1:48 Rafale B pilots sitting in ejection seats for HobbyBoss kit (2 pcs)

The Rafale in two-seat form

The Dassault Rafale came about as a machine meant to replace several older types at once with the French Air Force and Navy alike. The combination of a delta wing with a forward canard gave it agility as well as the ability to carry a heavy load from a short runway. The letter B denotes the two-seat land-based version: the second cockpit serves for training, but equally for work with the weapon systems on complex missions where the tasks are divided between two men. Both crew stations are fitted with a modern ejection seat capable of saving the airman even at zero speed on the ground.

Seats tailored to a particular kit

The set is intended for the kit of one particular manufacturer, and a sister set for another company's kit is a separate item. This is not a formality: every kit has a cockpit tub of a different depth and width, so a casting that drops into one without resistance will not fit the other. Giving the target kit in the name is therefore worth your attention when choosing.

Seating it in the tub

It pays to reverse the usual order of work. First try the casting in the cockpit dry and find out how much material to take off the underside of the seat; only then glue it. Resin sands quickly and easily, but you will not get the removed material back. Paint the figures away from the model while they are accessible from every side, and only fit them into the cockpit at the very end, because once the canopy is glued on you cannot reach them. Make the joint with a drop of thick cyanoacrylate glue; a thin one would run into the rest of the cockpit.