DOUBLE VISION

René van der Hart scores a winner with this French striker.

- René van der Hart

Kinetic's latest 1/48 Mirage 2000 release was the two-seat version with additional weapons added in the form of GBU 12/22 smart bombs. All three of the two-seat variants the B, D and N can be built from this kit and it has decals for all of them too. I decided to go for the D version as I had already built a grey and blue 2000B a few years ago.

I purchased a few aftermarket sets for this project, such as a pair of resin ejection seats and exhaust from Aires, some resin flaps from Pavla, and pre-coloured instrument panels and a masking set from Eduard. There was no need to order aftermarket decals as the kit's ones are printed by Cartograf, so quality is guaranteed, and the schemes offered were to my liking. It is i important to make a decision which version you're going to build right from the start, because there are different parts for each variant included in the kit.

The build started, as usual, with assembly of the cockpit. All raised details from the instrument panels and side panels had to be removed and sanded smooth to be able to stick the pre-coloured placards in place. After all was tidy enough, the cockpit tub and inside of the fuselage were primed black and painted grey. I chose a colour that almost matched the grey/green colour of the instrument placards. After a clear coat was airbrushed on and had cured, the placards were all placed in position. Another clear coat was airbrushed onto the completed cockpit, and then a wash, made from Abteilung 502 oil paint and white spirit, was brushed over everything. This gave the area a well-used appearance.