Hi everyone – work has been keeping me very busy of late, so here is my latest completion (my first in well over six months), the 1/48 Eduard Morane Saulnier Type N "Bullet".
This is the 8090 non-profipack kit, released 15 years ago back in 2004. The kit is quite an easy build (which is what I needed, having not really built much recently), but I did make a few adjustments and additions here and there. I added some RFC style seatbelts, wiring for instruments, some spare Lewis drums in the cockpit, a gaspatch Lewis gun, some external details here and there, strengthened the tailplane by replacing the elevator shaft with brass tube, and replaced the kit wheels (which are way too small) with Eduard after-market RFC-style wheels.
The markings came from the spares box. The kit was painted in the markings of A.175 of No 60 SQN, Royal Flying Corps. This was the machine in which the first Commanding Officer of 60 SQN, Major Francis “Ferdy” Waldron, was shot down and mortally wounded on 03 July 1916. The encounter is described thus in Alex Revell’s Osprey Book on 60 SQN RFC:
“On the morning of 3 July, ‘Ferdy’ Waldron led 5 bullets in a patrol to decoy attention away from NE 2cs attacking St Quentin. Lts J H Simpson and D V Armstrong fell out with engine trouble, but Waldron, Lt H H Balfour and Capt R R Smith-Barry flew on, above the Arras to Cambrai road. Approaching Cambrai, a formation of enemy two seaters, led by a Fokker E Type was seen, followed by two additional Fokker monoplanes, bringing the number of enemy machines to around a dozen. Undeterred by these odds, Waldron immediately led Balfour and Smith-Barry in an attack. Harrold Balfour later wrote: ‘I’m sure they were not contemplating war at all but Ferdy pointed us towards them and led us straight in. My next impressions were rather mixed. I seemed to be surrounded by Huns in two-seaters’. Waldron was outmanoeuvred and attacked by a two seater, flown by Uffz Howe of FA5b. Balfour saw that his CO was in trouble and succeeded in driving off the enemy, but the damage was done. Waldron had been badly wounded, and although he managed to crash land his damaged Morane behind enemy lines, he died of his wounds that night”.Indeed a brave chap, who suffered the same fate as many who courageously faced enormous odds in combat above the front lines.
Anyways, here are some pictures:
All in all, not my best build but certainly good to finally get a run on the board for 2021. All feedback welcomed as always!
Cheers,
Brad
