1/72 scratch-built Uruguayan Farman F.197S 1931

From the archive (2009)

The extensive Farman 190 series spawned a prolific progeny, among them a dedicated ambulance version, the Farman 197S, the S standing for Sanitaire.

The 197S had some modifications to better accomplish its task, the most visible being the door/hatch used to load and unload the patients on the left side of the fuselage and of course the furnishing of the interior to accommodate two stretchers and an assistant.

It is most likely that the aft door on the right fuselage side was deleted too since it would have been useless. It had a Lorraine Mizar engine instead of the usual power plants for the 190 family.

Some research was done to fill the gaps in the documentation, and useful information came from Michel Barriere and Alain Bourret, among others, for which I am indeed grateful. The machine depicted got later on the Uruguayan CX-ABH registration.

The images of the in-progress building will give you a view of the techniques and procedures used, and all in all more than 140 parts were fabricated for this project.

A few items were adapted Aeroclub Models after-market parts which saved some time, always important when you are spending a lot of it in research and the fabrication of the model. The interior (cockpit and cabin) was taken care of, depicting the stretchers’ holder, interior lights, pilot “gruyere cheese” seat, control wheel, rudder bar, instrument panel and a few holders; as well as exterior details, like the wing tank details, Venturis (two), nav lights, oil radiator, control horns, cables and the multiple struts, about two dozens of them between big and small. Fine wire rings were made and inserted as window sills, leaving enough space for the transparencies to be glued from the outside at a later stage –after done with the exterior painting-. The stretcher hatch and the access door were positioned open. The open door shows the furrow into which a slider runs to open the window, which was depicted half way down. I also carved a wood prop from a Popsicle –replacing the metal one that came with the engine- to be more faithful to the original, adding a photoetched boss. An area that proved to need quite a time was the cockpit glassing. The issue was solved, after a few trials and discarded parts, with a front panel, two side rectangular panels and two triangular windows, as per original. These transparencies have same angles involved, and are wrongly depicted in some plans of the type. At some point during preparations the aftermarket metal Venturis went to the great beyond, so replacements were fabricated as per photos. I spent a lot of time under my desk looking for lost parts and I am thinking about installing some speakers and furnish a pillow for that area.

References prescribe a sort of whitish aluminum for the French planes. Wing tanks were painted another hue, and so was an area on the nose, close to the engine.