The Little World

I was extremely fortunate to wander into a hobby shop that had just relocated to new premises. They decided to have a sale on plastic kits to gain shelf space and the little Mister Craft Caudron Renault CR 714 CI was on the bargain table. Disregarding the free donations, this is my second cheapest model – and it is brand new.

It’s a little more flashed than the last Mister Craft model I built, and this is probably evidence of a long history of previous moulders. As it is a French prototype, I suspect Heller may have had a hand in it in the past. The plastic is good quality, but there are places on the single sprue where it is in far greater quantity than we need.

The only real sticking point in this aircraft is the speculation on what the French thought that they were up to. Whether they were deluded by someone else or whether they did it to themselves…as with the Maginot Line…is a moot point. The end result is something that looks like a cross between a trainer, a racer, and an experimental light plane. The fact that they were supplied to Poland and Finland in inadequate numbers seems to have limited their effectiveness – though there were some aerial victories.

I intend mine for the fighter squadron of the Royal Ruritanian Army Air Force and I shall equip it with rockets and a snazzy paint job.

Note: The decals are lovely, if you want to equip French, Finnish, or Polish squadrons. And the box art on this one is streets ahead of that on the Fairey Fulmar.