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AZUR 1:72 LOIRE-NIEUPORT LN.411
Reviewer:
Paul Wherran (rec.models.scale)
Kit Review submitted:
3 August 2002
Loire-Nieuport produced the LN.40 as a carrierborne dive bomber which evolved from the Nieuport 140, and designed for hunting submarines. It's general role and the inverted gull wing profile ensured that it earned the dub of being the "French Stuka". The designation was later altered to LN.401 and the French Air Force Armee de L'Air ordered 40 examples of a version that did not include folding wings, arrestor hook and other naval type features, which was designated the LN.411. The Air Force ended up transferring its LN.411's to the Navy who used the type in land based ground attack missions. The type suffered heavy losses during 1940 and the fall of France.
The box is attractive, depicting an ungainly looking LN.411 banking in flight and was enough for me to make up my mind to purchase this kit. Inside the rather sturdy Azur-typical box are two sprues containing about 45 light grey limited run injection molded parts. There is also an etched fret containing 9 parts, mainly for the cockpit, an acetate instrument console and a very clear vac-formed canopy piece. Panel lines are very finely recessed and there are two decal options to choose from. The kit manufacturer is either owned or distributed by MPM and the parts are similar to an MPM style kit.
Two A4 sheets make up the set of instructions included in the kit and set out nine exploded assembly views plus the various other bits you generally can expect, including painting information for individual and external components; a brief history and a parts diagram. There is half a page each devoted to the colour scheme and markings of the two examples you can build out of the kit and these are very good, including fairly clear decal placement information. Paint information is only provided in generic colour names. There were two points in the instruction sheet I noticed both before delving into the project and later on when I confirmed there was some confusion. Firstly, I note that this kit also includes an arrester hook which was not incorporated to my knowledge on the LN.411 and the instructions do state that this part is not for use in the building of this particular kit. However, I suspect by adding this feature you will be able to build the LN.401 version. Secondly the positioning of the machine guns and tailwheel is at best extremely vague and conflicting where it doesn't look vague. So having a couple of photos beside you while working on the project is handy if you have some photos that is. My reference library on the aircraft is artist impressions and profiles taken out of fighter and French WW2 aircraft encyclopaedias! But overall the instructions are quite okay and should present little worry to those likely to delve into limited run kit projects anyhow!
Ive have had a bit of experience with limited run kits, particularly the likes of Pavla and the more esoteric brands and this one also has a few shortcomings particularly in the interior. The parts supplied in the kit, including what is on the etched fret, is enough to make most model makers happy about fitting out the cockpit. But you need to do a fair bit of dry fit testing and trimming before you can safely say that everything will fit inside the fuselage halves nice and snugly. The floor and bulkhead need trimming and the seat is a long way back from the rudder pedals. The sidewall is fitted with a box depicting a radio set and the instrument panel is trimmed and tightly affixed into the dashboard area before the fuselage halves are placed together to enclose everything. Again, test fitting around this area is necessary.
The inside areas of the wings need some work to remove some ejector pin marks and trimming of some wall areas so that the upper and lower surfaces can mate correctly. Reboxing of the wheel wells and installation of the interior radiators makes this part of the project a time consuming task and some improvisation is needed so experience is pretty well required. The wings come in a number of upper and lower portions as you probably guessed by the opening sentence of this paragraph and then they are butt joined to the fuselage. Some filler is required at the wing roots and sanding it smooth. It is, as you can probably gather, important to watch the angle of the wing assembly to ensure it matches reference material you may have on hand naturally it is pretty easy to knock out of alignment and was quite a challenge to get right!
The tail planes and finlets are added to the rear tail fin and I found it easy enough to fit the tailplanes, wait for it to dry thoroughly and then affix the finlets later others will prefer subassemblies. The exhaust stacks fit well in the allocated space near the nose but needed just a dab of superglue as filler to blend into the fuselage.
The undercarriage was surprisingly straight forward to assemble and install but watch the angle!! With its angular struts and front cover (doubling up as bay door) I suspected that I was going to have a bit of a dog of a time assembling this part of the kit. The only real concern was the vague instructions in exact profile of the undercarriage so I simply did as best I could from this in the absence of any better reference material.
The tailwheel needed to be set in some filler in its hole since it was slightly larger than the locating pin. After careful trimming and test fitting the canopy fits well but as most limited run modellers would also like, I would prefer it if a second canopy was included as a back up.
Other than the cockpit interior and the wing assembly particularly the interiors, generally the build was fairly straight forward.
Two versions are included in the kit, both from the Aeronavale with similar coloured schemes although different camouflage applications made up of an upper Dark Blue-Grey; Khaki and Maroon with light grey undersides.
The decal sheet is printed by Cartograph and is in excellent colour register providing for two attractive options that are both camouflaged and from the French Aeronavale. The decals themselves are crisp although a touch on the thick side, but settle very well with the assistance of decal setting solution. There is a little bit of carrier film and the one surrounding the rudder fin flash certainly needs to be trimmed accordingly.
The boxart justifies the purchase of this French Stuka looking aircraft in my mind and in the end the finished product also looked great. A few things that would stump the novice would make this kit out of the reach of anyone who does not have reasonably sound limited run experience, particularly in the cockpit which needs something to look busy given the clear bubble canopy piece you can see everything through and the work needed on the wing interiors. For limited run and French fans, yes Id certainly recommend giving this unusual subject a go!
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