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1/400 Fouga Zephyr
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by Christopher Martens |
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| L'Arsenal has released a unique carrier trainer in 1/400 scale. | ||||||
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Click to enlarge images |
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| Resin Aircraft and Etch | ||||||
| The Fouga Zephyr was designed and tested in the
early/mid fifties as a training aircraft for France's budding carrier force.
The first prototype flew in 1956, with it and subsequent aircraft making
flights from the HMS Hermes and HMS Bulwark. Zephyrs continued to fly until
1994, when the its final training squadron, 59.S, retired the aircraft.
The Zephyr had logged over 100,000 flight hours with landings on French
carriers Arromanches, Clemenceau, and Foch.
L'Arsenal's kit comes in a small plastic bag, with the plane's small resin wafer providing the only protection for the Zepyhr's delicare tail fins. The aircraft's wings feature good, fine panel lining, hollow air intakes, and decent canopy detailing. Removal from the wafer appears to be relatively easy, with the potential for damage to the aircraft minimal. Dimensions appear correct for this little trainer, with the unique, bulbous cockpit matching what drawings I could find. Resin casing, overall, is sharp and without any major defects among the five aircraft that came in the packet. The kit also comes with a small sheet of photo etch representing the aircraft's landing gear. The resin aircraft has small locater holes where the landing gear should be fitted to the aircraft. Detail is good for a 2D sheet of brass, though some dedicated modelers may want to do a little scratch work to add more three-dimensional detail. The biggest issue I have with this accessory is
the lack of a decal sheet. Given the relative scarcity of 1/400 aftermarket,
this would make detailing these aircraft slightly more difficult.
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| CONCLUSIONS | ||||||
This is a neat, obscure, but important little kit to detail many French carriers in 1/400 scale available from Heller. Currently, the L'Arsenal retails for $7.99 on L'Arsenal's website. I want to express my sincere thanks to L'Arsenal for this review item. |
