The Little World

My first aircraft model with the Free French cross of Lorraine and it has been quite an experience.

The Farman in warpaint would have been simple enough to do, and the camouflage would have disguised many of the difficulties encountered, but the appeal of the ivory paint and those FF insignia won out in the end. There are so few period airliners and transports kitted that any opportunity is to be taken.

The aircraft may have been easy to fly, but I am guessing not in a cross-wind. Likewise I wonder at the control mechanisms decided for the dual nacelles, considering that they set out on the ends of streamlined struts of no great thickness. 5 struts per nacelle, and any discrepancies in their alignment is the result of fate, rather than deliberate art.

The ivory colour of the aircraft is as recommended by the maker – and fits perfectly with the black accent under the fuselage and at the nose.

The decals behaved superbly over a glossed wing and fuselage.

Even the main landing gear settled in with ease, though it paid to carefully square the fitting surfaces.

I don’t suppose I’ll see many more French airliners of the period, though I do have an authentic image of a converted B-17 in French airline registered markings. The fact that it is nosed over in a ditch is neither here nor there – at least it allows me to see the top of the wing…