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Hobbycraft 1/48 Morane Saulnier MS 406


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Continuing along with my theme of 1/48 scale models of aircraft  flown by Polish pilots in the Battles of Poland, France and Britain during 1939-1940, I decided that my third French fighter build should be a Morane Saulnier MS 406.  The kit I have chosed is the Hobby Craft one, although not a brilliant kit that has several innacurracies it shouldn't prove too difficult. First the pre build photo (a bit of a cheat as I had already started the build before I realised I hadn't taken the pre build photo so apologies for the part build kit at the side).

 

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Again my main sources of reference are the fabulous MMP productions Polish WW2 Fighters Pt 1 and the 1/48 Decals book shown in the foreground. I will be using their decals for the aircraft in the open pages that was part of the Montpellier Fighter Squadron, that comprised of detachments of Polish pilots attached to French Fighter Sqns as PAF Flights of between 3 and half a dozen or so pilots. In particular MS 406 Construction No 907, Coded L-936 of the DIAP Lyon Bron Detachment.  Hataka paints will be used again for the paint scheme.

I started with the cockpit, during research on the web I found some pictures of a painted up full resin  cockpit that is available for this kit, which I used as a guide, so I started by building the tube work that is very evident in cockpit pictures. I also put the ridges in using thin strips of plasticard that are on the flat plate behind the seat as they are very obvious in pictures of the actual aircraft through the rear cockpit glazing.

 

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Next came the cockpit side tubing, scratch built from plastic rod.

 

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The radio boxes on the starboard side were sectrions of plasticard scraps. This is quite tricky as the dash board slots in between the joystick and the bulkhead I had fabricated, so be careful to keep dry fitting it as you glue the rods in place.

 

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Next I sprayed it with Tamiya medium grey as close to the actual cockpit colour that I could find. Again it was test dry fitted into the lower wing half and the the fuselage halves.  It was too tight!

 

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It took quit a bit of filing down the cockpit floor and thinning the side tubes before the fuselage halves would fit over it properly.

 

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Here I've finally managed to get the fuse to sit on top of the cockpit. You can see how the black dashboard panel sits in front of my fabricated bulkhead as it is in the original aircraft. By this stage the gauge detail had been picked out and various bits of cockpit detail painted.  Then it was washed with Black and Burnt Umber oil paints dissolved in turps. When that was dry I did some light silver dry brushing on the tubes to highlight the details.

 

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The next job is to fill and re-scribe the elevators as the kit has them totally wrong with the upper tailplane strut actually attached to the elevators! Then to build up the vertical fin and round off the top as the kit has it flat. The cowling cheak intakes also need to be drilled out and shaped as the kit has them as solid, very odd.

 

Thanks for looking 

 

Ian

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