Mjoo

That is just lovely little propliner!

I’ve been building their Percival Vega Gull on and off for the past year or so. This pretty much sums up my feelings on that kit, too. Wonder if this is general sentiment towards Dora? Generally nice but could benefit a bit clearer instructions?

Pics are now in the gallary. Ye old macro lens is cruel, it show every nick and blotch in the surface with utmost clarity. And every dust speckle, too. Take home -line here would be that always dust before photography -- even if the subject has been sitting only few days on the bookself and behind closed doors. 🙄 This was fun build. Cheers, -M Here's some more pics. The C. 561 got photographed, too. Notice the dust on the wings...

Maurice Anrnoux started the 1935 Coupe Deutch de la Meurthe flying Caudron C.460 and finished with Caudron C.450. WIP thread here Caudron C.450 is the race number 3 an C.460 is the number 6.

Finnish, pretty please?

Thanks, @2996 Victor! The blue is bit monotonous to my eye but I do like the shade, too.

I’m declaring these two done! Did the final touchups this morning. I feel that the trickiest thing with this build was assembling the landing gear for C. 460. Delicate resin, hard as steel bronze and PE with minimal attachement points. Well engineered but you can't escape the fact that these need to be really slender if you're true to the scale. And those slender things need to carry the weight of the model. Things are not lined up as nicely as they could but they are good enoug for me. Another hard part was attaching the exhaust. Along with the propeller blade they make a suprisingly large contribution to the overall look of the aircraft. I didn’t get them lined up as well as I hoped. Overall I am happy about how these two turrned out. Great kits and a positive feel on the build it self. I still need to do final photography and get these to the gallery. Wont happen today but maybe next weekend. Cheers, -M

Hi @JOCKNEY, I've been occupied with other thigs past few weeks with no energy left for modelling. But I did attach last small bits this morning. Some (very small) touchups remain to be done. Hoping to do the photography next weekend. Here they are in their current state (with guest appearance by C. 561): Cheers, Mjoo

Neither did I until I saw it in the Mission Model colour chart. Then it just had to be tested 😉 Cheers, -M

I’ve been thinking about this, too. If the clear part is reasonably clear to begin with, does the dip make any real difference? I am not using Klear though, but AK Gauzy Agent. I try to mitigate this by spraying clear primer first thing after masking to seal the tape. The theory is that seepage is clear and hopefully less visible. Cheers, -M

@Toryu, unfortunately I’ll be doing it in orange-and-silver C.I.D.N.A. livery. But I find it quite attractive, too. Box art has it in Air France blue with Vichy stripes. Very attractive, but I don’t think I could pull it off. Besides, I’ve been painting several blue Caudrons lately, so I think I’ll need to do something else this time.

Thanks, @Marlin!

Thanks, @CliffB! Yeah, I have the chrome window frames by Arctic Decals. They are indeed relevant. That set also has window masks. Cheers, -M

Sturdy box. stylish art. Resin parts have taken a bath. I am pretty sure there was painting masks in the box when I opened it. Now they are nowhere to be found 🤔. Carper monster is getting bold and now snatching things from the table, too. Luckily I have Arctic Decals’ Farman paint masks and window frames (not in the picture). Some of the supports are white metal. Considering the plane has next to none stenciling, the decal sheets are quite large. The letters in registration code are huge. I’ve also started cleaning up the major parts to see how the main airframe builds up. It seems to me that this is just as well thought out kit as other SBS Model kits I’ve had. There is work to do separating the pieces from casting blocks and support structures — it is a resin kit afterall — but the manufacturer has done what can be to make things easier. I am turning into a fan of them, I think. Subject matter (the civilian options) are just straight up my alley and so far I have not once been dissappointed with the quality. Cheers, -M

Farman F.190 was fairly successful interwar utility/transport/passenger aircraft. First flown in 1928, it evolved to several subtypes; altogether 158 were built. Crezan.ne has quite a bit of material of the type. The site has several ”biographies” of individual planes. I have SBS Model’s ’Air France’ boxing of F.190. It depicts F-AIJZ, which had longish career. Built in 1929, it was finally written off or lost sometime in 1942. First an airliner it flew mail and passengers in central Europe for C.I.D.N.A. airline. Later it was used as a trainer for Air France pilots. I’ll be doing F-AIJZ in orange-and-silver C.I.D.N.A. livery when it was rented by Paris-Soir to cover the 1932 Tour de France. This could’ve gone to French Fancy GB as well, but I think I will need the extra weeks this GB has before the deadline. Cheers, -M

Reini is building Fouga, too. He’ll show you how it is supposed to go together. I’ll illustrate the errors that can be done while trying 😉 Cheers, -M

Some handsome box art I built Heller’s version as a kid. I don’t remember it having this much plastic in the box. Seems quite crisply moulded. There's some flash but nothing excessive. The decals say ”Cartograph” in the low left corner, they look quite nice. Canopy is to be made from gazillion parts. I'll pose it closed, so would've preferred a single piece canopy. But maybe it'll fit well. Cheers, -M

Kukkopilli (literally ”rooster whistle”) is a type of rustic vessel flute. Much like ocarina, it is a hollow body of fired clay, producing a sound when blown into. Depending on the design, kukkopilli may produce one or few notes. It always has a distinct rooster shape, else it would just be an ocarina with limited scale. Wikipedia has a quite representative picture of kukkopilli. They come in several sizes, and frankly, most of the are more ornamental than musical. The largest I’ve seen was about foot tall and very elaborately decorated; smallest was about the size of a thumb. They typically produce a fairly high pitched sound which to some was similar enough to the wizzing of a twin Turbomeca Marboré turbojets in Fouga CM 170 Magister, hence earning the Fouga it’s nickname in finnish service - kukkopilli. The type was also referrered just as Fouga. Finland procured 18 French built planes and a building license at the end of the fifties. Over the next ten years a total of 62 Fougas were built in Finland. They were in use for 30 years, replaced by BAE Hawk in the 80s. About 20 were sold to civilian buyers, some transferred to museums/memorials and the rest scrapped. My godparents lived near the approach to Pori airfield. Visiting them as a wee kid in the late 70s/early 80s I remember seeing (and hearing) Fougas either landing or taking off. It was probably the first aeroplane I could recognise and name. I’ll be building Special Hobby’s take on Fouga. I have the ”German, FInnish and Austrian” boxing of the kit and my intention is to do this OOB. I am ignorant of any mistakes in the kit and intend to stay that way 😉. Decal sheet looks nice and provides for one finnish plane, namely ill-fated FM-65, which was one of the planes built in Finland. Ten Fougas were lost in fatal accidents, FM-65 being one of them. I’d rather have built one of ”survivors”, like FM-51, but the kit decals will do. This will be slow build. I have other builds in progess and I’ll try to finish them first. I’ll work on this while paint dries on the others. Cheers, -M

I have "German, Finnish and Austrian" packaging of Special Hobby's Fouga CM.170 Magister which I'd like to build in this GB. Mind if I join, @trickyrich? Finnish decals are for FM-65 so there is kinda double nordic connection: not only used by the finns, this specific plane was also manufactured in Finland.

My other build(s) are in stage where it is time to start thinking what to do next. Picked up this from the post office today: Looks suffieciently high wing to me. @CliffB, @Corsairfoxfouruncle, can I play too?

Decals on, panel lines done and there’s some race dirt splashed on to C. 450, too. I am seriously incompetent at decaling. However, these went on without much fuss. Quite unlike the C. 561 I mentioned earlier. That one had a grand total of two decals and I botched both of them. But with these two Caudrons, I am happy. There is some silvering, but maybe it’ll be less pronounced once the final clear coats are on. I am also quite happy with the shade of blue I mixed for the exterior colour. It is not too dark but still distinctly darker than the blue in the tricolori stripe on C. 450. I think that the decal at the nose of C. 450 hides quite well that botched paint job. I put some dirt in C. 450 but left C. 460 clean. My logic was that these planes were serious racers and showpieces for Caudron’s capabilities as a factory. They must’ve been kept well and cleaned carefully after each flight. Thus, I imagined that Arnoux started his race in a clean C. 460. Once the in the air it was all out and when he switched with Monville, the C. 450 had been run hard. I tried to simulate oil leaks and soot from exhaust on the belly of the thing. End result is a bit heavy handed, I must say. And the camera makes it come out stronger than it is in nature. Wheel wells are light grey as was with the interior. I’m not sure if this is correct. The other option I pondered on was the blue I used on the exterior. I got no references on this, so I guessed and went with grey. Next up some touch-ups and yet another clear coat to protect the decals. I think (hope?) it is the final one so it’ll be satin/semi-gloss. After that it’ll be all the small bits that are still loose and some detail painting. Cheers, -M

The engine looks splendid. Good job, Craig. Cheers, M

And very well done, I would say.

Looking middle-greyish now 👍

Nice model you have there. Brownish pink or pinkish brown overall; greyish in the shadows (like under the wings). Cheers, -M