Azur 1/72 Loire Nieuport LN 411

AZUR 1:72 LOIRE-NIEUPORT LN 411

Reviewer: Carlos Giani (carlos_giani2002@yahoo.de)
Kit Review submitted: 6 January 2008

Kit Details:

Azur 1/72^nd scale Loire-Nieuport LN 411 (Kit N° 007 ). Produced in the Czech Republic

Aircraft History:

In 1936, the Aéronautique Navale, the aviation arm of the French navy, expressed a need for a ship-borne dive bomber. The Loire-Nieuport company proposed its LN.40 project, that benefited from experience acquired with the earlier Nieuport 140 prototype. Seven examples were ordered, and the first LN.40 took off for its maiden flight in 1938. The French navy ordered 15 examples of near-identical variant, the LN.401.

The French Air Force was also interested in dive bombers and ordered a land-based derivative of the LN.40, called LN.411. However, Armée de l'air commanders eventually considered that light bombers using map-of-the-earth tactics such as the Breguet 693 were more appropriate for attacking land targets, and LN.411s were delivered to the Navy.

Two escadrilles of the Aéronautique Navale, designated as AB2 and AB4, converted to the LN.401/411 between late 1939 and early 1940. Both used the type in combat during the Battle of France in ground attacks versus German motorized columns and troops concentrations. After the armistice with Germany, Loire-Nieuport dive bombers were retired from service and the two escadrilles were re-equipped with the Glenn-Martin 167-F level bomber.

The Kit:

Inside the usual end-opening box you get a bag containing two sprues with 43 light grey styrene parts, and a small bag containing the decals, a small PE sheet, vacform canopy and a piece of acetate film representing the dials. The styrene parts are typical Azur-beginnings: very heavy gates, pronounced molding seams and some flash here and there. Panel lines are finely engraved and a bit inconsistent; nevertheless, its better to rescribe them, just to guarantee their visibility after painting. Of course there are no location pins, which sure will complicate the job when gluing the tailplanes and the outer fins. Fortunately, the propeller is one-piece!

Instructions:

Standard Azur offering: 2 A4 sheets folded into an 8-paged A5 booklet. Page 1 brings a brief history in English, Czech, German and French, page 2 shows the sprues layout (no numbers on the sprues themselves), pages 3 to 5 show the construction in nine “rather for the experienced” steps, pages 6 and 7 the two version that can be made in 3-1/2 views, while page 8 remembers us to buy more Azur kits J.

Construction:

Unusual for Azur kits, this offering has no resin parts. The cockpit consists of a styrene floor with molded on pedals, styrene stick, styrene seat with PE belts, and a PE instrument panel with acetate film dials. There’s also a plain plastic instrument panel which can be used to reinforce the PE one. I painted the interior grey, the instruments panel black and the seat khaki. The office was trapped between the fuselage sides without any hassles and left aside to dry. At this stage you also can trap in-between the propeller’s mount, if you want this to rotate.

Given the complicated an-/dihedral wing configuration, this is split into five parts: two upper and three lower sections. I started gluing the outer halves together, aligning them with their leading edges, and later glued this assemblies to the lower central section. The latter also becomes the wheel well “roofs” as separate parts; a pair of grills and a pair of fairings went on to represent the wing cooler inlets. The whole wing was a bad fit, requiring intensive filling / sanding at the junction of outer and inner sections (were the wing angle changes). When this was finished, I presented the wing to the fuselage and immediately found out that much trimming and dry fit testing would be necessary here (it also would be possible to first glue the central section to the fuselage and then construct the wing from this on, but I doubt if one would achieve the right angles this way). Finally the wing went on, and after many sessions of filling and sanding an acceptable result was achieved, and I moved to the tail section.

The tailplanes are one-piece each side, of course butt-jointed, and also do the outer extra vertical fins. I was negligent at this stage and didn't do enough fit tests, and got a shock when I looked at the finished thing: from the upper view, it was terribly misaligned! (please see photo) I had to break down the parts, and trim / glue / fill / sand them again. After this pain, the attachment of the engine radiator fairing was just “routine”. The last step before painting was to add the absolutely transparent and distortion-free vacform canopy, which went on surprisingly easy.

I painted the lower surfaces with Revell R57, and used for the upper surfaces a disruptive pattern of Humbrol HF5 “gris bleu fonce”, HF6 “Chocolate” and H101 mid green (as an approximated match to HF2 “vert”; others would prefer H131 satin mid green). A coat of Mr. Johnson’s panacea prepared for decaling, and later all was sealed in with a coat of H135.

The next shocker came with the landing gear: since the well “roofs” are inclined, gluing the landing gear struts directly would result in a very bone-ill invalid (see photo). That means, the struts must be carefully trimmed, with lots of fit test till the right angle /height is achieved. Of course this means that the actuator also have to be trimmed. A very frustrating job! In comparison, attachment of the well covers was a brief affair. The whole thing is completed adding the propeller, antenna, pitot tube and a couple of PE bits.

All together a lot of work, which is widely compensated by the very attractive look of the finished subject.

Colour Schemes:

1) French Air Force, l´Escadrille AB4, 1940

2) L´Aéronautique Navale Française, l´Escadrille AB4 (?), pilot “Mick” Jamais, May 1940.

Both version are painted light blue-grey undersides; disruptive mid blue-grey, brown and khaki upper sides. However, the box cover art shows bright green (“vert”, former Humbrol HF2) rather than khaki on the upper surfaces, and that’s what I choose to do.

Decals:

Printed by Cartograph-Italy, they are of excellent quality, thin and satin, and without noticeable carrier film. Like in the case of the Bloch MB-155, you can choose between complete decals for the vertical fin, or paint this by yourself and apply the unit / badge separate decals.

Overall:

On first glimpse, given all the troubles I had, I wouldn’t recommend this kit for the main public. But, since I know there are some modelers out there who are interested in less known subjects, and who accept the task of applying all their skills and patience, for this group I would say: recommended without doubt. It’s the only game in town (apart from a Planet Model’s resin kit of the LN-402), and I think the final result is worth the job.

References:

Wikipedia

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