IPMS/USA again thanks Piotr for supporting the IPMS USA reviewer corps with one more of many monthly releases, with an extremely useful and well-thought out 1/144 Pitot tube probe for any of the 1/144 kits of the Mirage III.

1 part (ONE) is included, along with a detailed instruction sheet on what size hole to drill and where to insert the probe. I find these probes more useful than pins to address the issues of scale size, appearance, and flexibility without incurring personal injury. Steel pins are more durable, but tend to not “flex” or give, and the effect of driving a staple into one’s eye or hand or whatever is not so traumatic if the brass probe deflects off to one side. Even Nurses wince with needles….

The base kit I used was a relatively new release from Mark 1 Models in the Czech Republic…they have an excellent range of kits, and the Mirage was no exception. Assembly was swift and it was ready for painting and pitot installation...

This probe also will not break your model nose off if you happen to tag it during bench flying sessions. I used a micro drill and an x-acto blade to install mine; a quick twist on the tip of the plastic radome flat spot in the center to make a pilot hole, and drill away. Again, not much to do; build the kit, paint, then make a small flat on the extreme tip of the nose. Drill the mounting hole, insert the probe with a bit of superglue, then paint. Simple work! (P.S. Magnifiers help in this scale).

In the end I like the look… very nice and durable. I even dropped the unfinished kit and it didn’t break off the probe, but bent it to 45 degrees off center. Careful two-fingered adjustment brought it back into line… Again, Thanks to Piotr and his team for the fantastic review item, and John and Phil for the build review opportunity.