Hobby 2000 MS.406

[Foxbat]

I enjoyed the two D.520s immensely, so I was lookng for another similar project. I discovered Hobby 2000 have reboxed another of Hasegawa's early war French fighters, so it was a no brainer really. As a bonus, it uses the Khaki green that I have but haven't found a use for yet (although it may yet find a home on my Heller AMX-13 VCI as nothing else I've used looks even vaguely right).

 

This is the box. As ever, sprue shots &c will have to wait until the poor postie has been. 

 

A little background: the box art depicts an aircraft of GC I/7 which was stationed in Sidi Ahmed, Tunisia in April 1939. I know what you're thinking: "Andy you fool, that's way too early. GB rules say from 1st September 1939". A little digging has revealed that they remained there, with no change of markings until after the armistice in June 1940 so it still qualifies. This makes me happy.

 

GC I/7 moved to Egypt in summer 1940 where it remained unil being disbanded in October 1942. In September 1943 it reformed flying the Spitfire Vb, participating in the North African campaign, the liberation of Corsica and the invasion of Southern France where it earned the name Provence which it still carries today, flying the Dassault Rafale.

 

Andy

 

Edited October 30, 2020 by Foxbat

[TEMPESTMK5]

Good evening Andy

 Nice choice I am very pleased to see a MS 406 in this Gb..

Have fun

Best regards

Patrice

[Corsairfoxfouruncle]

I was curious about these Andy, mind if I follow. 

[Foxbat]

1 minute ago, Corsairfoxfouruncle said:

I was curious about these Andy, mind if I follow. 

Please do. I'll try and make the build as informative as possible so you know what you're getting into if you decide to take the plunge 

 

Andy

[Ozzy]

I’ve not seen one of these Andy watching with interest.

[Foxbat]

OK, you can take antici............pation too far, time for an update.

 

This is what is in the box - Hasegawa plastic, originally tooled in 1993. There's some really nice detail on the parts which I've done my nest to hide in my pictures.

 

 

Instructions and decals. Standard Hasegawa instructions, jazzy Hobby 2000 decals and painting guide. They print the camo schemes really dark which makes following the upper surface scheme quite hard for the three colour camo. Decals are lovely and I'm already tempted to another one of these for a future GB. Those huge IDs on the undersurface may compromise the camouflage ever so slightly.

 

 

Section 1 of the instructions was a piece of cake. Colour E is dark blue grey, so I used the Gris Bleu Fonce I wasn't using on the outside in place of the Midnight Blue I was expecting. Seat is silver and the control column is silver with black detail. So far, so uncontroversial. 

 

The problems start in Section 2. The instrument panel is a really odd shape, and is supposed to attach onto a couple of little tabs in the fuselage halves with the T outlined in yellow getting everything lined up. Part A10 isn't quite as wide as the fuselage though, and the tabs are tiny so it's a real trial getting it to fit and look right. The instruments are a decal, and mine took a bit of a hammering while I was wrestling the part into place.

 

The real kicker is trying to get section 1 into the fuselage. The D.520s I built were beautifully engineered and foolproof. This one isn't  The little cut outs at the corner of B7 are supposed to interlock with the tabs (all outlined red), but again, the part isn't as wide as the gap it's filling so it doesn't seat and won't stick. It took me several goes and I had to prise apart the fuselage and start again. It's still not 100% as I discovered when it moved as I was painting. I would recomend adding a card floor to give the kit parts something to bind to.

 

The fit of the fuselage halves by contrast was excellent but this kit has a little quirk it shares with the D..520; the engine cowl forward of the socket (outlined in blue) is fractionally higher on the starboard side than the port so there's a bit of sanding and making good to do. Fortunately it's small enough that you don't lose any detail while you're doing it. There was also a small but noticeable fuzzy edge from the bacl of the cockpit to the fin but a couple of sweeps with a sanding stick sorted it and hid the seam. No pictures of this stage as I was charging my camera battery. Sorry

 

 

Wings went together with zero problems. The fit to the fuselage is a little tight but with a firm push and a bit of wiggling everything clicks into place. What is this though? Quelle horreur!!! There are gaps most of the way round. Fortunately these are HFH gaps (Horrible For Hasegawa) not the proper, manly gaps you'd get on the products of other companies' offerings and 30 seconds wafting the model past my tub of filler had everything looking as it should. Picture is pre-filler. The black streak is paint from the IP that was still damp on my thumb.

 

 

I gave everything a coat of white, just to make sure I'd caught all the gaps and left it for the night. Today I started applying the green. It is Hataka Blue Line French Kaki from their Early WW2 French Air Force Set. I've never used this colour before, so it's still a bit thin but experience says it will improve with use as repeated shoogles mix the pigment back into the carrier. It looks very brown in daylight, much more green here. Note that the tail planes are handed because they have support struts, and the struts are on top, not underneath because <gallic shrug> Pourquois pas? </gs>

 

All the lovely detail has disappeared in these pictures, but it's still there waiting for the big reveal at the end. This plane is a riot of lumps, bumps, scoops and changes of surface and they're all in there somewhere

 

 

 

Finally for now, a little detail shot of my nemesis, the cockpit. It's quite nice really, it just takes time, effort and a little modelling skill to make it work. Obviously I didn't lavish enough of any of those on mine, but you will, won't you?

 

 

Andy

Bloodied but unbowed.

 

 

[HOUSTON]

Andy,

 

What a wonderful  choice.

Looking good .

Neat  start.