1/48 Royal Navy Rafale FS. 1

Gallery Article by Alvis 3.1

Silly Week 2009

 

When the Royal navy pulled out of the JSF/F-35 program in late 2008, they had to find a substitute aircraft quickly to field upon the decks of their new carriers. Since they were building the carriers in concert with France, and the Rafale was a combat proven aircraft, it was a natural and very small leap to adopt the navalised Rafale as a standard Fighter/Strike aircraft.

Entering service early in 2013, the Sea Rafales (Raffies to the tabloid types) were to be one of the more successful naval aircraft the RN employed. Encountering small level conflicts was unfortunately the norm in the early part of the 21st century, and Raffies were able to hold their own against most fighters they encountered, and with the excellent jamming capacity the Unified European Naval Task Forces held, even some of the more advanced planes in the world had trouble taking out Raffies. Australia and Canada signed on as partners in 2015, as did Brazil and Mexico, with Japan taking on some as a compliment to their superb Typhoons. Even the USAF flies some in their newly reformed aggressor squadron based out of Fairchild WA.

Seen here is a Raffie from 899 Squadron, based aboard the HMS "Prince of Wales" in 2016. This plane is notable for shooting down six cruise missiles used by radical animal activists in an attempt to destroy several key pet food companies in Libya. Lt. Commander Binder McGroin used four missiles to intercept the deadly drones, then closed to cannon range for the last 2. These brought up his total kills in the RN to 11, after his successes in the 2011 "Goose Bay" incident.

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I used the 1/48 scale Hobby Boss Naval Rafale for this build, with weapons from the Revell Typhoon and decals from a couple old, and very bad Harrier kits. I actually had it started before there were rumours the RN was pulling out of the F-35 program, and I figured I better build this soon or I'd be building a real plane!

The kit went together fairly well, lacking a blanking plate in the intakes. If you gaze down them, you can see light shining up into the plane from an open to the inside main wheel well! It also had a few fit issues around the canopy, but nothing I couldn't fudge into place.

Alvis 3.1

Photos and text © by Alvis 3.1