Dewoitine D. 520 Azur 1:32

[Borsos]

Hello all,

 

for my first WIP here I chose Azurs Dewoitine. It’s not only because I spend some great days at the Côte d‘Azur, I loved the Dewoitine since I saw here for the first time. If I weren’t that deep in 1:32 scale since some 9 years, I‘d simply have dug out my Tamiya kit in 1:48. But I had build some Special Hobby kits and all went together quite nicely. How often I should wish I‘d have gone with the Tamiya kit….

these are the aftermarket items I had brought together. They are spread over the Medieval floor of an Old French House we spent some wonderful days. Afterwards some Berna Decals and a Vacu canopy from Squadron made their way to my workbench.

On a sunny day I cut the sprues and taped together the main parts.

 

 

Not too bad on the first view, besides of the fact that the kit completely lacks the wing‘s dihedral of the original.

Best regards

Andreas

 

 

[petrov27]

Ohh - nice subject! I was just looking at this kit in the stash the other day - definitely following along with your build!

[GroovyPapa]

Oh, it looks to have some nice surface detail. Perhaps it won't be difficult to get the correct wing-angle with a little bit of sanding block and a little bit of putty... ;)

[Borsos]

Thanks a lot, folks!

4 hours ago, GroovyPapa said:

Oh, it looks to have some nice surface detail. Perhaps it won't be difficult to get the correct wing-angle with a little bit of sanding block and a little bit of putty... ;)

Sadly the lower part of both wings (which is one single part) needs a little more force than that...

 

I must say that I was really sceptic regarding the resin parts, especially when it came to this... some magicians could possibly turn that into a nicely looking figure after heavy clean up and some coats of paint -- we will never know 

 

The plastic parts are actually quite nice.

The dihedral problem after glueing the wingparts together. Was this a good idea to do before having found a solution...?

The positive thing with the Dewoitine (contrary to the Bf-109 e. g.) is that this bird is not really well known (which I cannot understand). So If I'd use the wings like they were, not too many people would realize the missing dihedral, no? -- But I always would know it, and I am sure I always would regret it not to have done my best to improve that aera.

 

Browsing through some French forums I learned two things:

1. In spite of having learned that beautiful language for three years at school (back then ... in the Stone Age...), one's able to forget a language almost completely (or is this just me?)

2. Many French modellers seem to have corrected the dihedral problem by glueing a strong piece of plasticcard cut to the proper angle between the upper and the lower halves of the wings. Great idea, but in my case...

 

 

 

 

As you can see in the end I went on with a much more brutal way of correction. But after some extensive puttying and sanding it looks like it should and -- most importantly -- it stays in place like it should:

Best regards,

Andreas

[dennismcc]

Nice start, a great looking subject,  the D520 was my first French AF subject and a very nice build it was, nice surface detail and great decals as well, the end result was a very nice looking model.

 

Cheers

 

Dennis

[Dennis7423]

7 hours ago, Borsos said:

 

 

 

 

Is that John Rambo?

 

- Dennis S.

   Mount Juliet, TN USA

[Gazzas]

Interesting start to an interesting aircraft.  I look forward to more progress. 

[Borsos]

Thanks a lot for your interest, folks!

As I had already the wings in my hands, i went on with them. Thinning the edges, filling the seams, rescribing the panel lines and riveting the wings took me quite a while.

 

[Borsos]

… especially as it was riveting, swearing, filling the mess, sanding, re-riveting…

plasticcard was useful when I opened up the chutes for the spent cartridges. 

the landing lights on the wingtips were sawn off with a razor saw and replaced with clear plastic.

best regards,

Andreas

[RadBaron]

Really nice work, Andreas!

I have this kit in the stash so I'll follow your progress

[LSP_Kevin]

Nice work so far, Andreas!

 

Kev

[daveculp]

It's looking great.  I like the way you fixed the dihedral problem.

[scvrobeson]

Great build so far of a rarely seen plane.  Really enjoying this one so far.

 

 

 

Matt 

[quang]

On 10/26/2022 at 7:59 AM, Borsos said:

The positive thing with the Dewoitine (contrary to the Bf-109 e. g.) is that this bird is not really well known (which I cannot understand).

Ask @waroff. He knows everything about the D.520 and then some .

[Borsos]

Thanks a lot folks!

7 hours ago, quang said:

Ask @waroff. He knows everything about the D.520 and then some .

As this bird is on it’s finishing line in reality, I hope he won’t see too many errors when he should look by 

 

When I turned my attention to the fuselage, something showed up that I had never expected after an … ahem … mediocre fit of the flaps: The resin parts for the cockpit fit surprisingly well after some cleanup:

 

 

I actually liked this resin cockpit and kept adding scratch built detail to a minimum. The instrument panel is from Yahu. It’s always wise to paint your cockpit in a color that fits your prepainted panel — or you can do it like I did  . 

When it’s about painting cockpits I don’t mind overdoing the contrast between lights and shadows. It brings out the details better after closing things up; in my opinion at least.

 

 

 

 

As there’s no engine with this kit (which I am completely fine with), I was ready to attach the fuselage halves now. The seat belts were made of lead foil and wire. There are some useful PE parts with this kit, but I always hate PE seat belts. I find them looking way to stiff.

best regards

Andreas

Edited October 29, 2022 by Borsos