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Morane-Saulnier type 'N' Bullet - 1/32 Special Hobby


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Morane-Saulnier type 'N' Bullet.

1/32 Special Hobby

 

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The Morane Saulnier Type N first flew in May 1914, well before the outbreak of the Great war and was designed as a racer rather than a combat aircraft. Although a fairly modern looking machine, it lacked ailerons and used wing warping instead. The tailplane was all moving and only the rudder was hinged on the fin.

It was fitted with a Hotchkiss machine gun which was not synchronized to fire through the spinning propeller, rather it used two large steel wedges to deflect the bullets off it. Thus equipped, a small number of them entered service in 1915 and although not popular to fly, they did help end the 'Fokker Scourge' of the German Eindekkers. The RFC bought a small number and also used them to effect.

 

The kit is from Special Hobby, and even at 1/32 scale is quite small. I really like Special Hobby kits, they are very well moulded and fit together very well. This one comes with a resin engine, propeller, ammo belts and minor accessories. Also included is a nice etched brass sheet with engine details, seatbelts and turnbuckles for the brave to use! But the inexplicable thing is that nowhere in the kit are the large & prominent 'MS' circular logos that go on the cowling. Nada, Nothing, Zilch, not even anything on the decal sheet. This is a serious omission and I'm baffled why Special Hobby didn't provide them on the etch sheet. All is nit lost though, as Tom's Modelworks in the USA do a neat photo etched pair that you simply must get if building this kit. I have no connection with Tom's Modelworks, but must praise them for excellent service. I ordered the etched logos in the UK on a Saturday, and they arrived from the US the following Thursday.  Amazing and much appreciated.

 

The kit Instructions (and the Eduard 1/48 kit) show this particular aircraft as having red painted cow;ing/spinner areas on the fuselage. Reading the Windsock datafile, this seems very unlikely. All Morane-Saulnier aircraft of this period were finished with black enameled metalwork, and this is how they were supplied to the French Air Force and Royal Fling Corps. It was the RFC that initially repainted the black areas in red, to distinguish their machines from the Pfalz and Fokker Eindekkers. Later deliveries to the RC were painted red at the factory, but I am convinced that French machines remained with the black finish, so that is how I have done my model. The wing ribs were covered with thin bamboo strips of a lighter colour, I used Wingnut Wings German 'linen' rib tape decal strips.

 

I spotted the Blackdog 'Escadrille Lafayette pilot' on the big H website and though he might go rather well with this and my SPAD V.II (when I get around to building it !). There were no painting instructions so I had to google a lot of it.  Anyway, I hope you like it, it was a very enjoyable build.

 

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Thanks for looking,

 

John

 

 

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Very neat and perfectly rigged. The pilot looks quite authentic for me, and the bullet deflectors are particularly realistic.

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Absolutely beautiful, can't say anything other than that.

Well built, well painted and a joy to look at.

From the looks of it, it seems that the quality of these Special Hobby kits is indeed quite good. I'll have to give one of them a try sometime soon.

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Beautiful build, beautiful display and I love the cockpit and the deflectors. Truly awesome!

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Such a pretty looking aircraft and a fabulous build John.  Can't wait until we get the chance to meet up after the lockdown and I get to see it in the flesh.

All the best.

 

Chris.

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Thanks for the comments guys. One thing I forgot to mention is that I replaced the kit wheels with a spare pair from the Wingnut Wings Camel (you get 2 options in that kit) as I thought they had better detail and were slimmer than the Special Hobby ones. They are marginally bigger, perhaps 1 mm in diameter, and the supplied ones looked too fat to me.

 

Cheers

 

John

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  • 9 months later...

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