The Little World

Another forgotten orphan comes in from the storm – a Smêr kit of the dear old Potez 540 from 1986 – a rebox of a 1967 Heller kit. I welcome it as a companion of my youth.

Well, not exactly my youth – but someone’s. This kit was started but never got past the fuselage stage. Now it has arrived complete in original box to the Kit Whisperer to blossom forth at last. A very kind gift, I might add.

Smêr kits and other eastern European remoulds are an acquired taste. It you are stuck at the end of the world with little access to current new releases – if you are minding the pennies – if you haunt swap meets and know lots of people with mouldering stashes…well you get a chance at a lot of very interesting material. Much of it is unprepossessing, but that need not deter you. Just wear old clothes and don’t shave and you’ll fit right in.

The paint job started all those decades ago was with Tamiya acrylic on a brush. That means that fortunately it can come off with a methylated spirit scrub. The builder didn’t damage the clear windows or smear cement on the outer surfaces, so it yielded to a little prying with a thin blade.

Several pieces are cactus – the landing gear struts and the decals for a start. The scheme I’ll choose for it has nothing whatever to do with the kit decals – it will be a self-printing job – and there are landing gear legs and struts in the spares box.

With a week of work, the Potez 540 will become a 540T and join the Farman NC 223.3 as a transport plane.