HASAGAWA 1:72 MIRAGE F.1C

Reviewer: Myself  (braithy@bigpond.com)

The Dassault-Breguet Mirage F.1C is the all-weather interceptor used by the French Air Force.  It differs somewhat to the traditional Mirage family in that it has a shoulder wing style with wingtip AAMs compared to the renowned delta wing style.  The F.1C is equipped with a powerful Flight Control System that enables the aircraft to be a formidable high altitude interceptor as well as improving its ground attack capability.   The Mirage F.1C has a maximum speed of about Mach 2.2 at altitude.

This kit is one which is of aged Hasagawa tooling (if in fact it is Hasagawa's design?) and the moldings do show this, but is still up to par as far as I am concerned with the finished product.  Having said this, however, I am inclined to believe that this actually is a reboxing of another manufacturer's kit which would explain a few anomolies that one doesn't normally associate with Hasagawa.  I would appreciate any comments regarding this if you know of its actual origins.  Anyway, it has raised panel lines with engraved control surfaces and the detail is of 'medium' grade (not too little, but certainly not a lot either).  However, there are a few extra options included in the kit such as standing figure and ladder which make it more appealing. The instructions are set out on a fold out strip with sprue diagram and photo/diagram stores comparison with the French Jaguar A.

Cockpit detail is much better than later Hasagawa products with a fairly detailed cockpit tub unit with seat, stick, main and side instrument panels (decals provided).   This sits nicely inside the fuselage - there is no recommendation for nose weight so this needs to be considered (I built mine in wheels-up mode).  The fuselage halves were not very obliging when it came to a tight seal and needed filling and sanding afterward to hide the gaps and join lines. Wings are molded as one piece and adjoin to the fuselage without any gap problems - same with tailplanes.

There are plenty of options in this kit including positionable speed brakes (with actuating struts), ladder, open or closed canopy and in-flight refuelling probe.  Not much in the way of weapons, however, just Matra Magic air-to-airs for the wingtips, Matra 530 AGM's for underwing pylons and a centreline 320 Gal Fuel tank.

Wheels-up fanatics (like myself) will be annoyed that there are no door covers for the nosewheel - instead these have been molded onto the fuselage in the open position (there is no cover in front of the nose-door area either), a pity because the main gear doors when closed fit almost perfectly.  Another downer to the nosewheel even in wheel-down configuration is that you can see right through to the cockpit.  A bit of well-placed putty should take care of this.  The undercarriage has been reproduced quite nicely but the nosewheel doors still look odd with lowered undercarriage.

Three versions can be reproduced by the kit - all in upper Blue-Grey, lower "Silver Grey" and Dark Grey nosecone colour scheme.  The examples are E.C 1/5 Vendee Solenzara BA, E.C 1/12 "Cambresis" Cambrai BA and then the same second example but at the 19th Tiger Meet, June 1979 with a distinctive black and gold striped fin and ventral fins.  I chose the Tiger Meet example for something different and the tiger-like tail striping looks quite spectacular.  The decals were of reasonable quality, nice and thin although easy to tear.

This kit portrays the F.1C very nicely and stands up well when compared to reference material.  It probably lacks a bit in definitive detail (which is hard to capture anyway in this scale) and I am not sure whether this kit is of true Hasagawa origins or not.  Only the fuselage caused any real problems as far as fits were concerned although the speed brakes need to be trimmed to sit in their allocated space.  The nosewheel bay was certainly an annoyance and unfortunately remains open on the finished product (one can cut off the doors and then use plastic card to construct their own) but despite these I would still happily recommend it to all but the very novice.

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Only intended to allow one to recall the F.1 Mirage, this version is not replicated in the kit
Note also the absence of underwing pylons and wingtip missiles.