of the Mirage F1 can be traced back to the mid-1960s where Dassault was putting its efforts in designing a large swept wing VTOL derivative of the Mirage III. While that main project was ultimately canceled,  Dasaultt decided to adapt the benefits of its swept wing design towards a smaller multirole fighter that would succeed the Mirage III/5. The Mirage F1 was born.

The plane had a similar fuselage to delta-winged Mirage III/5 and was powered by the same version of the SNECMA Atar engine that was used on the larger Mirage IV. Although having a smaller wingspan than the Mirage III, it proved to be superior, carrying more fuel and being more maneuverable while possessing a shorter take-off run and lower landing speed.

Following a relatively long development period, the construction of 85 examples was authorized in late 1971, with the first deliveries to the Armée de l'aire commencing in mid-1973. The second batch of 79 aircraft featured a fixed refueling probe, which required an extension of the fuselage by 7 cm.
While officially developed as an air defense aircraft, Dassault had placed considerable emphasis on developing the plane for ground attack as a secondary role during its early design, something that the well designed Mirage F1 successfully performed.

The type has been exported to around a dozen nations, having seen action in a large number of armed conflicts involving several of its operators. It is estimated that 726 examples of all variants and trainers were manufactured during its run between 1966 and 1992, with the last flying examples, which were French reconnaissance subtypes, retiring in July 2014.

40 single seaters (designated as F1CGs) were ordered in 1974 and entered service with the Hellenic Air Force in 1975. Based in 114CW Tanagra AFB, they were assigned to the 342 and 334 all weather Squadrons. Armed with four AIM-9P Sidewinders, they were successfully used as short range interceptors, retiring on 30 June 2003 after 28 years of service and 160,000 flying hours.

Being both a French and a leading plastic model company during the 70s, it was only too natural for Heller to come up with a detailed Mirage F1 mold in 1978. Though accurate and sufficiently detailed, it is a relatively complex kit, leaning towards what we describe as “limited run” nowadays.

The specific kit is the “CT” version 1998 reboxing, which was handed to me by a good friend, asking me to build it in less than a week and for an in-depth look at its contents, you may read its preview, found in the ever growing MM archives.

I started by joining the two front fuselage halves, trapping the cockpit tub (which doubles as a nose gear bay) in-between. I then joined the rear fuselage halves, followed by the top spine and, finally, mated the front and rear fuselage subassemblies, followed by the 2-piece fin. The 2-piece intakes  were then attached, followed by the 2-piece wings, the single piece stabilators and, finally, the 2-piece nose radome, where I secured around 20 grams of fishing weights beforehand, to avoid tail sitting.

Basic cockpit color was black, while all instruments and side console details were dry brushed with silver and had some “knobs” done by pinning red paint with a toothpick. A leftover HUD  was also attached. The acceptable looking seat had black framing and green cushions, while it received seat belts from masking tape and top ejection handles from stretched sprue, which were painted black/yellow. The intake innards were painted silver.

This concluded basic assembly, which might have sounded a simpler task than it actually was. This was not only due to the complex construction (fuselage split in front and rear section with a tricky dorsal spine on top and butt-fitted main wings which have to rest at a distinctive slight anhedral, among others), but also due to the overall fit which required judicious trimming after test fitting of the involved parts, with the overall feeling being that I was building a limited run kit. Gaps were first treated with liquefied styrene and then with a few rounds of “normal” filler.

Having a reasonably smooth basic model, I went on attaching some more sensitive bits, like the distinctive air brakes (at “closed” position), the twin ventral strakes, with the auxiliary air inlet in front of them, the two small top aft located air inlets and the fin located VOR fairings. As the undersides for my “Aegean Blue” scheme would be silver and, since all landing gear bits and areas would also be silver, I decided to attach all landing gear parts (sans the wheels) in position, in order to paint them together. After a final sanding, I took the sleek bird to the paint shop!

I first painted the nose cone and top front anti-glare area black, then masked it off and gave the complete undersides a coat of Hu11 Silver. After also masking it off, I painted all topsides Hu144 Intermediate Blue. Upon removing the masks, I masked and painted the distinctive red areas at the sides of the intakes red, with a coat of Future preparing the bird for decals.

For the insignia I used the excellent Cartograf printed Afterburner 72/1 decal sheet, while for the codes and “Mirage F1” I used an equally nice Plastimodellismo sheet (both long OOP). For the stencilling, I used the kit provided sheet (which had its whites of-registered -somenting not to obvious until the decals got separated from the sheet), apart from the badly out of register red walk lines, where I used the identical looking Mirage 2000 walk lines from a leftover 1/72 sheet. A coat of Future sealed the decals.

All six wheels had their rims painted silver and their tires painted black. After some filing to look weighted, they were attached in position, with the process taking a few loops, in order all of them touching the ground. The guns were represented by tiny pieces of stretched sprue painted gunmetal and attached in position, followed by the nice exhaust, which was painted Mr Hobby Burned Iron.

Time for some weathering, not that much really, as the model was supposed to represent a museum piece located in my hometown’s Chalkis small but beautiful military museum. First, a black wash was applied to make the landing gear area look more real and to accentuate the perforated details at the air brakes and top spoilers, followed by light application of dark brown pastels at hinges’ areas. A satin coat gave the bird its final hue.

The transparencies had their well defined framing hand painted and attached in position, with fit being good and the small gaps treated with white glue. The molded-on pitot tube, typically, bokeh by Yours Truly during construction, was replaced by a kit provided one at the extra sprue, which in fact looked more realistic than the original. The fin dielectric areas were carefully painted off-white. Finally, blobs of red and green clear paint represented the wingtip and anti collision lights, before calling the sleek bird done!

Your other options for building a 1/72 Mirage F1 are the equally elderly and more or less equally decent Airfix, Hasegawa and Esci molds, being clearly superseded by Special Hobby’s recent (2016) very nice and very detailed offerings (also reboxed by Revell), which are provided either as pure sprue or beefed-up multimedia editions.

Though more than 40 years old (as of 2024), the Heller is still a decent kit of the sleek Mirage F1 fighter, with accurate general shape and sufficient (towards good) detail level in most areas. On the other hand, apart from the raised panel lines (which might not be a problem for a number of us), fit is at areas challenging, not only due to the complexity of construction, but also due to the molds starting to show their age.

Heller reboxes this kit from time to time with the latest editions featuring very nice decals and being reasonably priced, so, if you are not a beginner and fancy building a good looking Mirage F1, this kit could be one of your candidates.

Happy Modeling!

Spiros Pendedekas

7 January 2025