1:72 Lioré & Olivier LeO 451

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From time to time I go through my older posts to add new photos, not used at the time the post was written. (E.g. check my previous post # 174 with photos from yesterday.)
Turning back and looking for new or more detailed information sometimes brings unexpected results. You've already seen several photos with the empennage, which (if you remember) I had to re-scribe twice etc. What I was missing previously, presented itself in a different light recently.
Below are 2 photos I already posted but in a different context - check the arrows:


How could I miss those parts?!? Here is the drawing I've been using as a guide:

Nix! Nill! Nada!
How do these long trim tabs operate? They need actuators, don't they? O.K. the latter could be hidden, but not in this case.
Going again and again through photos of LeO 451 I could recognize the actuators now:



Here is a photo of the prototype a/c with the actuator but without the fairing over it (black arrow):

At the end, after checking dozens of photos of crashed and shot down LeOs, here's one I used as a guide for the size and the exact location of the actuator incl. fairing:

The actuator is in line with the second hinge and stretches approx. over the half of the elevator's width.
And here is my addition, before and after finishing:


That's all. I can hear old Bill laughing from afar: kind of "Much ado about nothing", isn't it?

Cheers!
 
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The beauty of this build, is the attention to detail and careful research will enlighten not only other modelers, but folks in general, who come across this thread.

The LEO 451, in my opinion, was one of those aircraft that was an opportunity missed due to timing and circumstances and as such, not many even know it existed!

Can't wait to see it finished
 
Is it finnish? your build will be verry useful for the one I intend to correct (I'll start with the lenght for the 452 with some external detail and the third one will be a 454 with details added in scratch, the frist one will be a "what if it was produced like the prototype with the short fuselage?")
 
It's not finished - I'm still working on it.
 
Hi,

I'm new to the forum, and while having a look through the build threads spotted your LeO build.

It's s one of my favourite aircraft, one that I want to reproduce in 1/72 scale as you're doing. I have a couple of examples of Heller's Musee boxing and made a sort of start cleaning up the fuselage interior as I want to detail it.

Have you managed to make any progress recently?

All the best,
Mark
 
Hi Mark,
I didn't work much on this model after my last post with photos from March 11., 2022 (almost a year ago). I did work a bit on the interior, mostly in the mid and rear body and started a "massive" cannon change/scratch building, this being my last step so far. In the meantime I found that my rear wheel detailing was wrong and changed it, without really finishing the detail (no paint + weathering yet). I must change my earlier photos in this thread as well.
Started collecting some small elements for a possible diorama (figures, a truck, boxes, oil drums etc., maybe a D.520 as well). When time goes by one starts forgetting some of the details so I must go back and see what I've posted here, read my own explanations and "revive" my mojo for modelling.
If you start your model and want to show it here, feel free to ask questions - I'll try to answer some of them (if I can).
Cheers!
 
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Many thanks for the update - it certainly sounds like you've been busy in the meantime! I'd definitely love to see the new photos as well.

Thank you for your kind offer of info - I'll bear that in mind as my attempt at this kit is going to be a slow process. I did start gathering some info and looking at other builds on the internet a couple of years ago, but that's really as far as things went. I was considering sanding off the raised detail and instead of re-scribing the panel lines, drawing them on the painted model with faint pencil lines - sounds weird but I've seen it done and it can look very effective.

Looking forward to seeing an update in due course, and in the meantime I'm going back to page 1 and reading through again.

Kind regards,
Mark
 
36feet10inches said:
Nice work. It's a very elegant plane. and not as well known as it dserves to be. I had two runs at this kit, trying to build a LeO 451 that was captured by the Luftwaffe and then recaptured by the USAAF. It did me in eventually.
Click to expand...
Tony, some of the details I describe in my thread are heavilly based on one of your builds (e.g. landing gear). You might have seen here the way I have chosen (no aftermarket) and the respective differences in comparison to your build. Your approach though combined with some more from the forum you mention, gave me a couple of ideas I decided to implement into my own model.
Cheers!
 
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