1/48 Israeli Mirage III "Shahak 59"
I have a full squadron of Mirage lll's in my stash. Every variant the South African Airforce flew, a few from Israel and their upgraded versions, the Cheetah & Kfir. After my last Italeri build where the AK base coat turned to dust and resulted in a disappointing finish, I decided to try again with a 1/48 Hobbyboss kit, using an Alclad base and the same AK metallics. So far this is by far my best result and will be using this combo on my 1/32 SAAF Mirage lll CZ.
Israel received 70 Mirage lll's, designated CJ, between April 1962 and July 1964. Two Mirage IIIRJ single-seat photo-reconnaissance aircraft, received in March 1964 & Four Mirage IIIBJ two-seat combat trainers, three received in 1966 and one in 1968. Israel's success with their Mirage lll's and Neshers (Mirage 5) is almost mythical. Scoring 397.5 Kills from 1962 until their retirement in the 1980's.
Three airframes stand out among the rest. Shahak 59 (my subject), Shahak 58 & Nesher 56, each dowing thirteen enemy aircraft. On December 14, 1966, flown by Yoram Agmon, Shahak 59 was the first to record a kill by a Mirage in the world, by 1970 she had 11 kills. In the early 70's she was repainted to the standard three tone camouflage and attainted her final two kills on September 13th, and the other on October 6th on the first day of the Yom Kippur War.
Shahak 59 may have increased this tally if it wasn't for an accident the very next day. She missed almost all of the conflict while being repaired. Upon returning to service she was fitted with a Reconnaissance nose and numbered as 459. At the end of the seventies, it was re-converted to a fighter, and as ‘159’ assigned to 254th Tayeset Mercaz Ha’Medina (Middland Squadron). In 1982, it was sold to Argentina, who proudly displayed her 13 Vicories on the nose. She was retured to Israel in 2003 and now lives at the Aviation Museum at Hatzerim.
My model depicts her between 6/6/67 and 7/7/69 as she has three victories, Listed below.
14/7/66 - Yoram Agmon - Syrian Airforce MiG21 - Cannon
5/6/67 - Ilan Gonen - Egyptian Airforce Il-14 - Cannon
6/6/67 - Uri Shachar - Egyptian Airforce MiG 19 - Cannon
Awesome, love the finish
Cheers George!
A great result of this aircraft with an interesting history, Neill @neillroos
Very nicely painted.
Thanks John, Israeli Airforce has some very interesting subjects.
Excellent result and very informative article, Neill!
Appreciated Spiros!
Beautiful NMF, Neill!
Love the variation in the panels.
Thanks Alfred!
Well done!
Thank you!
Nice work, Neill. Silver Mirages always catch my eye.
Cheers John, my absolute favorite jet & colour combo
Beauty NMF work, Neill.
Great looking Mirage.
Appreciate the kind words George!
Wonderful job, chap.
If I dare ask: how do you know what hue to use and where to put it ? It seems a dumb question, but this puzzles me for long.
Thanks Jose! I just have a lot of books and reference material regarding Mirage lll's. There is a multi part booklet called "Mirage lll in SAAF service" which has plenty of pics. For this one i used the book "Israeli Mirage & Nesher Aces" by Shlomo Aloni.
Thank you for your reply, chap. I'm going to observe my documents with more efforts (and pleasure, of course)
A real beauty - from what I can see in the dim light I think the NMF looks fantastic - would love to see it with more light...
Thanks Greg, updated the pics @gkittinger and definitely looks a lot better.