Antoine De Saint-Exupery

[Killingholme]

Hi all,

I love the works of Antoine de Saint-Exupery, a great author who moves me in a way men like Camus fail to do. He based the majority of his work on his experience as a civil aviator in interwar French Africa. After capitulation of the French in 1940 he returned to Europe and as a Free French pilot he flew P-38s. He went missing in 1944, probably shot out of the sky by a German intereptor, but some sources insist he crashed in to the sea deliberately after being publicly worked over by DeGaulle.

Anyway, could anyone comment on what kits/ decal options oculd be used to portray the aircaft most clearly associated with him;

Caudron C-630 Simoun #7042 (civil reg. F-ANRY- he crashed this in the Lybian Sahara in 1935 and his subsequent experience in the desert was the basis of 'Wind, Sand and Stars')

Bloch MB.170, flown for the GR II/33 reconnaissance squadron (1940- capitulation)

F-5B P-38 Lightning (1943- 1944- he was shot down in the Bay of Carqueiranne off Toulonin 1944.)

Any ideas where to start collecting decent information for series of 1/72 models?

Will

[Killingholme]

By way of a separate reply;

Caudron-Simoun 630= convert Heller Simoun 635?

Bloch 170= convert Heller Bloch 174?

F5B Lightning= ??????

Will

[daz greenwood]

I know Contact Resine/Flight 66 did an F-5B conversion for the Academy P-38, but I don't if it's still available.

[Killingholme]

I know Contact Resine/Flight 66 did an F-5B conversion for the Academy P-38, but I don't if it's still available.

From what I gather- it isn't.

So... how to make an F-5B? My references say this is a PR version of a P-38J. Could I delete the armament from the Academy kit and add some camera windows? Bear in mind I'm talking about 1/72.

[Marcel]

From what I gather- it isn't.

So... how to make an F-5B? My references say this is a PR version of a P-38J. Could I delete the armament from the Academy kit and add some camera windows? Bear in mind I'm talking about 1/72.

Carpena decals set 72.09 comes with F-5 nose (2 pcs in clear plastic).

[Ed Russell]

Looks like Contact Resine are a nice company (this reference might help a little anyway)

http://hsfeatures.com/features04/p38md_1.htm

but it also looks like they have gone 1/24 supersized

http://www.contactresinemodels.com/welcome...resin_models.ws

and here's someone with Carpena 72.09 for sale

http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=65094

Edited March 15, 2011 by Ed Russell

[Don McIntyre]

I think I read somewhere that if you take the recon nose from Monogram's P-38 and graft it to the Academy kit, you'll have a pretty good representation of an F-5B…

Of course, I could be totally out to lunch here…

[Ley]

The French publisher, Ailes de Gloire, has a title which includes details of his F-5 at least. If memory serves, he spent some time in the US after the French surrender and did not return until after the fall of the Vichy regime - this would man that he did not serve with the FAFL.

[Test Graham]

I understood that the Heller Simoun was modelled as Exupery's aircraft?

It was a Bloch 174 he flew, but the Heller kit is pretty inaccurate and the promised Azur one appears to have been dropped.

You might also want to find a kit of a Latecoere as in Night Mail, but I wish you luck there.

[JOAN]

Hi,

A nice walkaround about the Caudron Simoun here :

http://www.mct57.org/index.php?PHPSESSID=5...amp;topic=470.0

(The colour is completely wrong...the "Air Bleu" correct color was a Bleu de France ... also used on Bugatti 35 or other Delage...)

O.

[JOAN]

Hi,

A nice walkaround about the Caudron Simoun here :

http://www.mct57.org/index.php?PHPSESSID=5...amp;topic=470.0

(The colour is completely wrong...the "Air Bleu" correct color was a Bleu de France ... also used on Bugatti 35 or other Delage...)

O.

......and a nice model in REPLIC 209 including a colour profile of the F-ANRY in decembre 1935 during the Paris / Saigon Raid...

O.

[Colin S-K]

Hi all,

I love the works of Antoine de Saint-Exupery, a great author who moves me in a way men like Camus fail to do. He based the majority of his work on his experience as a civil aviator in interwar French Africa. After capitulation of the French in 1940 he returned to Europe and as a Free French pilot he flew P-38s. He went missing in 1944, probably shot out of the sky by a German intereptor, but some sources insist he crashed in to the sea deliberately after being publicly worked over by DeGaulle.

Anyway, could anyone comment on what kits/ decal options oculd be used to portray the aircaft most clearly associated with him;

Caudron C-630 Simoun #7042 (civil reg. F-ANRY- he crashed this in the Lybian Sahara in 1935 and his subsequent experience in the desert was the basis of 'Wind, Sand and Stars')

Bloch MB.170, flown for the GR II/33 reconnaissance squadron (1940- capitulation)

F-5B P-38 Lightning (1943- 1944- he was shot down in the Bay of Carqueiranne off Toulonin 1944.)

Any ideas where to start collecting decent information for series of 1/72 models?

Will

Will,

I have plenty of F5 references if you need any, quite happy to send CD, also have some 1/48th decals of his aircraft, don't think we have 1/72, but have plenty of French Air Force decals if you need any.

[email protected]

Colin

[Transall vaillant]

Hello Killingholme,

I also admire Antoine De Saint-Exupery and it is much more easy for me to read his books and letters as far as i'm french...

I built neither of his planes but i have planned to do so for a Bloch 174 or a P-38, let's say in the future...

For the Bloch 174, as someone said, there is nothing presently but the Heller kit with a big amount of scratchbuild if you enjoy... Otherwise, you may wait for Azur's annonced Bloch 175 and modify this one, great work also... Saint-Exupery flew several Bloch 174 during the disastrous Campagne de France, and i have these informations somewhere if you wish, only need to remember where...

For the P-38 E (F5-E ?), i may build it with an Academy base, or Italeri, and use spare parts from an old P-38 J/L Hasegawa kit, reference 816, that i keep in stock only for this : there are interesting engine cowling parts useful to make a E. For the camera nose, as it has been said, you can either use Contact Resine parts or if you are lucky find an old Carpena decalsheet which provided this useful resin part, reference 7209... but the resin nose has become scarce ! Saint-Ex also flew several aircraft and i can also say things about it, same time delay...

Everything has been written about the Caudron Simoun. You can also think about a Breguet 14, Potez 25 and other old stuff of the Aeropostale if you are really a fanatic.

He had nothing to do with FFL and FAFL.

He eventually died accidentally, very probably, as those very high altitude flights were very exhausting because of the use for hours of oxygen : being a man with high moral principes, he managed to fly more than twice every other pilots did in the unit in spite of being aged like their fathers, 43/44 at that time. There had already occured accidents and incidents due to oxygen circuit failure, a pilot escaped death with great luck, recovering his mind close the ground... Saint-Ex did not. The fact is that he did not want to see the civil war he knew was to happen in France after the so-called "epuration" which saw communist partisans kill and murder about 100.000 people, most of them only being anti-communist and having never worked for germans ! Among them were numerous well known resistants... He publically blamed De Gaulle for being responsible of what was going to occur : it is useful to know that his books were forbidden in Algérie during De Gaulle's presidency in 1943 and 1944. He really was a great man, a pure patriot like many others that never went under the spotlights.

There is a lot to say and learn about this period of France history.

Write you more as soon as i get something to write...

Edited March 20, 2011 by Transall vaillant

[Killingholme]

Thank you everyone for your comments and information. I am indebted already, I may take some of you chaps up on your very kind offers if I can locate the relevant kits first (It appears that everything seems to be out of production at the moment!)

Will

[BushBrit66]

Thank you everyone for your comments and information. I am indebted already, I may take some of you chaps up on your very kind offers if I can locate the relevant kits first (It appears that everything seems to be out of production at the moment!)

Will

I am converting the Academy P-38F into an F-5A using the spare bits in the Monogram p-38J. I am using Carpena decals and the schems is RAG green brown colours. All seems to fit well and the Wings of glory book is a great reference.

[Don McIntyre]

I am converting the Academy P-38F into an F-5A using the spare bits in the Monogram p-38J. I am using Carpena decals and the schems is RAG green brown colours. All seems to fit well and the Wings of glory book is a great reference.

What Monogram bits are you using? I've got both kits (multiples of each, actually) in the stash.

[Transall vaillant]

You will find several pictures of St Ex 's Simoun in ICARE n°71. He has had several aircraft of this type, some of them being his own aircraft. F-ANRY was his first own Simoun. It is also the one with which he tried his record flight. I have a picture of it crashed in the desert December 30th 1935 south of Alexandria in Egypt.

If you have read "Pilote de Guerre", the flight which is the frame of the book really occured : it was an important flight which took place on May 23rd 1940 with the Bloch 174 n°24.

He also flew Bloch 174 n°8, 21, 22, 53, all with GR II/33 from march 29th to june 9th 1940 (seven war missions).

He also flew before Potez 637 and after a Farman 222.

He was test pilot in the 30's.

He disappeared while flying P-38 F5B n°228223 of which we have no pictures (except his cockpit), i believe so. But he flew nearly 75 per cent on n°3080, recorded n°80 on his flight books, which is the aircraft of a tremendous amount of very nice pictures, some with him (but no war missions). He flew war missions on n°365, 273 (3), 292 (2), 219, 533, 126 and 223...

Of course most of St Ex fans tend to build n°223 : i think i will not, there are other things to do, more accurate...

You will find all those elements and pics in ICARE n°96, an old french review from 1981, which become rare and expensive...

If you are a real afficionado, i recommend you ICARE n°69, 71, 75, 78, 84 and 96, all about Saint Exupery. Lot of large pictures, lot of informations... but all in excellent french language.