1/72 Smer/Heller Amiot 143 & Potez 540

-Part 1- 

by Gabriel Stern

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From the murkiest waters of aviation history come this two strange jewels. They bear the dubious merit of being obsolete as soon as they reached service. You know, French people. They gave us May '68, the French kiss, Vichyssoise, Brigitte Bardot, Juliette Binoche -oops, I'm giving up my age here-, fashion, cuisine, and so many other good things that we can overlook their design inclinations. A strange mix of naivite and grandeur seems to characterize their approach to flight.
  Both formerly Heller molds, now justly redeemed from darkness by Smer, in a nice package with propagteam decals. In my Amiot 143 a few decals shattered in pieces and the color density wasn't that good. The sprues are neatly packed separately. Of course, some flash has to be worked out, but no big deal.
  The more I build models of planes from the 20's and 30's, the more I fall under the spell of their design charm. Being the lines absolutely beautiful or expressing some alternative thinking in a not so gracious way, the results are for me always attractive, mysterious. What were they trying to accomplish? For me, they are like sculptures.
  Now, regarding the models, If you think about the Handley-Page Hampden as a flying pan, wait until you see the Amiot 143. It is so narrow that could only be manned by characters from the Egyptian murals, sideways. It is so narrow that there was no space for your shadow. It is so narrow that there was no plumbing, all controls were driven by ribbons. In spite of that, as I looked at references, I could guess from the number of windows and stations that the crew enjoyed many amenities: possibly cinema, coffee station, smoking lounge, a kitchen to prepare French toast and champignon omelettes, a wine cellar and so on.
  The model boasts the emptiest interior I have ever seen in my long life as a modeler. Zero. Nada.
Not even a seat. Not even a mutant pilot siting on a rod. And what is inside the engine cowls?:  the same nothingness. A sort of shield disguises that, though.
  So, my friends, we can safely arrive to the conclusion that, besides of how strange this French plane looks, the manufacturer represented it as a machine that can fly without engines, without instruments and crew and, therefore, without casualties in case of being brought down.

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The Potez 540 is another deal. The count of parts is higher and more finesse is clear here from the beginning. It has an interior, the surface detail is restrained and pleasant, although the wings exhibit some pronounced ribbing. but that can be corrected if you so wish. This one is a fine kit, and portraits the best of Heller, with a few limitations, that, by the way, don't bother me at all. Heller models allowed me, many times, to produce very appealing replicas of subjects well away of the trodden path.
   Both models seem to have clearer transparencies than the original releases, probably thanks to Smer, and the price is more than fair. The molds held well the pass of time and with little effort you can look at a model of a plane that will uncover for you a hidden piece of history, and will open your mind to new landscapes, both aesthetically and design-wise.

  I started with the Amiot by looking at some references in order to get a sense of the interior, with no luck there; so I faked a somewhat credible one with a mix of plastic card and parts for the bottomless spares bin, that includes the lower compartment and the cockpit. No color details are given in the instructions, so I cross-referenced with the Potez 540, which in its Heller incarnation had a sand interior color.
  Some transparencies were difficult to remove from the sprue without damage. As they are large, I couldn't escape to glue them before closing the fuselage, which means that you have to be careful all the way to the finish. I rescribed some of the -raised- panel lines and lightly sanded the prominent rivets. The elevators were scored and repositioned. The landing lights recesses were carved (they are solid as provided) with the wishful thinking of latter adding some detail there. I noticed in several photos that the machine guns were removed, which I liked, and bombs were not present either, and so I proceeded. I got a couple of engines to throw into the nacelles, and modified a little the piece that covers them at the front. A sort of platform molded in the front fuselage that holds the nose turret was removed, since the actual plane didn't have it. in the lower-aft position the supports for the machine gun -incorporated into the transparencies-  were deleted with the Dremmel tool, and clarity restored as much as possible.
I couldn't verify in photos the presence of a reinforcement flange that runs along the spine of the upper and lower fuselage, but I left it there.
   Don't get me wrong, all the preceding was not super-detailing at all, or a real effort to obtain accuracy, just a little work to improve things a tad.
  Oh, all those turrets and their exuberant, faint framing. What a delight. Is it modeling an ecclesiastic career?
  Acrylics were the choice when brandishing the airbrush.
  Doesn't it look like a cross between a mansard and an heraldic creature?

  Now let's go for that Potez 540.

Gabriel

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Photos and text © by Gabriel Stern