Mirage M-5M Elkan by PJ Productions
1/72 scale
Kit No. 721030
Retail: $43.00
Decals: One version – FACH (hilean Air Force)
Comments: Engraved panel lines; injection molded plastic with resin detail parts; optional position canopy; auxiliary fuel tanks (belly and under wing hard points); resin ejection seat, main instrument panel, control yoke, canards, vertical tail; photo etch parts for external details and boarding ladder
History
In the mid-1960s, Dassault Aviation introduced a new Mirage III derivative which enjoyed enormous export success: the Mirage 5. On July 9, 1965, the management of the Dassault’s General Technical Department decided on a specification for a Mirage III E with a simplified layout, designed as a daytime clear weather ground attack fighter in response to a request from the Israeli Air Force. This low altitude tactical support and patrol aircraft was named the Mirage 5 and first flew at Melun-Villaroche on May 19, 1967, piloted by Hervé Leprince-Ringuet. In place of the radar, the nose cone was to be fitted with the electronic navigation and attack equipment, providing space for extra fuel. Additional attachment points were provided for external loads, while the booster rocket was removed.
The result was a less expensive aircraft, with 32% more fuel capacity than the Mirage III C and capable of carrying a significant bomb load, with an expanded combination of ordnance possibilities with numerous load configurations.
An Israeli order for 50 Mirage 5 Js was signed in April 7, 1966. However, as a result of a French arms embargo ordered by President Charles De Gaulle in January 1969, they could not be delivered, and entered service with the French Air Force instead. A total 517 units have been built for 11 different countries. Notwithstanding the embargo against Israel, the Mirage 5 remains Dassault’s most widely exported combat aircraft.
In 1993 Chile began negotiations with the Belgian Air Force aimed at acquiring 10 Mirage 5BAs recently upgraded under the MIRSIP (Mirage Saftey Improvement Program), in addition to five other aircraft already scheduled for conversion. Eventually, five other non-updated aircraft were added (4 reconnaissance and one two-seat training aircraft). The contract was signed on July 19, 1994, between the Belgian Minister of Defense, Leo Delcroix, and the General of the FACH, Don Jaime Estay Viveros. The contract called for $108 million, to be paid 18 months. The aircraft sold were the following:
- 15 Mirage 5MA, single-seat, modernized in the MIRSIP program
- 5 Mirage 5 MD, two-seaters, also modernized to MIRSIP level
- 4 Mirage 5 BR, reconnaissance, without modernization
- 1 Mirage 5 BD, two-seater, not modernized
In addition, a contract was signed with the Belgian Air Force for $1.5 million to provide training and technical assistance to 8 Chilean pilots plus a team of maintenance technicians. For this purpose, a training unit was formed in April 1994, based in Brustem/St. Truiden, called Detachment MIRSIP, equipped with 5 IRSIP devices (BD-03, -04, -15 and BA-56 and -62). The training lasted until March 1995.
Deliveries to Chile of the Mirage Elkan began in March 1995. The planes were transported to Chile aboard an Antonov An-124 which could carry five Mirages on each trip, with delivery ending in March 1996. The Atar engine testing facility that the Belgian Air Force had in Bierset (and which was also sold as part of the contract) was dismantled and sent to Chile by ship, arriving in June 1996.
The four reconnaissance aircraft were used to replace the aging Hawker Hunters FR.Mk 71 of Group 8, with the Mirage 5 BD serving as a training aircraft for this group. As the Mirage 5 BR uses British Vinten 626/636 cameras, the Chilean Air Force was able to retain same image processing and interpretation facilities that had been used by their Hawker Hunter reconnaissance force. The remaining aircraft replaced the Hawker Hunter that was in service in Group 8, based in Antofagasta, leaving Zimbabwe as the last country in the world that still operates the Hawker Hunter on the front line.
Prior to the sale of the aircraft to Chile, the Belgian government had embarked on the MIRSIP upgrade program for its Mirage 5 fleet, but cancelled it halfway through, most likely due to cost issues. Since halting the contract to upgrade the aircraft was more expensive than cancellation, SABCA, the Belgian aerospace manufacturer, completed the upgrade for all aircraft in the contract at its own expense. Upon completion of the upgrade, the aircraft were sold to Chile at a fraction of the upgrade cost. This was something of a windfall for the FACH, which received two squadrons’ worth of state-of-the-art ground attack aircraft at below market rate, that were both cheaper and easier to maintain than their Mirage IIIE interceptor-ancestor.
The Mirage III/5/50 family highlights France’s high-ranking position among the world’s industrial nations. A total of 1,401 Mirage III/5/50, in 90 different versions, have been built since 1958. They have served in 21 countries around the world and clocked a combined 3 million flying hours.
The Kit
First released by PJ Productions in 2019, the Mirage M-5M Elkan has its origins in the Mirage family of kits produced by High Planes Models beginning in 2011. The kit is injection molded in grey plastic and consists of 118 plastic parts, including 7 clear parts for the reflector gunsight and canopy, with modelers able to depict the latter open or closed. In addition, there are 19 resin parts, including an ejection seat, main instrument panel, control yoke, drop tanks and bombs, plus a replacement vertical tail for the plastic one provided. They are all crisply detailed parts, but will definitely require some clean-up.
The kit contains parts for four different nose cones, although only one of them is referenced in the instructions. Construction begins with the wing, which features boxed in wheel wells, and quickly moves on to the fuselage and jet exhaust assemblies, with the latter featuring crisp detail for both its exhaust fan and the tail end of the burner can. This kit is best tackled by at least intermediate modelers, since holes must be drilled in the lower wing for the central drop tank pylon, and a fairing must be removed from the rear fuselage before the vertical tail is cemented on.
You get to the cockpit at Step 5, with a tub featuring raised detail on its side panels and a group of highly detailed resin parts for the main instrument panel, ejection seat and control yoke. A clear plastic part for what appears to be a head up display is to be cemented to the main panel, and two photo etch parts are provided for rear view mirrors that are to be cemented on the internal frame of the canopy. PE antennae are also provided. The kit features detailed landing gear, resin canards for the forward fuselage, and a series of separately mounted strakes for the ventral surface of the wing. Detail parts are also provided for the 1700 liter fuel tanks. A photo etch boarding latter rounds out the detail.
Markings
The kit decals are printed by Fantasy Printshop and are of high quality with a smooth, semi-gloss finish, perfectly in register with realistic color. Various numbers are provided for different aircraft, but given that they all depict machines of the FACH, and only one set of national markings is provided (two-position wing markings and a single pair of decals for the rudder of the vertical tail), the decals are in effect for a single Mirage M-5M.
Conclusion
This is an exceptionally detailed kit of one of the most popular exports in the Mirage family of fighters. Highly recommended.
References
- dassault-aviation.com
- combatace.com
- www.airhistory.net
- https://razonyfuerza.mforos.com