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Dassault Mirage F.1 kits in 1/72 scale: kit modelling reports
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The third double seater 1/72 Special Hobby kit F.1ED kit finished as an IRAN air force model. These fighters were ex-Iraqi jets that fled/ defected to IRAN during the Gulf War of 1991. The IRAN decals came from XTRADECAL set #72254, these are excellent and look well researched.
The F.1EQ / ED has an extra fin fillet at the vertical fin.
NOTE: Special Hobby kit #SH72386 has an extra sprue that provides this tail with fillet. I had a Special Hobby "over trees" #SS007 kit packed in a bag with no decals. But no fillet there. So the tri-angular fillet was made from thin plastic card and blended in with putty and sanded.
The IRAN desert colours airbrushed were these acrylics:
- lower surfaces FS35622 with Gunze Sangyo Mr.Hobby H314;
mask the narrow lower areas and wing and than... the side and upper surfaces:
- tan with Revell Aqua 16
- dark brown FS30219 with Gunze Sangyo Mr.Hobby H310
Also paint black nose and anti-glare panel and the various light grey antenna areas.
A central pylon #32 as per kit was fitted as well but no stores.
The vertical tail fairings got black tips, fillet light grey and tail end light grey as well.
Cockpit and other model completion were done similar as described on the other kits.
IRAN
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[ area: 1,648,000 km2 | capital: Tehran | population: 84 million | GDP ~7,000 USD per capita nominal ]
It seems some 24 F.1EQ and F.1BQ fled/ defected from Iraq during the Gulf War of 1991 to IRAN. (earlier in 1980 these Iraqi jets were used in a conflict with IRAN over the Shatt al Arab waterway; they could be armed with the AM39 anti-ship Exocet missile and HAROLD TV pod). A decade later during the Gulf War of 1991, the fled/ defected Iraqi jets were put in IRAN service!More info about this air force on my F-5 page here...
IRAN Mirage F.1ED, 3-6407/10, IRAN air force based at Tehran-Mehrabad.
... set in a scenery...
The fourth double seater 1/72 Special Hobby kit F.1BQ kit was finished also as an IRAN air force model but now in a blue scheme shown in the Special Hobby Dual Package SH72414.
As I bought the "over trees" packed kit #SS007 with no decals, now the decals came from XTRADECAL set #72254.
This variant also had the fin fillet so make this from plastic card and blend in, see above.
The colours airbrushed were these acrylics:
- lighter blue overall airbrushed first with a MIX of 90% Gunze Sangyo H314 FS35622 + 10% H323 light blue.
- mask and than airbrush darker blue pattern Gunze Sangyo H25
The wing lines can either be red but also jets were seen with yellow lines as suggested by the XTRADECAL instructions.
The various fairings, tail ends and fillet got some black and light grey paints and the top fin leading edge a white edge. This particular jet "3-6406 had a narrow red main air intake edge (thus this was brush painted) and a red turbine warning stripe on the aft fuselage (decal used).
A central pylon #32 as per kit was fitted as were the wing tip launch rails #70,71 but no stores fitted.
Cockpit and other details were done similar as described above...
Mirage F.1 BQ "3-6406/10, of 102 TFS/ 10 TFB of the Islamic Republic of IRAN air force. This one was a fled/ defected ex-Iraq jet during the 1991 Gulf War, see notes above.
More Mirage F.1 models to follow....
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Created this page Oct 10, 2025