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Last Updated: Aug 21st, 2020 - 13:06:35 |
The trade embargoes placed on South Africa during the 1970’s resulted in the necessity to refurbish/modify existing equipment rather than attempt to purchase new aircraft. By the early 1990’s, the SAAF’s Mirage III fleet was obviously obsolete and Atlas Aircraft Corporation was tasked with rebuilding them in an attempt to maintain some semblance of operational capability. Unfortunately the paranoia and secrecy of the apartheid-era government meant that little hard information on these conversions appeared, and the situation has not improved greatly since the implementation of democratic government. Most sources agree that Israel provided some of the design and much of the equipment (plus some air frames, as the alleged total of 38 single-seat Cheetah C’s exceeds the total of Mirage IIICZ’s and EZ’s delivered to the SAAF).
This new release from High Planes contains 40 short-run injection moulded plastic , 6 resin and 11 white-metal parts plus a vacformed canopy. No detailed overall dimensions were available to this reviewer but comparison with published photographs leads me to conclude all components are in proportion, although I think the fin/rudder may be a little tall.
External detailing is by way of fine engraved lines - somewhat indistinct on the two fuselage halves, while rescribing those around the control surfaces will improve the model. The cockpit consists of an adequately detailed resin "tub" and ejection seat plus plastic instrument panel and coaming - the latter two parts require trimming to achieve a decent fit. Adequate detail is also provided in the wheel-wells and on the inside face of the undercarriage doors.
As is to be expected, all parts have thick "gates" and flash is evident on the smaller components. Cleaning up the kit parts with scalpel/files/"wet’n’dry" takes little time however. Care must also be taken to sand flat the mating surfaces. Fit of the components is generally satisfactory, however there is a slight mismatch of the fuselage halves, easily rectified with plasticard and filler. Also some trimming of the wheel-wells moulded integrally with the lower wings is necessary to allow the upper wing sections to fit properly. Small amounts of filler are required at the wing/fuselage join. The mouldings for the various intakes, aerials and strakes are rather "soft" and replacement of some, or all, with sprue/plasticard is an option, although to be fair once these have been fixed to the fuselage they look entirely adequate.
The decal sheet contains complete stenciling and markings for one current SAAF aircraft, plus sufficient numbers to produce all Cheetah C serials. The camouflage colours are cross-referenced to FS numbers. The instruction sheet clearly describes the construction sequence in plain English, has an excellent "exploded view" with notes, and includes detail sketches of the undercarriage. Conclusion - not a kit that "falls together" out of the box , but one which is well within all modeller’s capabilities, provided they are prepared to spend some time cleaning up the kit parts. Given the dearth of accurate Mirage III kits available, it is easier than converting one to a Cheetah. However I feel that the relatively high price may limit sales.
Ley Reynolds
Acknowledgements
Thanks to High Planes Models for the review sample and to Lindsay Charman for the help with references.
Postscript
It appears that an earlier single-seat refurbishment, the Cheetah E, was built. Once again little detailed information is availkable, but it appears the only external difference was a smaller diameter nose-cone, similar to a Mirage 5 nose, which may also have been slightly shorter. One assumes that this aircraft had a simple radar fit and was presumably optimised for ground-attack. Conversion of the kit to a Cheetah E would be quite simple. IPMS South Africa may be able to provide more details.
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