Best 1/48 Mirage III Kit???

[82Whitey51]

Got a desire to do an Aussie Mirage III. What is the best kit out there ? Italeri (looks like an old rebox of the ancient ESCI kit 👎😞), Academy, HobbyBoss? Aftermarket cockpits?

Edited March 22, 2023 by 82Whitey51

[arnobiz]

Aussie Mirage IIIO ~= Mirage IIIE, which probably makes the Kinetic kit your best starting point 😉

 

Arnaud

[82Whitey51]

9 hours ago, arnobiz said:

Aussie Mirage IIIO ~= Mirage IIIE, which probably makes the Kinetic kit your best starting point 😉

 

Arnaud

Alright, thank you Arnaud! I didn't realize Kinetic did one. Looking at sprue shots, I think they're the one to go with.

[Drifterdon]

Andy,

As Arnaud points out, your best starting point is the Kinetic Mirage IIIE kit.   Academy kit is the old Fujimi kit but with recessed panel lines and over simplified details.  Hobby Boss is OK but it's an early version with original exhaust.   Eduard made a weekend edition but I believe it too was an earlier version of the III.   Heller made the Mirage III but it was also the early version and has very simplified details.   As far as aftermarket, SBS Models makes a resin cockpit for the Kinetic IIIE which is very nice.   I have several.   AML Models makes a resin burner can for the Mirage III/V.   I have several of these as well.   All of the above are on the Bay for reasonable prices.

Hope this helps.

Don 

Edited March 23, 2023 by Drifterdon

[Gwen Phoenix]

Hi Andy,

Beware of Kinetic Mirage kits because they're actually 1/50th scale. I learnt about this fact when I visited a French forum going by the name of Les Maquettistes.

There's a forum member, Allwings (Alain), who showed that the main landing gear legs and wheels are 2mm undersized while comparing them with the Heller kit.

He affirms that the old Heller kit is still the best one there is out there.

Also, he offers a thread on how to convert the Heller Mirage IIIC/B into a IIIE-5 mainly using the parts in the box (only need to cater for the 300-litre underbelly tank and Snecma Atar 9C engine exhaust).

Cheers,

 

Gwen

[Dave Williams]

Is it just the gear legs and wheels that are undersized, or the length/wingspan too?  It would be strange to only use gear legs and wheels as a metric for kit comparison, when you should also be able to use the fuselage and wings.  It wouldn’t be that unusual for the gear legs to be short on kits, and many are since they usually use museum aircraft for reference, and the oleos have usually collapsed on many of them.  Undersized wheels are also not uncommon in kits.  I find it difficult to believe that Kinetic would make a new tool kit less than a decade old and use such bad dimensions that the entire thing is 1/50 instead of 1/48.  Also not sure of the “best” metric since the old Heller kit is lacking in a lot of detail compared to Kinetic, and also has minimal stores.

[Gwen Phoenix]

18 minutes ago, Dave Williams said:

Is it just the gear legs and wheels that are undersized, or the length/wingspan too? 

 

Dave,

From what I gather, the whole Kinetic kit is 1/50th scale. Also, I still recall this comparison picture posted on some forum where the Heller fuselage kit was compared to the Esci and Hobby Boss' (somebody?). And not only was the lenght which differed, but also the shape of it. Someone would even bring to attention the lack of the Ω-shape of fuselage present in the Heller example.

The height of the fuselage was lower on the Esci and Hobby Boss kits, and also it was the tail fin (undersized and different shape).

[habu2]

I haven't measured the Kinetic kit but the old Fujimi kits, and those reboxed by Academy, are 1/50 not 1/48. Specific Fujimi kits are their A-4, T-38, and A-6, there may be more but those I'm sure of.  Also the Hobbycraft>Academy F-117 is underscaled at 1/50. 

[joeltc]

Even if the scale is a bit out on the Kinetic kit It'd still be my first choice. As for the landing gear parts there's probably more than one company that produces aftermarket landing gear. Even if they're sized for another kit I'm sure they could be kit bashed with the Kinetic parts if one wanted to go down that path.

[arnobiz]

Agreed - the (very old) alternatives are just not worth the effort

[Cat Barf]

Here's a link to a review of the Kinetic kit by someone who both measured it and compared it to the other 1/48 Mirage IIIE kits. Absolutely no mention of any aspect of the Kinetic being underscale. 

 

https://www.hyperscale.com/2015/reviews/kits/kinetic48050reviewme_1.htm

[82Whitey51]

I'd still build the Kinetic kit even  if it was 1/50 scale...it still looks like a better Mirage III than the old dusty kits out there.

Thank you all for the input!

[cruiz]

They are listening to you.

 

https://www.instagram.com/p/CqlKfj5uqhe/

[cruiz]

By the way, the kits that are 1/50 are the ones from Academy, even if they say 1/48; I compared the Academy IIIR (same main airframe of the E) to Kinetic's IIIE, and Academy's one is smaller by about the same factor between 1/48 and 1/50.

[Gwen Phoenix]

Hi Carlos,

That's a huge blast to know; between my husband and I, we own almost sixteen of the new Kinetic 1/48 Mirage kits, including those by Wingman Models, and it was like "meh" to me when I read Alain @ Les Maquettistes forum say that the Kinetic Mirage kits were actually 1/50th in scale.

[cruiz]

Maybe I should have been more precise, Gwen; the 1/50 Academy's reference came from Scalemates; I only made a comparison between the two kits and a quick measurement that matched the premise of one being 1/48 and the other 1/50.

 

At the moment, I haven't seen someone make a formal measurement against accurate plans or at least a comparison between other brands' kits to clear things up. Thanks to Kinetic for taking care of the Mirage family.
 

[Drifterdon]

If I recall correctly, the Academy kit was based on the old Fujimi kit which was also 1/50 scale.   When I still had my Fujimi kit, I compared it with the Academy IIIR and the fuselages were almost identical.  Only difference was engraved panel lines and rivet detail vs. the raised in Fujimi.   I believe all other kits on the market are a tru 1/48.   I also have a large stockpile of Kinetic Mirages along with Eduard's and Hobby Boss's.   At one point before all those kits were introduced, I was trying to accurize the old ESCI and Heller kits but abandoned those to the dungeon when the newer kits were released.