Paul A H Posted May 9, 2020 Share Posted May 9, 2020 Potez 25TOE 'For France - anytime, anywhere' (SH72407) 1:72 Special Hobby The Potez 25 was a French single engined, two-seater biplane designed in the interwar period and used widely by air forces around the world. A flexible design, the Potez 25 was used in a variety of roles, including as a fighter, bomber escort, light bomber and reconnaissance platform. The TOE variant was originally designed for use in French colonies and featured a Lorraine engine with a deeper belly and extra fuel capacity. Armed with 7.7mm machine guns, it was also capable of carrying 200kg of bombs. For an aicraft that was so widely used, the Potez 25 has not been brilliantly represented by kit manufacturers over the years. I reviewed a fancy mixed media kit from Grand Models around three or four years ago, before Azur Frrom came with a brand new injection moulded kit a year or so ago. Now Special Hobby have released their own version based on the Frrom collaboration. Inside the box are five frames of grey plastic and a single clear frame, as well as photo etched parts and decals. The plastic parts are all nicely moulded and have plenty of fine detail. Construction starts with the well-detailed cockpit. This sub-assembly is made up of the floor detail, seats, instrument panels, control columns, rudder pedals and the podium and machine gun for the observer/gunner. The cockpit sidewalls are packed with detail too. Once complete, the cockpit detail is sandwiched between the fuselage halves and the underside of the fuselage, which is separately moulded. The engine cowling is next. The inner struts fit inside this structure and tiny holes must also be drilled in pre-marked points in order to accomodate the rigging. Once complete, the cowling/forward fuselage can be joined to the main section of the fuselage which, in turn, can be joined to the lower wing (or blanking piece if building one of the Romanian parasol-winged monoplane versions). The upper wing joins to the fuselage and lower wing via a system of struts. No jig is provided to help with alignment, so this model may be better suited to experienced biplane builders. The landing gear uses a similar system of individual struts. The instructions recommend making pins from brass rod to strengthen these parts. If you choose to do this, you will need to source the rod yourself as none is supplied. The main wheels benefit from some photo etched detail to represent the spoked wheels. More photo etched parts are used to represent the elevator control parts and the locating points for the rigging. Finishing touches include four small bombs. Four decal options are provided, which is pretty generous for a kit of this size: Potez 25TOE No. 2113 'White 6', escadrille 1/41, La Chau, French Indo-China, March 1942; Potez 25TOE No. 1489 'White 5', 3é escadrille GB 11/39, Rayake, French mandate of Lebanon, 1933; Potez 25TOE No. 1618, 3S5.3 escadrille 3S5, base aérienne Hyéres Aéronautique navale, September 1939; Potez 25TOE, 3. escadrille GB 1/17 Picardie, FAFL, Damascus, 1944. The decals are nicely printed and the colours look nice and bold. Conclusion It's great to see Azur-Frrom and Specal Hobby collaborating to produce a good quality, injection moulded model of this attractive and important interwar type. The kit is very nicely detailed indeed, I have to say it probably isn't ideally suited to biplane novices. That said, if you take your time and pay attention to the instructions, you should be rewarded with a really appealing model to which a huge variety of marking schemes can be applied. Recommended. Review sample courtesy of 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pierre66 Posted November 22, 2020 Share Posted November 22, 2020 Very nice box... and great aircraft... Old thing but very usefull! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now