The Little World

Specifically, SNCAC NC 223.3 B.N.5. Hereafter referred to as the Farman – it’s the only one in the stable so I don’t need to be specific.

This Azur kit promises to be several weeks worth of advanced building – it is definitely short-run but of the better sort. There are only the vaguest of interior marks to indicate where you might want to place the cockpit and seat and the moulders were not able to complete the fuselage with the square or round windows. That will be drill and file and Micro Kristal Klear and sheet plastic.At least there are fewer holes to make than with the Revell/Matchbox RCAF Privateer.

There are also no locating tabs for anything: fuselage halves, wing halves, tail assembly, etc. So it looks as though there will be some interior construction needed inside the wings to support their span – Either brass or styrene tube. This is not as frightening as it once seemed – I’ve pinned far smaller empennages than this before.

There is resin to make the engine nacelles look good but thankfully no brass sheeting. The only fly in the ointment is the pesky props in 5 parts for each fan – I may well use the clear plastic spinning prop trick on this one. There are also a number of stages that ask for scratch-building of seats or struts. Fortunately I have plastic strip for the latter.

The choice of liveries is based upon the fact that this bomber really wasn’t ready to fight for the French before the fall of France. There is a 1940 scheme and a ’43 Vichy pattern as well. I like the third idea – one of the planes was captured by the Free French, de-armed, and converted to a transport.

It featured new civil registration numbers as well as French and Free French roundels. The whole scheme is an ivory yellow and black, so it sounds elegant.

Given the size and shape of this flying block of flats, it’s the only elegant thing about it.