Kitty Hawk 1/32 Mirage 2000D & 2000-5

By Romain Flechon

For the last 2 years, I have been busy with this quite demanding project. And now I am happy to finally share the result.

I built side by side two Kittyhawk boxings, both in French Markings: A Mirage 2000-5 during Operation Harmattan (Lybia) in 2011, and a 2000D from Operation Chammal (Iraq/Syria) in 2015.

The builds were far from "out of the box" so to say...Kittyhawk... well is Kittyhawk, you know. Interesting subject, quite nice details, but mistakes, missing details, or incomplete instructions. So, I had to provide a lot of work to bring the models to the higher standard they deserve. It was a very demanding build, as I wanted to be as accurate as possible.

For example, I had to shorten the nose on the single seater. Actually, not the nose, but the front fuselage as KH pasted the longer length of the twin seater on the single seater. I ordered a new dual seater clear sprue from Kittyhawk when they were still in business to recreate the single-seater canopy on the shortened front fuselage, as the length is right in that boxing.

It was mainly done with the help of 3D printing. Here is the non-exhaustive list of addons:

For colors, the 2000-5 is painted with AKRC 235 and 252, but with a drop of X14 sky blue in each. The 2000D green is a mix of H65, H420 and H2, grey blue is H42+H331+H2.

As for FFSMC, well, the design and ideas behind the sheets are excellent. During these builds I worked closely with Joffrey who designed the Mirage decals. And I can say they are the most accurate you will find. But on the other side, Chris, the FFSMC owner, runs a very small business and the printer he operates gives a result not as good as other manufacturers.

That said, I used FFSMC decals for all the pylon stenciling, Damocles Pod stencils (they were custom, just for me), tail insignias, some aircraft stencils, crew names and bomb marks. I used Mr. Softner and VMS 2in1 setting solutions to place them. FFSMC offers the possibility to make the actual aircraft markings you ask him for, on demand. And that is a very smart concept, I find. It is worth trying...

Codes, roundels and walkways are painted with masks.

As for the figures, it was not easy for me to paint them, but those Reedoak gems deserve we make some time for them, don’t they?

The full WIP is detailed in 80 pages of French Cocardes magazine, with English captions. With Mike's authorization, I share the link if you want to get a copy: Magazine Cocardes 24.

Hope you like them!

© Romain Flechon 2025

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This article was published on Saturday, May 10 2025; Last modified on Sunday, May 11 2025