1:48 Dassault Rafale M - ADVANCED Kabuki Masks (for Academy Kits)

A fighter that has to land on a wire

The Rafale M is the single-seat naval version of the French aircraft, built to operate from the deck of an aircraft carrier. Compared with the land-based variant it has a strengthened main landing gear, a heavy nose leg with a catapult launch bar and an arrestor hook under the rear fuselage; that also makes it heavier. These very details make the deck the most demanding place the fighter works in, and at the same time they are the biggest draw during the build.

What the masks solve

On this type the canopy glazing is shaped into a single large surface with no framing, so wrapping it by hand with tape almost always ends in a paint line that has run. A pre-cut film sits on the clear part following its own geometry, follows the frame, and comes off after spraying without a trace of adhesive. The middle level of the lineup is usually the step between a canopy-only set and a full set: it adds further surfaces to the glazing, ones that get masked over and over.

A procedure that has proved itself

First wash the canopy in warm water with a drop of dish soap and let it air-dry, without touching it with your fingers. Lift the template with pointed tweezers, place it in the middle of the surface and only then smooth it toward the edges with your thumb, so that no air bubble is left underneath. Spray the paint in thin coats; one heavy coat creeps under the edge far more reliably than three fine ones. Peel the film off while the paint has only just flashed off.

The carrier aircraft and its finish

The gray finish of the naval version is more uniform than it looks at first sight, but operating from a deck leaves marks on it very quickly: wear around the arrestor hook, scorched areas behind the nozzles and lighter streaks where the aircraft is rinsed down with salt water. A modeler who suggests all this after peeling off the templates will get an interesting model even out of a single-color aircraft.