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1/48 FONDERIE MINIATURE R5-HO3S1
Preview by Jean-Paul Poisseroux
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For a very brief historical introduction I'll say that this strange shaped chopper represents the pre-historical age in the vertical translation movement which started to interest the military authorities in the middle of '43 in the USA and can be considered as a visual validation of the post war II area.
All 1/48 modellers can now easily display the past, the present and the future (V-22), in a diorama.
This first original observation chopper became quickly
polyvalent and found various Corps such as the US Cost Guard in the Medevac role
with the addition of floats, winch and external carriers to carry a wounded
person on each side of the fuselage, a "MASH" in advance. The
success crossed the Atlantic and soon RAF, RN as well as the French navy
used it in various missions.
The
kit
In a light weight cardbox you'll discover 3 sprues of plastic, 23 photo etched parts on a fret, 14 white metal parts,1 resin,1 decal sheet and the instruction; amazingly it's few, but the chopper is simple too.
| SPRUE 1: Easy to recognize are the 6 blades along with seats with tubular rear frame in U square shape and 7 strips(4 + 3 spares) for reinforcement of the fuselage's forward belly, behind the front leg. Nothing to say, neat molding, just a little sanding on some areas. |
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| SPRUE 2: This is the more important sprue of this kit, with 26 parts. For the interior you will find the cabin floor, the 2 seats (in 5 parts), the control column, the rear bulkhead. For the exterior, you'll discover the complete main gear, the rotor's supports and the front "air intake" frame with louvers. Cleaning the parts is as easy as it was for the sprue above. |
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| SPRUE 3 : OH! surprise, this is a transparent one. Due to the numerous clear windows to install on the sides (sliding doors, and front nose), FM came up with a good idea to mold the fuselage halves in crisp transparent finely engraved parts, we'll only have to protect them before painting. Thanks for that, it will save too on gluing problems. On this sprue, only |
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| the front nose seems a little thick and this disadvantage could spur us to vac-u-form a new one over it. In all manners, a dip in Johnson Future "wax" will give these areas a "glass like" appearance. In reality the skin of this chopper looks like the Seaking with raised rivets. Here they are simulated with engraved panel lines. But I personally consider that as we work in the quarter-inch scale, at this distance we couldn't in fact see anything. |
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| (we are still caught up in this fashion of representing panels
with engraved lines, though they are invisible). |
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| The P/Etched fret (23 parts): No much to say here, you'll have to do your own dials to represent the dials on the instrument panel. This time the parts mumbers are indicated on the instructions, which will save me explanations! The resin part is for the vertical dashboard (see at the National Canadian Aviation Museum site for color pic). |
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| The WHITE METAL(14 parts): Keyed with a M on the plan, here they are: for the interior, the control power stick and support, the 2 rudder pedals. For the exterior; the front gear base, the winch system, the box for the rear rotor. TAKE CARE, on the instructions it is mentioned as Resin part, it's a minor error, it's in white Metal (see pic). BEAUTIFUL CASTING. |
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I enclose you the step by step instructions which reveal no problems in the construction. First you'll build the interior that you'll insert it in the fuselage (don't forget simple seatbelts!). The second sequence is the main rotor construction with some metal or sprue additions by yourself (diameter and length are noticed). The final is mainly for gears, rotors, winch, doors.
For markings, you can decorate your chopper with 2 USA machines and a French Navy chopper. One is for the US NAVY unit 14 on aircraft carrier Bataan in '52 and the other for the USMC squadron MAMS33 in the Sea of Japan in '50-53. Both Americans machines are glossy sea blue.
The French version is for a helicopter abroad the carrier ARROMANCHES of the Flotille 58S during Indochina war in '53-54. Glossy navy blue. The yellow outline on the roundel was not centered on my decal sheet. Remove it and slide a yellow disc under to solve this problem. Finally the instructions mentions decals for the Japanese navy that are for export market only. Another sign of quality for FM. In conclusion, I will recommend thiskit to you for its quality and for its historically important place in a collection. Thanks again Fonderie.
Jean-Paul
| Click on image below to see larger image | ||
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| Decals | Instruction sheet page 1 | Instruction sheet page 2 |
Photos and text © 2002 by Jean-Paul Poisseroux
