The Mirage replaced the Avon Sabre in Australian service. The Mirage was chosen over the Starfighter and Dassault’s own Mirage IIIc. The first unit to receive the Mirage was 2OCU (Operational Conversion Unit) based at Williamtown in 1964 and the first operational squadron to be equipped with the Mirage was 75 Squadron. As can be seen I chose to model an aircraft from this squadron.

As there is a pretty good conversion set available from Red Roo, I won’t go into too much detail on how I converted Heller’s Mirage into an RAAF machine.   

Anyway when you purchase this kit you are given the option of building a Mirage III “C” or “B”. But since I was making an RAAF machine I needed to lengthen the aircraft. So I used the forward fuselage from the “B” model (twin seater) section. Cut the nose of the twin seater and replaced it with the nose from the single seater. I also removed the rear bulkhead (from twin seater) and moved it forward. Using scrap plastic card and Tamiya putty, I filled up the gap that was left. The tail was removed from the fuselage and pushed back. The dorsal fairing from the tail was also removed and carefully sanded as well. The exhaust supplied with the kit was replaced, as it was the split type, which is incorrect for an Australian Mirage. Heller doesn’t supply any weapons, so the missiles were taken from the spare box, and launch rails were scratched built. 

Apart from all the modifications the kit goes together pretty well. The surface detail is a combination of raised and recessed panel lines. The plastic is on the soft side, which makes cutting easier if you wish to alter the aircraft, as I did. Detail in the cockpit, landing gear and wheel wells are basic. So these areas need to be worked on.   

I used Roo Decal decals; this decal sheet allows you to build aircraft from 75 & 77 squadrons, 2OCU (Operational Conversion Unit) as well as an aircraft from ARDU (Aircraft Research and Development Unit). The decals are nicely printed and in register. However a point to note is that these decals are not sealed so they have to be sprayed with a sealant (such as Tamiya Clear). Why? If you don’t the decals will break up into small pieces once removed from the backing paper. 

The model was painted with enamels and the colours used were dark sea grey, dark green, light aircraft grey and black. The paint was applied using a Lenco airbrush. Once the decals had been applied and left to dry the whole model was sprayed with several coats of Testor’s Dullcoat.