Kits with SAAF Marking Options included
Airfix Mirage F1CZ
Special Hobby Mirage f1 “Commie Killers”
ESCI 1/72nd Scale Mirage F1 with Exocet missile
ESCI 1/48th Mirage F1CZ
ESCI 1/48th Mirage F1AZ
THE MODELS
Hasegawa Mirage F1AZ
I used the Hasegawa kit for my F1AZ. I had been told that the Mirage V nose was reasonably accurate to replace the C nose to get to a SAAF AZ version, except that all the Mirage V noses I looked at where too round. In the end I decided to modify the existing kit nose. I did this by sanding it slimmer (Spinners conversions have produced a resin cast replacement nose. I did not go all the way as I chickened out on scribing the air-to-air refueling door on the nose. I added the laser range finder from the ESCI kit which I slightly thickened to underside of the nose.
For my late generation model, I had to add the flare dispenser pod. This I did by adding two pieces of 10 thou plasticard to the ventral strakes to thicken them.
The colours used are Xtracolour French Mirage Blue for the undersides. This is possibly too blue to be accurate, but I have found that the shades used on the SAAF aircraft tended to vary quite a lot, especially if you take the fading due to the sun into account. The brown was Xtracolour no and the Olive Drab was Xtracolour. I used the Albatross Decals Dark Mirage sheet for my markings. One day I will scratch build the extended fuel tank/bomb rack that was used by the SAAF and fit it. My ventral bomb rack was sourced from an ESCI kit.
ESCI Mirage F1CZ
This model was built stock standard from the ESCI boxing. I used Albatross Decals to replace the thick and inaccurate ESCI decals. No corrections were made to the model. The paints used were Humbrol no163 for the Olive Drab, Humbrol 63 for the Deep Buff and Humbrol 123 for the underside. this was varnished with Humbrol 35 Poly which turned the blue of the paint slightly green which IMO gives a better representation of the Light Admiralty Grey used on these aircraft.
