PJ Production 1/72 Mirage MirSIP/Elkan Conversion
By Matt Bittner
The Mirage MirSIP (Mirage Safety Improvement Program) was designed to upgrade the fleet of Mirages to more modern systems. It was initiated by the French government in the late 1980s, but the new government coming in cancelled the program. However, the Belgian firm SABCA had a license to build Mirage aircraft so opted to keep the program going. But since the Mirage III was coming at the end of its life regardless, SABCA sold all twenty MIRSIP-converted Mirages to Chile. While in the Chileans hands, though, they too provided their own upgrades, and the aircraft was known as the Elkan.
The PJ Production 1/72 Mirage III MirSIP/Elkan conversion consists of 6 pieces of tan resin and a photoetch fret of 29 pieces. The box contains parts for both a single- and double-seat Mirage and is designed to be used with the PJ Production Mirage 5BA/BR kit. The resin parts consist of new canards, the instrument panels (both front and rear) and fuselage underside "bulges". Pieces on the photoetch fret are various antenna, pitot tubes and strakes. Pay close attention to the instructions because it shows you which parts are to be used for both the MirSIP and Elkan versions, and which parts are to be used for the Elkan only.
Unfortunately there are no decals with this conversion so you'll have to source those on your own. If you're the type that wants to build all variants of a particular airframe, or just want a different Mirage version, then you'll want to pick up this conversion set.
A definite "thank you" to PJ Production for sending this conversion in for review.