Richard Tucker Posted October 28, 2020 Share Posted October 28, 2020 About 10 years ago I bought a bix cardboard box filled with about 25 unmade kits from a guy about 10 miles from me. I've made a couple of them since then but most remain in the stash either because the decals are shot or their subject matter doesn't quite fit with my "I only build aircraft from WW2" remit. This group build came along and gave me a reason to look at some of these kits as most of them are Smer reboxings of old Heller kits. I had assumed that by September 1939, the old MS225 was well out of service but some googling confirmed that they were still being used by what would come to be the Patrouille de France in 1959. In April 1939, they were still being used by the aerobatic team of Ecole de Perfectionnement de Pilotage, Salon-de-Provence. I understand this was the predecessor to Patrouille de France. https://avignonairshow2017.fr/histoire-de-la-paf/ I am going to build the MS225 with the colour scheme below. I wasn't able to find any other sources for the colour scheme of that period so I hope it is accurate of the period. Obligatory Box pic I'll be using the roundels and tail decals. Bagged Sprues Basic instructions There aren't many parts but they are reasonably detailed and there is hardly any flash. 9 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard Tucker Posted October 28, 2020 Author Share Posted October 28, 2020 A quick modelling session and a few bits are glued together. The cockpit is very basic. I'll be adding some PE seat belts and might put something inside the fuselage for interest. 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TonyOD Posted October 28, 2020 Share Posted October 28, 2020 Really interesting this one. Look forward to following your progress. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JOCKNEY Posted October 28, 2020 Share Posted October 28, 2020 Delighted to see this one in the GB, I've been toying with the idea of building the shark version so look forward to seeing this one come to life. Any idea on the colour of Blue for yours ? It looks very striking in the picture. Cheers Pat 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RidgeRunner Posted October 28, 2020 Share Posted October 28, 2020 A nice choice, Richard Martin 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Toryu Posted October 28, 2020 Share Posted October 28, 2020 Great! Another wonderful interwar model - I love it! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AdrianMF Posted October 28, 2020 Share Posted October 28, 2020 Nice! We were discussing shark markings in @jean's Nieuport Delage NiD 622 build the other day. Interesting to know they are available in a Smer boxing. The strut arrangement looks quite robust - fingers crossed for a trouble-free assembly! Regards. Adrian 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jean Posted October 28, 2020 Share Posted October 28, 2020 Hi, another great plane. The kit has some shape's issues, but at the end of the day it still looks like a MS 225 if built OOB. What you could change are the roundels: the blue is more a British blue than a French one. And the shark is the decal to use!!! We did tow gliders with a MS 237, and it was a joy to fly. I am sure the MS 225 must have been superb, especially in view of the group aerobatics it performed. Have fun! JR 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dean Whiston Posted October 28, 2020 Share Posted October 28, 2020 Nice had this kit pegged as my gb entry no. 3 in that scheme - Patrouille d’Étampes from around 1935 - from what I can find the colours are aluminium and a slightly lighter blue (possibly closer to the colour on period roundels) - there is also blue on the wings - looking from above the blue starts at the front centre and then runs back diagonally to the end of the control surface on the rear edge so you end up with an aluminium triangle in the middle. 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard Tucker Posted October 29, 2020 Author Share Posted October 29, 2020 (edited) 16 hours ago, JOCKNEY said: Delighted to see this one in the GB, I've been toying with the idea of building the shark version so look forward to seeing this one come to life. Any idea on the colour of Blue for yours ? It looks very striking in the picture. Cheers Pat I have a bottle of Air Vallejo French Blue 71088 which would seem to be just the job. I used it for the nose of a P51 a little while back. Edited October 29, 2020 by Richard Tucker 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard Tucker Posted October 29, 2020 Author Share Posted October 29, 2020 14 hours ago, AdrianMF said: Nice! We were discussing shark markings in @jean's Nieuport Delage NiD 622 build the other day. Interesting to know they are available in a Smer boxing. The strut arrangement looks quite robust - fingers crossed for a trouble-free assembly! Regards. Adrian I hope it is easier than the Storch and the only thing blue is the paint..... not the language used. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard Tucker Posted October 29, 2020 Author Share Posted October 29, 2020 14 hours ago, jean said: Hi, another great plane. The kit has some shape's issues, but at the end of the day it still looks like a MS 225 if built OOB. What you could change are the roundels: the blue is more a British blue than a French one. And the shark is the decal to use!!! We did tow gliders with a MS 237, and it was a joy to fly. I am sure the MS 225 must have been superb, especially in view of the group aerobatics it performed. Have fun! JR I have some extra roundels from a set of decals for a range of French 1940 aircraft. I'll check this out and see what the colours are like and will report back. I expect there will be one the right size as the decal set covers all aircraft from MS406 to larger Potez and Breguet fighters. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard Tucker Posted October 29, 2020 Author Share Posted October 29, 2020 I had some AK Extreme Aluminium in the gun from spraying the underside of the Nell I've been working on so used the rest up on the MS225. I only realised afterwards that the scheme I'm doing needs the rear part of the fuselage in the same colour but that is ok. I can now complete the part around the cockpit with the guns and rigging. The sofa pilots seat looks pretty rubbish so I'll put some more detail in here and will try @AdrianMF's technique for the IP which at the moment is totally flat. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard Tucker Posted October 29, 2020 Author Share Posted October 29, 2020 15 hours ago, jean said: Hi, another great plane. The kit has some shape's issues, but at the end of the day it still looks like a MS 225 if built OOB. What you could change are the roundels: the blue is more a British blue than a French one. And the shark is the decal to use!!! We did tow gliders with a MS 237, and it was a joy to fly. I am sure the MS 225 must have been superb, especially in view of the group aerobatics it performed. Have fun! JR Side by side I can see what you mean. This then presents me with a challenge. 1) Use the decals as they are and accept that the tail and roundels are the wrong shade of blue. 2) Use the roundels on the 1940 sheet but then I have no tail decal to match. This would need to be airbrushed and would lose the markings on the tail 3) Find some MS225 decals that are actually more accurate Any suggestions or advice? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jean Posted October 29, 2020 Share Posted October 29, 2020 Hi Richard, just repaint the blue only on the kit's tail decal. You will only loose a tiny bit of writing on the blue. Not a train smash. Or repaint the whole rudder and do without the markings. Some aircraft were indeed flying around without writing on the rudder. i would not keep the kit's decals as not only the color, but even the proportions of the blue centers are wrong. Just choose what makes you the happiest. Cheers JR 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard Tucker Posted October 30, 2020 Author Share Posted October 30, 2020 I hadn't though of overpainting the blue. I have found replacement Smer decals are available from an online shop (hobby-shop.cz). If I want to pay more for the decals than I did for the kit that is an option I spent some time googling and found some great B&W photos of the subject It turns out this is a still from a video. 12:28 is the part where they appear. This confirms some things and gives more questions There WAS diagonal colour line under the tail planes. The lower wing is one colour. The roundel red colour almost disappears into the wing colour though so is it a red wing? or a trick of the B&W photography and it is blue as shown in most of the models I've seen. It looks like they have aluminium spats and struts in some photos but in others they look lighter.... could be white. The fuselage could be white and blue or aluminium and blue. Red lower wing, white / blue fuselage would fit with the french flag. Does anyone have better photos or info on this? Thanks 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RidgeRunner Posted October 30, 2020 Share Posted October 30, 2020 Very nice Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JWM Posted October 30, 2020 Share Posted October 30, 2020 There is huge set of static photos (snapshots - is it right term?) taken from the movie posted above https://www.impdb.org/index.php?title=1914-2014_Le_Bourget_terre_d'envol On your photo Spats and cowling indeed looks NMF, top rather white but also u/c looks painted white here: Regards J-W Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JWM Posted October 30, 2020 Share Posted October 30, 2020 (edited) P.S. Looks at somene's large RC model of this MS https://www.auction.fr/_fr/lot/morane-saulnier-importante-maquette-volante-d-avion-a-moteur-ms-225-aux-couleurs-de-10768175 it is alu dope/deep blue Regards J-W p.s. And another model: http://patrouillesacrobatiquesenmaquettes.e-monsite.com/pages/france/patrouille-d-etampes.html Edited October 30, 2020 by JWM 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard Tucker Posted November 2, 2020 Author Share Posted November 2, 2020 There is a whole load of progress thanks to the bad weather over the weekend, Lots of agonizing over the paint scheme too. I spray painted the upper fuselage piece and rigged it in preparation for the wing. I added a couple of pieces of thin plastic to the base of the cockpit to give some detail and added the PE seat belts from an Eduard French seat belts set I had. I drilled out the flat instrument panel with a hand drill to give the dials and painted it black. I then used the drill again to give the detail. I'm pleased with the results. This is where the agonising over the paint scheme started...... I had sprayed everything Aluminium and needed to start on the blue. All masked up and ready for the Vallejo French Blue. The cowling ring was sprayed with AK Extreme Bronze. I then re-looked at the photos and video in the thread above. Would I be happy knowing they were clearly white and blue aircraft? Should I take the lazy way out and just do Aluminium and Blue? After a while of soul searching the next photos show the decision.... I had to re-mask everything and spray the white. This just leaves the cowling and spats Aluminium. I assembled the cockpit pieces and did more rigging in preparation for the wing assembly. 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard Tucker Posted November 2, 2020 Author Share Posted November 2, 2020 The next set of assembly all happened in one afternoon over the weekend with no photos taken and it was one blur of gluing, rigging and more gluing. The wing was added to the fuselage and then the bracing struts were part rigged and added to the assembly. The spats and extra bracing were then added. This was the most fiddly bit as the spats have no locating point for the brace. Finally the cowling was added. I've also sprayed a french blue line for the tail decals. I'll only use the red portion of the decal. The upper cockpit isn't the best fit and I might try to use some white filler on it. 9 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rabbit Leader Posted November 2, 2020 Share Posted November 2, 2020 That looks totally awesome Richard. A really lovely scheme and some nice chrome bits to make it really stand out. Lovely stuff. Cheers.. Dave 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TonyW Posted November 2, 2020 Share Posted November 2, 2020 A beautiful build. The chosen scheme takes the whole thing to another level as well. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jinxman Posted November 2, 2020 Share Posted November 2, 2020 Wow - look at that! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jean Posted November 2, 2020 Share Posted November 2, 2020 Great scheme!!! You've just ruined my night vision!!! Brilliant. JR 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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