1/48 Academy Mirage IIIRP

by Haroon Hamid

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  Pakistan Independence Day 2005 

 

History:
After 1965 Indo-Pak war, the need arose for an aircraft capable of doing high speed tactical reconnaissance work as the RT-33 proved to be inadequate.  During 1967 to 1971, the Pakistan AF placed an order for 13 Mirage IIIRPs.  Similar to the Mirage IIIRD, but with minor modifications to suit Pakistan's specifications.  Mirage IIIRPs are equipped with No.5 sqn and were fully operational during the 1971 Indo-Pak war, flying over 200 sorties without a single loss.

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The Kit:
I used the Academy kit for this build only because it had recessed panel lines. Upon closer inspection it looks like a re-boxed Fujimi kit and maybe a bit smaller in scale than what's stated on the box.

Construction:
Here comes the hard part. There is hardly any detail in this kit.  I had to scratch build the instrument panel, cockpit tub, ejection seat, fill up the nose (yes, it was hollow),  make the doppler chin, RWR, TACAN antennae and pitot tube.  Various other probes and bumps were added by looking at the reference photos.  Overall, it was tedious work and I would only recommend it if you really want to do a Mirage IIIR.

Haroon
PS. Special thanks to Fahad Arshad for allowing me to use his reference photos.

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Photos and text © by Haroon Hamid