SE Grognard II

by Mick Evans

images by Brett Green

Fonderie Miniature's 1/48 Grognard II is available online from Squadron.com

Fonderie Miniature’s 1/48 scale kit of the Grognard II continues this company's theme of esoteric French aircraft, following their release in of the Nord Griffon in both 1/72 and 1/48.

The kit contains 11 injection moulded plastic parts, 13 resin parts, 14 white metal parts, and 2 vacuum formed clear parts. The plastic parts are the usual rough soft grey plastic with lots of moulding flash. On the positive side, the parts are easily cleaned up and fit together very well. The Grognard was designed as a two seat ground attack aircraft with under/over engines like the E.E. Lightning. The prototypes were only ever fitted with one seat and this is represented in this kit.

The resin parts are crisply moulded in a very hard chalky resin. Included in the kit are resin moulded main and nose wheel wells with some very nice detail added. The accuracy of this detail I cannot make comment on, and most of the detail is hidden behind the closed main wheel doors when complete. There is some very nice detail included in the resin cockpit, instrument panel, ejection seat, and wheels.

You can follow this link to see my in-box review of the kit.

The retractable rocket pack did not match the fuselage contours and required careful trimming and sanding to achieve an acceptable look.

The fitting of the intake inlet was something of a challenge. The resin parts did not match the plastic cut out or vice versa. This required careful trimming and trial fitting, and a small length of duct was scratch built to prevent a see through effect.

The pen nib engine exhaust area was another challenge, as the area is so thin when cleaned up to fit, and requires superglue to achieve good adhesion.

The main build difficulty was with the canopy, it simply does not have the same contour along the fuselage. The fuselage angles upwards from the windscreen back along the canopy line, whereas the windscreen and canopy line is level. This required some careful over trimming, superglue, pressure and a reasonable result was achieved. Also, the canopy is not very clear but a quick dip in Future brought some clarity to the canopy. The frame lines are not very sharp and are difficult to mask.

Time must be also be spent in thinning down the fuselage in areas where components like the cockpit, wheel wells, and the rear engine bulkhead fits.

The metal legs are reasonably well detailed, but need some cleanup, and look good against the few photographs available, however the white metal doors have some serious sink marks that require filling and sanding. Resin may have been a better option.

Fonderie Miniature could still go a long way with some improvement to their instructions. These are still bereft of detail and leave a lot of interpretation to the modeller and in particular for this aircraft there was very little reference data available. Really, the Fonderie Miniature kits require a fairly high level of modelling experience to build. I can not comment on the accuracy of the details as there were no accurate line drawings available.

A lot of nose weight is required as this kit is a big tail sitter. Fortunately there is plenty of room in the nose area, and the metal undercarriage will support the extra weight.

The kit was sanded with various grades of wet and dry paper before being polished with steel wool.

The model was finished in Alclad Polished Aluminium over Alclad grey primer.

Fonderie Miniature is to be congratulated on covering a rare and quite odd looking aircraft with some intriguing innovations built into it.
 

Thanks to Squadron.com for the review sample.

Click the thumbnails below to view larger images:

Model and Text Copyright © 2004 by Mick Evans 
Images Copyright © 2004 by Brett Green
Page Created 22 January, 2004
Last Updated 17 March, 2004

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