History 

The Israeli Air Force acquired 24 Super Mystères in 1958.

Israeli Super Mystères were involved in a controversial incident in which the USS Liberty was attacked. The aircraft saw action in the 1967 Six-Day War and the 1973 Yom Kippur War in which 6 were lost.

Super Mystères were well-liked by Israeli pilots, and were regarded as good match for the MiG-19 operated by opponents in air-to-air combat.

In the box 

This is the first boxing of the SMB-2 Super Mystère 'Sa’ar, which was released in 2019, and it has been released several times since, twice by Azur/Frrom.

Packed in a top opening box, the SMB-2 Super Mystère 'Sa’ar features one of the marking options as the box artwork. The sides show all the marking options available in this boxing.

Inside the box you will find seven dark grey sprues, one clear sprue in its own bag, and the large decal sheet. A set of folded A4 size colour instructions complete the contents.

The kit comprises of around 129 parts of which 13 are not used. 

External detail for the SMB-2 is pretty good with recessed panel lines and fasteners adorning the fuselage and wings.

Although they look a little heavy in the pictures, once primer and paint go on they will appear more subtle.

Control surfaces are moulded integral to the wings, tail planes and rudder and are in the neutral position.

Interior detail is pretty good for a 1/72nd scale kit. The ejection seat is made up of six parts, but no harness is supplied either as a photo etch part or decals, so making your own or using some aftermarket parts could be used as quite a bit of the cockpit can be seen through the canopy.

The instrument panel has a decal for the dials, and a setting solution for the decal will need to be used as there is raised details on it. The side consoles have raised details so painting these parts will need to be done as no decals for the sides are supplied.

The air inlet which takes up just over half the fuselage is made up of four parts, which includes the nose gear bay, and an intake fan. No weight for the nose is indicated in the instructions too stop it being a tail sitter, but there isnt a lot of room to put any in.

The exhaust is made up of three parts and has a little detail, but your really not going to see much in the tube once its all built up.

The undercarriage bays have a little detail in them in the way of spars which one the main bays are moulded into the underside of the wing.

As already noted the nose gear bay is part of the air intake and also has a nice bit of detail in the way of spars.

The main undercarriage legs are made up of three parts each, including the one piece wheels. Detail is quite good, with the wheels having a tread pattern moulded onto them.

The clears parts are crystal clear and have raised framing.

Two main canopies are supplied so you can have the choice of closed or open.

One part is needed for the closed main canopy and five parts are required for the open main canopy.

The windshield as with the main canopy has raised framework.

No masks are supplied but Special Hobby do sell an aftermarket set.

Two sprues of weapons are supplied, which hold various dumb bombs, fuel tanks, and missiles.

The weapons supplied are - 

2 x Napalm

2 x 250kg bombs bombs

8 x 100kg bombs on 2 quadruple racks

2 x 1300L fuel tanks

2 x 625L fuel tanks

2 x Rafael Sharfir 2 AA missiles.

The detail is quite nice and its nice to see an assorted array of weapons can be slung under the aircraft.

Decals, markings and instructions 

The instructions are printed on a folded A4 size paper, and consists of 12 pages, with the last three for the three full colour profiles. The booklet is matt in apperance and in colour for most of the build with internal colours given along the way.

The cover has a short history of the Super Mystère in English and Czech, followed by the parts tree map ove two pages. The build takes place over seven pages and nineteen steps.

The build sequence looks easy enough to follow.

The decal sheet is fairly large with a few stencils printed on the sheet, along with the insignia's and numbers for the three colourful marking options supplied.

The decals are in register and very nicely printed by Cartograf.

Three marking options are supplied, all are in either a two or three tone camo scheme.

The three options are 

1 IAI Sa’ar, 096, No. 105 Scorpion (Ha’Akrav) Sin, Hatzor, Israel, 1973.

2 Dassault Super Mystere B2, No. 09/909. This is the irst airframe re-engined with the US-built ex A-4 Skyhawk J52 jet engine, by the IAI at the Central Maintenance Unit 22 facility.

3 IAI Sa’ar, 25, No. 105 Scorpion (Ha’Akrav) Sin, Hatzor, Israel, early 1970s.

Conclusion

Special Hobbies Super Mystère looks to be a nice little kit with enough detail to keep most modellers happy, although you could detail up some areas with some aftermarket parts.

The build looks to be easy enough to follow, and with three interesting marking options it is pretty good value for money.

Mfg. ID - SH72345

Suggested Retail - 22.91 €

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This item was provided by them for the purpose of having it reviewed on this KitMaker Network site. 

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