1/72 Hobby Boss Rafale C Jungle Tiger

Gallery Article by Michael "Chewie" Choo on Aug 13 2012

 

 

I started this project in Jan 2012, and it took me around 6 months to finish. This was probably one of the longest builds I've done thus far, due to work and life in general got in the way. This project came into being when I started a Rafale "B" Tiger Meet build and found that Hobby Boss supplied decals for two different Tiger Meet schemes.

I think Hobby Boss did a GREAT job with this kit, just as it did with the "B" (same mold, etc.). The plastic was of good quality, with very fine and crisp engraving. The amount of surface details was also excellent! The fit accuracy was also very good, in general. A few areas that fit weren't that great are: jet intakes, radome, canopy, and spine.

Rather than painting the aircraft with the standard, boring, grey, I decided to use one of David Aungst's "What If" jungle colour scheme, using 3 different shades of green. I used Gunze Aqueous for all 3 shades of green as follows:
- Light green: H312 (Green FS 34227)
- Medium green: H302 (Green FS 34092)
- Dark green: H309 (Green FS 34079)

 

Click on images below to see larger images

The "cargo":
- MICA IR missiles - sprayed with Tamiya X-19 Sky Grey, tip sprayed with Tamiya X-2 gloss white, brush painted the seeker head and stripes
- MICA EM missiles - sprayed with Gunze Aqueous H-308 (FS36375), tip sprayed with Tamiya X-2 gloss white, brush painted the seeker head and stripes
- Drop tanks - sprayed free-hand
- Apache missiles - sprayed with Gunze Aqueous H317 (FS36231)I used Italeri's Stand Base, purchased from LuckyModel, costing around $4 for a set of 2.

I used Blu Tack shaped by hand for masking. I sprayed a couple of layers of Tamiya gloss clear to prep the model for decaling and weathering. I decided to only lightly weather the aircraft using both post-shading technique and oil wash (black + burnt umber + burnt sienna). I finished off with a couple of layers of Gunze Aqueous Flat Clear.

Thank you for looking!

Michael "Chewie" Choo

Click on images below to see larger images

      

Photos and text © by Michael "Chewie" Choo