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Special Hobby is to release early 2016 a variant from the Azur's Vautour kit (https://www.scalemates.com/products/reviews.php?scale=1%3A72&topic=SNCASO+SO-4050+Vautour), a 1/72nd SNCASO SO.4050 Vautour IIN "Cyrano radar" - ref.SH72333 Source: http://www.mpmkits.net/2015/12/novinky-special-hobby-prvni-mesice-roku.html Box art The same in 1/48th... Sigh. V.P.

VAUTOUR IIN "Armee de l'Air All weather Fighter" 1:72 Special Hobby The Sud Aviation Vautour (Vulture) stems from a 1951 request from the Armée de l'Air for a jet aircraft capable as acting as a bomber, light attack aircraft, or an all weather interceptor. The renamed Vautour II would subsequently be built in all three versions, entering service in 1958, and leaving active front line service in 1978. Various test aircraft stayed around through to the 1990's. The aircraft would feature an all metal fuselage with a mid fuselage mounted wing. The engines were mounted in underslung pods. A distinguishing feature of the aircraft was the main undercarriage units on the centre line with outriggers in the engine pods. The Cyrano Radar was originally developed for the Mirage but were fitted to some Vautours for testing and one such aircraft was sold to Israel. The Aircraft would never see any combat with the Armée de l'Air, however it would with its only export customer the Israeli Defence Forces. Israel purchased 28 Vautours and they were used in the six day war and the War of Attrition. In fact the type did score an aerial victory over an Iraqi Hunter. 15 aircraft were lost to combat and they were replaced by Skyhawks in 1971. The Kit The original of the kit date back to the Azur kit which was new in 2011. This kit represents a Vautour IIN two seat all weather interceptor version with the Cyrano radar nose. You get the original kit with the new nose and drop tanks in resin. There are also a good number of additional resin parts including the camera pods under the test aircrafts engine pods. TBH a lot of the resin parts are very small and it looks like it might be difficult to separate them without causing damage. The man plastic parts are good quality with restrained panel lines. Films are provided for the instrument panels, and to round things off there is a small PE fret. To kick things off in the construction depart we start with the cockpit (shock). The two seats are made up each with four plastic parts, and PE seatbelts. The rudder pedals attach to the back of the instrument panel and this is then added to the coaming. The cockpit is then made up with the other side of the cockpit floor being the roof of the front gear bay. The rear bulkhead is added along with the mid bulkhead between the two cockpits. Side consoles are then added to the front & rear pits. The control column is added as are the seats. The underside bulkheads for the front gear bay are added. The front main gear leg is then built up. This is a complicated part with the main leg, upper scissor parts and reaction mechanism all to be built up. The twin wheels can then be added. Once this is finished, the complete cockpit along with the rear main gear well can be added to the fuselage halves and they can be closed up. The rudder is then added. . Once the main fuselage is complete the attention moves to the wings. these are one part in the main for each side with only the inner wing needing a second part. The wings are then added. The engine pods are made up from two halves and the modeller needs to put in the intake, resin exhaust and wheel wells for the out rigger wheels which were contained in the engine pods. Once complete the pods are attached to the wings. The the front gear bay doors and the rear gear strut & wheels are added.. The tailplanes are added (note there are different tailplanes for one of the decal options) along with the POE wing fences, and rear gear doors. The outrigger gears need then to be built up and installed into the engine pods. This is followed by the doors to these pods. Lastly the external tanks and camera pods are added if needed. Clear parts These are clear and distortion free. Markings Markings for 3 aircraft are provided. The decals look to be in house, they are in register, bright, and have minimal carrier film. 306/30-MA, Escadrille 2/30, 1963 357/92-AD 92 Escadre de Bombardement 333/6-QQ Escadrille 2/6 1960 Conclusion An unusual looking aircraft which can should build up well. Very highly recommended. Review sample courtesy of

This is my first post in 'Ready for Inspection'. I'm still thinking about the right format. I believe the bulk of the images of the finished model should reside with the build log and I do not want to replicate the effort too much. Here's a teaser image for his build: The build itself, its background, stages, modifications, paintwork, scratch building and a lot of images can be found over at 'Work in Progress': Comments are welcomed here or in the build post. Thanks Ran

So... With the Sea King done (still need to update the build report with final images) and the A-26B done as well (here too some update of the build report is due) I'm off to my next build. The Hasegawa Typhoon is still stuck - looking for a missing part (PART J4, right side panel, front of cockpit is missing - if you have a spare J4, or can send me a photo with scale I will be very very happy) So - next build will be a new one. As my father's 77th birthday is coming up, I had an idea. My father was a mechanic with Squadron 119, IAF back in the end of the 50's and beginning of the 60's. He spent time working on the squadron's Vautour II N's. One day he was showing the cockpit to one of the new mechanics recently assigned to the squadron. The new guy was sitting in the front seat while my father was perched on the ladder showing him the different dials and knobs. At one point he was pointing to the Landing Gear lever telling the guy - 'You see this - never ever touch this one' and while saying that - accidentally moved it. All of a sudden this hissing noise was very noticeable and the front MLG started to retract. Luckily there was only a small amount of hydraulic pressure in the system and the MLG only retracted part of the way and not completely. As it happens with many aviation related mishaps - there were a number of malfunctions that contributed to this event - hydraulic pressure left in the system, rear MLG (the Vautour had 2 MLGs one behind the other) had a faulty WOW switch (that switch should have shut down hydraulics on the ground completely). The only damage to the plane was due to a tow bar that was connected to the front MLG and raise up as the MLG collapsed - to hit the front of the A/C. My dads punishment was to be re-assigned to the depot maintenance team - to help them fix the A/C. So, my idea was to build a Vautour II N as a birthday present. I had this idea quite a while ago so I already have the Azur 1/72 - the only one I can find. Its the IDF package - so I have markings of his squadron: I knew it a short run and I'm just returning to the hobby - this is why the project was not started for his 73/74/75/76th birthday I was not sure if I'm ready for a short run, and following the Sea King I was not eager for another 1/72 - but he is not getting younger. So I started some two weeks ago. I'm sure its not the worst short run you can find, and it does have resin and PE, but - its a pain. Plastic is soft. Gate are HUGE and looks like someone had gone into a lot of effort to make sure they are located at the worst possible location on the parts. Part breakdown is also something that induces a lot of 4-letter-words. I could not find a spare canopy or a vacuform one - so the kit will be presented with the cockpit closed. A bit of a shame considering the story above - but considering the detail level of the cockpit - not that bad. I started with the cockpit - no pins, for most parts - no location guides and hardly any useful information on where exactly to locate parts - A short run !@#@#$@$ Cockpit painted with Tamiya X-18 Semi-Gloss Black, Seats with Mr. Color 320 Green FS34092 which I eye balled from ref. pictures. Harness were painted Tamyia X-14 Sky blue - also eye balled from ref. images. The engine nucleus has a small balancing wheel - the wheel well part is too short and leaves a hole which I filled with putty. Wheel well doors have hinges - small, not identical and easily broken - I had to re-manufacture one. I cut a thin piece of a spruce (the oval one on the left) then cut it in half and cut some parts to create a kind of crescent. I opted to skip the micro sized resin hinges of the side doors. Of course all hinges have to glues with minimal to no location guides - did I say Short RUN @#@#$@#. Good reference is not that easy to come by - but I think the IAF birds had a yellow chromate paint for wheel wells. I used Model Master 4851 Yellow Zinc Wheels were glues (no that easy with this plastic) and painted black. I then used a new technique I learned for painting the hubs. After studying the structure of the wheel and the ref pictures (the rim between the tyre and core is painted silver/aluminum) I covered the black part with Microscale Micro Mask. Doing so I used the surface tension of the liquid mask to hug the rim. The different parts that comprise the cockpit and front MLG wheel well have to be glues ONLY AFTER a massive dry fit exercise- otherwise there is no chance to nail the exact location. So - that's it for now. Comment, war stories about this kits (or others) are welcomed as always. Best Ran

Sud Aviation Vautour IIA At the Israeli Air Force Museum, pics thanks to Dov.

VAUTOUR IIN "Cyrano Radar" 1:72 Special Hobby The Sud Aviation Vautour (Vulture) stems from a 1951 request from the Armée de l'Air for a jet aircraft capable as acting as a bomber, light attack aircraft, or an all weather interceptor. The renamed Vautour II would subsequently be built in all three versions, entering service in 1958, and leaving active front line service in 1978. Various test aircraft stayed around through to the 1990's. The aircraft would feature an all metal fuselage with a mid fuselage mounted wing. The engines were mounted in underslung pods. A distinguishing feature of the aircraft was the main undercarriage units on the centre line with outriggers in the engine pods. The Cyrano Radar was originally developed for the Mirage but were fitted to some Vautours for testing and one such aircraft was sold to Israel. The Aircraft would never see any combat with the Armée de l'Air, however it would with its only export customer the Israeli Defence Forces. Israel purchased 28 Vautours and they were used in the six day war and the War of Attrition. In fact the type did score an aerial victory over an Iraqi Hunter. 15 aircraft were lost to combat and they were replaced by Skyhawks in 1971. The Kit The original of the kit date back to the Azur kit which was new in 2011. This kit represents a Vautour IIN two seat all weather interceptor version with the Cyrano radar nose. You get the original kit with the new nose and drop tanks in resin. There are also a good number of additional resin parts including the camera pods under the test aircrafts engine pods. TBH a lot of the resin parts are very small and it looks like it might be difficult to separate them without causing damage. The man plastic parts are good quality with restrained panel lines. Films are provided for the instrument panels, and to round things off there is a small PE fret. To kick things off in the construction depart we start with the cockpit (shock). The two seats are made up each with four plastic parts, and PE seatbelts. The rudder pedals attach to the back of the instrument panel and this is then added to the coaming. The cockpit is then made up with the other side of the cockpit floor being the roof of the front gear bay. The rear bulkhead is added along with the mid bulkhead between the two cockpits. Side consoles are then added to the front & rear pits. The control column is added as are the seats. The underside bulkheads for the front gear bay are added. The front main gear leg is then built up. This is a complicated part with the main leg, upper scissor parts and reaction mechanism all to be built up. The twin wheels can then be added. Once this is finished, the complete cockpit along with the rear main gear well can be added to the fuselage halves and they can be closed up. The rudder is then added. . Once the main fuselage is complete the attention moves to the wings. these are one part in the main for each side with only the inner wing needing a second part. The wings are then added. The engine pods are made up from two halves and the modeller needs to put in the intake, resin exhaust and wheel wells for the out rigger wheels which were contained in the engine pods. Once complete the pods are attached to the wings. The radar nose is then added after the normal nose has been removed along the panel line, the gun ports will also need to be filled in. The the front gear bay doors and the rear gear strut & wheels are added.. The tailplanes are added along with the POE wing fences, and rear gear doors. The outrigger gears need then to be built up and installed into the engine pods. This is followed by the doors to these pods. Lastly the external tanks and camera pods are added if needed. Clear parts These are clear and distortion free. Markings Markings for 4 aircraft are provided. The decals are by Cartograf, are in register, bright, and have minimal carrier film. The blues on the Israli markings are good, the camera washed them out a bit, it was blinded by the day-glo markings! No.348 CEV Flight Test Centre. Bretgny-sur-Orge, France 1990. No.337 CEV Flight Test Centre. Bretgny-sur-Orge, France 1980. No.70 "Fantomas" Natural Metal Finish, Israeli Defence Forces. No.70 "Fantomas" 3 colour camo, Israeli Defence Forces. Conclusion An unusual looking aircraft which can be built in trials or operational schemes. Very highly recommended. Review sample courtesy of