Category: French aircraft
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Nieuport 17C – Part Five – Silver Beauty
I intended this build as a little stop-gap project to fill the time until Matchbox March. It has proved to be a rewarding gem. The Revell kit was unprepossessing enough – indeed most of the tiny WW1 planes from this firm are old kits and you find yourself prejudiced because of it. Of course, if…
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Nieuport 17C – Part Four – Lumière Frères
The Revell box art for the Nieuport 17C does not match the colour call-out. Which is correct? M. Google, please step forward… And he advances magnificently. On the Wikipedia site, the entry for the Nieuport 17 shows a premier image of a 17 sitting quietly in a field. There are no other aircraft seen, and…
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Nieuport 17C – Part Two – Old But Good
This very old mould still can teach the new firms several lessons. The first one is that you need not engineer gaps into your parts. They can, indeed, be made to meet all along their surfaces. Unless your firm derives the bulk of its income from plastic putty and sandpaper sticks, providing close-fitting parts is…
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Nieuport 17C – Part One – 1957 Again
1957 was a big year for me. My dad’s firm failed and we had to move to Quebec for him to continue in the heavy construction business. I had to learn school French – fast. And I got to see a whole new world of scale model kits that never made it out to Western…
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Caudron C-445 – Part Five – Personal Transport
And in this case, away from the scene of battle. This is a 1940 colour scheme… No regrets. The Mr. Color Super Stainless over an adequately prepared surface is a very rewarding metallic finish. It’s best shot with Levelling Thinner, and in thin coats, but patience wins out in the end and you do not…
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Caudron C-445 – Part Four – Hi Yo Silver?
We have a problem, Kimo-sabe. Which silver? There are more choices in my paint rack than I care to admit. I see several super-lacquer from GSI Creos that claim to replicate stainless steel, iron, super silver, and titanium. The regular line has fine silver, silver, and shine silver. I have mixed a custom silver-grey. Some…
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Caudron C-445 – Part Three – The Jig Is Up
And as Lou Gosset might have it – ” and running…”. This was the first time that then new Slovakian jigs got their real trial. The Caudron was a perfect size for the WW2 pattern – though there were more adjustments to make on the rack than you’d think. The wing clamps were a little…
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Caudron C-445 – Part Two – The Expensive Seats
Well, that decided it. The interior of the Caudron C-445 shows it to be an officer’s toy – not a hospital transport. There are six seats in it – two for the pilots, one for the radio operator in the front. One for the secretary and one for the aide de camp in the back.…
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Caudron C-445 – Part One – The Metro Trawl
I don’t know whether Metro Hobbies in Melbourne lie in wait for me or if it’s the other way round. As the flow of money goes east and the flow of plastic comes west, it doesn’t really matter. I tend to shop in three modes: Cheap, Curious, and Canadian. Some say that this is tautology,…
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Nieuport 28 – Part One – The French Connection
The discovery of yet another neglected old Revell WW1 kit for a very small price led to the the determination to build ’em all. That led to the internet search to find out how many of them there were…and Revell was very prolific in the 70’s with these little models. I have a couple more…
The Little World 