Kinetic 1/48 Nesher Kit First Look

By Michael Benolkin

First Look

When the 1967 War descended upon the Middle East, Israel was urgently awaiting delivery of new Mirage fighters they had purchased from France, as well as other weapons systems needed to survive. When an embargo was placed upon Israel, these aircraft would remain in France and the Israeli Air Force had to work with the resources on-hand. To avoid facing another potential embargo in the future, Israel aggressively pushed forward to establish its own defense industry. One of the first projects on its list was to reverse engineer and build the Mirage V to their own specifications and this indigenous version was called Nesher (Vulture). As the Nesher proved itself in combat, Israeli Aircraft Industries had already set its sights on an improved aircraft which replaced the Nesher's (and Mirage's) Atar engine with the General Electric J79 which powered the F-4 and F-104. This combination resulted in the sport model of the Mirage III/5 series, the Kfir (Lion Cub).

Around eight years ago, Kinetic Models first released their Kfir kit in 1/48 scale, and what followed was a variety of other Dassault Mirage III/5 variants. Wingman Models also enhanced selected Kinetic kit subjects like the Kfir by reboxing the stock kits and adding resin, photo-etch, and turned metal parts. The one subject that they didn't cover was that initial homemade version of the Mirage 5, the Nesher. It could have been done with one of the other earlier releases, but then you'd be stuck for decals. This kit provides the right combination of parts to render the Nesher, though not in its primary fighter-bomber role. Let's take a look:

Among the features and options in this kit:

• Can be built as a single-seat or two-seat variant (two different fuselages included)
• Nicely detailed ejection seats but no crew restraints are provided or molded onto the seats
• Nicely detailed front and rear cockpits
• Positionable canopy
• Intake ducts down to the compressor face
• Detailed landing gear and wheel wells
• Landing gear is positionable
• Flaps and flaperons can be positioned neutral (flight) or drooped/down

Weapons/stores options include:

• 2 x underwing tanks
• 2 x AIM-9B Sidewinders

Marking options include:

• Nesher 510, 144 Sqn, Etzion AFB, 1975
• Nesher 561, 113 Sqn, Hatzor AFB, 1975
• Nesher 618, 144 Sqn, Etzion AFB, 1977
• Nesher 634, 113 Sqn, Hatzor AFB, 1977

The decal sheet was designed by Isra Decal and printed by Cartograf.

While the kit will need some aftermarket crew restraints for the ejection seat(s), the model should go together nicely and fill another void in the (extended) Mirage family.

My sincere thanks to Lucky Model for this review sample!