The Mirage F1 was withdrawn from the French Air Force active service this year. The last flight
occurred on the French National Day for the flying Parade over the Champs Elysées. I was there and full of nostalgia!
The aircraft
The F1B is the two-seater version of the F1. It was developed for the export to foreign countries but the French air force finally purchased 20 aircraft of the type to train its F1C pilots. The first unit to fly the type was the 3/5 “Comtat Venaissin” squadron at Orange Air Base. The F1B is 0,3 m longer than the F1C and 200 kg heavier. It is equipped with the Martin Baker Mk10 seat (as the F1CR and F1CT types) and does not carry the two 30 mm DEFA cannon of the F1C.
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The model
The only existing model of the F1B in 1/72 scale was made by Heller. Unfortunately it is no
longer available on the market. But, I had the chance to get the parts from my friend Eric Bade (top modeler and contributor to ARC). As the Hasegawa F1C model is better in shape than the Heller one, I decided to implement the F1B canopy parts of Heller on the Hasegawa model. Below is a picture of the job. The green plastic parts come from the Heller box.