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MPM´s new Mirage F.1 in 72nd !


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Hello,

We are happy to present here our new project - Mirage F.1 in various versions, with plenty of various underwing armament and other stores. The design is CAD of course, molds made of steel. As you can see, the molds are almost finished and we expect the first test shots soon.

c

M-01_zps85019bab.jpg

c200

M-02_zpsdf7fa2a2.jpg

b

M-03_zpsdde3b7aa.jpg

b rear

M-04_zps1c4ac1a0.jpg

c bot

M-06_zpsc8a57098.jpg

cr bot

M-05_zpsaa6332fc.jpg

az

M-07_zps2ad6fec1.jpg

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Great news but are the intakes rounded ?

incomingF1.JPG

Also the F1C "non 200" shouldn't have the oblique nose panel line (starting from the F1C200, the nose was slightly lengthened to install the pipping for the IFR boom; new skinning was added and the rear edge is oblique)

Edited by Laurent
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A beautiful aircraft from the days when they made fabulous looking airplanes! Fantastic looking kit! Congratulations on it! :worship: :worship: Will need a couple of them.

Laurent, from what I can see on the kit photos the intakes have rounded corners. Looks nice but of course you know about it far, far more. I just had a couple of chances to go up close to it and take a few rolls of film of its details when they visited Hungary.

Best regards

Gabor

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To echo Jennings' suggestion, I would definitely consider scaling this up to 1:48 as well as releasing it in 1:72. The KittyHawk F.1 kit and the Kinetic Kfir kit do solve one recurring problem with Mirage kits very well however: The lower edge of the windshield doesn't have a visible frame in the "break" between the windshield and the fuselage, and this makes gluing the windshield on more difficult than it needs to be. From what I can see, this kit has a frame at the bottom of the windshield, yet this photo illustrates well that the clear bit goes all the way to the kink.

http://www.airliners.net/photo/Spain---Air/Dassault-Mirage-F1EE%28M%29/2283258/L/&sid=82e593bb801561dd35a3566906f63fe3

It may be asking a lot to redo the CAD and the tooling for what may seem a trivial thing, but if you want this kit to be accurate and easy to build, then this detail will make a lot of difference to the "face" of the aircraft.

There is also a potential problem with knitlines in the clear plastic when the part is fed from two or more gates (an example is Kinetic's early F-5A canopies). The gates on the windshield feed into an area that should be clear, and the gates are prone to cracking and stress fractures either during shipping or if the modeller is not careful when removing these parts from the sprue. As there is no frame in this area on the real thing, there is a risk of the part being useless to make a realistic replica. If you were to copy the layout from Kinetic and KittyHawk on the windshield, then gating the part on one side to the bottom of the clear part would kill two birds with one stone: You would make it easier to glue the windshield on, any filling or sanding would be away from the areas to remain clear, and if there should be stressmarks, then they would be away from the clear areas too, so your part would be more robust and capable of surviving the transport. It would also allow you to use a slightly larger gate to retain the part better.

Jens

Edited by jenshb
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So only an hour or two since it was announced, and already someone has questioned the intake shape and someone else has requested it in a different scale! Brilliant, I love Internet fora!

A poor choice of words, but my intention was to encourage MPM to make a 1:48 scale kit as well as 1:72 (which was my interpretation of what Jennings meant!). I have several Hasegawa kits in 1:72 and intend(ed) to build one aircraft from each country operating the F.1. I'd love to see a good, state of the art F.1 in either scale.

Jens

Edited by jenshb
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Laurent, from what I can see on the kit photos the intakes have rounded corners.

Oops, sorry Petr unsure.gifIt's more visible if you view the original size photo... they are rounded indeed but the radius may be a little small. Anyway, we don't have the 90° angle that Esci and KH did in 1/48 and that Hasegawa and Heller did in 1/72.

I'll take an AZ, a CT and a CR (I hope to do this one) !

Edited by Laurent
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Oh.

My

God.

Do I spy Kukri?!?

:jaw-dropping:

:nanner:

:banana:

Yeah, I officially don't care about nit-picky shape details if a manufacturer actually includes accurate, injection moulded Kukri in a model kit. That kind of unorthodox tooling deserves to be rewarded!

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even thought i already commented on the 1/72 Aircraft Forum, i am happy enough to shout out "THANK YOU" here as well! That AZ is going to look great in my (finally used) Albatross "Dark Mirages" sheet.

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