The main airframe parts were first sanded overall in order to reduce the panel lines and rivets, and some rivet lines (on the fin central panel for instance) were even filled with putty because they are not that apparent on real aircraft. Then began the hard work e.g. making the kit look like an operational Armee de lDAir Rafale B. Instead of a linear account of the building process, here is a synthesis of the main areas where you will have to concentrate your efforts, from nose to tail: • The radome shape is inaccurate. It should be an almost perfect cone, but using the part out of the box will result in a very odd 'nose-down' attitude. Correcting it is a challenging but not impossible task - unless you cannibalize a Revell kit! Its tip must also be very sharp, so I cut it and replaced it with a pin blended with a mix of Tamiya putty and superglue. Note that the first structural line does not exist on the real thing and must be filled. Recessed lines representing static ribs were also filled and replaced by stretched sprue moved backwards to the radome end.
