| Every year brings a
new crop of Tiger Meet paint schemes. For my taste, these
usually fall into two groupings -- too gaudy or too tame. Every
once in a while, though, a scheme comes along that really grabs
my fancy. The French Mirage 2000-5F from the 2004 Tiger Meet is
one such paint scheme. Not since 1991 and the Belgian tiger F-16
have I liked a Tiger Meet scheme this much.
Getting decals to model these schemes can be a tricky thing.
Some occasionally show up in model kits as kit decals. Others do
eventually show up in the after-market world. But by no means do
they all show up. I just figured that this one would slip away
without another notice.
On placing an inquiry about this scheme on the HyperScale
forum, someone send me to the web page for
Syh@rt Decals.
Note that the links on the English page do not seem to work, but
you can blunder around the French language pages and find what
you are looking for.
Among various offerings, mostly French topics, I found the
decals listed for the 2004 Tiger Meet Mirage 2000. Now, how much
did I want to go out on a limb for a "no name" company doing
ALPS-style decals? I decided to give it a try.
Well, I was not disappointed!
The decals are printed by ALPS, but the printing is
outstanding quality, as is the art work that produced them. I
have labored long to get nice reds and yellows on my ALPS to no
real success. Whoever Syh@rt Decals is, he knows how to
make really great ALPS decals.
As good as the decals, the instructions are in full color and
extremely well done. They are clear and concise, showing exactly
where each of the decals is applied. Judge for yourself...
Decal Instructions - Sheet 1 |
Decal Instructions - Sheet 2 |
| Now, these decals
are not for the faint hearted.
It is expected that the modeler will
paint the major yellow and orange sections of the rear
fuselage. To aide in this task, full 1/48th
scale templates are included in the set (see the image
to the right).
As indicated on the template sheet,
these are scaled to fit the Italeri Mirage 2000
kit, but I feel that with only minor modification,
anyone capable of handling these decals in the first
place should be able to adjust the templates to fit any
kit. |
Decal Instructions - Sheet 3 |
There you have it. These Syh@rt Decals are extremely
nice. They are a bit expensive, but well worth the money for
providing a set of markings you can not get anywhere else. My
only negative about the decals was the length of time it took to
get them delivered to me. Syh@rt was having trouble
acquiring ALPS supplies. But, they kept me updated all along the
way and after about three months, I got this big envelope from
France in my mail box. The contents made all my patience well
worth the investment.
Highly Recommended.
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