Fonderie Miniature 1/48 Breguet 693

www.bowemodels.com

Fonderie Miniature do not have the greatest reputation for producing buildable kits. Unfortunately I have to report that it is not improved with this one. This is possibly one of the toughest builds I have subjected myself to in a long while. A mix of (very soft) plastic, resin and etched parts normally indicates some attention to detail, but when none of it fits together in a recognisable way you know you have a problem.

But I like a challenge, and this is certainly one of those. It fought me every step of the way, but I managed to finally emerge victorious albeit battered and bruised. However there is something satisfying about finishing with a reasonable model after such a journey. The glass is half full.

You can see photos of the build process here.

Roden 1/72 Fairchild C-123B Provider

www.bowemodels.com

Something a little outside of the middle of the road from Roden, purveyors of surprisingly good kits. If you are not familiar with this aircraft, you've probably seen it many times in the movies, where they seem to like it because it looks a bit like a Hercules but is a lot cheaper to crash... Think "Con Air", "Air America" et al... In "Die Hard 2" they actually stuck extra dummy engines on one to complete the effect.

Anyhow, the kit. Let's get the bad points out of the way briefly - overly heavy panel lines, terrible fitting fuselage transparencies and the internal floor makes the fuselage impossible to fit together properly. However, it is otherwise an excellent kit. The fit is (other than the above) exemplary and the details fine and accurate. I did add the NH Detail cockpit set which is a nice touch but otherwise this is out of the box, other than decals from Caracal Models to create the particular machine my customer was looking for.

You can see the build progress photos here.