SMB-2 Super Mystère 'Sa’ar – Israeli Storm in the Sky' 1/48

   This model kit of the SMB.2 French jet fighter with the J52 US-built engine and longer tail cone is made using steel moulds and comes on nine styrene sprues (two of which are doubled) and one clear parts sprue. The excellent styrene parts are joined by no less perfect 3D-printed items (made in cooperation with Mini Craft Collection) which contain the ejection seat, speed brakes, 250kg bombs and Shafrir missiles on their racks. The decal sheet caters for three Israeli machines in various colour schemes.

The French Dassault Super Mystere B2 was the first Western European, mass production-built jet fighter to achieve supersonic speed in a level flight.  The type was a follow-on development of Dassault's earlier successful jet fighter airplanes such as the Ouragan or Mystere IV and a number of test prototypes too.  The first production airframe, out of the total of 180 built, first flew on 26 February 1957, with the production machines being allocated to No.10, 12 and 5 escadrons of the Armée de l'Air, they also served with test centres CEV and CEAM and in flying schools. Later machines were fitted with more powerful Atar 101G-2 or G-3 engines. The type was on strength of combat squadrons until 1977 when the last remaining SMB2s of No.12 Escadron were replaced by more modern Mirage III jets. The service of SMB2s with the French military was quite uneventful, the only exception to the dull military routine were the occasional air force exercises which took place in NATO countries or in Africa and also the Operation Air Bull in Thailand.    The most important operator of the type outside of France, the Israel Air Force saw much more interesting flying and combtat career of the type – their SMB2s took part in a series of clashes, conflicts and wars between Israel and its Arab neighbours. These wars are know as the War over Water, Six Day War, Yom Kippur War and also the rather lengthy conflict between these „regular“ wars, the Attrition War. The State of Israel had placed the order for the SMB2 fighters already in 1956, this being confirmed only two years later, in 1958. The SMB2, locally known as the Sambad, were deliveder in two batches of 24 and 12 airframes. Seven more of them were delivered later to make up for losses suffered during the service. Soon after the Sambads had been delivered, Israel acquired also the excellent Mirage IIIC jets which became its major front line fighter aircraft, so the Sambads were deployed just to one Tayeset, or Squadron (the 105th) and flew mainly in the fighter-bomber role. Owing to the trouble with spare parts caused by the French arms embargo, the Israeli Aircrafr Industries (IAI) proposed to fit the already rather worn out airframes with the US-built J52 turbofan. Even though these powerplants lacked the reheat, they were 25% lighter, had lower fuel consumption and offered thrust almost comparable to their French counterparts. As the new unit weighted less, it had to be mounted further back in the rear fuselage and as the nozzle was also already longer, it resulted in much longer jet pipe of the new machines compared to the standard Sambad. In the end, this change proved to help the type's survivability after being hit by enemy's IR-guided anti-aircraft missiles – the missiles homed usually on the hot exhaust nozzle and when exploded, the war head fragments did not hit the tail control surfaces as lethaly as was the case with the standard, short tailed Sambad type. The performance remained almost the same, except for acceleration and initial rate of climb. What is more, the type could carry much more underwing stores, had much larger range and could operate in the combat area much longer. In total, 26 airframes were re-engined and they were known in the IAF as the Sa'ar, or Storm in Hebrew. In a short time, they got the opportunity to show their capabilities in the 1973 Yom Kippur War and excelled in the ground attack role. In 1975, the 105th Tayeset  received their new F-4 Phantom II jets and the already obsolete Sa'ars finally retired.
-    superbly detailed and highly accurate model in the Hi-Tech format
-    accurate decals incule servicing stencils for three IAF airframes in various colour schemes
-    wide variety of underwing armament contained in the kit
-    limited release