Here are a few pics of my Rafale A… It’ s the Heller kit, scaled at 1/48. I got this kit from a young modeler who had started it (with lots of glue!) and got bored with it, back in the mid-90s. I took me several days of work to partly dismantle the kit and try to fill in the gaps and steps he had left in the airframe, but i too got bored and put it on hold.
Today, I decided to give it another go and spend a good part of the day checking in my earlier work and adding Milliput to areas that still looked a bit poor.



As you can see, the kit required a lot of work around the complicated shapes of the air intakes… I’m going to use parts of the newer Revell Rafale B to improve this kit, as well as the exhaust nozzles of a F-18 from Italeri (the Rafale A was powered by F-18 engines).
More pics below!
another necromancer … [:D] Looks like your off to a good start. Very intresting subject. cant wait to see it done.
Correcting old mistakes can be a challenge. Good luck & keep us posted.
Regards, Rick
dj has been a busy modeler. excellent work my friend.
joe
Ahhh… resurecting a basket case; lots of hard work, but few things rival the feeling you get when you first scoot it back and say “Finished!”! [:)]
Thanks DJ, will be watching as the progress continues…
Take care,
Frank
Here are a few new pics showing, above all, Revell’s 1/48 Rafale B being built alongside the Heller Rafale A…




The A has not changed much since yesterday, but I think all the ‘steps’ left over by the previous owner have now disappeared under my recent applications of Milliput. I’ll need a coat of primer though to be certain that my work has been OK.
The B is easy to put together, so far, but the intakes still required some Milliput. Other than that, the fit is excellent on this Revell kit. One thing I had to spend lots of time on was to blank off all the openings (including the main air intakes) to avoid the see-through effect. The Heller kit was slightly better for that, but unfortunately, due to the quantity of glue used in the past, I’ve not been able to open up the kit and blank off the inside of the main air intakes… I’ll give it another try though, because I do not really want to blank them off altogether. The Revell kit also suffers from some ‘sunken plastic’ syndrome on the slats, hence the putty there. On the Heller kit, this appeared on the wing tip missile rails and the flaps instead…
Once the puttying operations are done, I’ll also start working on the details such as cockpits and under carriages. A second Rafale B from Revell will really come in handy to improve the detail of the Heller offering.
Lookin good DJ! I’ve been trying to find that Revell Kit but I have not had any luck plus the lady of the house says my shelves hold way too many unopened kits. I really like that Rafale and it’s looker too. Guess I’ll have to find it and order it in secret. If I were to find both which do you recommend? Is that the Revell Germany kit? I like their kits… they go together well. Keep the photos coming and one final question… are you using any PE on them?
Looking good - nice filler work there, keep us posted.
Armorman, both the 1/48 Revell kits are now discontinued… The B is being sold here in some shops for less than $10, but I have never seen the M at that scale from Revell. The B kit comes with everything to do the M, bar the decals and, crafty Revell people, the dorsal spine specific to the single-seater… What a pain!
The B is really great in kit form from Revell. The detail is rather outstanding but then I don’t usually do 1/48 scale… I know Euard have a PE set for it, but honestly, I’m not keen on those and I can’t see the point for this particular kit.
The other Rafale I’m building, the white plastic one, is the older Heller kit (1980s). Not bad, but not as nice as the Revell one! But of course, there’s no other Rafale A available.
If you are not able to get a sizeable Revell box past the Mrs, I’d recomment the Revell 1/144 kit (the box will fit in a pocket!). It’s SUPERB…!
Here’s a pic of my 1/144 Rafale…

Domi:
those 1/48 Rafales r coming along nicely…
of course, i really love the 1/144 version u built !
frosty[:)]
Thanks for the info DJ I’ll look around and maybe one will eventually pop up. In the meantime I’ll try to get that 1/144 kit. The photo of that 1/144 you did is a beaut. Thanks again!
Yes, I did the unthinkable and purchased the Rafale M too… That’s 3 Rafale on my workbench now. The M (also from Revell in 1/48) is very nice too.
Armorman, the B kit comes as I said with most parts to build a single-seater (bar decals and dorsal spine) but this would have to be the Rafale C01 (the one painted in black). The M kit has everything to turn the base kit into the navalised Rafale, with different wheels and stronger undercarriage legs, and modified landing hook. The weaponry included in the B and M kits is also different (The B comes with two Apache stand-off missiles, in particular).
I really need to find a way to cast the M’s dorsal spine, and the B’s landing gear now… Parts of the extra B kit will be used to detail the Heller A kit, but with a copy of the dorssal spine and of the undercarriage, I’ll have enough bits to build the C… Am I confusing you…?!
No, dj- I think I am following you… sounds like it’s coming together!