Farman 223-1 F-APUZ - Azur 1/72nd

Above and below: the liaison flights with South America

The plane as it looked for the 1937 Istres-Damascus-Paris race:

 After completing the really challenging and extremely poor Couzinet kit, I thought I deserved a break, and went for this other remarkable French machine that was also used to carry the mail over the Atlantic from France to South America.

When I first saw the kits of the various versions of the Farman 220 family released by Azur in 1/72nd scale I was ecstatic.  In time I acquired, quite by accident, two of those kits.

These were appealing machines: unusual, large, reasonably detailed, of elegant lines, historically relevant and just plain awesome. For me the bonus was that there were two special connections: F-APUZ -one of the boxings- flew to Santiago de Chile via Buenos Aires -where I was born- from France, and also participated in the Istres-Damascus-Paris race, for which I already had modeled other participants, three Savoia Marchetti SM79s, a DH88 Comet, a DH89 Rapide, and the Fiat BR.20.

Since this kit promised to be quite an endeavor, the boxes were stored until the time would come to honor them.

I have seen some nice models built from this kit on the Net, which leads to the next matter:

After studying literally hundreds of images, newsreels, publications and documents, I am of the opinion that the main color of 223-1 F-APUZ was some hue of silver grey (in line with what was being done at the time) and not color stated by the kit's instructions. I have seen so far only two models painted on what I consider is the right tone, and I am planning to paint mine silver grey. Contemporary models of the Farman 220 family in Air France colors show them painted silver and blue.

The engine gondolas are normal metal color, though.

Fellow modeler and friend Alain Bourret has written a detailed article on the released kits, pointing out to some things that need to be corrected, as it is the case with most kits. Two issues of Air Magazine were dedicated to the Farman 220 family and published coinciding with the kits' release.

The 223-1 kits I got have detailed cockpits but no interior, and I could not find anything about that in years of on-and-off searches. The fuselage in any case only has very small circular windows, but the nose transparency provides a partial view to an empty space. I may open the fuselage door as it shown that way in many photos (it opened to the interior, unlike other planes).

The kit has a very nice surface and proper detail, but more can be added if desired. The molding is clean and the edges sharp, with a bit of flash here and there. There are no locating devices whatsoever, which in the case of the larger parts (fuselage and wings) and the complex engine gondola strut arrangement, will surely make life interesting. The box includes a few resin parts for the engine area. Mine were partially damaged in transit and will be difficult to repair.

The parts once separated from the sprues and cleaned up. Don't do this if you feel you may have trouble identifying the parts later on:

 Large decal sheet covering three subjects, looks well-printed:

Resin parts damaged in transit. Some of the small and thin radiator fins were broken due to not very smart packaging:

Care is needed to extract some of the parts, and then some cleanup is in order:

The forked part with the peg was either a short pour or broken in transit (as it is supposed to be symmetrical), with the missing bit nowhere to be found:

Some of the windows will have to be opened by the modeler, according to the version:

The transparencies are thick but reasonably clear. The window count for the nose part is different for the two versions of F-APUZ (Istres-Damascus race or transatlantic flights):

As usual, some reading material, from the Gallica repository and other sources to which we should grateful to. 

The Istres-Damascus race:

Transatlantic flight:

The box art inaccurately depicts the nose windows for the transatlantic postal flights...

...as that version had a double row of windows, whilst the Istres-Damascus version had just one:

The racer -with a single row of nose windows- had the race individual "code" (F2) on a white background on the fuselage sides and wings:

The door on the kit's fuselage side is inaccurately located about 5mm ahead of where it should be (as well as the circular window associated with it). Photos also show that the door had a rectangular window:

 

As a military version is also covered in the boxing, a dorsal position is provided, that needs to be plugged:

The kit provides the part:

Two horizontal tails are provided, the one to the right is to be used for the civil version:

There are a number of parts (indicated in the instructions) that will need to be fabricated by the modeler.

 

A few parts are glued. The narrow door on the bulkhead after the cockpit is opened:

 

To be continued...