Halinski 1:33 Morane Saulnier 406 C1 [Fertig/ done]

This is how I started working on the cockpit floor of the Morane Saulnier today; I guess almost any Halinski airplane model starts in this identical way, but the proof is there now: work is in progress!

Thank you guys!

I travelled a lot during the last few weeks and there was very little time for the Morane Saulnier... but I still made some nice progress on the center fuselage section and the cockpit frame with even the first dials:

Cockpit interior with pilot seat, safety belts, (glazed) instrument panel, flight stick, pedals and other controls are now in place.
Next steps will be: adding rear section of cockpit as part of the fuselage and inner skin of center fuselage section.
It is not easy at all, but I love the precision of this model.

Nice to see you interested, guys!
Well, I can already show you a new picture: the rear part of the cockpit being an integrated part of the fuselage, it had to be built in a very early stage.
Constructing the cockpit from an inner and outer skin with the glazing in between is a very tricky business: one moment of inattention and your window is spoiled.... this time however it all went as I had wished.
At the rear you can see the perspex tabs that rest on the rear former. These tabs are part of the cockpit glazing and permit a perfect continuation towards the next part of the fuselage skin. What a wonderful solution!

...inner skin of center fuselage section in place and ready to receive outer skin...

...and outer skin with beautifully weathered green, brown and blue camouflage:

I still found some time and added the rear fuselage and vertical stabilizer frame section. I sanded parts W3dL and W3dP as carefully as I could to give them the right shape...

I worked a lot on the rear fuselage section (for those of you who own a copy: I choose to build the version with the 'real' frame cover instead of the 'printed on' version) -and managed to hide some imperfections that were certainly caused by insufficient preparation of the frame: I should probably have sanded a little more to make the total diameter of certain parts of the frame smaller and thus making the skin parts fit better yet... But the total aspect satisfies me enough. N.B.: none of the 'weared out' traces on the skin were created by me; they are originally printed on the model!
I will try to do some research on all the texts and numbers on the fuselage and tail parts - I will soon let you know what I found on that matter. On this picture the hinges on the rear of the vertical stabilizer are ready to receive the rudder:

You will certainly agree that the beautifully colored (movable) rudder adds a lot to the total aspect of the model...
I promised you some research; well, here is what I found (and please correct me if your a specialist on the matter!):
On the rudder, MS of course means Morane Saulnier, 406 the type of aircraft and C1 the current version of the 406. No. 691 is the aircraft production number. I found that a total of about 1080 aircraft of this type were built). PT, PE, PC and PD indicate different weights, PT = poids total/total weight etc. Essence and Huile indicate the amounts of fuel and oil. (I suppose that the corresponding numbers for weights, fuel and oil were written behind it in chalk or something?)
On the vertical stabilizer: 12 means aircraft number 12 of the squadron to which it belonged. SNCAO is the aircraft factory where it was built: "Société nationale des constructions aéronautiques de l'ouest"; it was a French aircraft manufacturer, which originated on November 16, 1936, from the merger of the factories of Breguet in Bouquenais, and Loire-Nieuport in St Nazaire and Issy-les-Moulineaux. Bouquenais: a small town near Nantes, France, were the factory was located.
On the fuselage is the emblem showing a stork with the wings down, belonging to the SPA 3 squadron. Together with the SPA 103 (a stork with the wings upwards) they formed together the"Groupe de chasse I/2", created in 1933. These two squadrons were amongst the most famous ones of the french airforce.
You see, I did my homework...

Now it is up to you to find out the rest:
- what is the meaning of "Renée"? Was it the name of the pilots girlfriend or wife? Was it a name indicating the stork? I don't know.
- what is the meaning of "VJTE" behind the cockpit? Again: I have no idea. Do you?

I just finished the construction of the complete wing frame. The blue-gray 'box' inside the center wing frame on the upside down picture has nothing to do with the landing gear; it is the location for the radiator when retracted. I presume that, in flight, the radiator was lowered to 'catch' the airflow.

The glass spotlight under the left wing had to be built in at this stage. Locations for the landing gear when retracted will also be added before wings are 'closed'.

Two pictures showing top and bottom view of complete wing construction. This certainly is not the easiest step... the landing gear boxes will not fit into the frame unless you work very, very precisely...

Fuselage and wing joined together. I tried to put the model in the same position as the picture on the front page, to make the two identical planes fly in formation :]:

Nice to see how closely you follow this thread, guys.

By the way: did anybody who built or studied this model notice this (very tiny!) error. (If I am wrong, please let me know -this is my first Halinski model...):
In the slots in part W1g (indicated by an oval) the vertical part is already "occupied" (by part W1f). Therefore, in my opinion, the tabs on W10eL/W10eP should be modified as shown on my picture. Am I right?

The oil cooler in the nose of the aircraft can optionally be built "in 3D" from 20 parts and of course 8) that is what I did (a). Therefore the grey field in the nose frame (b) and the printed on version (c) must be removed:

Nose frame in place with oil cooler (a), locations for engine exhausts (b) and modified tabs (c):

The nose is ready and I think it is looking elegant and great, but...what you can not see is that I really had a lot of trouble building it: the indicated section of the nose frame was absolutely too large (or the skin parts too small) to be covered properly. I had worked very precisely when building this frame and I really don't understand why things did not fit properly. Anyway I had to remove lots of material and slightly adapted some nose skin parts plus the oil cooler. All this was not easy at all because the different shapes of the nose of this aircraft are rather complicated, but in spite of all this I am satisfied about the final result. Next: joints between fuselage and wings and horizontal stabilizers and elevators!

Now before leaving you for some days of sun and delight, let me show you how my model looks right now after adding the parts that fill the gap between the fuselage and the wing... These parts are so incredibly exact and fit so precisely that even when looking closely it is hard to distinguish between what was printed on and what was cut out...

Yesss....: I am back, and ready to show you the finished tail section with horizontal stabilizers and elevators:

The remaining cockpit parts, difficult to build without spoiling the perspex parts, fitted perfectly. The 'glass' surfaces are so large that all of the details inside the cabin remain visible:

Thank you, Dustin, for your kind words!

I just finished the radiator. On this next picture, showing the Morane Saulnier in a rather spectacular position, the radiator section in lowered position is clearly visible under the fuselage:

The landing gear, with nicely detailed folding mechanism, under construction:

Very interesting, this story about the missing or wrong slots and tabs! I will be prepared for it when I will start my next Halinski model. It shows that nothing is really perfect. And yes, these models are a puzzle... But what a beautiful one and what a joy once you have found the clue =)

It took me hours of sanding to give the tires the right shape... but I can now smell the rubber =):