Heather's Workbench - the French connection, 1940 style

[AdrianMF]

2 hours ago, Heather Kay said:

The results were rubbish

My sympathies - I just deleted a pile of pictures of my finished Buccaneer for the same reason!

[CedB]

Lovely crisp frames there Heather, great job  

 

Looking rather, er, 'jolie laide' as they say in France.

[stevehnz]

That has come out wonderfully well Heather, I really like the French camo shades, they produce some stunning results as yours shows so well. I also like the way the matt coat toned them down but also showed the individual colours better. (I know what I'm trying to say even if no-one else does )

Steve.

[Andwil]

38 minutes ago, stevehnz said:

I also like the way the matt coat toned them down but also showed the individual colours better. (I know what I'm trying to say even if no-one else does )

I know what you mean.

 

AW

[Heather Kay]

Let’s have another go, with the big camera.

 

 

Results later, when the prints come back from the chemists. 

[alt-92]

Aaha! A look in the kitchen, so to speak.
Something for the to-do list, like the backdrop as well

 

[Jur]

That is catwalk modelling!

[Heather Kay]

Right folks! RFI post is up. Enjoy, and thanks for following along. More French fancies will appear here in time.

 

 

[Heather Kay]

I've started an Azur Breguet 693 as part of a group build. Rather than duplicate the build thread here, which would be confusing and silly, here's a link to the GB thread.

 

I will post some proper RFI images once the build is completed.

 

[Ed Russell]

Looking good. There are so many more ugly planes you can build....~

[Heather Kay]

Plenty of ugly ones left in the stash, Ed. 

[heloman1]

Some interesting builds going on here Heather, the frogs had some interesting colour schemes in those days.

I'll sit in the background and follow if I may?

 

Colin

[Heather Kay]

31 minutes ago, heloman1 said:

I'll sit in the background and follow if I may?

Everyone is welcome! Don’t forget the Breguet build will be happening in the group build sub-forum. 

[Heather Kay]

While I documented the full build on the Group Build thread, here's a précis.

 

 

The box art shows a Br693AB.2 doing what it was designed to do, a fast, low-level strafing and bombing run on ground forces.

 

 

 

 

 

The box contents as typical fare. A small sheet of PE gives seat belts and gunsight, plus a lot of detail for the bombs. Resin engines and rear machine gun round up the parts list. The machine code markings for the rudder are printed separately from the rudder stripes, which is nice because I prefer to paint the stripes rather than struggle fitting the transfers.

 

 

Interior assembly is fairly quick. The interior detailing is quite sufficient at this scale, though almost all is invisible once the fuselage is joined up.

 

 

The fuselage is peppered with glazed panels. I fitted them at this stage, and spent a while sanding and polishing them to make them flush with the outside profile.

 

 

The wings were not a bad fit. The instructions have you fit the engine nacelles to the wings before attaching the latter to the fuselage. The front of the nacelles is probably the worst fitting area in the kit.

 

 

 

All cleaned up, and looking smooth. The fins and rudders are not fitted at this point, as I was painting them off the model to make masking easier. The engine cowlings were pretty much circular, for a change.

 

 

The resin engines must be a standard moulding common with other kits, and need to be reduced in diameter to fit the kit cowlings.

 

 

As with most short run kits, the location points of engines is very much left to the modeller, and needs some careful thought. In the end, reliance on the Eyeball, Human, MkI, is the best that can be managed. I think I more or less got the gear cases central and pointing straight forward.

 

 

Sub-assemblies made up before priming begins. The white rod will be used for the propeller mounting.

 

 

I frequently find moulded location stubs need to be replaced with brass rod for strength. This is the case for the characteristic streamlined tail wheel.

 

 

Power plants installed. 

 

 

And intakes fitted.

 

 

Clear parts were fitted after some careful masking.

 

 

While a bomb load is supplied, I decided it wouldn't be visible and left all but the rack out. The bay doors are glazed, which is an unusual feature.

 

 

The tail fins were primed with white acrylic, and then masked to brush paint the blue and red stripes.

 

 

The instructions weren't all that clear, but assembling the props revealed they are handed and rotate in different directions. It took a while, studying various grainy photos, to work out which engine went in which direction. To help, I marked the rear of each boss accordingly.

 

 

Some fine copper wire was fitted to represent the brake lines on the undercarriage. I also sanded a flat on the wheels, leaving them free to rotate at this stage. Once fitted to the aircraft, the flats could be located properly and the wheels glued in place.

 

 

Rattlecan primer goes on, in company with a dissected Fairey Swordfish.

 

 

After the rudder markings had been masked, the fins were attached and painting proper could begin. I selected one of the four markings options and set to. Like the Potez 63-11, I decided to try to freehand airbrush the camouflage colours.

 

 

I used the ColourCoats French Air Force enamel range. This is being left to harden before some refining took place.

 

 

A coat of clear gloss, and transfers went on. Not many to do, so it didn't take long at all.

 

 

Wheels fitted and masking removed. The slot on the belly is apparently for a fixed rear-facing machine gun. This is not obvious from the instructions, so I left the slot clear. As the model is displayed without crew and on the ground, let's assume the gun is away at the workshop being serviced.

 

 

A coat of satin varnish, because photos do seem to show a level of sheen to the paintwork on the real things, and an attack of aluminium paint. Fast low-level flying did seem to take its toll on leading edges.

 

 

I could have spent longer fitted the glazing better, but this cruel closeup is to show the nose cannon and machine guns. These are made from brass rod. I forego any attempt at removing such tiny parts from the runner trees.

 

 

The final act is fitting the rear flexible machine gun...

 

 

...and the gunsight.

 

 

And that's done. I'll just make an RFI entry and I'll post the link later.

 

What's left in my French collection? The large twin-engined bombers, of course, and the Hanriot twin-engine trainer. After that I need to think about the French naval aircraft. I've made a list, and it's longer than my entire 1940 collection put together so far!

[Chuck1945]

Very nice.

[Heather Kay]

7 minutes ago, Chuck1945 said:

Very nice.

 

Thanks. 

 

RFI post here:

 

 

[Gondor44]

Looks very nice as does the rest of them in the article in the latest IPMS mag

 

Gondor

[Heather Kay]

Ooh, so the mag's on its way. That's nice to know. 

[Gondor44]

Just now, Heather Kay said:

Ooh, so the mag's on its way. That's nice to know. 

Yup, mine arrived yesterday in Sunny Scotland

 

Gondor

[Heather Kay]

You know, I forgot to link to this build that was done a couple of years ago as part of the Heller Classic group build. I’ll add an RFI link when I find one.

 

Hmm, it seems I never posted a proper RFI, so you’ll have to make do with the GB gallery entry.