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Caudron C.714, Azur, 1:32 - FINISHED


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1 hour ago, Troy Molitor said:

The Caudron 714 is certainly a sexy looking machine.   Are the internal canopy masks custom made?   Lovely efforts on this one.

 

Troy 

Perhaps I forgot to mention that.  I got the Montex Maxi Mask for the Caudron C714 (item code MM32117) which has the masks for the canopy (inside and outside) and wheels, as wel as for the French and Polish schemes - unfortunately, these will not work for the Finnish scheme - only the fuselage roundel has the same diameter, those on the wings need to be larger than the largest I got in this masking set.  Need me thinking cap for this one, but it is still some way of.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Long time since I put an update here, but I have not been idle.

 

Instead of manufacturing the bottom wing with the two upper wing halves, I decided to fit the bottom wing first without the top wing halves, so I an be sure of a smooth and aerodynimically sound line underneath the airframe (dry fitting showed there would have been a significant step near the front of the wing halves).

A minor flaw near the back of the wings and fuselage junction was rectdified with some careul puttying and sanding.

UFEnLRCm.jpg

 

The next step asked for fitting and gluing of the resin guns in the gun bays located in the wing.  Unfortunately I was a bit hamfisted and broke of both guns on one of the two sets.  Long period of thinking what to do next (the carpet monster of the non-existing carpet managed to gobble both of them up) until I remembered I replaced the guns of a 1/350 ship with brass guns.  A bit of checking showed me some were the same diameter as the guns of this kit, so a bit of canibalism and I fitted 4 ships gun barels into both gun bays.  Not ideal, but good enough for this build - and it strengthens the old saying: waste not, want not).

xVNMBnrm.jpg

 

Fitting of top wing-halves needed a slight correction near the wing root which I solved by adding a thin strip of sheet material.  Careful puttying and sanding and I was happy with the overall look:

VY6sIAQm.jpg

 

Little additional detail on the wheel bays - some electrical and hydraulic pipework:

ZzuZ9pKm.jpg  9sue2CWm.jpg

 

Edited by Landrotten Highlander
missed WIP step
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I decided to make a little presentation board just so I can place the airplanes I am making next to a repesentation of a human.

This is the aircraft after priming:

6ZF3mNAm.jpg

vn59F5Tm.jpg

tvhbUwem.jpg

 

I continued by painthing the bottom of the plane with the standard French sky-blue.  This allowed me to then mask things off so I can paint the wheel bays.

 

While photographing this half-build plane I realised that the bottom antenna is too long and would be lower than ground surface  even when the wheels were mounted.  This aircraft has the ability of retracting the antennas (top and bottom form a single antenna but has to be retracted when on the ground and during take-off/landing) and I think Azur created the parts of the antenna to fit the height when fully extended - i.e. in full flight.

 

So if you are building this plane as in full flight leave the antennas as they are, but when sitting on the ground they should be shortened. 

 

I left the top one fully extended as I did not want to damage the clear canopy throuh which this antenna is glued, but cut off about 6 mm from the bottom one.  The plan is to paint it so thay appear to be half-out as could have happened during a ground check.

 

Edited by Landrotten Highlander
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Unfortunately I forgot to take some pictures of the next step.  For improving the landing gears I fitted a hydraulic pipe to the brakes. and installed them before painting the underside of the aircraft and the wheel bays.

k60rcf4m.jpg

 

The top side of the airframe is in the French 3-tone camouflage.  It should be noted that there was no standard pattern to apply the camouflage, so that leaves a fair bit of freedom to make you own interpretation.  So first I painted the lightest colour - a grayish blue (or bluish grey depending on your disposition) then airbrushed some green  irregular stripes amounting to approximately 1/3rd of the  total surface area.

lQjSLdmm.jpg

 

Completed the main painting phase with the reb-brown colour of the camouflage.  Appologies for the different temperature of the colours - I took thesse pictures at night under a yellow-white light.

PJpaJzKm.jpg   bn6T8wTm.jpg

4IJiNDLm.jpg  yzyKaj1m.jpg

 

A note regarding the painting instructions that came with the kit.  According to the instructions all 3 versions should have the spinner in the greyish blue and the bottom colour across the entire bottom, including the front engine cover.  Pictures of the time clearly show that the camouflage pattern was continued onto the spinner itself, while the front engine cover looked like it came from a different aeroplane and does not have the light blue at the underside.  Refer to the picture of the side to see what I mean.

 

This made masking a bit easier, as I could leave the front cover and the spinner off the airplane when painting without worrying if it would mach the camouflage pattern as my documentation shows this is not applicable.

 

Last pictures show the front cover, spinner and propeller fully fitted.  The stencilling on the propellor comes from the kit's decal sheet.

 

That is all for now, folks.

 

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I consider the kit completed.  Here the link to the topic on the RFI forum.

 

JJfOMji.jpg

HtNBxwC.jpgm8vZzUd.jpgFff4Tyr.jpg

 

A bit wobbly while taking the picture, but this close-up of the office does show the effect of painting the inside of the glass on the inside and the outside on the outside (for a smaller scale I just painted the 'inside colour' on the outside of the cockpit before painting the camouflage).

moKy2nU.jpg

What I like about this approach is that you get an increased sence of glass being encased in a framework.

 

Some thought about the kit - the basic building blocs are good in shape nd general fit, however, some of the details are not entirely correct.  I am now considering making another verwion of this plane - this time with the Polish forces in France - but working out all the (minor) errors in the kit.  We will see.

 

Thanks for all who followed , commented and liked.

 

Slainte ghu mhath

L.H.

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