I always have fond memories of my childhood whenever I look at this model in my display cabinet. At one point in time, as a wee young lad, we stayed in Pietersburg. Mirages, Sabres and later Impalas from 85 AFS flew over our house constantly doing “touch-and-goes”. My school was close to the airbase and situated directly underneath the flight path on the runway approach. I can distinctly remember a day when a Mirage, passing through the sound barrier, caused some window panes of our kitchen to crack and the plastic cover of the tube lighting to flung open. Awesome experience for me, less so for the parents though! And then there was the day I ran out off the class, drawn by an unfamiliar jet sound. It turned out to be a couple of Buccaneers on their finals, with everything “hanging out”. What an awesome sight! Ok, enough nostalgia for now.

The model was made from the PJ Productions kit. It’s a mixed media kit with the main parts in resin, a photo etch fret for the finer details, white metal for the landing gear and two vac form canopies. Yes, you’re offered a second chance, should your knife slip during the cutting process. The wings are cast as a single piece. So once the fuselage halves are joined and the wings are added, the model already looks the part. The casting is excellent throughout, especially the wheel bays. No need to add any detail, unless you really want to recreate a 100% reproduction of the real machine. Same goes for the ejection seats and cockpit. Minimum clean up is needed before construction can proceed.

The kit is not without its flaws though. I had to spend some time to make the flaps and elevators fit the wings. Some filling was also needed to blend the top fuselage to the wings. Tamiya putty did the job perfectly though. I used a grey enamel primer to highlight any flaws before I committed to painting the final camouflage scheme. I prefer an enamel based primer as it tends to “bite” into the resin. I used Compucolor enamel paints for the camouflage scheme, thinned with Xylene. Apparently this is not a very “bio friendly” chemical, but I did wear a mask and at this point in time, touch wood, I’m still alive to tell the tale. Furthermore, I never have, nor will I ever boast about having a small “carbon footprint”.