1/72 Heller Mirage 5V and 

1/72 High Planes Mirage 50EV 

by Omar Quintero

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The construction of these kits went all together, having had the Heller Mirage IIIE/IIIR/5BA and the Mirage 5/50 from High Planes as the basis for this project.  I bought the HP kit on eBay, and I have to say that I was quite disappointed when I opened the box... lots of plastic excess, poor fitting, wrong shape of noses for both versions but in contrast, a very nice recessed panel and very well detailed.

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The Heller kit is the old mould that's been around for a while, a kit that shows its age on its lack of details and raised panel lines. After giving it some thoughts I decided to use the Heller kit for the Mirage 50EV conversion and to use the airframe of the High Planes for the Mirage 5V, still guessing how to correct the nose shape.

For the Mirage 50EV conversion, I used a Hasegawa Mirage F.1 nose, and added the squarish receivers on the tail, fin extension, refuelling probe, resin seat (taken from another HP Mirage), and  cannards from plastic sheet. The raised lines were sanded and new ones were re-described. Of course, having to add a new nose requires some filling and sanding, but this kit despite of its age, fits well without big problems.

The Mirage 5 nose included on the HP kit is too long and difficult to fit, so checking the photo references and scale drawings is a must. As said before, this kit has a lot of plastic excess and fits very poorly, so a lot of work is needed to put this kit together. One of the few nice things about this model, is the resin cockpit which includes an ejection seat, with very nice details. Troubles raise however, when trying to fit the cockpit tube into the fuselage.

Both models were painted with Tamiya acrylics, and a mix of "Aztec" Venezuelan generic set and High Planes kit's decals were used to represent the Mirage 5V just as they entered service with the Venezuelan Air Force, and the standard scheme that all Mirages 50EVs received after the conversion.

Finally, weathering was applied with oil paints, and a film of Testors matt cote was airbrushed.

I really enjoyed bringing these two delta birds together, and I'm looking forward adding some more versions like the IIIR, 5BA and IIIED to my collection.

Omar

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Photos and text © by Omar Quintero