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So after the mammoth effort of the Challenger diorama, I thought I'd go for something less complex and belaboured
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 (481116 - French fighter pilot seated in a/c (80' - 90&#039) 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...DSCF4605.jpg

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 polot 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