Potez 25 Aéropostale/Aeroposta Argentina - Azur/FRROM/Special Hobby 1/72nd scale + FRROM decals

 

 (The completed model is here:

https://wingsofintent.blogspot.com/2025/03/potez-25-aeropostaleaeroposta.html

 (The build of Potez 25 F-AJDX, the sister ship, continues here:

https://wingsofintent.blogspot.com/2025/01/potez-25-f-ajdx-aeropostale-aeroposta.html

The importance of the presence of the Compagnie Générale Aéropostale in Argentina for the development of the local commercial aviation can’t be understated. The French Aéropostale (in turn inheritor of Lignes Aeriennes Latécoère) gave birth to Aeroposta Argentina, and the mythical aviation feats of Guillaumet, Mermoz and Saint-Exúpery are well known. Among the planes they used in Argentina was the Potez 25, of which five of them worked the local routes: F-AJDX (N° 1520), F-AJDY (N° 1521), F-AJDZ (N° 1522), F-AJZR (N° 2035) and F-AJZS (N° 2036). The commercial use of these planes involved some changes, resulting in a mix of features from different types (mainly Lorraine-powered TOE and A2), and these changes were not consistent among planes, and modifications can still be seen during the lives of the individual planes in Argentina. Most images show them in overall white aluminium (while metal parts like cowlings seem natural aluminium in many photos), but one plane, F-AJDX, shows at some point a different scheme, painted with a darker color on the fuselage front, landing gear and wing struts (this is most likely the “maroon” and yellow lettering used in other planes of the same company). The second position was altered to carry mail and/or a passenger/mechanic, and the cut-out for it varies in shape from plane to plane, and some images show it faired over with a removable lid. Most of the planes carried additional fuel tanks under the fuselage seen in the TOE version, but the noses are those of the A2 Lorraine version, while some had additional retractable ventral radiators. Props were metallic, not wooden, and some planes have and externally-mounted wind-driven generator (on the right front fuselage side) while others didn’t. All used the Lorraine 12Eb engine and the A2 radiator front in its smaller version.

Fortunately for us, Azur/FRROM/Special Hobby have released the Potez 25 in several boxings, so I acquired the pertinent ones, The TOE and A2. There is some commonality in the sprues of the different boxings released, so you will get plenty of spare parts. Another way to go would be to modify one of the boxings by way of a little scratch-building, if you don’t want to mix-and-match boxes.

More to our good fortune in this particular case is that FRROM released a comprehensive decal sheet, covering many possible Aéropostale/Aeroposta liveries:

http://www.frrom.com/index.php?page=decalques-2

So, after spending a long time looking online and gathering references, I decided to have a go at the famous Guillaumet mount (F-AJDZ) that in his flight from Chile to Argentina had to perform and emergency landing due to a snow storm close to Laguna Diamante in the Andes in 1930, as it is relatively well documented. A close second I hope will be F-AJZX in it’s –again, most likely- maroon front fuselage, LG and wing struts, same colors as the Late 28 Comte de la Vaulx operating then:

(Still capture from clip widely posted on Net)

 The Special Hobby release of the Potez 25 is indeed a beautiful kit. The molding is sharp and clean with very little flash or mold lines, nice surface detail, sensible sprue gates that make detaching and cleaning the parts easier, a bag of welcome spare parts for other versions, thorough interior, P.E. details and superbly-printed instructions with clear drawings and parts map, color indications, etc. 

The kit was designed as a modular endeavor, a practice extended among manufacturers that makes them able to provide several versions via plug-ins, in this case to our favor as we will need to swap around a few of those parts.

THIS IS THE TOE BOXING:

Flying surfaces are crisp:

Locating devices well molded, well engraved positions for detail parts:

Here you can see a number of parts to cover many versions that in this case will go to the spares bin:

The photoetched spoke accessories are not to be used on the Aeroposta Potez 25:

Beautiful instruction booklet. The kit has its complexity, so it pays to really study it.

THE BUILD/S:

As mentioned, the five Potez 25 in service in Argentina differed from each other in some aspects. The two I intend to build will be result of combining two kit boxings, The "Lorraine" one and the "TOE" one. Three of the planes had the fuselage bottom as in the TOE boxing (that is "thicker" and has the additional tank), and the other two can be covered by the alternate bottom also offered in the TOE kit provided you remove all the detail, fill the hole, and smooth the surface. Here are both, the lower one being the "thicker" as used by F-AJDZ (Andes crash) and the upper one being the "thinner" used by F-AJDX (in order not to complicate things I will leave the other three machines out of this post)

These locating holes need filling:

The aft positions for both kits will need removal, in the case of F-AJDZ (the silver one) this is just a simple cutout, but F-AJDX (the "maroon nose" one) will necessitate some scratch-building as its aft position was far back and the opening shaped slightly differently:

Top sketch is the opeinings of F-AJDZ (silver), bottom is F-AJDX (maroon):

Only the radiator on the side is the right one for all the Aeroposta Potez 25:

Discarded parts on the left, build parts on the right. Spares bin is happy!

Images of the kit from the Net. This one is the right cowl parts for all Aeroposta Potez 25:

This is the one provided on the TOE kit, which matches the wider radiator, and therefore it must be modified if used for any Aeroposta Potez 25

All Aeroposta Potez 25 used the "flat" metallic prop, "thick" landing gear, and caps on the wheels (no visible spokes). Needless to say, all military equipment should be deleted, and details like the recesses for the machine guns filled and sanded smooth.

Argentina at one point released this postal booklet with commemorative stamps (my thanks to Andrew Nickeas from the Foglands who made me aware of this):

The silhouette is partially inaccurate, but nice they did it anyway:

The transparencies that go on the floor are glued to cover the void (they will be blanked out eventually). "Fat" floor for the Andes crash, "thin" floor for the maroon nose plane. Both will need further work:

The fuselage sides interior is detailed, but of course the passenger position will change, so the parts that go there were discarded as they belonged to the mil version:

The passenger opening for the Andes plane is cut out following photos, eliminating the round machine gun post. Minute touch-ups may be needed:

A seat and other parts will be needed for the aft position (the kit provides two seats):

So it happens that among the parts that the instructions discard for the mil boxing version some will be useful to us! It seems that most of the passenger/mail area will be covered with these. The seat poses a question: was it in place even when sacks of mail were being transported (as concurrently in service a mechanic or passenger could be transported), or removed to make more space and save a little weight for the Andes crossing?

The parts that make for the surface under the fuselage are filled and sanded to resemble photos of the civil planes:

The manufacturers decided to mold the holes for some external loads, not present in all the variants. This created an issue, because it is much simpler drilling a hole than filling it, especially when a rib line runs through it and you per force have to obliterate it while sanding flush. Here they are plugged with black styrene rod and sanded flush:

And now the task is to reconstitute the rib line, in this case with pieces of tape with a narrow gap among them:

Then the thin gaps are spread with putty, and once dry and the tape removed the lines will be there again:

 And how it looks once the tape is removed and after a very light sanding:

The exhausts are too thin to be drilled in a practical way, so new ones are made with styrene strip and aluminium tube:

Once the superglue dries, they will be sanded equal:

Some base colors are applied:

Oils are used to emulate wood. Then details will be picked-up individually:

The inst. pan. specifies decal "A", but that is strange as the decals have numbers, not letters:

No such decal exist in the sheet. Aftermarket ones will be used for the instruments:

As explained before, the TOE boxing has the correct fuselage floor ("thick") for the 3 of the Aéropostale planes, but the wrong fuselage nose sides. You can remedy this (I instead bought the A2 Lorraine boxing) this way:

Separate the "wrongly" shaped (again, "wrong" just for the Aéropostale planes) parts of the sides:

Fabricate and glue a styrene wall of the same thickness as the kit's part with a cut-out to clear the exhausts:

Split in half a styrene tube of the correct diameter to match the aft fairing, and carve in it a clearance (matching the wall cut-out) to allow the exhaust parts to be located in place later:

Round the tip of a piece of sprue of the same diameter as the tube:

Cut off the tip and split in half:

Glue the quarter sphere to the front of the "tube". A little smear of putty and you have the correct shape for all the Aéropostale planes:

Use the smaller radiator and match any tiny difference with a pass of the sanding stick:

 My interest in this adaptations -besides providing you with a way to use just the TOE kit- is because, as stated above, I would like to combine the two boxings to build the two types of Potez 25 operated by Aéropostale, the one with the "thick" fuselage bottom and the one with the thin one, thus the need to use, modifying it, those fuselage nose sides, as the two types had the same noses, but the TOE kit only provides the "wrong" nose.

Working on the interior. As explained, aftermarket decals were used for the instruments, as they were absent from the kit (the panel has relief, though). The detail on the back of the bulkhead between cockpits should be deleted:

The A2 Lorraine kit has arrived. To the right the aftermarket decals sheet by FRROM that covers some of the Aéropostale machines I am making the conversions to:

This A2 Lorraine kit has the right nose "cheeks" (so no mods are needed unlike the TOE kit mods shown above) and the right prop (metal, "flat" prop). For the second model one of these will need to be scratched, as the TOE boxing only provides the wood prop:

I have fabricated a similar type of metal prop from actual metal or styrene (and others, including laminated wood props) before for the Rohrbach Roland scratch and other models (posted on this blog:

https://wingsofintent.blogspot.com/2016/04/rohrbach-roland-172nd-scale.html

 And so a second prop is fabricated:

The sprues come in a sealed back. As it sometimes the case the rubbing of a tree against the other either in packing or transit, makes some parts to get loose. Be careful when emptying the bag, as very small parts may be left behind and lost:

For the same token, have a good look at the sprues, as parts may be broken/damaged, as in this case. It was easy to reposition the break and add thin cement to glue the parts while self-aligned still in the sprue:

Now, for F-AJDX, the one with the painted nose, LG and wing struts, the aft cockpit opening is slightly different, with more space between openings and a different shape at the front. The cut is similar but goes aft more:

And once the section is removed, a small area (in red in the image) will need to be reconstructed with curved styrene sheet. Just to be clear, this is the type with the shallow (thin) floor:

 Small holes should be drilled in front of the cylinder covers and caps added to the radiators:

NOTE: At this point it seems better to separate the builds of these two slightly different Potez 25, F-AJDZ and F-AJDX. 

I will continue here on this post with F-AJDZ (the one that had the accident in the Andes piloted by Guillaumet), but the parallel build of F-AJDX is now here:

https://wingsofintent.blogspot.com/2025/01/potez-25-f-ajdx-aeropostale-aeroposta.html

The locations for the wires are drilled on stab and fin. A notch is made and an aftermarket control horn is glued to the rudder. The measurement corrects a typo in the kit's instructions:

Like the exhaust stacks on the sides, the one at the top is impractical to hollow, so the detail is removed and the locations of the stacks drilled (I am working here on the parts for the two models at the same time):

 Metal tubes will be added later (dry run here):

This plane had mudguards, absent in the kit, so they are fabricated with thin styrene sheet:

Painted and ready to be added later. There is a hole at the back that will carry the cable into the fuselage. This accessory is only for the other model, F-AJDX, but thought it useful to show it here too:

After trying this with the second model, the same is done here. All interior components will be inserted from underneath:

Like with the other Potez, the interior goes in without a hitch, all sub-assemblies fitting perfectly, first the int. pan., then the cockpit, then the aft position. Unlike the other Potez, I did put a seat in the mail compartment, reading that sometimes they also transported people, usually mechanics, other pilots, or company staff:

This plane, I remind you, had the "thick" floor. The fit of this part is much better than the "thin" floor on the other Potez:

Just a little filler will be necessary:

And the next step (dry-run):

The bottom seam is isolated and puttied. It should not disappear completely, as it is faintly visible in photos:

When inserting the lower wing, be sure you don't create negative dihedral (anhedral), as the fit is somewhat tight. Judicious and careful sanding will fix it:

Using the modified TOE kit cheeks and the deep tank the nose is assembled, previous insertion of the exhaust parts from inside. This is a finicky assembly of the type I call "computer guy thought of it", as it is not easy to put together (you will see why when you do it). I see two locating features inside the "cheeks"  that may have been for a reinforcement/alignment part, but instructions show none:

The fit again was good:

The necessarily complex engineering to squeeze more variants determined that some assemblies may be a bit trickier to deal with. Nothing is bad, of course, but care is needed. The designer implemented tabs and other locating devices that (unlike in many other similar kits) do work well in general. The overall good fit and clean, sharp molding is really a blessing, if the multipart assembly introduces once a while a little of knee-shaking.

The remaining three parts (two upper cowl halves, radiator) are set in place. The wobbly nature of the whole nose creates a challenge here, and doesn't help with fit. Both, the lower part and upper part of the nose definitely needed some -unfortunately missing- internal parts to stabilize them and provide an accurate overall shape. Still, if can be done, it won't impair your build, but this is a little bit of a let down on an otherwise excellent kit(s). True, I modified a small section of the nose on this kit, but the other kit, unmodified in this area, suffers from the same malady. This particular issue has been commented on by other modelers.

(forgot to add the front fuselage struts before this step, which had to be added later!):

 Once the nose is set, the next task would be to fill the gun trough on the right side of the cowl and make the surface flush and smooth. To start the process, bits of half-round and rectangular styrene rod are glued in place, so as to not use too much putty, that always tends to shrink forcing to re-apply:

Almost ready for the first coat of primer:

Working now on the many seams:

First coat of primer:

Oopsie! I forgot to glue the front fuselage struts while adding the front fuselage top!:

It will have to be this way now:

Measuring separation and angle (they angle slightly backwards) the halves are glued from each side. The funnel-shaped carb intakes are glued at this point too:

 Landing gear in place. The engineering is sound and precise, just needs attention and proper handling to go in. Just to keeps tabs, the model on this thread (F-AJDZ) is in the foreground. Both models need the "fatter" landing gear legs option offered in the sprues:

Upper wing and struts ready for primer too:

The windshields were modified for these civil planes, so you can't use the ones provided in the kits. They will need to be patterned and made from flexible clear plastic:

 The kit and the instructions omit the radiator cap. I first installed a short length of pipe, but later realized looking at photos that the pipe was airfoiled:

So I cut short lengths from an airfoiled strut and added a tiny cap on them:

The fuselage is painted gloss white first, instead of the usual base for Alclad metallics, which is gloss black, to help achieve the hue used by these French machines. The rest is being given a primer coat:

Once the white is set, a mist of aluminium color will be airbrushed to replicate the original color. The front wing struts are kept separated to be able to ID them.

A map of the Aéropostale routes:

 Some photos show a distinct, brighter hue of metal on the nose, thus the model is given first a polished aluminium coat and the nose is now masked to airbrush a more subdued tone to the rest of the model:

The final assembly may now proceed:

The struts are few and to scale, that is quite flimsy. Knee-shaking has started.

But before the exhaust area has to be repainted (as it was not possible to mask it). It would have been better if the manufacturer would have made these parts to be plugged from the outside upon completion, than as they are, to be plugged from within at an early stage. Another clue that the computer guy and the modeler guy over there were not in sync in this regard:

The third row of exhaust stacks is added. The coaming is painted and the two aft fuselage struts are glued on. The two new windshields -which were different on the civil models than the military versions provided with the kit- are cut from clear styrene and adjusted to fit:

The upper wing goes on. A fiddly operation:

The model is ready for decaling:

The FRROM decals went on without problems. 

These Potez 25 had thin black leading edges on both wings, and I decided to represent them with thin black decals. This happened to be a mistake, and it would have been better to paint them black, mask them with thin Tamiya tape, and then paint the white aluminium color. Problem was that I was using gloss white, and not gloss black as usual, as the base for the metallic paint to better represent the French "white aluminium" color. I spent hours trying to apply those thin decals on the leading edges, but due to superficial tension it was extremely difficult to keep them in place. Finally I managed, but ideally perhaps the wings while still separated -early in the assembly- should be painted white aluminium and them masked to paint the black leading edge. Build and Learn!

 (The completed model is here:

https://wingsofintent.blogspot.com/2025/03/potez-25-aeropostaleaeroposta.html