FM 1/48 Dassault Mirage IIIE |  | Background Dassault brought the French Air Force into the twice-mach realm with the development of the Mirage III. Designed as a light-weight interceptor, the Mirage grew into a highly-successful multi-role aircraft and has become one of the most successful export products for Dassault. The Mirage IIIE was an evolutionary growth of the Mirage III, adding addition range, an improved radar, TACAN and additional external carriage capabilities. The Mirage IIIE would serve the French Air Force extensively, it also saw service within NATO, Israel and many other countries. The Kit The folks at FM have taken an interesting approach to delivering a Mirage IIIE. On opening the box, the first things I see are the four trees of Mirage parts that make up what I believe is the Heller Mirage IIIB/C kit. Buried under these trees are three more that are molded in a lighter grey styrene than the Heller parts, and these contain the new fuselage, external fuel tanks, missile pylons, etc. Beneath these three trees are four bags of detail parts. Two bags contain resin detail parts, which include a cockpit tub, ejection seat, main gear wells, nosewheel well, radome and wheels. All of these parts are beautifully detailed - I initially mistook the nosegear well for the cockpit tub because of all of the detailing! Two additional parts are provided in resin which represent the radar missile body and the centerline missile pylon. The remaining two bags contain a wealth of white metal parts that include pylons, gear doors, landing gear struts, radar missile fins and pitot tube. Another interesting discovery lay beneath the four bags of detail parts. This was a stack of five decal sheets that contain French roundels of varying sizes as well as markings for five aircraft: -
Mirage IIIE Nr 484 (3-JJ) - bare metal -
Mirage IIIE Nr 478 (3-JG) - bare metal -
Mirage IIIE Nr 478 (3-JG) - camouflaged -
Mirage IIIE Nr 520 (3-JI) - camouflaged -
Mirage IIIE Nr 484 (3-JV) - 40th anniversary markings for 3 Sqn. Conclusions Aside from an ancient ESCI Mirage IIIEO kit that hasn't been available for a while, this is the first real kit in 1/48 scale of the Mirage IIIE. If you model the French, Israeli, Belgian, or other air force, chances are that a Mirage IIIE had served in its service and this kit will be a welcome addition to that scale flightline. My sincere thanks to Squadron Mail Order for this review sample! | 
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