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

 

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 other 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 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?

 

To be continued...