Azur 1/72nd Breguet Br.693AB.2

[alt-92]

Would a small triangle of .010"  plasticard help there?

Easily sandable, almost melts invisibly with Tamiya Extra Thin... I've had good experiences that way and then minimal filler or putty is needed.

[Heather Kay]

On 26/07/2021 at 09:42, alt-92 said:

Would a small triangle of .010"  plasticard help there?

A tardy reply, so apologies. There was no real step between the trailing edge and the nacelle extension. I think the issue was shrinkage post-moulding. 
 

 

A smear of Squadron putty dealt with it. PPP dealt with gaps at the wing roots and nacelles.

 

 

The mojo has been a bit lacking, I’m afraid. Here is where I am this evening. The cowlings have been glued together and will need seam tidying and general sanding. They are, at least, circular, so that’s something. The horizontal tailplane has been glued on. I’ve left off the fins because I like to paint the rudder stripes. That will be simpler with the fins off the model. 
 

The check list of things to glue on is shrinking. The engines need to be sorted out: I expect some annoyance there, as they’re resin and will need adjustment. The propellers need to be assembled, quite literally. Each blade is separate, and will need careful tidying. I note a tiny pin is used to locate in a tiny hole in the hub moulding, ensuring the blades are correctly orientated, so that should be fun. Then there’s the undercarriage. The glazing needs masking, and I must find a way to fit the rear observer's machine gun. There is some cockamamy PE part that doesn’t look like it can support itself let alone a whole weapon, so I’ll think on that. It probably can wait until after painting.

 

Ah, painting. Therein lies the rub. 

[Heather Kay]

Right. About these engines.

 

 

The kit provides some delicately cast resin Gnome-Rhône radials. I think they’re a standard part common with other planes of the period. They don’t, however, fit inside their cowlings. To be fair, this is noted in the instructions, and the builder is tasked with cutting the diameter back to 13.4mm. 
 

How on earth was I supposed to take a good couple of millimetres off the castings while maintaining concentricity? I slept on the problem.

 

 

I couldn’t find a solution, probably because I was asleep. So, after breakfast and while the washing machine got on with the laundry, I sat at the bench and pondered. One idea was to try and mount the engine in my Dremel and attempt to sand off the excess. Unfortunately, I didn’t have a mandrel that could take the engine, so that was out of the frame. I guess it was do it the hard way.

 

First, I drilled through each engine 1.2mm to allow for a prop shaft. I then tried to cut out a circle of 13.4mm diameter from a thick scrap of styrene sheet. The idea was I could use this as a template or filing/sanding guide. 
 

Then I hit upon the idea of using my Olfa compass cutter to score the casting, much as I had sort of done with the styrene template. I failed to get a clear picture of the process, but it kind of worked. 
 

 

You can see the deep circular score here. You can also see I decided life was too short and got a piercing saw out and hacked chunks off the casting instead!

 

 

 

 

I hate doing this. The worry is it’s just so easy to remove too much material, and then you’re b*ggered. Anyway, it kind of fits. 
 

 

Another annoyance is there’s never any indication provided as to exactly where the casting is supposed to sit within the cowling. In the end, I’ve elected to have the leading rim of the gear case just proud of the cowling. No idea if that’s right. Of course, I’m not even gluing the things in yet, as they have to be painted. When I do glue them in, it’s the fiddling about attempting to get everything dead centre without guides or alignment pins, just relying on my increasingly worn out Eyeball, Mark One, Human.

 

Paint the engines next, after hanging the laundry out to dry.

[Biggles87]

Full marks for Percy Verance

I hope you were wearing a mask.

 

John

[Heather Kay]

2 minutes ago, Biggles87 said:

I hope you we’re wearing a mask.

i fear I am well beyond help with that! 😷

[Heather Kay]

 

While paint dried on the engines, I assembled the blades and spinners for the props. I’ll stick a length of 1.2mm diameter Evergreen rod in for the shaft. I also decided to assemble the main undercarriage. Some time ago I had glued the wheel halves together and tidied them. I wanted to add a flat to the wheels so the plane looked like it had a bit of weight when sat on the deck, and I wondered if it might be possible to glue the legs together but leave the wheels free to rotate. The answer is yes, with a little fettling to ensure the very short axle pegs were a positive location into the wheels.

 

 

The tail wheel, with its glorious aerodynamic cover, was again moulded in two halves. A small peg was intended to glue into a hole in the tail end of the fuselage. Well, that wasn’t going to work, so I drilled the peg out, CA'd some 0.7mm brass wire into the hole, and then glued it into the fuselage.

 

 

 

With the engine paint dry, I managed to install the castings into the cowlings. Inevitably, they’re not quite centred, but they’ll have to do now. The cowlings were attached to the nacelles, and once set the scoop intakes fitted underneath. The latter are handed, though the numbers seem to be transposed on the runner plan - or I misread them, which is more likely. A smear of PPP will be needed to smooth gaps.

 

And that, surprisingly, seems to be the main construction done. There are various antennae and machine gun barrels to install, some of which I will make from brass rod for ease and longevity. I need to mask the transparencies, but I really need to be in the right mood for that. Not far off being ready for primer, then.

[Heather Kay]

Ooh, this is almost painful! So near construction being complete and priming on the horizon, yet I don’t seem to be progressing much at all.

 

 

 

Still, I’ve managed to mask the transparencies, and glue the main bits in place. I have also been finessing all the filling and seams. I think the next think will be bunging some soft foam in various orifices and getting primer on.

[Terry1954]

Painful maybe, but this one is certainly looking very nice indeed Heather. I'm already imagining how good those gorgeous french colours will look!

 

Terry

[Biggles87]

Agreed.

Soft foam in various orifices sounds quite comfortable. 

 

John

 

 

[RidgeRunner]

She is looking great, Heather

[Grandboof]

Progress is progress no matter how slow. This will be great with some colour on 

Martin H

[Richard Tucker]

Looking good. I remember all these steps from my build. At this point I was dreading painting the stripes.... No doubt you'll do a great job.

[Heather Kay]

22 hours ago, RidgeRunner said:

She is looking great, Heather

 

55 minutes ago, Grandboof said:

Progress is progress no matter how slow. This will be great with some colour on 

Cheers chaps! I’m hoping I might be able to freehand airbrush the camo, like I did on the Potez 63-11 I built a while back.

 

4 minutes ago, Richard Tucker said:

Looking good. I remember all these steps from my build. At this point I was dreading painting the stripes.... No doubt you'll do a great job.

 

I have been reliably informed that the fancy red and yellow stripes only appeared in 1941 or thereabouts. As I concentrate on 1940, I think only the white bars and cockade outer rings will be needed when I head for the Med in due course.

[JOCKNEY]

Nice one avoiding the Vichy stripes !

[VG 33]

50 minutes ago, JOCKNEY said:

Nice one avoiding the Vichy stripes !

 

hello

 

Hopefully as the 693 squadrons were more famous for the low passes above the german panzer colums in Belgium and Northern France in May 1940. Obviously they suffered heavily against AAA.

 

Patrick

[Brandy]

Looking good! I have to question though, whether the tailwheel would actually have been more aerodynamic without the fairing!

 

Ian

[Heather Kay]

5 minutes ago, Brandy said:

whether the tailwheel would actually have been more aerodynamic without the fairing!

I know what you mean. Mind you, most contemporary French planes were still fitted with skids. I bet there was a representative of the Tail Skid Society on the design panel that insisted it had to look clumsy. 

[Heather Kay]

Whoosh!

 

 

Almost every kit of a French aircraft I’ve so far built has included the rudder stripes on the transfer sheet. Thankfully, the designers often provide the various data markings as separate parts. This is a boon, because I rarely get the stripes to fit the plastic neatly. For this reason I’ve adopted the practice of painting the stripes. While the rudders were still attached to the runners, I sprayed some rattlecan white acrylic primer on them. That saves painting after the camo has begun. See? I do learn from my mistakes. 
 

For the record, I found Humbrol enamels Matt 60 for the red and Matt 89 for the blue a reasonable match to the transfers in the box. Once the paint is dry, I’ll clear coat for protection, then mask the rudders before attaching the fins to the horizontal tail surfaces.

 

 

In other news, the dinky propellers have been assembled, fettled, and attached to suitable styrene rod.

 

 

Photos show what appears to be brake operating linkage, probably hydraulic hose, on the main undercarriage legs. I drilled the plastic parts, and formed some 0.2mm copper wire which has been CA'ed in place. 
 

I suppose the next obvious thing is to sort the rest of the tailplane out, then get the main model primed. 

 

 

[Terry1954]

Your matches for the french blue and red look pretty good to me, and what a neat way of sorting the fin flashes.

 

Terry

[Heather Kay]

1 minute ago, Terry1954 said:

Your matches for the french blue and red look pretty good to me, and what a neat way of sorting the fin flashes.

Cheers Terry! I’ve found various kit transfer printers can have several shades of blue, so I was surprised the colour didn’t need making lighter or darker this time. I’m usually prepared to have to mix a shade. 

[Heather Kay]

 

Today is the first day I’ve had the chance to set the paint rig up. You can see I have also been collecting models for priming! The Breguet is joined by a disjointed Swordfish.

 

I need to leave those well alone for a while so the rattle can acrylic primer can dry properly.

[Heather Kay]

 

I managed to eke out the remains of my ColourCoats Gris Bleu Clair. I think I should check the other colours and make a fresh order very soon.

[Terry1954]

That finish looks superb!

 

Terry

[Heather Kay]

Thanks Terry!

 

I am concentrating on this model today. With luck, I’ll complete the camouflage to my satisfaction, and perhaps even get a gloss coat on by the end of the day.

 

 

I selected Camo option D for aircraft No 93, 1 Escadrille GBA I/54. Working from the colour plans, I sketched the basic shapes with a pencil. Then, starting with Gris Bleu Fonce, and the airbrush set with tiny spray pattern and to as low a pressure as I can make it work at, I blocked in the shapes working freehand. I’m not bothering with masking because I want to try to get the feathered edge seen in many photos. I did the same trick on my Potez 63-11, and I was very happy with the result.
 

British and German camo of the period didn’t show a really feathered edge between colours. At least, the RAF schemes were feathered but not enough to be really apparent at 1/72nd scale, so I generally work to a hard edge. French patterns are generally more random, and the painters seem to have feathered quite a lot. Well, that’s my reading of things anyway.

 

Vert went on next. Yes, it’s a bit patchy, down to a twitchy trigger finger. I will apply further light coats to refine things after a short spell of drying. 
 

 

Finally, Ombre Calcinée. As I say, I’ll go over things again to refine the pattern and coverage. I've got a rather weathered aircraft in mind, so I am not inclined to aim for a factory-fresh finish.

[stevehnz]

Coming along nicely now Heather, I seem to have missed this thread before today, shame on me, I can see some good work going on, enough to tempt me toward one of these, previously I've only had the appallingly basic Heller kit & in spite of the hassles you've had with this, I do think it is the better option. I'll try & hang on in there for the remainder, not far now though.  

Steve.