1:72 Rafale C 7-HR & 7-GM 10 ans au Emirats EC 1/7 Provence 2020 - (Limited 300pc)

Ten years under the Arabian sun

The French Air Force keeps a permanent base in the United Arab Emirates and in 2020 it recalled ten years of its operation. For that the fighter group EC 1/7 Provence turned out two single-seat machines at once, kept in the name of the sheet by the fuselage codes 7-HR and 7-GM. The set contains the markings for both machines at once and the maker released it in a run of three hundred pieces.

When there are two machines in the package

The conversion is easy to remember in 1:72: a meter of reality shrinks to not quite fourteen millimeters. One finished example thus covers an area of twenty-one centimeters in length and fifteen across, and a pair built side by side lines up comfortably on a board with a thirty-centimeter edge. That is exactly why sets for two machines are built more easily in a smaller ratio; in 1:48 the same scene would need an area the size of a kitchen board and would take up a whole floor of a display case.

The same version twice

Both machines are the land-based single-seat form, so you will need two boxes of the same type. Rather reach for the same edition from one firm: castings differ between brands in the shape of the nose and in the division of the panels, and looking at two models side by side the difference would be glaring. Check the armament and the tanks under the wing as well, because in desert service the machines flew with a different arrangement of pylons than at home.

Only hint at the dust

Desert operation tempts one to dirty things up, but really very little is enough at this ratio. A fine cast of light pigment into the panel grooves and onto the lower surfaces does more than a continuous veil across the whole fuselage. The festive artwork, by contrast, should be left clean; under a layer of dust its thin outlines would be lost.