SaparotRob
Unter Gemeine Geschwader Murmeltier XIII
That is an eye catching build so far! Looking forward to seeing the rest of it.
1:72 Lioré & Olivier LeO 451
- Thread starter CATCH 22
- Start date
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wow, i like that !
fubar57
General
Looking good and great info. Glad to see you plugging away at it
Absolutely beautiful! Free your mind amigo...
Lovely work so far!
Love the colour...nice work.
Crimea_River
Marshal
This one is going to look fantastic when done.
- Thread starter
- #168
Snautzer01
Honourably banned
- 39,391
- Mar 26, 2007
Oww thats no good. Hope you will find some soon. One of my fav. builds. I really enjoy this one.
Crimea_River
Marshal
Me too. Hang in there Yves.
Totalize
Tech Sergeant
Nice stuff Yves.Hi Guys!
Thank you for the nice words. I really appreciate your inputs and at that moment they are the only factor, still encouraging me to finish this model. Honestly, what happens around me gives me absolutely no desire for modelling or hobbies...
This post of mine is only because of you!
To easy the process of finishing a model, I divide it in assemblies and (if possible) work on each of them separately. As you have seen I've finished the undercarriage with paint and weathering and it's ready to be glued to the rest of the model at any moment.
Another assembly I have finished is the empennage - check my previous posts for more details. It's now painted, decaled and slightly weathered (if you look carefully you'll see how the edges of the different hatch-covers are scratched):
View attachment 658537
View attachment 658538
Now's the time for some more information:
I'm modeling an a/c used during the Syrian campaign, known to the Allies as Operation Exporter, between June and July 1941. This particular Leo 451 was from the first squadron of GB I/31. The latter left France (Istres) on June 8, 1941 with 13 bombers and flew to Alep (Alepo) in Syria. The group has made stops in Brindisi (Italy) and Athens (Greece). At this time Germany requested from Vichy France to use high-viz (in modern language) markings for better recognition.
We all know this colour photo:
View attachment 658539
It's from Eleusis-airfield, Athens and shows D.520 from GC. III/6 en route to the Levant.
But on photos from Brindisi, before Athens the yellow tails are visible as well:
View attachment 658540
In the background a Farman 223 used as a transport has the same markings. Here again:
View attachment 658541
I couldn't find a source stating the exact place where the Syrian campaign a/c have been repainted. I guess it was Brindisi, but that's an educated guess based on the time of arrival and departure.
And here are the interesting details. Leo 451-bombers have been produced in plants of the 2 manufacturers S.N.C.A.S.E. and S.N.C.A.O. As a standard the manufacturer's name, type of airplane and serial number were clearly stenciled on the tails:
View attachment 658542View attachment 658543
Please note that the SNCASE-serials start with 1 and the SNCAO-serials start with 3001.
These markings were painted on BOTH sides of the fins:
View attachment 658544
The decal sheet supplied with the model gives you the fin flashes with the stenciling for both types of rudders - old and new (check my older post showing the two types):
View attachment 658545
Here is a nice photo of GB. I/31 at Eleusis-airfield, Athens - this photo is from June 9. 1941 or 3 days after leaving France.
AFAIK from the 3 bomb. groups equipped with LeO 451 in Syria only this one received the very distinctive yellow noses, cowlings and tails:
View attachment 658546
The LeOs on the photo DO NOT HAVE the stencils at all. There is another photo of the tail of the nearest a/c White 5 after it crashed:
View attachment 658547
No stencils over the flash (tricolore in French). And here's "my" a/c White 3 from the same group:
View attachment 658548
It is evident that not only the whole empennage was repainted in yellow (appearing very dark on this type of b&w photos), but the French fin flash was renewed as well. The serial number was painted over the yellow fin. In my case it is 142:
View attachment 658549
Using some numbers from the spare decals I recreated the serial and painted the fin flash without using the decal (which had a rather dark blue colour as well):
View attachment 658550View attachment 658551
This is all for now.
Cheers!
Don't give up now, keep at it...
- Thread starter
- #174
Here comes a small part of what I've been doing during the last weeks. As already mentioned I divided the whole model in assemblies, almost like the real a/c was manufactured. The empennage was such an assembly I finished completely. The wings are big assemblies as well. They allow to be finished up to the weathering, before even being attached to the fuselage. Here are the undersides of the wings:
1. Painted, before weathering:
2. After weathering and sealing with clear matt varnish:
The Smer-decals are a big PITA (as expected and mentioned in other forums). I did seal them with Testors decal lacquer before use but they started cracking nevertheless. Some areas of the roundels have been repaired by hand. The blue center was re-sprayed with paint - the original blue disk was too small and too dark.
On the other hand the roundels are a tad smaller than the original ones - compare the size of the roundel with the width of the wing below:
The red ring of the decal is also wider than the original and the proportions of the decals are wrong. I will not buy extra decals (priced higher than the model I used) and must live with what I have...
Cheers!
1. Painted, before weathering:
2. After weathering and sealing with clear matt varnish:
The Smer-decals are a big PITA (as expected and mentioned in other forums). I did seal them with Testors decal lacquer before use but they started cracking nevertheless. Some areas of the roundels have been repaired by hand. The blue center was re-sprayed with paint - the original blue disk was too small and too dark.
On the other hand the roundels are a tad smaller than the original ones - compare the size of the roundel with the width of the wing below:
The red ring of the decal is also wider than the original and the proportions of the decals are wrong. I will not buy extra decals (priced higher than the model I used) and must live with what I have...
Cheers!
Last edited:
Nicely done so far!
Crimea_River
Marshal
Looking very good. Really hope to see this one finished.
Good stuff...
- Thread starter
- #179
Thank you all for the interest, likes and "bacons".
A big "Thank you" to the Admin/Moderator and to the Judges of GB-52 for allowing me to proceed with this model outside of the group build.
I will continue working on my LeO 451 until the model is finished. The new frame (this thread) gives me an open time schedule with no limits.
See you soon!
Cheers!
A big "Thank you" to the Admin/Moderator and to the Judges of GB-52 for allowing me to proceed with this model outside of the group build.
I will continue working on my LeO 451 until the model is finished. The new frame (this thread) gives me an open time schedule with no limits.
See you soon!
Cheers!
Snautzer01
Honourably banned
- 39,391
- Mar 26, 2007
Keep chiping away.when you can. It is a masterly build and deserves to be finished.
Less important i do like this build as a lot of others do too
Less important i do like this build as a lot of others do too
