John R Posted July 30, 2010 Share Posted July 30, 2010 (edited) A lot of people have viewed the original version and as I produced some build notes for the Model club meeting I thought that others might find them of interest.. It's not Sci-fi or a What if? More a what might have been. It's one of the many cases of French napkin doodling of the fifties which produced the Durandal, Trident and Griffon in their attempts to produce supersonic fighters. They did however end up with the Mirage so perhaps we should not scoff. A mixed powerplant interceptor, it used a jet engine for take-off and to get it up to speed whereupon a ramjet lit up and was supposed to take it to Mach 2. I only found out recently that it did actually fly. I had thought that it had been cancelled before completion but it did fly and made some 120 flights although it never did reach its design speed. This is the Mach 2 1/72 scale kit and those of you with experience of their products will know of the difficulties in making one. I have had this for a while and the impetus for finally facing up to it was for one of our club's competitions with the theme 'Power'. Examination of the mouldings revealed that there were 2 ways to build it. Either spend ages reworking the bits to fit or build it as is and accept that it would be less than wonderful. I made a conscious decision not to try making a silk purse out of this particular sow’s ear – my modelling skills, and patience, were not up to it. Some build notes I accepted the blunt leading and trailing edges of the wings, their varying thickness and sink marks. Some attempts were made at tidying up the leading edges. The circular fuselage isn’t and the fairing on which the left tailplane is mounted was in the wrong place. The latter was cut off and repositioned with all the attendant filling. I felt that this was unavoidable. It has also been suggested that the fuselage of the model is underscale! The picture posted by the General when originally posted gives credence to this idea. There were numerous sink marks and holes all over the model. Holes were filled but many marks were left where filling would have involved destroying some details. some rescribing was necessary on the fuselage after removing flat spots. The canopy on the actual a/c is a circular transparency but in the model it is supplied in two halves which I found impossible to join without the joint line showing. If anybody knows how to do it please let me know! The nose, transparency and cockpit all have to be put together and mounted on the front of fuselage just in front of the intake. Difficult, to say the least. The wheels were out of register by half a tyre’s width. I left the nosewheel as it is very small but I ended up sawing the mainwheels in half before joining the left and right sides together again. There is a problem with where, and when, to put the weight in to keep it from being a tail sitter as the fuselage halves are joined before knowing how much is needed and there is very little space in the nose. I think that putting some in the fuselage halves before joining would be best John Edited August 8, 2010 by John R Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
general melchett Posted July 30, 2010 Share Posted July 30, 2010 (edited) Nice model John, all the more so for being a Mach 2 horror, the French really came up with some great designs didn't they? these, the Griffon, Coleoptre, trident, etc........ ...As you say it actually flew!!! I recall building this one many years ago along with the equally weird Leduc 021......looks kinda fun to get in and out of!!! All very Dan Dare.......my kind of plane!! Edited July 30, 2010 by general melchett Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Posted July 30, 2010 Share Posted July 30, 2010 VERY Dan Dare... I actually knew about this one though Dad. Didn't know MachPoo did a kit though. You're very brave Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FalkeEins Posted July 30, 2010 Share Posted July 30, 2010 (edited) ...valiant ..and very interesting attempt .. Thats a decent model too John... Edited July 30, 2010 by FalkeEins Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John R Posted July 30, 2010 Author Share Posted July 30, 2010 Thanks General. I would love to build more of these French exotics but the kits are either not available or are horrors, although the Mach 2 Trident that I built some years ago went together without much agony. There is build thread on this site of a resin Durandal that makes the 022 look like a cakewalk. I got the Mach 2 Leduc 021 and a Fonderie Miniature Gerfaut in the stash that I may get around to when I feel strong enough. John Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deon Posted July 30, 2010 Share Posted July 30, 2010 Hi John Im halfway through building a 022 and an 021 but I've stalled at how to get rid of the joins where the canopy halves meet. Im interested to know how you did yours and whether it was successful. Cheers deon Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John R Posted July 30, 2010 Author Share Posted July 30, 2010 Deon, I don't know either. I just joined them in the hope that the solvent might take care of it and it didn't! Subsequently I wondered if polishing the edges might have been better. John Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
general melchett Posted July 31, 2010 Share Posted July 31, 2010 John, I've got one of these on the go, (along with countless others!!), High quality, high price multi media kit of an awesome looking machine..........really must finish it!!! The Gerfault looks rather nice too.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChancerUK Posted July 31, 2010 Share Posted July 31, 2010 Never expected to see one of those on here! Lovely Model. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BasicModelling Posted July 31, 2010 Share Posted July 31, 2010 Well, if this was 'less than wonderful', then I really wonder what it would have looked if you had put some effort in.. Because this looks pretty darn fantastic to me.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
garryrussell Posted July 31, 2010 Share Posted July 31, 2010 (edited) The French were certainly not afraid to try things out...with someone else strapped to the end of it. I think the French word for Test Pilot may have been the same as the word for victim Nice build of a difficult brand Garry Edited July 31, 2010 by garryrussell Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wingnut Posted July 31, 2010 Share Posted July 31, 2010 never seen one of those before.Great work Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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