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  1. Hello everyone! I just saw this notice from Special Hobby that they're discontinuing all their Azur and MPM kit lines. They're now running a 50% off sale to close out their inventories of them. Anyone else here catch wind of this and what's behind it all? Are the moulds going to be taken into the Special Hobby line? Eliminated entirely and redone, eventually, with new tooling? Special Hobby Website Announcement - Plastic & Steel Online - Azur and MPM product lines are being discontinued now!
  2. Another civilian Brit used during Spanish Civil War - GAL ST 25 Monospar. Kit was from Azur, 1.72 This was a reletively small conversion to an ambulance which was home made work by me Monospars in different variants were used by both sides of the war. The choice was really difficult. Finally I did this model which present airplane with factory serial number 80. Originaly she was registered as G-AEGX, having individual name "Florence Nightingale" and was donated to Republicans by Dennis Corrigan in Feb. 1937 after conversion to ambulance. During service it was captured by Nationalists. The model presents markings while she was belonging to Nationalists airforces in the end of Spanish Civil War -in the begining of 1939. As source I have used the same book, which I quoted in post about DH 89 M - "Aviones en la Guerra Civil Espanola 1938/1939 Ingleses/Checos/Polacos (English, Czech and Polish)" by J.Miranda and P.Mercado. Best regards Jerzy-Wojtek
  3. I would like to show you my latest finished kit, it took about 5 months to complete. It was the first short-run kit for me. The following enhancements were done: - riveting - drilling out in and outlets and the exhaust pipes - thinning the trailing edges - added more detail to the cockpit Gunze paints were used: H77, H405, H325, H329 For chipping I used AK Worn Effects fluid. WIP: http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/235017047-morane-saulnier-ms-410c1-azur-172/ It won Gold medal in its Master category at Moson Show 2017. http://www.flickr.com/photos/martinhronsky/sets/72157682949580035
  4. Hi! I've recently started this tiny aircraft. This is the first short-run kit I've made, and I'm very pleased with it. I plan to paint to winter Finnish camo. So far the followings were done: - riveting - drilling out in and outlets and the exhaust pipes - thinning the trailing edges - added more detail to the cockpit Cockpit was painted with Gunze H337 onto black base. Details were made with Vallejo, and for weathering Tamiya enamels and Weathering Masters were used.
  5. Thanks to our hosts I have been given the opportunity to rescue this previous GB victim from the shelf of doom, to attempt to complete it this time. It's previous GB appearance is below http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/234978711-walrus-crashes-into-bus-shelter-azur-loire-130-c1-colonial/ Box art and parts below The last attempt failed due to the usual running out of time and a sneak attack by the carpet monster which stole some of the parts, that remain lost unfortunately. Good luck to everyone in this GB Cheers Pat
  6. Hello, Been a little while since my last WIP, but this lovely little kit has got me motivated again. It's the Accurate Miniatures Vindicator reboxed by Azur, who supply revised wings for the French version, resin and etch detail and new decals for three 1939/40 Aeronavale options. two are all over light blue-grey, the third having additional blotches of green/brown cammo. Think I may be doing the one on the box. Having read a little about the real plane, it seems it was yet another design that was good for 1936, but way behind the competition by the time it was used in conflict, as both the land-based French attack bomber squadrons, and later US usage in the Pacific proved, at the cost of many crews' lives. It was underpowered, under-armoured, and had poor flight characteristics when fully loaded. The kit is beautifully moulded, full of detail in the large cockpit, and the Azur additions seem to match the original parts well, with a quick tape together showing no issues at the wing/fuselage join at all. The engine is a good place to start, and shows crisp detail, and an ambitious approach to moulding the wiring loom and rods by Accurate Miniatures: However, after a bit of paint and a test fit in the cowling, it feels like the detail is too heavy (although about as good as you might get in plastic) and obscured the engine unrealistically. What to do? Leave it, or scratch build an alternative? Given the fineness of the detail elsewhere, I decided to have a go at scratching it. So, off comes the moulded detail, and the spares box provided a new ring to attach the plastic rod and wire replacement detail to. Just as I was about to start with the wire, and out gardening in the fine weather, I realised the plastic netting I was using to keep cats out of the raised veg beds/luxury cat loo (depends if human or feline...) would be an ideal alternative for the wiring: Hopefully this will work, as its got a nice randomness to the lines and is flexible stuff. given it was about £4 for 20m of the stuff, I've got enough to wire a few thousand engines! More soon, Take care, Matt
  7. Breguet Br.1050 Alizé 1:72 Azur FRROM The Breguet Br.1050 Alizé (French for "Tradewind") was a French carrier based anti submarine warfare aircraft. In a design similar to its British counterpart the Gannet it was a conventional low wing monoplane, powered by a Turboprop engine, though the Alizé had only one engine and propeller. The aircraft was a development based loosely on the Breguet Vultur which was modified into the Breguet Br.965 Épaulard. The aircraft was fitted with a CSF radar system and could carry a torpedo or delpth charges in its internal weapons bay. Wing hard points could carry 68mm rocket pods of wire guided AS.12 missiles. Unusually the front section of the undercarriage nacelles carried sonarbouys. The prototype first flew in 1956 and the aircraft was exhibited at the Paris Airshow in 1957. 75 aircraft were produced for the French Navy, and a further 12 aircraft by the Indian Navy (the only export customer). It was reported the Indian Navy purchased a further 5 used aircraft from the French Navy. The French Navy would go onto upgrade the aircraft in 1980 with a new radar as used on the Atlantique aircraft, an OMEGA navigation system, and a new ESM system. Another upgrade was to follow in 1990 to 24 aircraft. This consisted of a new decoy system, digital data link, new avionics and a FLIR. France would use the aircraft during the NATO campaign in Kosovo in 1999 flying from the aircraft carrier Foch, They were to retire the next year along with the Foch. The Indian Navy would go onto use their aircraft in Combat during the invasion of Goa in 1961, and the war with Pakistan in 1971. One aircraft would be lost to a Pakistani F-104. India stopped carrier operations in 1987 but the aircraft still saw active service supporting Indian operations against the Tamil Tigers during the Indian peacekeeping operations in Sri Lanka. The aircraft was retired in 1991. The Kits Each kit comes on 4 sprues of light grey plastic. The plastic is typical of that we see from FFROM with restrained panels lines. The canopy sprue is bagged separately to protect it. Constructions starts of surprisingly in the cockpit! The consoles are added for the pilot, navigator and radar operator followed by their seats. Additional parts are then added in the cockpit area to the insides of the main fuselage. the turbine exhausts are also made up and installed one into each half. The cockpit and front landing gear well are then installed into the right fuselage half. Into the left fuselage half you then have to install the rear radar and its compartment. This can be in the retraced position if sitting the model on it's undercarriage or extended if you wish to model the aircraft in flight. Once in the coaming can be fitted in from of the cockpit and the fuselage closed up (it is recommended 8g of nose wright is added). The next step is onto the wings. These are of conventional Left/Right with upper/lower surfaces. The four part main undercarriage nacelles are then made up and one added to each wing. The main wings, tail planes and rudder are then added to the main fuselage. The next major step is to construct and add the undercarriage. This is substantial as you would expect for a carrier aircraft. There is a single nose wheel with double wheeled units for the mains. The launch tubes for the unique nacelle mounted sonarbouys are also added along with the gear doors, arrestor hook and propeller. The six wing pylons are added along with the modellers choice of rocket pods or AS-12 missiles. 3 prominent aerials are then added to finish off the model. Decals Each boxing has a small decal sheet. There is no printer mentioned, they are in register, and look colour dense. FR0028 This boxing represents earlier aircraft and has three decal options all French Navy; A. No.72 Flottille 4F 1966/70. B. No.2 Coded I, Sqn 10S (CEPA), 1959/60. C. No.16 Flottille 9F 1966. FR0026 This boxing represents earlier aircraft with the ALM upgrade, and has three decal options, A. No.42 Flottille 6F High Vis Scheme 1981. B. No.41 Flottille 6F Low Vis Scheme, Clemenceau 1997. C. No.55 Flottille 4F Low Vis Scheme, 1989-1996. FR0031 This boxing represents the aircraft operated by the Indian Navy and has three decal options; A. IN206 INAS 310 "White Cobras" INS Vakrant 1970. B. IN204 INAS 310 "White Cobras" INS Vakrant 1985. C. IN203 INAS 310 "White Cobras" INS Vakrant 1971. Conclusion Though there have been other Alize kits, it is great to see the at people FFROM do a new injection moulded kit of this important French aircraft in 1:72. Highly Recommended. Review samples courtesy of
  8. Azur is to release 1/48th Marcel-Bloch MB.174 & MB.175 kits. - ref.07848 - Marcel-Bloch MB.174 Source: https://www.hannants.co.uk/product/AZUR7848 - ref.07948 - Marcel-Bloch MB.175 Source: https://www.hannants.co.uk/product/AZUR7948 V.P.
  9. Les Avianteurs Polonais en France 1940 Azur FR.ROM / Artipresse Until the arrival of the book I must admit despite many years of reading about the history of WWII and in particular the war in the Air; I was completely unaware that Polish Airmen had fought for France as they later would for the British. This book gives the full story of the participation of Polish airmen in combat against the Luftwaffe during the Campaign of France. Much of the staff of the Polish air force had withdrawn into Romania after the country's occupation by the Nazis in September 1939. From here the Polish airmen were sent to France, where they formed several units within the Air Force. After the French debacle they joined Britain where they continued fighting with the RAF until the end of the war. The author has conducted long-term research in the Polish, French, and British archives; he met with most of the protagonists still alive at the time of the research. It is a study in depth in to this little known subject. The over 10 year of research have produced a leading reference work on this subject. The book is a massive 416 pages illustrated with 772 photos and a hundred colour illustrations. It should be pointed out that the book is in French only. Even with my limited language skills it is fairly easy to follow the narrative, and the pictures/illustrations are undoubtedly first rate. Though to get the complete picture and a full understanding you will have to have fairly good French. Recommended. Review sample courtesy of Available direct from The Publisher
  10. Azur kit with my own modifications.
  11. Stampe S.V.4 1:72 Azur FRROM The Stampe S.V.4 can be said to be one of the Belgian Aeronautical Industry's best successes. Jean Stampe designed the aircraft to provide pilot training as well as to have good aerobatic capabilities. The aircraft won a competition in 1939 organised by Belgium & France for a new trainer. Belgium immediately ordered 30 aircraft. However WWI intervened and only 35 aircraft in total were built before the factory had to close. Michel Donnet and Leon Divoy escaped to the UK in the prototype backup OO-ATD in 1941. Following WWII both France and Belgium still lacked a trainer and in 1947 Belgium ordered 65 S.V.4b aircraft. These differed from earlier examples by having a more powerful Gypsy Major X engine, and a removable sliding canopy. France ordered 701 examples to be powered by a Renault 4-POI engine which was to be built under license in France. 150 more were built in Algeria. The French version was designated S.V.4c Both countries used the aircraft for training, and liaison duties. The Belgian Air Force Aerobatic Team The Manchots (Penguins) used the Stampe from 1965 to 1970. As the aircraft was such a good light aircraft many examples were sold to private clubs. It also seems the Stampe has had a few film roles. They were used in "The Blue Max", and "Von Richthofen and Brown" in British and German markings. Lately the aircraft Indian Jones escaped from The Airship in the Last Crusade was a Stampe, as was the aircraft in "The Mummy", both these aircraft having a spurious gun turret added. The Kits The four different kits (FR0024, 25, 26 & 27) are almost identical, in fact you get the same three sprues of grey plastic, and clear sprue in each boxing. The parts have restrained fabric details where needed. Each boxing has two different engines and propellers, along with the different canopies which were used. All four boxings also contain the common resin parts including two Venturis, humps for conversion to SV.4C & SV.4am as well as the pilot tube. As well as these different boxings contain parts specific to them in resin. FR0024 has the back of the rear control Panel. FR0025 has an oil tank & cooler. FR0026 has a complte different exhaust and parts for filling the existing exhaust parts. FR0027 has an oil tank & cooler. The oil tanks for 024 & 026 are also in plastic; therefore the modeller can theoretically build and Stampe from any boxing, though the scratch building of a few specific part might be a bit difficult. Construction starts with the cockpit. It is pretty basic in there just like the real thing! Two seats (or one depending on your kit) are added to the cockpit floor along with control columns and rudder pedals. Cockpit bulkheads are added along with the engine fire wall. The two fuselage sides can then be closed around the cockpit. The cockpit sides have detail for the fuselage frames moulded in. Once the main fuselage is closed up the lower wing is added. This is followed by the tailplanes and rudder. Once these are on its time to add the upper wing. This attached via two struts on each side and four in front of the cockpit. The modeller will need to consult the side profiles to get the wing in the correct place. Once the wings are on the right engine will need to be selected for the appropriate aircraft, along with the correct prop. These can then be added. The main landing gear along with the tail wheel can then be added. The final stage of construction being add the correct exhaust. The modeller can rig the aircraft if they want with a full rigging diagram supplied. Canopy Both styles of canopy, and the screens for the open cockpit aircraft are on the same sprue, and included in each kit. They are clear if a little thick with well defined frame lines. I think for a lot of modellers these injection canopies are preferable to thinner vacformed ones (I know they are for me!) Decals Each boxing has a small decal sheet. These are printed by Aviprint and are in register (mostly), and look colour dense. FR0024 Has three decal options; A. Belgian Air Force 1952-70. B. Belgian Air Force Aerobatic Display Team 1954-1968. C. Belgian Air Force early 1950s. FR0025 Has three decal options; A. Aeronavale. Escadrille 50S. Lanveoc-Poulmic Naval Aviation Base, 1950. B. ALAT Mainz-Frinthen 1956. C. Service de la Formation Aeronautique. Chavenay 1979. FR0026 Has three decal options, The yellow ring roundel look slightly out of centre to my eye; A. Ex Belgian OO-ATD liberated and flown to the UK, Flown in RAF Trainer colours 1942/44. B. Ex Belgian OO-ATD liberated and flown to the UK, RAF Markings over original civil registration, 1941 C. G-ATKC Tiger Club, Redhill 1960. This aircraft went to Moscow in 1966, was destroyed in an accident in 1982. FR0027 Has four decal options; A. Aircraft belonging to famous French Aerobatic Pilot Marcel Charollais. B. As marking A but with no civil serial F-BDGI on the side. C. 688 St Yan 1950 F-BDNM. D. 1077 Bought in the USA and now in Germany, restored by Mr & Mrs Franz Busse D-EEFB. Conclusion Though there have been other Stampe SV.4 kits including resin ones, and the old Heller 1:50 it is great to see the at people FFROM do a new injection moulded kit of this important Belgian aircraft in 1:72. Highly Recommended. Review samples courtesy of
  12. My second planned entry to this GB Very good inbox review and analysis http://www.internetmodeler.com/2005/august/first-looks/Azur-Farman.php And yes - I'm planning to address all the issues mentioned in the article above Meanwhile - does anybody have an idea where to obtain Air Magazine issues 21 and 22? I can obtain any other but these two - it seems like these particular issues are carefully kept in the vaults of Farman lovers.
  13. For my second build I will be doing the Azur Morane-Saulnier MS.406C from the "Battle of France" boxing: In the box are the same parts as included in the other Azur releases of the MS.406/410: ...but with decals and paintschemes specific to Armee de l'Air machines from the period up to late June 1940: I will be building "Camo D" - Azur describe this as being an aircraft of the 3me Escadrille of Groupe de Chasse II/2, but the Colorado Decals set for the MS.406 has the same aircraft with a white "2" in a red disc and says it is from the 4me Escadrille... I have no idea who is correct so unless someone can correct me I will go with the kit description as it is the more recent of the two. Cheers, Stew
  14. Hello everyone! I think I dare to participate in this group build with this. I plan and hope that can build it out of the box.
  15. As described in the title, it's politely described as unusual, or more accurately as just plain ugly. I haven't built an Azur kit before, so all advice very welcome, and as for the surrender stripes, your guess is as good as mine. Cheers Pat
  16. Calling this one done - earlier stuff can be seen here. Comments/thoughts/abuse appreciated! Have fun... Iain
  17. My country for this one is Spain, and as the legitimate government of Spain was the elected Republican government during the Spanish Civil War, I will be doing a republican plane, and not a Nationalist (rebel) plane. I am still going through my stash of kits, so the particular craft is not yet decided, but will be at the start of the GB in January. Possibilities at present are the SB 2M-100 "Katiushka" (ICM kit in 1/72nd) or the Polikarpov I-16 (Eduard kit in 1/48th) or possibly the Vultee V-1A (Azur kit in 1/72nd). Advice on which of these to choose would be gratefully received in the meantime... Thanks, Philip
  18. Source: http://www.frrom.com/index.php?page=fr8001-iar-81-c-1-32-nd-2 AZUR-FRROM is to release in June 2013 a 1/32nd IAR 81-C fighter injected kit - ref. FR8001 V.P.
  19. I've just finished this; the Azur Ikarus IK-2 "VVKJ": I enjoyed building this, it is quite a simple kit, not that many parts, a bit of photo-etch but no resin parts. It went together very well and I built it more-or-less OOB though I did replace the tail struts and one of the undercarriage support struts which were provided as etched metal with micro-strip, I just thought the plastic would be easier to work with. I did my first go at rigging seeing as there was not much required, the tailplane bracing wires on the topside and the 'x'-shaped bracing wires on the main undercarriage - these were done with lycra knitting-in thread and I consider it a success. Incidentally although that undercarriage may look hideously complex it was remarkably easy to put together and quite strong once it was assembled. I used the Humbrol colours recommended by 'Lift Here!' decals which were 65 for the underside and 84/98/116 for the three-colour topside camouflage. Either I was lucky, or Humbrol enamels are getting better, I hope it was the latter. I used a couple of coats of Klear to give a glossy-ish finish as the instructions and other sources advise that the finish on the IK-2 and IK-3 camouflage was glossy. I can't say for certain that this is correct, from the limited number of pictures I have seen I am not really qualified to judge so I went along with it. The kit provides decals for most of the (I believe) 12 IK-2's produced by Ikarus, 5 in pre-war Aluminium dope and 5 in camouflage, of these camouflaged aircraft one wears the earlier national markings and the remainder the smaller wartime markings. I chose V.E.Br.2112 by the simple expedient of ruining the tiny rudder number decals for 2105, 2109 & 2110 with my big stupid fingers. No.2112 was one of the aircraft that helped resist the German invasion in April 1941 and which, along with the surviving IK-2s, IK-3s and the remaining VVKJ Bf109s, were eventually destroyed by their crews at Veliki Radici aerodrome on 12 April 1941 to prevent them falling into the hands of the Germans. The decals are by Aviprint in the Czech Republic and applied beautifully and really deserved a more skilful application than I was able to offer, but they all went on beautifully. Cheers, Stew
  20. Hi, Spanish Cierva C 30 was an Autogyro - a kind of precursor of modern helicopters. It was produced under licence in UK by Avro as Rota and in France by LeO C30. The model I made from Azur kit (1/72) required replace of engine and propeller to be a LeO C30 No 32. So this was small conversion, howver later I notice that such like mine version was also issued as limited edition by Azur. Things like that happens.. The engine consists of more than 40 pieces The markings are from French Campaign in May-June 1940. Regards Jerzy-Wojtek
  21. Howdy, folks! Here are my finished IK-2 and IK-3, Yugoslav pre-WWII planes. These brothers were made late 30s, very different designs and still very similar. IK-3 took part in air defense of Belgrade in April 1941. and had 11 wins with 4 casualties over Reich's Bf109s... Unfortunately, there wasn't enough of them for that defense to have any chance of success, out 12 produced only 6 were operational and after a few days the two remaining were captured and scraped. Heartbreaking... IK-2 was mostly stationed in Bosnia at the time and surviving ones were given to Croat Air Force. As for models themselves, mostly build out of box, Azur Frrom did a decent job with them. IK-2 was given a bit of details in the cockpit and not much more than that (save the wires on the outside, mentioned in instructions). There are a few inaccuracies outside, most of which can be easily fixed. Canopy could have been done better (goes for IK-3 also), but it's not completely useless. I wasn't going for 100% accuracy, so it didn't bother me much... IK-3 saw a bit more work in cockpit, seat and belts were made from scratch, as were side details. There were some touch-ups on the outside of both, mostly opening exhausts and intakes, IK-3 legs also got a bit of pedicure... More on this can be found in WIP thread... Thanks for watching... Cheers!
  22. Supermarine Sea Otter 712 Sqn Fleet Air Arm, RNAS Hatston, Orkney Islands, March 1944. Over the last month I have been concentrating on Azur's rather nice 1/72 Sea Otter. Although it is a short run kit, the quality of moulding is very high and with a big bag of photoetch and resin, it has definitely kept me busy for a few weeks! For the most part, the build is relatively simple, with nicely fitting parts despite the lack of location pins. However the wing and engine pod struts are a bit of a challenge, not least due to a lack of information on exactly how and where they should be fitted. After a few stressful hours, mine now fit, but I believe I have insufficient wing stagger and my outer struts should be angled in at the top. FredT
  23. Following Paul’s recent review of the kit, I’ve followed on with a build review of this pretty little fighter. Despite the box being named ‘Red & Yellow Stripes’, I have tackled the build being the coward I am by choosing the only scheme in the boxing not to include the stripes! Not only are the stripes small in 1/72 scale, but the camouflage patterns are rather complex too and I wanted to complete the review in a timely manner. So, with my declaration of cowardness out of the way, I shall proceed! Construction starts with the cockpit. Fitment of the parts and the instructions to support them I found to be a little vague in this area. Detail is adequate given that there is no open option for the canopy. The interior detail in the side walls has slots to fit the cockpit tub in, indicating a vertical front and rear bulkhead, but the only way I could get the parts to fit was by having the rear bulkhead to which the seat attaches to at a slight incline for everything to join up. The other issue I found was that I’m sure that the etch seatbelt is in fact a 1/48 one. If you look at the seat and etch belt in the red box compared to the instructions, the seatbelt is vastly over scale and wouldn’t fit into the seat. I got round this by simply cutting sections out of the middle of the belt and gluing the remains to the seat. The instructions call for you to supply your own rod to make the frame behind the sear armour panel so I did this using brass rod. The gun sight inside the cockpit is another part that I just couldn’t figure out. The instructions show it to mount on the instrument panel protruding forwards, but doing so would prevent the windscreen from fitting. It’s simply too long. I got round this by making a smaller one to fit the glass sight which was made from a piece of acetate. Well all this sounds like a bad start to the kit, however once I overcome these issues, most of the build was straight forwards and a delight to make. With the cockpit painted using Tamiya XF25 mixed with some black and the wings assembled, the aircraft soon came together. If you’ve not built Azur kits previously, they are typically short run kits, a feature often being a lack of location pins for the components. This didn’t prove to cause any problems during the build. I used liquid poly glue and strips of masking tape to hold the parts together until the glue / welds cured. I’d recommend against using superglue for this step as you will probably require some final micro positioning before the glue cures due to the lack of location pins. Use of filler in the construction was minimal with a small amount used to tidy the top of the engine. I had to rescribe the panel lines across the top of the engine nacelle once the two halves were blended. The wing to fuselage join was excellent, again a small amount of filler used to blend any imperfections. On assembling the tail planes, I used brass rod instead of the kit struts. Because I’d chosen to do the ‘simple’ scheme, I was able to add the struts at the assembly stage. If you choose to go for one of the more complicated schemes, I’d recommend leaving these off until after painting. Once the main components were fitted, the canopy was added and masked. This isn’t one of my strong points, but I never had an Eduard mask set so had to do it the old fashioned way, bring out the swear box! It was primed with Halfords primer and some pre-shading using the interior colour I had left over. The surface detail is quite stunning so I was looking forwards to getting the paint on it. Despite Mike giving me some Lifecolour paints to use, I got some Tamiya colours and followed the instructions posted in a recent thread thanks to Troy Smith: Brun = XF-10 Brown Khaki = XF-49 Khaki, XF-5 Green 2:1 Gris = XF-25Light Sea Grey, XF23 light blue 2:1 Gris fonce [underside] XF-25 light Sea grey, XF-2 White 2:1 Thread HERE Painting started with the lower surface before adding a few drops more of white to give some variation to the panels. This was then masked off before the top grey was added, again slightly lightening to add some tonal variation. The green and brown followed respectively, the whole lot done within a few hours given the benefits of acrylic paints. A coat of Kleer from the airbrush preceded the decals. I have to say that these decals were some of the best I’ve worked with. They are strong, but thin and went over some complex small compound curves with the aid of Daco decal setting fluid. Even the rudder decal went on fine around the training edge, this is something I've never been able to do well previously! Kleer was again sprayed on. A wash of oils in white spirit was used to bring out the detail in the surface. Adding the undercarriage required some care. Whilst the main legs have square lugs to locate into the wing, the diagonal struts appear to just sit against them. Fortunately, there is a good diagram in the instructions showing the correct angles at which everything should set. I left off the sticky out bits until the end for obvious reasons. Again, brass rod was used this time to make the guns and the pitot tube in the wing instead of the kit plastic parts. The landing lights were done by painting steel over coated with Tamiya clear red / green. The model was completed by spraying with Alclad matt varnish. I like this because you can build it up to get the finish you require. Simply applying less will give you more of a sheen. Conclusion Whilst this kit is a little trickier than a mainstream kit such as Airfix, it is still within the capability of a novice builder. Although the interior bits are a bit vague and questionable and the kit lacks location pins to aid construction, assembly is quite straight forwards and produces a stunning representation of the Morane Saulnier fighter. An open canopy would have been a good option if I was to criticise it. I really enjoyed the build despite a few parts that led to some head scratching and would certainly recommend it if you want one of these in your collection. Review sample courtesy of
  24. I've just completed this as a build review HERE Have to say, it's a great little kit and I like the red & yellow stripe scheme, just didn't want to spend all of Christmas tackling such a complicated camouflage and stripe masking monstrosity! Despite it's tiny size, the detail is good and I only started it over Christmas, finishing it this morning. I've posted it here too as we don't get much traffic in the Build Review section. Didn't expect to get this complete so soon, in fact it's just boosted my 2013 output by 20%!!!!!!! Cheers, Neil
  25. PZL P.11c "First shots" 1:72 Azur The P.11 was designed by Państwowe Zakłady Lotnicze (PZL) The Polish state aviation works. They were Polands main aircraft manufacturer during the interwar years. The P.11 was designed by Zygmunt Pulawski. In the late 1920s he had designed the all metal monoplane fighter the P.1 using a high mounted gull wing. This became known as the Polish or Pulawski wing. The P.1 and later P.6 & P.7 lead to the development of the P.11. The original P.11a was powered by a Bristol Mercury IV S2 radial engine but was considered an interim model and only 30 were built. The final variant the P.11c had a new refined fuselage with a lowered engine to give the pilot a better view. Production of the P.11c began in 1934 with 175 being produced. The first 50 had the Bristol Mercury V S2, with the remainder being fitted with the Bristol Mercury VI S2. Even though in 1934 the P.11C was more advanced than the Gloster Gladiator and the He 51, the fast pace of aircraft design in this time period coupled with the untimely death of Zygmunt Pulawski left the Polish with the P.11c in 1939 which was by then totally outclassed. The Polish had tried to order Hurricanes from Britain and M.S 406s from France. In the end none of these were delivered and the Polish Air Force faced the Luftwaffe in 1939 in their P.11cs. Not only were the P.11s low in numbers, lacking armament and radios, but they found the Bf 109s & Bf 110s faster and better armed. The Polish fighters had better manoeuvrability and due to the design better visibility. Despite the odds the Polish pilots managed to acquit themselves well. German records show losses of 285 with 110 being credited to the P.11 though the numbers are not 100% verified. The P.11c also has the dubious distinction of being the first aircraft to be shot down in WWII on 1st September 1939. The Kit The kit arrives in a standard open end box with the parts packed into a re-sealable plastic envelope. You get two sprues of grey plastic; a small clear canopy, a small selection of resin parts and a small etched fret. The plastic parts are well moulded with restrained panel lines where needed. The shape of the wing is well represented along with the surface. Construction starts with the cockpit. Its fairly basic in there on the kit, but I suspect the real thing was not exactly brimming with features. A combination of plastic and photo etched parts are used with a little bit of wire the modeller will need to provide. In all this should be sufficient for what you can actually see into. Following construction of the cockpit this is placed inside the fuselage halves and it is closed up. No location pins are provided so the modeller will have to ensure correct alignment. Following this the wings are constructed. The main wing Is moulded as one on the top part to capture the gull shape. Two outer wing panels are then attached on the underside. There are some large towers which will need to be removed before the wing parts can go together. Trim tabs and flap hinges are provided in PE for the wings, though the hinges are very small in 1.72! there are a couple of spares though if one is claimed by the carpet monster. The wings can then be attached to the fuselage with two struts each side. The last steps are then to attach the landing gear struts. These are moulded as one side. Getting the angle right will be a challenge as no where on the instructions does it show a view for you to compare against. Once these are on and the wheels attached the tailplanes are added. A PE trim tab is also included at this stage for the rudder. Finally the engine & cowl can be assembled and added. Decals Decal are provided for four different aircraft. Marking diagrams are provided in the instructions and a colour side view for each on the back of the box. The smallish decal sheet is printed by Aviprint of the Czech Republic. All appears to be in register with good colour definition and minimal carrier film. White 4 - 2nd Lt Jan Dzwonek Shot down Hs 126 Sept 1930 - As box art. White 10 - 2nd Lt Hieronim Dudwai, captured Sept 1939. White 5 - Waraw 1939 White 8 - Krakow 1939 Conclusion A historical subject if you like to model the inter-war years, or the very beginning of WWII. A good looking kit which is not to complicated. Highly recommended. Review sample courtesy of
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