Kitty Hawk Models 1/48 Dassault Mirage F.1B Kit First Look

By Michael Benolkin

First Look

The Mirage F.1 was designed as a follow-on multi-role fighter to the Mirage III/V family and powered by the Atar 9K used in the Mirage IV. While similar in size to the Mirage III/V series, the F.1 had significantly better performance, air refueling, and armament options. In addition to extensive service with the French Air Force, the F.1 has also equipped the air arms of Ecuador, Gabon, Greece, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Libya, Morocco, Qatar, South Africa, and Spain. In service with the Libyan Air Force, the French-trained pilots were able to easily keep the F-14 Tomcats at bay during their peaceful 'skirmishes' over water.

The Mirage F.1B trainer is only 12 inches longer than the single-seat versions so accommodations for the rear cockpit were at the expense of some internal fuel capacity and the internal cannon. Unlike other two-seat versions of the day, the Mirage F.1B is fully combat capable and compensates with external fuel and gun pods in addition to carrying most of the armament used by the single-seat versions.

Kitty Hawk has released the first new-tool Mirage F.1 in 1/48 scale in many decades. The only other option for this subject was the venerable ESCI/ERTL tooling and this is the first time we've seen the F.1B trainer in any scale to date. It is clear from the parts layout that we'll be seeing single-seat Mirage F.1s in our future, but let's take a look at this first offering.

Molded in light gray styrene, this kit is presented on seven parts trees and two rear fuselage halves plus one tree of clear parts and one small fret of photo-etched parts. Among the features and options in this kit:

• Nicely detailed front and rear cockpits
• Positionable canopies
• Optional boarding ladder
• Nice ATAR engine that won't be seen after airframe assembly
• Detailed wheel wells
• Positionable speed brakes
• Positionable flaps
• Positionable spoilers
• Positionable stabilators
• Positionable rudder

External store options used in this build include:

• Choice of two centerline fuel tanks
• 2 x Matra Super 530 missile

There are a variety of other air-to-air and air-to-ground munitions in this box that will definitely be useful to the spares box for future projects as well.

Markings are included for two options:

• Mirage F.1B, 33-FD, French Air Force, 60th Anniversary of D-Day, 2004
• Mirage F.1B, 33-FS, French Air Force

This is another impressive release from Kitty Hawk and I'm looking forward to seeing if it builds as nicely as it looks!

My sincere thanks to Kitty Hawk Models for this review sample!