Modified Heller M.S.225 Michel Detroyat (the other one, not the previously-posted 230)

 (The completed model is here:)
http://wingsofintent.blogspot.com/2013/04/detroyats-morane-saulnier-ms225.html

Yet another Morane Saulnier plane used by Michel Detroyat, this time the M.S.225, modified for its use as a racer and aerobatic machine. It was painted in an attractive red/black/silver scheme, and demonstrated its capabilities –and of course those of its pilot- to a great extent.

Again an old good Heller kit provides the canvas for this project, the parts being a tad chunkier than the M.S.230 just finished. Some accurizing is needed too but the basics are there. My sample was provided by the ever-smiling, spanakopita-rider, Mr Psarras of Alabama. Thanks again, Xtmosch!

There is an article published on the French Fana de L'Aviation magazine 44 that describes (in French, predictably enough) some details that you may like to correct. I read it, and promptly ignored it almost in its entirety due to a number of reasons. First, there is a written description of the problems and the possible corrections, with almost no visual material to support (or even understand) what the heck is the writer talking about. Second: some corrections are surely bound to produce dubious results, or unsightly consequences. Yes, the “realistic” details in the kit have to be subdued. Yes, there are, as ALWAYS, and as in every single kit, a few inaccuracies, but the shape is there, the desired “impression” is there, and most importantly you will finish the project to a very decent standard, opposite to dwell forever on every little minutia and where every surgery results in poorer results than the kit offer itself. So pick your battles, instead of embarking on an all-inclusive, obsessive-compulsive enterprise aimed to frustration and ultimately to abandon the project way before completion, under the pretended auspices of an ill-understood “perfection”.

Look at photos; listen to what others have to say...wait, I correct myself, look at what others have DONE with success, not at what they may think YOU should do, and then turn to your model, and with reasonable expectations, modify what you may in order to achieve a better replica, an entertaining building, and most importantly a FINISHED model, not an aggregate of plastic pieces that has a shoe box for sarcophagus until the eons turn it again back into fossil fuel.

A model is a model. This simple tautology goes amiss for many a hobbyist. A model is most definitely NOT art (I may add here that I am an artist by profession, so I may have a say here, perhaps, if you allow me), it is not science –although it could be educational- and I can assure you that once you are not here, and many times waaay before that, it will end up in a trash can. Don’t believe me? Look around. That said, I love model-building, I certainly do. But under the premises of my perhaps not infinite life span, the need to have a good time, and the amount of other models I would really like to build, I allocate the time, energy and resources that a model (and I) deserves, in what I guess could be construed as an act of common sense and sense of balance.

Now, to the meat.
As you can see in the photos, a new cowl was made, the ribbing and rivets were toned-down, the cockpit was refined and some internal structure added. The engine will need an oil radiator and a new prop, the armament needs deletion, the ailerons need to be completed –as with Heller’s M.S.230 the intrados of the wing has no aileron separation lines- and other details will have to be taken care of. As I always say –write- look at your reference photos.
Heller kits of course are not perfect. But they do have a very logical and practical part breakdown.
If you considered when were they designed -many decades ago-, your admiration may increase even more.
The outer upper wing panels follow a real separation on the plane, but you will have to engrave that separation on the intrados yourself. The stabs were dynamically balanced in the original plane, the kit has them wrong, correct as per photo here.

At the request of master modeler and superb musician Vance Gilbert, who prefers to remain anonymous, here is an image of the real plane. Almost nothing is out there in the Net in terms of photos of this specific Detroyat machine, though. The following image was clipped from a page of the Flight Magazine excellent archives. The whole page -which glaringly misspells his aerobatic rival name- can be seen here:

http://www.flightglobal.com/FlightPDFArchive/1933/1933%20-%200816.PDF

 The Model is nearing the priming and painting stages:

White primer is applied to reveal faults and to provide a good base for the red color later:

Airbrushing the red, copper and aluminum colors.

Later on after some masking the black color will be added to complete the scheme:

Black color airbrushed:

Details, details, and more details.

The oil cooler is assembled and mounted, the horizontal stabilizer halves are glued to the fuselage:

And yet more details.

Tail rigging, step, windshield, cowl and cowl decals: