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1:48 Revell Rafale M


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This is my first attempt at a Work in Progress thread so please bear with me!

So after the mammoth effort of the Challenger diorama, (See Here) I thought I'd go for something less complex and belaboured smile.png
I picked this kit up off eBay quite cheaply simply because it looked neat and it had the bonus of some modelling tools such as sprue cutter, clamp and some more tweezers. Its been in the stash since February and I thought it would make an easy build.

Now, it occurred to me that we are always seeing planes modelled with gear down, canopy open and often pilot-less. This kit automatically assumes thats how you are going to build it - in fact the supplied canopy has tabs to display it open and the fuselage has slots for the tabs. This has struck me as quite sad - planes are meant to be seen in their natural element - looping around the sky, not trapped on the ground. Therefore I decided to build this as a flying example!

First problem - the aforementioned tabs and slots. Meh, not that big of a deal.
Second problem... no pilot figure!

So I found a "French Fighter Pilot" from PJ Productions (See Here) and the PE set from Eduard for the Rafale M.

After a lot of reshaping and a bit of chopping to make the pilot fit, the cockpit went together rather well. I'm afriad I dobn't ahve in progress pics, just these taken today... I only decided to do a WIP this evening, otherwise I'd have been cataloguing the progress over the last week...

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So here he is in the seat. The seat in the kit looks pretty good so I didn't bother trying to source a replacement. I found plenty of photos online to check it against and it looked pretty accurate. I added a few painted warning flashes and colour highlights. Fitting the pilot to the seat required quite a bit of carving and reshaping of both his back and the seat. I removed the moulded on seatbelts and used parts of the PE set to represent the seat belts attaching him to the seat. The figure had quite well moulded seatbelts of his own, although some had to be removed to be replaced by the PE. His legs had to come off at the knees however to fit inside the cockpit.

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Here we are just about to put the seat into the cockpit, and while writing this I have realised I've forgotten to attach the PE ejection handle that should be between the pilots legs.

Again I found several photos of Rafale cockpits on the net and although there were several differences, it allowed me to add some highlights and try to put something onto the visible monitor displays.

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Here we have the cockpit all closed up and ready to fit into the fuselage

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This is my first modern plane since returning to the hobby, so its interesting to try new things. I've got the 1:48 Italeri Tornado IDS in the stash as well for later, and a Revell Harrier GR7/9 on its way!

Oh yes and to further my aims of building an "In Flight" model, at Dunsfold I found in the Mr Model tent that Airfix have released the old 1:24 scale Spitfire model stand as a "standalone" accessory with two of them in a box for a fiver! So I picked a box up and will have a bash at putting a stand together that doesn't require an ugly slot in the bottom of the plane!

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Comments welcome smile.png

Edited by Kallisti
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Oh yes and to further my aims of building an "In Flight" model, at Dunsfold I found in the Mr Model tent that Airfix have released the old 1:24 scale Spitfire model stand as a "standalone" accessory with two of them in a box for a fiver! So I picked a box up and will have a bash at putting a stand together that doesn't require an ugly slot in the bottom of the plane!

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Comments welcome :)

Take a look at my Red4 tribute. I had the same thought and came up with something a bit different...

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(sorry...nothing I do will show the picture the right way up, even tho it is in my photobucket account....)

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So progress has been slow but steady, with lots of little bits getting done and some planning work to see how this can be mounted in flying pose without cutting hole or slots in anything for a stand...

In the meantime I worked on the missiles:

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Currently painting the engine exhausts and trying to get some of the marvellous metallic effects I've seen on here but with brush painting. I'm hoping I can at least produce something presentable!

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Further progress:

First off I have built the stand that will allow the Rafale to "fly":

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Its an Airfix stand with a 3mm dia brass rod araldited into it. On the right you can see the underside of the Rafale with the receiving hole ready. This hole has a block of balsa wood stuck behind it with araldite to give the rod somewhere to seat into and give it strength. The tail hook has also been attached.

So as for the Rafale itsellf, the cockpit has been added to the upper fuselage and the two halves of the fuselage have been joined.

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As you can see I have already filled the slots that were in along the right side of the cockpit to accept the tabs for the canopy, I've also added the PE for the grills halfway down. I've left off the canards as they just get in the way of sanding the seams, especially with the poorly fitting engine intakes.

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On the underside, I've fitted the landing gear doors shut and a significant amount of sanding has been required on the undersides of the intakes. I sprayed a coat of primer on first as is my habit with the major parts as I feel this helps with seams and fitting items.

So things are begining to come together now. Just need to finish sanding the intakes and then it will be onto the wings. I've assembled the tail but left it off for now. Engine exhausts are also a work in progress, trying to get some nice metallic effects using various brush applied metallic colours. Watch this space...

Edited by Kallisti
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Thats the bit I'm worrying about :) I brush paint coz I don't have an airbrush yet so this is going to take some care getting a good finish since its mostly grey and I'm not sure I can use much weathering to hide any mistakes since they are all quite new so won't have got too dirty yet :)

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Progress at last! With the camera working again I can post some updates...

Wings and tail on:

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The wings were a right bugger, gap as wide as the grand canyon to fill... so after filling and sanding some of the scribed detail has disappeared and I'm not sure I am skilled enough to rescribe some of the shapes. Straight lines I can do, but curved panels... hmmm

Engine exhausts are still awork in progress, with multiple layers of silver, gun metal and metallic grey, with a bit of clear red mixed in to represent the heating/buring effect...

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I'm just fitted the canopies over the cockpit, using UHU glue to attach it. This is a bit of an exeriment as well so we'll see how this goes later.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Thought I'd best update this for the time being.

So everything was assembled and so painting started. Since I don't have an airbrush I started brush painting Tamiya XF20 over the primed model. I'm sorry to say that the results were not good. After two or three thinned coats, its looking better, but I'm not happy with it so its going to have to be set aside until I can afford the airbrush and compressor and feel that I can give it the proper finish it deserves. I enjoyed building it and will look forward to the time when I can finish it properly and display it in flying mode.

Until that day, its back in the box.

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  • 4 months later...

Well 3 months pass by and I've got myself an airbrush!

Looked this model out yesterday and took the isopropyl alcohol to the previous paintwork. Was able to strip it back to the primer using a sponge quite nicely and left it overnight to dry out. This evening I had a go with the sirbrush. I tried some pre-shading but was not very successful as my skill witht he airbrush is still a bit ropey and the thinned black went everywhere but where I wanted it to go! Anyway, then mixed up some xf20 with thinner and gave it a coat or 5. I thinned the paint a bit too much at first and the layer was very thin, but improved the mix and got a nice smooth coat,e ven able to go over the pre-shading so it looks okay.

I'm very pleased with how this looks now, but I doubt it will photograph well just at the moment. Next I'll put some Klear on it. Not sure whether to do this with my usual paintbrushes or try the airbrush. What do people use to thin Klear down for the airbrush?

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Thanks for this tip Jens. The instructions say metallic silver but as soon as you mentioned this I went and looked at my photo resources and there it was, the outer exhausts were black not metallic! I have therefore repainted the outer exhausts :)

Well its been a busy few days and I can now say it is complete! I could never have done this without the airbrush. The fuel tanks had 3 attempts at brush painting but all got stripped back to primer because something went wrong and then I airbushed them and they came out perfect first time!

I'll post the full set of completed pics in the RfI thread but here are a couple to whet your appetite!

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