Chinese Rafale

[anthonyp]

I had some leftover decals from the accidental Greek J-10, and with all the stuff in the news lately about how some of the EU want to lift trade restrictions with China, I thought "Hmmmm, what if China had a carrier (Varyag-variant or some home built design), and the French approached them with a deal they couldn't refuse?"

This is an Italeri 1/72 Rafale armed with two missiles from a J-10, and four made-up Russian AAM's from a 1/72 Fujimi Mig-29.  I figure the Chinese would develop a medium range version of the AA-9 Amos used on the Mig-31 for Fleet Air Defense (mainly because I couldn't fit the huge Chinese "Sparrows" under the fuselage, and I didn't have enough AA-12's to put under there as well).

[anthonyp]

Rear view

[anthonyp]

Underside view

[Gary]

Excellet!
Question. What did you do for research in picking out paint colours and schemes? Do you wing it or do you actually search out the info? I ask because it looks, or maybe the word is feels, right.

Gary

[anthonyp]

Thanks!

I looked at the two paint schemes of J-10's I found over at Chinese Defense Today (http://www.sinodefence.com/) and then compared them to the schemes that were included with the Trumpeter J-10 model, and approximated which shades of grey to use as there were no call outs (at least in english) for which shades to use.  The only thing I changed was the color of the nosecone, as I wanted it lighter than what the pics of the J-10 showed.

[Madoc]

Anthony,

"Hmmmm, what it China had a carrier (Varyag-variant or some home built design), and the French approached them with a deal they couldn't refuse?"

Considering how hard France is pushing for the EU to lift its arms embargo on China (the Tianemen Square masacre being _so_ passe!) and seeing how poorly the French are faring with their own carrier, something like this could actually come to pass...

Madoc

[anthonyp]

Considering how hard France is pushing for the EU to lift its arms embargo on China (the Tianemen Square masacre being _so_ passe!) and seeing how poorly the French are faring with their own carrier, something like this could actually come to pass...

Madoc,

That's precisely my thinking!  With the news of the EU looking into lifting the restritions on China, a French J-10 was actually what the Greek J-10 was originally going to be, and the leftover Rafale was going to either be Argentinian or Chinese.  In the end the Argentinians got an F-4, and the leftover Rafale would look great painted up as a J-10 distant relative.