Caudron C.600 Aiglon – Armée de L’air – SBS 1:72

I think I've fallen in love with this kit - otherwise I find it difficult to explain why I built four of them so far. Yes four and I still did not get bored with it. I reviewed the kit earlier here in iModeler (first look see here: https://imodeler.com/2017/04/caudron-c-600-aiglon-172-sbs-model-first-look/ and build review here: https://imodeler.com/2017/05/caudrons-little-eagle-caudron-c-600-aiglon-172-sbs-model/) so I can not write too much novelty about it; it's a nice, well engineered and especially well casted resin kit - in fact I think this is the best in it's cathegory: simple, easy to build and the fit is excellent. Oh, don' forget the decals, I always forget to mention but SBS new decals are amazing! Normally I hate decaling but I haven't got any problem with their decals - they are easily comparable to the best manufacturers, ie. Cartograph or even better! No kidding!

Some reminder about the airplane itself: The Caudron C.600 Aiglon (Eaglet) light touring monoplane was the work of the outstanding French aircraft designer of the 1930s, Marcel Riffard. He had taken over the design department of the newly amalgamated Caudron and Renault combine at the end of 1933. The first of two prototypes made its maiden flight at Issy-les-Moulineaux in March 1935. A low-wing cantilever monoplane with tandem open cockpits, it had the excellent aerodynamic qualities that became associated with all Riffard designs. The Aiglon proved itself with a number of outstanding flights. Andre Japy flew a single-seat C.610 version from Paris to Saigon between 12 and 16 December 1935 at an average speed of 128km/h. The type was especially popular with French women fliers: Mesdames Dupeyron and Lion flew an Aiglon to establish new women's straight-line distance records in 1937 and 1938, while Suzanne Kohn flew her Aiglon from France to Madagascar in 1939. … Total production of the Aiglon was 203, some being fitted with continuous glazed canopies over the cockpits. The type was particularly popular with French private owners and flying clubs. A number were sold abroad, 14 being exported to Spain, two to Argentina and one to Japan. With the outbreak of war in 1939 many Aiglons were requisitioned by the French government and used as liaison aircraft by the Armee de I'Air.

The story begins here as SBS made several boxings for the Aiglon - two civilian (Hungarian and French) and two military (spanish civil war and Armée de L'air) releases. Each releases are different in some details - engine, exhaust or landing gears and naturally the decals. The military - Armée de L'air - version contains two different engine cowlings and uncovered main wheels from white metal and optional parts for build a two and a single seater version. The two seater (white 21) is a "by nature" training plane the other one, the single seater is a requisitioned (or impressed) plane which came from the club aeronautique de Bernay (ex F-ANZL n/c 7126) and interestingly partially retained her original civilian registration marks.

After my first article SBS founder and owner Csaba Bordács asked if I would build a French military version for him, which is his personal favorite. He geneorously offered me two kits to build one for him and one for me. I choosed to build the single seat version as I think that one is more interesting and the faired over front seat makes a sporty long nosed look for the plane. I think I said everithing about the kit earlier except that little niggle with the wing joins locator pins which are corrected in this release. The fit is as good as can be so if You want to wet your feet in the world of resin kits this kit is a perfect choose to start with. I only added brake lines from thin lead wire otherwise I built the model OOB. I used all kind of paints I found in my stash to reproduce the french livery; mostly eyeballed the colors and just want to replicate the total effect and tried not too dogmatic here. Instead I tried to replicate the somehow unique pattern which is so characteristic of this particular airplane. The dark blue gray is from testors (intermediate blue), the brown is Tamiya chocolate brown and the green is a Gunze color mix. The light blue gray is an old stock Gunze Mr.color RLM 76 with some white (their original and much discussed release from the 90's - still works perfect from the bottle! - which is not too good for the german RLM 76 but quite good for this french light blue 🙂 ). I painted the model with my trusty Iwata HP-CH and the small patters (the brown and the green) with free hand with an H&S Infinity with a 0,2 head. I make some weathering with oils and pastels,, some drybrushings with light gray and silver finally I made a small display base before I sent it to Mr. Bordacs. For my surprise the military colors suits really well for this little sport plane. I made the photos in front of a printed picture of a landscape with a french castle - the lights could be much better but sadly the summer is long gone and I still haven't got proper lightings for photography purposes - sorry. Anyway here are the photos and I hope You will enjoy them as much as I enjoyed building this little aeroplane. All C&C are welcome as usual. Cheers: Gabor

30 additional images. Click to enlarge.