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Showing results for tags 'Rafale B'.
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Good Day! I've wanted to have a Rafale, specifically a B in the collection for quite some time, as I like the lines of the two seater better, but this actually the second attempt at adding one to the shelf. I had attempted the Hobby Boss kit the first time about 8 years ago, but ran into some difficulties, the exact nature of which are lost to time. I had collected some aftermarket that was current at the time for that build, but would up not using any of it. As the years have gone on, aftermarket options have improved, and some more were added to the stash for my second attempt. The Hobby Boss kit is reportedly undersized, I've read that it's actually closer to 1/76 scale. That being said it is still the best "kit," even if it might not be the best model of the Rafale in approximately 1/72. As this will be the only example I ever plan on building, I decided add some detail and correct some of the flaws as I go along. Some of the details seem to be applicable to the Rafale prototype, but I'm not an expert, so I can't confirm which are, and which are simply mistakes on Hobby Boss' part. The most time consuming part of the process has been rescribing all of the panel lines. As molded, and based on my experience with the first build, a lot of them are very soft and poorly defined. Tools used were the Holly scriber from Shimomura Alec (highly recommended if you don't already have one), the back edge of my Xacto blade, and a compass point in a pin vise. Inevitably my various tools slipped out of position, but these errors were filled with Tamiya white putty and then rescribed again. After all was done, the surfaces were lightly sanded to smooth anything out. There are a LOT of panels on the Rafale, and that is the major reason that I'm not planning on building another one of these kits. 20241209_101659 by J2Hoops, on Flickr The efforts to rescribe the kit can be seen to a certain extent above, as well as some detailing on the lower fuselage. Additional corrections include: 1. Fill in the access panels on the furthest aft panel, immediately in front of the exhausts. These don't appear in any pictures of production aircraft I looked at. 2. Add some minor detail to the arresting hook and smooth the front transition to the lower fuselage. 3. Fill the holes and sand off the mounting plates for the fuel dump mast on the starboard side of the lower aft fuselage, this is only applicable for the "M" model. 4. Add backing plates behind the engine vents immediately aft of the main landing gear. 20241209_101718 by J2Hoops, on Flickr On the top half of the aft fuselage there was some more work done: 1. I reprofiled the chaff/flare mounting locations, but in retrospect I think this was probably unnecessary. I think I'd just smooth them out to get rid of the soft raised panels there if I had to do it again. 2. The APU exhaust was blocked from behind and some detail was added. On both the fuselage top and bottom half, the flaperons were cut off to be repositioned down once the fuselage is complete.
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All 1/48 scale from the Russian Knight done in January to Rafale B finished yesterday in 2014. Have posted a majority of these before. Thanks for looking. New year resolution is flankers and more flankers! J-10B prototype
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- Mig-29Su-27J-10B
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Here is the 1/72 Hobby Boss Rafale B Tiger Meet 2006. This is the first Hobby Boss kit I have ever made. As far as the fit of parts, I had little to no problems; the kit went together quite well. As for accuracy, beats me, I bought the kit for the Tiger Meet scheme and I hope it resembles a Rafale B. If it is one of those “Totally Unbuildable, Due to Horrible Errors” models, please excuse me for completing it, but at least enjoy the Tiger Meet scheme. The build thread is here: http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/234959640-rafale-b-tiger-meet/ So far during my new found fascination for Tiger Meet planes, I have only built 1/144 and 1/72 Revell kits. (There is a 1/32 model in the stash, that should be fun!) What make these kits are the decals. And my experience with decals from Revell has been nothing but wonderful in their application and how well they fit together to make the intended scheme. Hobby Boss needs to contact whoever does Revell’s tiger meet decals. The decals were hard to work with, tended to fold into each other and did not like to be moved, once applied. For these schemes, you need to be able to adjust the decals so they fit next to each other. The other complaint is one that I often wonder when building kits, “Did someone bother to try and build this prior to it being put out on the market?” Some of the decals do not match the ones they are supposed to meet. This would have been quite obvious if whoever made them attempted to put them on the kit. Thankfully, they do react kindly to Micro Set/Sol solutions and can be manhandled into place with enough solution and patience to smooth them out over long periods of time. The above said, I would build another Hobby Boss kit and even take a crack at another tiger meet scheme though. Enough rambling, here are the end results. All comments welcome.
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My fascination with Tiger Meet kits continues with this 1/72 Rafale B from Hobby Boss. I have built some 1/144 and 1/72 Revell Tornados, but I am branching out. This is the first Hobby Boss kit I have ever built. I am wondering if the fit and design of the kit, plus the quality of the decals will equal Revell. I have chosen the second Tiger Meet scheme in the box. The cover depicts another Tiger Meet aircraft. Upon opening the box, I am very pleasantly surprised with the amount of detail to the parts and surface. This is a very nice kit. Now, I have to admit, I have no knowledge of planes without propellers. If you asked me how accurate this kit is, couldn’t tell you to save my soul. I just bought it for the Tiger Meet scheme. If the kit goes together well and the decals fit, then I will be happy. Since my knowledge is negligible, I am solely relying on the color callouts in the instructions. My apologies if it offends the Rafale fans. I am not messing up on purpose. So on with the show. Let’s start out with the, ummm, cockpit. Nice amount of parts, looks like a lot of detail in the kit parts, plus supplementation by decals. The layout of the parts with a base coat on each looks like this. There are various decals that need to be applied to the two instrument panels. I am encouraged after application of these decals. They seem to react well with Micro Set/Sol and snuggle down nicely. I hope the Tiger Meet decals work as well as these. I put the two seats together and then painted on a few details along with weathering one to compare to the unweathered one. Here are the back of the seats (which will probably be invisible once installed) The sides, starboard, port and both sides weathered The cowling for the rear seat is next Finally, the tub is painted and various decals applied to good effect. Now, everything is put in the tub with these results. The fit was quite good except for one area. Each seat top has a gap that needs to be filled. That may very well be my fault as the fit for everything else was very good. So, need to break out the filler for these two little areas. Next up the center spline needs to have two vents installed and a little air scoop added. They all fit perfectly and I am still amazed at the detail level. The halves are split into upper and lower rather than right and left. I am hoping this will help ease any seams that need to be filled. I inserted the cockpit and canards which are designed to be moveable and joined the halves. They fit well and there appears to be minimal seams to fill and sand. (And for that I am thankful!!) And this looks like a good stopping point. My initial impressions of this kit and Hobby Boss are quite good. I hope they hold out for the entire build. Comments always welcome and encouraged.
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- Rafale B
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