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François Riga
6 articles

Morane Saulnier MS 406Heller 1/72

August 10, 2024 · in Aviation · · 19 · 207

A few more MS 406's, completed 14y ago and based on vintage Heller kits. A three-planes flight was standard in the French Armée de l'Air of 1940 and called a "Patrouille simple".
The amount of work and corrections needed to make these kits just look like the subject was quite comprehensive and took months to achieve. It has been detailed on the following tread: https://fighters.forumactif.com/t45230-morane-saulnier-ms-406-heller-smer-1-72
Not sure I would ever have again the motivation to start such a project... 😉

Note that the "La Furie" (Fury) insignia has been repainted in pale green since, as it should be. Historical evidence of this color having been obtained since.

Reader reactions:
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5 additional images. Click to enlarge.


19 responses

  1. Fantastic trio, François!

  2. Superb result on an important aircraft - France's first modern fighter. Amazing that Heller was your starting point.

    • Hi Bob! I'm a fan of the 406 and have all the kits in 1/72 scale. Obviously the Heller one is not the best (the Frog is even worst) but, considering its age, the kit is not that bad neither. It was a kind of challenge, I wanted to correct and upgrade them so that they couldn't be differentiated from the others in my display cabinet 😉

  3. Great job on your builds François @friga. They look great!

  4. Excellent work and great results. As one who frequently takes old kits and improves them I can see that all your efforts have been really worthwhile.

  5. Nice work on a plane that is often overlooked in modelling circles.

  6. Excellent result on all three, François @friga
    The French did build beautiful aircraft back then, and still are.

    • Thanks John. Indeed, I really like the three-colors camo of these airplanes. To my eyes the Morane 406 is a beautiful aircraft, with her nice rounded wing tips and long karman fairings. A bit odd on some design aspects, sharing old and new characteristics. Like many other French planes of 1940.

  7. Very cool and under-represented aircraft.

  8. Magnifique! A truly stunning trio, with meticulous attention and care for detail simply amazing. The idea of doing three planes from the same squadron raises the bar significantly and eliminates a great deal of wiggle room that builder regularly take advantage of (and take for granted) when building the typical single aircraft. Marvelous.

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