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SMER Potez 540


woody37

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Needing a break from the FM Hampden, I've got a soft spot for some of the stranger aircraft to come out of France before WWII and needed to scratch the first itch!

 

I've added a bit of detail to the interior based on a few pictures and some creative license and sprayed PRU blue. From what I've read, the Chamoise colour was only applied to metal surfaces and didn't become formalised until 1939. There is mention of a blue grey on several aircraft of this period so as PRU fits this bill, I went with it. Lovely little kit so far and a great mojo restorer, however the odd design means that painting the exterior will be required before gluing everything together which is a bit of a pain. I've just ordered an Amiot 143 too whilst in the spirit!

 

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4 minutes ago, Heather Kay said:

Most of these obscure French machines are resident in my stash. I shall follow along to see how they’re supposed to be put together!

It was your superb French build thread that inspired me to do this with more to follow Heather, so thank you for the inspiration to break away from Bomber Command for a wee while :)

 

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14 hours ago, Biggles87 said:

Me too, always been fascinated by french oddities but unlikely to build too many as they are not usually in my preferred scale.

 

John.  🇺🇦

I'm the same with fighters, prefer 1/48 on those for these old eyes, but I can manage the bigger stuff in 1/72 scale...just about!

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27 minutes ago, woody37 said:

I'm the same with fighters, prefer 1/48 on those for these old eyes, but I can manage the bigger stuff in 1/72 scale...just about!

I’ve seen this reasoning before, but I just can’t see the logic in it. Sure the overall size is different, but smaller details such as engine components, seats, instruments, guns etc are the same for a fighter as for a larger aircraft.  And larger scales don’t  you just get more small detail pieces?

 

Regardless of scale, your Potez is looking mighty impressive.

 

AW

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On 9/16/2022 at 8:59 AM, Andwil said:

I’ve seen this reasoning before, but I just can’t see the logic in it. Sure the overall size is different, but smaller details such as engine components, seats, instruments, guns etc are the same for a fighter as for a larger aircraft.  And larger scales don’t  you just get more small detail pieces?

 

Regardless of scale, your Potez is looking mighty impressive.

 

AW

It's the general handling, masking of clear parts etc I find difficult on smaller builds. for example, a 1/48 Spit is far more manageable than a 1/72 one. Errors in paintwork or glue splodges are magnified on a smaller one. 

 

Bit more progress this weekend. The fuselage is together and just waiting for some masks before getting some paint on. The engines are waiting for some Vallejo model filler for the panel gaps before they can be painted. Construction is fiddly in that you need to paint and assemble the landing gear before you can assemble the engines. you need to assemble and paint the engines before attaching to the model. My normal approach is to leave the small bits off until later to avoid getting squashed by the sausage fingers mid build. 

 

Unfortunately, the front turret is a little short shot with a rough finish in places so doesn't look the best. If anyone has a spare from building a transport version, I'd gladly buy it off you, thanks.

 

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On 9/15/2022 at 6:24 PM, woody37 said:

Needing a break from the FM Hampden, I've got a soft spot for some of the stranger aircraft to come out of France before WWII and needed to scratch the first itch!

 

I've added a bit of detail to the interior based on a few pictures and some creative license and sprayed PRU blue. From what I've read, the Chamoise colour was only applied to metal surfaces and didn't become formalised until 1939. There is mention of a blue grey on several aircraft of this period so as PRU fits this bill, I went with it. Lovely little kit so far and a great mojo restorer, however the odd design means that painting the exterior will be required before gluing everything together which is a bit of a pain. I've just ordered an Amiot 143 too whilst in the spirit!

 

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Hello Woody !!

TAKING A BREAK ?? With this kit....

Well, It is known that I'm a gluton for punishment but you're not far behind....:rofl2::rofl2:

Really nice and impressive work !!

Congrats Man !!

Sincerely.

CC

 

 

 

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22 minutes ago, corsaircorp said:

 

Maybe I need to think my words through more carefully 🤣

 

Thanks, why do we do this to ourselves? I suppose it's a nice break from painting the house although masking those windows is a doddle!

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On 15/09/2022 at 10:43, Heather Kay said:

Most of these obscure French machines are resident in my stash. I shall follow along to see how they’re supposed to be put together!

 

I've got a good few of those kits in my stash, too.

 

 

 

Chris

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On 15/09/2022 at 17:24, woody37 said:

Needing a break from the FM Hampden, I've got a soft spot for some of the stranger aircraft to come out of France before WWII

 

On 15/09/2022 at 17:43, Heather Kay said:

Most of these obscure French machines are resident in my stash. I shall follow along to see how they’re supposed to be put together!

I would love to know the design philosophy prevalent in parts of the French aircraft industry of the time - several multi-engine types appear to embody a 'of course there'll need to be a glass conservatory in the nose for a palm court/jazz quartet' feeling. Singular and interesting.

 

Robert Wohl's A Passion for Flight / The Spectacle of Flight both give a great flavour of aircraft as a cultural phenomenon in the period 1908-1950 regarding such matters.

 

Smashing work-good luck with this!

 

 

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On 9/19/2022 at 3:01 PM, TheBaron said:

 

I would love to know the design philosophy prevalent in parts of the French aircraft industry of the time - several multi-engine types appear to embody a 'of course there'll need to be a glass conservatory in the nose for a palm court/jazz quartet' feeling. Singular and interesting.

 

Robert Wohl's A Passion for Flight / The Spectacle of Flight both give a great flavour of aircraft as a cultural phenomenon in the period 1908-1950 regarding such matters.

 

Smashing work-good luck with this!

 

 

Thanks, I'll have a look at that book. Two more conservatory packing aircraft arrived yesterday, there's definitely a theme going on in design 🤣

 

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The filler and masks arrived as well, so managed to get the big bits primed and the engines painted. There's some sticky out bits to go on the engines yet, but I'll fit them just before they get attached to the fuselage. I added some weathering to rough it up a bit too!

 

I've mixed up some French Khaki from Tamiya XH49 khaki and XF5 green (2:1) going off a helpful post that someone provided on Britmodeller a while ago so will get that down today. 

 

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This is all looking rather fabulous, I must say.
 

I have the Amiot from Smer, but I must admit I opted to buy the original Heller boxings of the other models. Most have been reissued fairly recently under the company's "musée" branding, with new/better transfers.

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10 hours ago, Heather Kay said:

This is all looking rather fabulous, I must say.
 

I have the Amiot from Smer, but I must admit I opted to buy the original Heller boxings of the other models. Most have been reissued fairly recently under the company's "musée" branding, with new/better transfers.

Thanks, yes I found it rather confusing with all the releases under different brands. This was 2nd hand off ebay. The roundels were a bit naf as the outer portion of red was translucent presumably where there was no white underneath so I had to paint over them, but they went down beautifully with no silvering what so ever. I was worried about the big underwing numbers for that but micro sol/set looked after them (update below).

4 hours ago, Pete in a shed said:

I had been thinking about doing something competely different and this was one of the contenders, so I'm really interested to see how this goes. Its all looking very nice so far.

Pete

It's a bit fiddly due to the design, but I've rather enjoyed it so far. I never had high expectations, but overall can't complain. Everything fits well, clear parts are generally good (apart from short shot front turret) and the detail is OK for what you see. 

 

Had a productive day today. Not only did I get it painted but got the decals on and engines too though not taken any photo's with the engines on yet.

 

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For larger planes like these I have to admit I’m heading down the paint stencil route. I’ve got a Silhouette Cameo and I need to use it! I blame Tony, @TheBaron, for leading me into the light! I just need to find paints that replicate the French markings colours nicely.

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On 9/21/2022 at 8:26 PM, Heather Kay said:

For larger planes like these I have to admit I’m heading down the paint stencil route. I’ve got a Silhouette Cameo and I need to use it! I blame Tony, @TheBaron, for leading me into the light! I just need to find paints that replicate the French markings colours nicely.

I welcome your learning paints for French aircraft Heather, it's all a bit new for me. 

 

On 9/22/2022 at 6:25 PM, dogsbody said:

For 1/7 French twin-engined bombers, I have:

KP Aero Mb.200 

SMER Bloch MB,210

SMER Potez 540

Amiot 143

LeO 451

 

 

Woody, your Potez is looking great!

 

 

 

Chris

 

Thanks Chris, looks forwards to you having a stab at them one day. 

 

Well, those wings are Tourette's inducing little so and so's! A nimble-fingered octopus would have been useful. The joins for the wings are very weak without the struts which are flimsy themselves and hard to align. Further more, the ends of the struts aren't tapered nor do they have locating tabs so I had to sand a taper in and faff around whilst swearing profusely. I think the latter got me over the line! Then there were big gaps left in the wing joins so I'm in the process of filling and sanding them. This has been the only frustrating part to an enjoyable build so far. 

 

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Getting there swear box at a time!

 

Cheers

Neil

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Wow! Lovin' that.

 

As far as roundel colours, I’m still searching. White and red are easy, it’s the light blue that foxes me. Different kit makers also disagree over it. I wonder if there are any French BMers who might be able to pin down things nicely.

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