Caudron Simoun resurrected

[Robomog]

The Back Story

The Honourable British Zip Fastening Company was almost caught out by the sudden take up and interest in their product in 1937, particularly in France where demand was almost outstripping supply.

As a stopgap they purchased a small French light aircraft called a Caudron Simoun. It had the perfect balance of payload, range and economy which fulfilled a number of needs, primarily as a transport to get product into other countries when demand was high or for special orders that demanded short delivery times. It was painted in the company’s black and red colours, but retained its French registration.

Later, when other aircraft were added to the fleet it became an executive transport and general runabout.

The aircraft served the company admirably until 1939 when war broke out. The Caudron was undergoing routine maintenance when war was declared and the company instructed the pilot to abandon the aircraft and either make his way back to England or remain in France and disappear or join the French military.

The pilot ignored them.

He patiently waited for the servicing to be completed then flew the aircraft into the French countryside and landed at a farm he knew. On landing the aircraft was towed into a barn and hidden behind a wall of hay bales.

The Caudron languished in the barn for over a year waiting until life had returned to some sort of norm then the pilot contacted the French Resistance and offered his services. The offer was snapped up and after repainting the Caudron overall black to hide the markings the pilot proceed to make supply flights from France to England and back.

These flights continued for the next year and a half but eventually they were betrayed and returning to France the aircraft was ambushed and fired on as it landed one night.

 The poor little Caudron was hit repeatedly but the pilot was unscathed and was able to take off again.

Coaxing the mortally wounded aircraft as far as he could away from the ambush the pilot crash landed in a field. After changing out of his flying suit and into civilian clothes he set fire to the aircraft and made his escape.

He eventually reconnected with the resistance and made his way back to England to retrain to fly Westland Lysanders and continue his work supporting the resistance.

Although some photographs exist of the Caudron nobody will ever know of its wartime record or final fate.

Mog
>^-.-^<

[Robomog]

The Build History

Ok as some of you know, I spent six weeks working away from home, brought a number of boxed kits off a mate and found  some more at reasonable prices in a collectables shop in Plymouth then lost my modeling mojo, not good
.
 So what better way to get your mojo back than to finish a project that has been stalled for over a year.

I’m doing this  post warts and all so if I really screw up I will proudly show a really screwed up model.

  A sort  of thoughtful side note that not all builds go to plan.

The project was sparked by these decals.....

by Robomog, on Flickr

They were intended for ladies nails, but as I found out later they were not waterslide as advertised but were self stick, more of that later when I actually use them.

Originally I intended this build for a light twin engined aircraft, but I had a problem here, the civilian side of the modeling world is very under supported or out of production and those that are available are being touted at stupid prices on evil bay.

So the Beagle 206, Skyvan and islander were out. Moving my time frame backwards I did buy an AZ Airspeed Oxford for this paint whif but one of the possible colour schemes on the box caught my eye so I’m going to build that one OOB.

(uninteresting aside: - in my younger modeling life I sought  the biggest/fastest aircraft, dripping with armament. Nowadays I’m attracted by the pretty colours and snazzy camouflage, sad ? I’ll let you decide )

Eventually I settled on the Heller Caudron Simoun c.630, the small history above popped into my head a little later.

This is the culprit thats stalled......

by Robomog, on Flickr

by Robomog, on Flickr

Up until this point the build had gone  quite well with basic trimming and very little filler. However I managed to screw up the paint work and also realised it had the dreaded split cockpit transparency.

Taking into account the transfers faux pas and with the group builds starting to call more loudly it all went back in the box and into the pending drawer.

My Caudron Simoun is now out of the drawer and  back on the work bench.   Rock and roll............

[Brian da Basher]

I've always had a soft-spot for the Caudron Simoun (hey what's not to love?) and I'll be looking forward to seeing one with that great Mog treatment!

Brian da Basher

[Frank3k]

I have this kit as well. Neat looking plane. Brian, it has spats!

[Robomog]

I'de completely forgotten about Brian's Spat fixation.

Lap it up Brian !  Enjoy !

Mog
>^-.-^<

[Robomog]

Completing The Build

Back to modelling at last and had a good start, I managed to get a coat of black on the Caudron without any streaks, result !

But now to the split canopy, assembled it using Clearfix along with the control panel and discovered one of the sprue attachments was at the front of the windscreen (thanks Heller !), I managed to buff most of it out and will hide the rest under a slightly wider painted frame. 

The preliminary fixing showing the sprue marks........

by Robomog, on Flickr

by Robomog, on Flickr

I did a trial fit and a bit of adjustment but I must have been on another planet at the time because after painting the canopy and sticking it on it was decidedly narrower than the fuselage. Pulling the edges out only caused it to bow in the middle, then it fell apart, Clearfix is good for fixing transparencies but it does not have the strength of polystyrene cement.

There followed a sequence of fitting/not fitting/falling apart, reverted to poly cement, and in my growing frustration made a rookie mistake and got glue on the canopy.... aaaaaargh!

Two photos of the canopy showing the poor fit of the canopy, and  the glue smudge, it looks like a bullet hole.......

by Robomog, on Flickr

by Robomog, on Flickr

Took a few deep breaths, stepped back, apologised to Claude the cat for the startling him from his slumber on top of my parts drawers and the bad language.
Start again....

Took the canopy off and inserted a thin piece of card to make it fit better then put it in the drawer and got on with something else while it dried properly.

by Robomog, on Flickr

Returning to the canopy the next night I had another trial fit and it was about as good as I was going to get, it was ok  at the sides, close enough at the front but slightly raised on top, careful sanding (very careful.....) got the edges flush. Yay !

And now to the glue stain, I was tempted to tint the windows Brian the Basher stylie but decided to try and buff it out first. Started by chipping some of it away with a sharp knife then followed up with good old toothpaste rubbed in with a cotton bud. Started seeing some improvement after an hour of buffing but it was very slow.  To speed things up a bit I cut a cotton bud in two and fitted it into a battery operated nail polisher, by the end of the night the glue stain was all but gone.

After finally gluing the canopy in place and touching up the paint work I let it dry for a while then fitted the wheels.

Successful clean up ! ...........

  by Robomog, on Flickr

And the wheels are on.......

by Robomog, on Flickr



The decals are next ..........

Mog
>^-.-^<

[Brian da Basher]

That was an outstanding save on the windscreen, Mog!

If I had a cuss jar I'd be flat broke, especially while at the bench.

Brian da Basher

[finsrin]

An inspirational account of overcoming plastic adversity.
Proof windscreen glue can be overcome with diligence and skill.

[Frank3k]

I like the black and red. Good save on the canopy!

[tankmodeler]

Nice job on the canopy. To get more of the clarity back you can add a thin layer of Future. I can almost guarantee that will improve things loads.

Paul

[Robomog]

Thank guys, much appreciated.

Paul, thanks for the tip, unfortunately I do not have any of the magic Future liquid, only Clearfix. I'm told there is a substitute available in the UK from Lakelands. I will try and get some when I'm next in Milton Keynes.

Mog
>^-.-^<

[tankmodeler]

Paul, thanks for the tip, unfortunately I do not have any of the magic Future liquid, only Clearfix. I'm told there is a substitute available in the UK from Lakelands. I will try and get some when I'm next in Milton Keynes.

Future, or it's equivalent, really is pretty magical. Get some if you can.

[Robomog]

Hi all

As I said earlier the decals intended for the Caudron turned out to be self adhesive and not waterslide, so I started using them with some apprehension. I did not run any tests to see if they would work properly on acrylic  paint either so this is a complete leap of faith.

I started with the zip line around the tail, matching up the separate transfers to form a fairly continuous line. Initially they stuck ok and followed the contours pretty well without peeling, but after a few seconds they seemed to react with the paint and appeared to ‘silver’ like a badly placed decal.

Being on a black background probably did not help either, if there is any minor defect in your transfers black will show up everything!

Fortunately after about twenty minutes the silvering receded, not completely, but enough not to notice unless the light was at a specific angle, I gave the decal a couple of coats of matt varnish to tone it down a bit more. The edges are a bit more prominent than a traditional waterslide transfer so I carefully painted along the edges to lose the ridge.

I have applied some zip emblems to the cowling and treated them the same way.

When applying the tail decals I found they did not show up too well on the red and had to move them forward onto the black, also to maintain a continuous zip the angle of the zip to the fuselage was a lot steeper than intended and now I have a large amount of black to cover up.

it’s going to take few coats of red to cover that up, for sure.

by Robomog, on Flickr

Ho hum.......... 

More as it happens.........

Mog
>^-.-^<

[Brian da Basher]

Wow now that's a fun and original marking scheme!

You took this in an unexpected direction and I've been enjoying following your progress.

Brian da Basher

[ysi_maniac]

that red 'body' resurrecting from an openning zip ... makes me think in ...

Anyway, a nice model.

[Brian da Basher]

that red 'body' resurrecting from an openning zip ... makes me think in ...

Anyway, a nice model.

It reminded me of the scheme on Reggie Wanker's 747 in the 1983 epic concert film Get Crazy.

Brian da Basher

[Robomog]

Oh behave ! 

But thanks for the comments 

Mog
>^-.-^<

[Robomog]

Hi all

After around six coats of red i finally got rid of the excess black, the decals are on and a final coat of mattish varnish. The project is completed  Yay!

It's a very pretty looking aircraft but it hasn't come out as i envisaged however it looks OK in my eyes.

As promised here it is warts and all.


by Robomog, on Flickr

In normal light the paintwork looks OK but under artificial light some streaking became apparent...........
by Robomog, on Flickr

by Robomog, on Flickr


by Robomog, on Flickr

by Robomog, on Flickr

by Robomog, on Flickr

Claude the Cat also wanted his photo took, i removed the Caudron seconds before he jumped......

by Robomog, on Flickr

Also under artificial light the stick on transfers looked like they had silvered.......
by Robomog, on Flickr

by Robomog, on Flickr


All comments and criticism gratefully accepted, as always.

Mog
>^-.-^<

[Brian da Basher]

Looks "OK"?

Just that it's a Caudron makes it special in my book and I won't get started on that wonderfully streamlined undercarriage except to say

"My what lovely spats you have there!"

 

Absolutely outstanding and a looker to boot!

Brian da Basher

[Frank3k]

It looks great! The red black and gold are a nice contrast. The name is appropriate as well.

[Robomog]

Thanks guys,  sorry forgot to mention that the markings are spurious, but you probably guessed that anyway

It's good when you get your modeling mojo back

Mog
>^-.-^<

[tankmodeler]

I like how well you integrated the zipper markings with the paint scheme. Came off really nicely.

[Robomog]

Thanks Tankmodeler, much appreciated

Mog
>^-.-^<