SMER Breguet 693 vs Azur Breguet 695 - Finished

[Richard Tucker]

I posted in the Group chat a while back asking for suggestions for my next build. As I am making good progress on the Tempest and have almost finished the other 2 kits on the bench, I thought I'd start building the SMER Breguet kit I have had in the stash for ages. It is the Heller plastic and unlike all the other SMER kits I have, it has no PE.

 

Instead of just building the kit on its own, I thought I'd try something a little different.

 

Some months ago I bought a job lot of kits from a chap in Scotland and one of the kits was an Azur Breguet 695. This is a lot newer than the Heller based SMER kit and I thought it would be fun to compare them by building them side by side.

 

I'm typing this having started the work a couple of days ago and life is NEVER easy.... Here goes......

 

 

The box work looks good.

 

It has a couple of schemes to choose from including the one on the back of the box.

 

 

 

 

Some Heller sprues

 

 

The Propagteam decals look good but all of the sets I've had in the past explode on contact with water.

 

 

The instructions are very basic

 

 

It comes with no instructions about colours at all.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[TonyOD]

Looking forward to this one!

 

That same "white 7" scheme is one of the options in the Heller Musée kit, but I'm not sure the Heller instructions add anything that the back of the Smer box doesn't already give you in terms of colour advice:

 

https://heller.fr/downloads/1000803920_BREGUET_693_A3_-_Building_instruction.pdf   

 

If that's the scheme you plan to do and you anticipate aggro from the Smer decals you'd be welcome to the decals from my Heller kit, when I eventually build it I'm going to have a crack at one of those stripy Vichy schemes. The blue in the French markings always seems notably darker in Smer's decals for some reason.

 

Edit: Just realised that this particular kit isn't actually in my stash yet, it's symbolically wrapped up for me to open on Christmas morning! 🎅

Edited December 7, 2020 by TonyOD

[JOCKNEY]

6 hours ago, TonyOD said:

 

Edit: Just realised that this particular kit isn't actually in my stash yet, it's symbolically wrapped up for me to open on Christmas morning! 🎅

 

Remember to act surprised when you open it !

Cheers Pat 

[Richard Tucker]

On 12/7/2020 at 1:20 PM, TonyOD said:

Looking forward to this one!

 

That same "white 7" scheme is one of the options in the Heller Musée kit, but I'm not sure the Heller instructions add anything that the back of the Smer box doesn't already give you in terms of colour advice:

 

https://heller.fr/downloads/1000803920_BREGUET_693_A3_-_Building_instruction.pdf   

 

If that's the scheme you plan to do and you anticipate aggro from the Smer decals you'd be welcome to the decals from my Heller kit, when I eventually build it I'm going to have a crack at one of those stripy Vichy schemes. The blue in the French markings always seems notably darker in Smer's decals for some reason.

 

Edit: Just realised that this particular kit isn't actually in my stash yet, it's symbolically wrapped up for me to open on Christmas morning! 🎅

Thank you for this kind offer. I have a sheet of decals from a French 1940 set which I must check to see if the Breguet is included.

[Richard Tucker]

Next the Azur kit.

 

I'm going to go all in with this one and do the scheme on the box. It looks terrifyingly difficult but I'll give it a go!

 

 

The plastic is nicely detailed.

 

The decals look good too.

 

 

I began by mixing the interior blue / grey colour that I had read about.

 

I painted the first coat on the seat and cockpit parts on the Azur kit and then started with the Smer kit. I painted the fuselage and then went looking for the cockpit pieces. THERE AREN'T ANY!

 

 

No floor, seats, control column. I was a bit shocked to be honest.

 

While I waited for that to dry, I thought I'd use up the rest of the black in the airbrush and would spray the wheels, props, engines etc. I started with the Smer one and then got to the Azur one....

 

Then everything went wrong....

 

Here are the sprue layout for the engine parts. Note the cowlings are next to the engines and the tail planes are at the bottom underneath the propellers.

 

 

 

 

^----- This is not the right sprue. It IS a sprue for a Breguet but it has no engines. At this point I gave up in a huff!

 

A day later, I went online and bought 2 1/72 P&W Twin Wasp Junior engines and the Brengun PE interior detail set for the Heller / Smer kit. I wait for them to arrive.

 

Nothing is ever easy is it!

[TonyOD]

2 hours ago, Richard Tucker said:

It looks terrifyingly difficult

It really does 😁

[Richard Tucker]

The postman has been.

 

 

I have 2 new engines. I'll make one up and dry fit it. It looks about the right size and it nicely detailed. This will go with the Azur kit with its difficult paint scheme.

 

I've also got the PE for the Heller / SMER kit.

 

 

 

This looks quite daunting too!

[Jinxman]

Some nice detailing bits and pieces there. Looking forward to seeing how it fits together.

[Richard Tucker]

On 12/10/2020 at 4:33 PM, Jinxman said:

Some nice detailing bits and pieces there. Looking forward to seeing how it fits together.

Me too! 

[JOCKNEY]

Hi Richard

 

Really sorry to read of your difficulties with your Azur kit.

 

I'm really glad you were able to source alternative parts.

 

I wrote off to the manufacturer of Azur recently and they posted out some parts I needed, and would not take any money for them not even postage. As a way of showing my appreciation I put a post here on BM pointing out how Good their customer service was.

 

I hope you don't mind me asking, but what colour blue did you use for the interior?

 

Best of luck with the builds.

 

cheers Pat

[Richard Tucker]

18 hours ago, JOCKNEY said:

Hi Richard

 

Really sorry to read of your difficulties with your Azur kit.

 

I'm really glad you were able to source alternative parts.

 

I wrote off to the manufacturer of Azur recently and they posted out some parts I needed, and would not take any money for them not even postage. As a way of showing my appreciation I put a post here on BM pointing out how Good their customer service was.

 

I hope you don't mind me asking, but what colour blue did you use for the interior?

 

Best of luck with the builds.

 

cheers Pat

 

I mixed up some Vallejo French blue  and some Ocean Grey and a little black. It looked a fair representation of some of the colours I had seen here :

 

 

It has since had a coat of the blue/grey wash from the Late Luftwaffe Ammo Mig paint set I have which has given it a bit  more of a greyness. (after these photos were taken)

 

[Richard Tucker]

This is the most work I've ever needed to do with PE. It was a huge learning curve. I started to use CA glue, changed to PVA when I stuck one piece in the wrong orientation and then ended up with a 50/50 mix of PVA and CA depending if I could leave something to stick in place or if it had to stick in place immediately.

 

The fuselage sides went together with no issues. I used a pair of nail scissors to do all the trimming and cutting and they worked well.

 

Here is one of the sides with no paint yet.

 

 

 

I mixed some more French Blue / Ocean Grey and black paint and then brush painted it. It will need another coat.

 

 

In comparison, here is a fuselage from the Azur kit.

 

 

The windows are all in both sets of fuselage and are masked now. I need to just grasp the bit between my teeth and finish off the details, stick everything in place and close up the fuselages....

[Jinxman]

Both look great - looking forward to seeing how much of that work is visible once it's all buttoned up. 😉

[Richard Tucker]

1 minute ago, Jinxman said:

Both look great - looking forward to seeing how much of that work is visible once it's all buttoned up. 😉

Absolutely none I am sure lol

[Richard Tucker]

The fuselage on both went together ok. The PE parts in the SMER kit fitted well between the 2 halves.

 

 

If anything, the Azur kit OOB fitted the worse.

 

The next task is for the wings. I need to trim off some of the tab which would go into the fuselage as the PE gets in the way now.

 

The wings fit ok to both fuselages but all 4 engines are not a great fit and will need filler.

 

 

After filler, we have a slight difference in the build construction. The Heller / SMER kit needs its undercarriage fitted before the wing halves are joined together,

 

 

Now I have the boring task of masking the cockpit glazing x2

[TonyOD]

Looks great. To me the Breguet looks like a little aeroplane with one more than its fair share of engines! 😁

[Richard Tucker]

I've not been using my laptop over Xmas so there has been lots of progress, but no updates on here. 

 

Here is the Smer kit ready for paint.

 

 

The Azur kit is ready too. It has no undercarriage and the tail is separate as it will be yellow and red stripes (I hope)

 

 

I attached the glazing with some clearfix. It worked well. Hopefully I can see some of the detail inside now they are buttoned up.

 

 

 

I've decided to use the Hataka paint set I got some months ago. It is a brush kit but I mostly airbrush as I can't get a good finish with a brush so I've thinned it with some Vallejo thinner. The chocolate coat you can see above is the third colour to go on.

 

Both the Azur and Smer kits got some Light Grey Blue underside. I then sprayed Khaki on the Azur kit as per the colour suggestion and Light Brown on the Smer kit.

 

I have begun the tricky task of yellow and red stripes on the tail of the Azur kit with a few sprays of Yellow.

 

 

 

 

[Richard Tucker]

Lots of progress over the xmas break but no updates on here as I use my laptop for updates and I didn't want to turn it on and look at any work emails

 

Unfortunately, I haven't taken any photos either until this morning so there is quite a change!

 

I continued to use the Hataka paints thinned down with a little thinner. This worked pretty well. I am not 100% sure of the colour correctness but this is what the instructions and the Hataka set suggested.

 

The Azur kit is the yellow / red scheme. 

 

 

I sprayed the yellow first and after the camo was done, I masked off the stripes and sprayed the red.

 

 

The engines were done separately. 

 

 

 

Both planes were sprayed with Future and then the decals were applied. The Azur ones worked well on the recessed panel lines.

 

The Cartegena ones worked of on the raised lines of the Heller / Smer kit.

 

 

 

 

You can only see a little of the PE goodness inside the Heller kit. You can see the PE radiators around the engines though.

 

I have a load of small pieces to attach and paint and then I'm calling them done. 

 

[Heather Kay]

You can sort of see why I’ve shied away from Vichy markings in my 1940 obsession for now.

[JOCKNEY]

9 hours ago, Heather Kay said:

You can sort of see why I’ve shied away from Vichy markings in my 1940 obsession for now.

When I did a vichy Hawk the red leaked under the tape so badly it looked like a scene out of Reservoir Dogs !

 

@Richard Tucker your Breguet's are both looking the business mate 

 

Cheers Pat 

 

[Richard Tucker]

I spent the weekend doing some panel lines and the finishing touches and they are both done. I'm pleased with the way they turned out. I could have sprayed the paint a little thinner on the Azur kit as some of the lines were filled but otherwise, they look good.

 

I like the PE engine parts on the Heller kit. They have made a difference.

 

Azur Kit

 

 

 

 

Smer / Heller

 

 

 

 

Thanks for looking and thank you for the help and advice.

Edited January 11, 2021 by Richard Tucker

[jean]

Hi Richard,

 

this has been a huge amount of work performed in record time!

And the result is splendid!

I noticed a HUGE omission though! (Kidding!) You forgot the two cables that run from the underside of the 693 nose to the end of the machine guns: these are allowing the pilot to know how many rounds have been fired. I am not joking... check photos. 

Having started the new year by being a mean, nasty cantankerous modeler, I now feel good!

Congratulations on two beautiful builds!

AND HAVE A GREAT 2021.

 

JR

[TonyOD]

They both look superb Richard. The one with the Vichy stripes in particular is a stunner.

[Richard Tucker]

16 hours ago, jean said:

Hi Richard,

 

this has been a huge amount of work performed in record time!

And the result is splendid!

I noticed a HUGE omission though! (Kidding!) You forgot the two cables that run from the underside of the 693 nose to the end of the machine guns: these are allowing the pilot to know how many rounds have been fired. I am not joking... check photos. 

Having started the new year by being a mean, nasty cantankerous modeler, I now feel good!

Congratulations on two beautiful builds!

AND HAVE A GREAT 2021.

 

JR

OMG What a strange thing! You mean these looped cables?

 

 

I would never have seen these. I'll sort them out later. I notice in the background is a MS230 which I have also built as part of the GB!

 

Out of interest, Can anyone identify the 2 aircraft behind the MS230? They look identical. You can see the tails.

[PeterB]

Hi Richard,

 

Nice builds.

 

The planes in the background are presumably capured French ones and I am thinking the high wing with parallel bracing, the tail, the open engine on a conical mounting and the slightly ridged fuselage suggest something from the Wibault 7 family - the tail suggests perhaps Wibault 74, which was a 1930's fighter, though I think that particular model was also used by the French Navy which might explain the apparently uniform colour on the fuselage - a sort of blue/grey I believe, with the tricolour fin flash overpainted? Probably totally wrong as they are also very like the MS 230 but I get the impression they are slightly longer. I have a nagging recollection that Heller may have produced a Wibault though it is not in my 1980 catalogue,

 

Pete

Edited January 12, 2021 by PeterB