After all that complaining about the Fonderie Miniature Halifax (which I palmed off on Wibhi2, a braver man than I, who pointed out, perhaps naively, that it’s not as bad as it looks), I can’t wait to take on this Hi-Tech 1/48 Voisin 10 LAR “Night Bomber.” It, too is a French kit, it too is short run, and it has a fourth the parts of the FM Halifax, though if were priced by the part it would have cost about five times as much as the FM Halifax, but I am attracted to it. Though not totally.
The instructions, with typical French honesty and gentle tact, give the following painting instructions for the entire aircraft: “It may have been black, and there are reports that some were green.” That’s it.
Does anyone know where there might be any references on this machine? How can they come up with an elaborate piece of nose art, but have no clue as to the external paint scheme of the aircraft. I want to do this multi-media not-for-beginners project, but I can’t find anything beyond some restoration photos on memorialflight.com. In fact, instead of proper drawings and diagrams, the brief instructions for this kit use tiny photos of the pieces of the real aircraft in restoration. The reproduction ain’t so good, so it just looks like piles of rusty junk with arrows pointing at it.
There are some things in expensive short run kits that can be done, and some that can’t decent instructions can be done in 100 percent of the cases. If you can reduce the real airplane to 1:48 scale, you can make instructions for it. The entire first page of the brief instruction booklet (eight pages) is taken up with a sermon about how hard this model is to build. Fine. A warning that you get after the cellophane is off after you’ve paid seventy bucks for the kit.
Of course, if you pay that much for a kit and don’t know what to expect, at least vaguely, you deserve what you get. But that’s not the point. Don’t charge me that much money, claim to have an accurate airplane kit, and then say, “It might have been green. It ight have been black – good luck finding out.”
I don’t want sympathy. That’s not at all what this is about, and I was kidding about the Halifax (wanting sympathy). Been around way to long to get fooled very often about what’s under the lid of the model box before I see it.
What I want is for short run manufacturers, who by the nature of the beast have to charge more for their product, to at least not be lazy. To do all they can for the builder, who has to take up the knife and sanding stick himself and do the bulk of the work.
TOM
There are several French modelers who are true masters. Same can not be said for French produced kits.
Regards, Rick
Sharkskin; Try the book “Color Profiles of World War I Combat Planes by Apostilio.” It is a large format coffee table sized book and has a fine chapter on the various Voisons and their employed uses. The type 10 LAR is covered nicely and there are two pages of profiles several 10. The Memorial Flight website has a Voison type 10 under rebuild. We have a few threads on the subject under models and aircraft at, www.theaerodrome.com in the forums. While I can’t agree with all of the profiles in the book it is a reliable source of information.
Rick, given the outcome of a recent thread we all remember, I decline comment. Stephen, many thanks. I’ll try to find that reference.
BTW, that Voisin’s makers, in the little instruction pamphlet (and I do mean little), describe this kit as a real “man’s model,” meaning it’s not for the faint-hearted. Now, I’m as cynical about PC as the next person, but it’s been hard enough getting ANY women interested in this hobby, and now that we have some, these people are trying to offend them enough to drive 'em away. I wish I had a woman modeller to review this “man’s model” and show what can be done with it by any experience modeler.
TOM
Your description of the instructions reminds me of a kit I was considering at my LHS the other day.
It was a 1/48 Commonwealth CA-13 Boomerang by a limited run outfit called Tasman Models.
It was a multimedia kit with no rhyme or reason for what parts were styrene what were resin and what was white metal.
The instructions were mainly copies of images and line drawings from technical manuals and it appears you are pretty much on your own to get something close to those images from what you get in the box. The only directions you get for puting parts to parts correctly are text.
In your initial thread I mentioned that I am the new owner of an Amodel 1/72 Yakovlev Yak-38 Forger. It could do with some aftermarket goodies, buit it seems none are made for it, equally scarce are reference sources that I could use to scratch build some stuff to dress it up with.
There’s optional parts in the kit, but no explanation what the option is about and where its appropriate to use it. The image on the box top has an aircraft in the typical blue over green scheme of the Yak-38, but the instructions say to paint the aircraft with that particular tactical number light gray over mid grey. I’m rather inclined to go with the blue over green as the box top image looks suspiciously like someone dropped an image of the real thing into a painted background with Photoshop.
Well there is a model show here in Brno in early June, so maybe I can get an answer or two there.
I sympathize Tom, have courage, all will be well in the end. You’ll have a good Voisin, I’ll have a good Forger, whibi2 will have a good Halibag and all will be right with the world once more. 
I remember a few years back when Belcher Bits cancelled their announced resin 1/48 Beech 18 because Battle Axe put one out in injection form. I took one look at the Battle Axe kit in the box and felt like calling Belcher Bits to tell them they were nuts for cancelling their model of it. I’m sure any true Beech 18 fan would gladly pay the extra for a full resin kit of one once they saw the Battle Axe offering. >:-P
Here’s the book you need: http://www.flying-machines.com/frenchacdescrip.html
It’s a huge,thick compendium of aeronautical goodness, filled with detailed three-views, photos and, yes, color profiles.
Well, there are JMGT and AJP models on the top side, though not for beginners nor money tight modellers, but I agree that Hi Tech is at least uneasy to build and FM seem to be a line of crap, notwithstanding their price. As for the Voisin ( by the way, Voisin means neighbour in French, Neighbour Aeronautics, rather odd…) as for the Voisin, take a sheet of paper, write your interrogations and complaints on it and send it to HiTech; a French proverb says : the customer is a king, he pays for his crown. Hi Tech owes you explanations
FYI, there’s a great on-line build of the Voisin kit here:
http://www.wwi-models.org/Images/Savaglio/Allied/index.html#V10LAR
Regards,
Many thanks guys. I’m afraid the book, beautiful as it is, is a bit out of my league at $125 plus P&P, but they have some wonderful titles that are much cheaper. And, Drew, the online build will be great to steal from.
TOM
I think that’s what it’s there for. [;)]
Regards,