Eduard 1/48th Mirage III C Profipack By Matt Bittner

My apologies to our readers. I'm working in a time-crunch and along with the fact I'm unfamiliar with this aircraft - and don't build in this scale - that I'm just going to offer some small text, and a look at the entire contents of the box.

The Kit

There are a lot of pieces to this kit. A lot. Definitely more than I'm used to. However, while looking over the whole thing, it definitely appears complete and I don't see a need for aftermarket at all. The cockpit tub is very "busy" and everything major appears to be there - including the photoetch for the seat belts. In fact, there is a lot of photoetch that is included to fill out the cockpit. Naturally, as is the norm for Eduard kits these days, the instrument panel is pre-painted and definitely looks as good as anything else one can do to an instrument panel.

One thing I noticed while looking over the instructions is that there is a lot of bold text that contains various warnings of what to do, and what not do. I think it would behoove the modeler building this kit to take a highlighter and highlight all of this relevant text. That way all of the special text is easily seen and hopefully not soon forgotten.

Two items included in the box I was very suprised with - and something you don't see very often from other manufacturers. The first is a figure, done in five parts (torso, head, and the other four appendages) that is very well molded. The second is what I was even more surprised with - a pre-molded weight that fits into the nose-cone that will ensure the kit sits on its nose landing gear correctly. Well done Eduard!

There are six shemes that are catered for on the decal sheet - three French, one South African, and two Israeli. The decals are extremely well done and very colorful. In fact, there's an extra sheet of decals included with at least this Profipack kit that are also well done - this extra sheet consists of nothing but stencils. Wow!

Conclusion

If this scale and this subject matter is something you're interested in, I can say it doesn't get any better than this Profipack kit. With the markings and airforces covered it's a pretty complete model out of the box. Definitely recommended.

My thanks to Eduard for the review sample.