1:144 Mirage 2000C 12-YO Tigermeet 2005

A tiger Mirage 2000C from the 2005 gathering

The real subject is the French Mirage 2000C interceptor, which carried the code 12-YO and appeared in 2005 at the annual NATO Tiger Meet. At this meet squadrons that have a tiger in their badge or in their tradition come together, and it is the custom that each has one machine resprayed into conspicuous feline camouflage for the occasion. The figure twelve at the start of the code points to the escadre based at Cambrai-Epinoy.

How the finished machine is transformed

Out of the box the Mirage 2000C comes in a sober two-color gray-blue finish, to which the maker adds only a modest set of national insignia and a few warning markings. Once this sheet is stuck down, the fin, the spine and part of the fuselage will be covered with stripes and color fields, so what stands on the shelf is not a general representative of the type but a recognizable individual aircraft with a history and a year of its own.

What to reckon with when working at a small scale

In 1:144 the Mirage 2000C comes out at not quite eleven centimeters, so the individual motifs are printed very finely and take badly to being slid while dry. It has proved best to work on a gloss base layer, to use a softener and to let every piece dry thoroughly before you set about the neighboring one. Enlarge the drawings from the instructions beforehand so that you know exactly where each little piece belongs, because at this size the boundary of the color fields is hard to find.

Which kits it aims at

The motif fits any Mirage 2000C at this size; the single-seat variant differs from the two-seat versions in the shape of the canopy and the length of the forward section, so it is good to check the type before buying the plastic.