Rafalcon

[AeroplaneDriver]

I was in a bit of a kitbash mood last night, so I dug through the Box of Forgotten Styrene and found this:




A little digging through the spare parts box revealed a set of Italeri Rafale wings....resulting in:



Backstory is a work in progress, but will likely involve the YF-17 winning the Lightweight Fighter competition.  GD develops the YF-16 on their own, resulting in a fighter that achieves decent export success.

It ill probably be finished as a mid-80s Cold War machine based in Europe, perhaps in Canadian colors.  But, as I said it is a work in progress and may end up as a USAF machine, a French carrier based fighter, or something competely different!

[Eddie M.]

Great beginning! It's always a treat to watch you work. B)
 Eddie  

[cthulhu77]

Cool! Are you going to twin tail it, or go with a single?

[AeroplaneDriver]

It will definitely be a twin tail, but I'm still working on the configuration.  So far I've looked at:
1.  The tails from an Italeri X-32 in a pretty traditional mount, canted outwards on either side of the original tail position.
2.  The kit's horizontal stabs mounted on the airbrakes aft of the wing in a butterfly arrangment like the F-23.  I like this arrangement, but it needs bigger surfaces, so I'll need to dig through the parts box for smoething more suitable.
3.  Vertical stabs mounted at the wingtips.  This one looks good for a deep-penetrator strike aircraft, but doesnt look very maneuverable for a fighter.

[PolluxDeltaSeven]

It reminds me the first F-16E proposal for the UEA, the Delta f-16!!  
I just love that!!
 

[ysi_maniac]

This begins promising.    

[Shasper]

Whatever you do, keep the sharkmouth! (It enhances the look of any a/c by a billion percent!)


Shas B)

[AeroplaneDriver]

After a few hours recovering from the massive Thanksgiving lunch Donna made, I got back to an afternoon of modeling while we all watched a movie.  I went with two F-18 tails.  

Now Donna is settling in for an early night due to some sort of sale she needs to leave home for at 0430 (must be a woman thing!), so I'm trying to make some good progress.

A primer coat of silver is on to show up any rough areas that need more work, but I think everything is acceptable for the color scheme I have in mind.  I'm leaning towards a German-based Canadian or USAFE machine c.1983, possible with some Instant Sunshine in the loadout.

Here is a pic right before the silver was sprayed.

[Captain Canada]

Nice one, Aeroman ! Does it ever look like an F-35 from that top view. Lookinf forward to seeing some more !

 

[kitbasher]

Nice work, AeroplaneDriver (and it DOES look like an F-35 from above), but damn, another one of my 2008 whiff ideas bites the dust!  I'd just got my redundant bits together to use a knackered old PM F-16 fuselage with inverted F-4 wings and Tornado tailplaines in 'butterfly' mode to create an 'F-36 Vampire' alternative to the F-35 (in my twisted world this would have been cancelled due to cost overruns and political in-fighting between the F-35 partner nations).
Keep the sharkmouth - mine was going to have one on the air intake as part of its Royal Alternative Air Force finish.
 

[waynos]

Lovely design, it looks fabulous in plan view, what are you doing with the intake as I somehow picture a Concorde style inlet looking good on this?

[AeroplaneDriver]

Lovely design, it looks fabulous in plan view, what are you doing with the intake as I somehow picture a Concorde style inlet looking good on this?

No changes to the intake.  I have to go back to work on Sunday evening for a week, and I'm trying to get it finished before then, so the changes are limited to wings/tail.  

I also had planned a gear-down build, but now that there is a coat of paint on, it looks like the gear position is too far forward with the wing moved aft.  In real life it looks like it would have a very hard time not being a tail-sitter.

I'm going ot play around with a few ideas this morning, but most likely I will close the gear doors, and rescribe some additional doors further aft to suggest a more rearward gear geometry.  

I also started looking at tip-tanks last night.  While going through the spares box I noticed that F-104 tanks look good on this model.  I'm not sure which way I'll go with that though, since they almost make it look too sci-fi and less like a real world aircraft.  I may stick with wingtip AIM-9s.

[ysi_maniac]

Just my two cents. Evan will correct  me if I am wrong. In spite of Starfighter example, wing tip tanks in a supersonic airframe are just a nasty source of vibration.

[AeroplaneDriver]

Just my two cents. Evan will correct  me if I am wrong. In spite of Starfighter example, wing tip tanks in a supersonic airframe are just a nasty source of vibration.

Yeah, I did awaqy with the tip tank option.  I never really considered it seriously, but those -104 tanks just looked cool on the delta wing!

Anyway, painting is progressing nicely.  I hope to get more pics up this evening.

[Brian da Basher]

I really like the look of this bird, AD! I agree that a shark's mout would be a nice touch.

Brian da Basher