S.E. 535 Mistral

Azur FRROM, 1/72 scale

Reviewed by Graham Carter

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After WWII the French aviation industry was in a pretty parlous state and, despite some innovative designs pre- and during the war, it was relying on the production of older designs often of German origin, such as the Nord Criquet ( Feisler Storch).

The major manufacturer SNCASE, also undertook licensed production of some British aircraft, among them the dH Vampire, 197 of which were built for the Armee de l’Air. Powered by the original Goblin engine the petite jet did not have the a lot of “oomph” so the French installed the more powerful Nene and used British research into intake designs to upgrade the fuselage with reshaped intakes and a slight bulge over the larger engine to produce a more potent aeroplane, renamed the Mistral.

The first 97 were designated SE532 and had the early Vampire’s fixed bucket seat, but the remaining 250-odd planes had ejector seats, and many of the first batch were re-seated at major service intervals. The new aircraft were re-designated SE535.

The Armee de l’Air used them as fighters and, later as trainers from 1952 until the early 60s, mainly in policing French North African territories. Besides the four fixed nose 20mm cannon the aircraft were able to carry 8 rockets, or two 450kg bombs or two 454li fuel tanks under the wings.

Reference : the Internet and kit instruction sheet.

Several Vampire kits have appeared over the years, starting with the simple FROG one of the 1970s, also recently by Revell, the Heller Vampire and Mistral kits ( I’m not sure if they included the modifications to do the Mistral but suspect they did) as well as a batch of early variants from AModel, and some gorgeous resin representations from CMK. More recently Special Hobby have given us a series of Vampires and it is this that forms the basis for the Azure-Frrom kit.

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Thumbnail panels:

The kit comes in the usual small flimsy end-opening box with a reasonable picture on the top and colour schemes for the decal examples on the rear. It consists of three pale grey sprues, a set of clear transparencies, a resin ejector seat, decals in their own sleeve, and a 12-page colour A5 instruction booklet, the last three pages being a catalogue of A-F kits. There is no sign of any flash or seam lines on the parts and all panels and details are beautifully done, as we would expect from SH.

Mind you, the Vampire family had wooden fuselages so should not have any panel lines anyway, just like the Mosquito and WWI Albatros. No panel enhancement required here please! Being a short-run kit, there are no locating pins or holes so due care should be taken.

To produce the Mistral variant, an extra small sprue has been included for the new intakes and bulged fuselage top. Interestingly the review sample was accompanied by a letter from Giles Fontaine of Azure mentioning the inclusion of a new bulged fuselage belly, clearly incorrect when you see the sprues and perhaps a translation error.

The fuselage interior is adequately furnished for this scale with an especially nice treatment of the engine face visible through the intakes, and the exhaust looks great.

The seat is a lovely resin piece, instruments are decals and the cockpit should look very nice with the open canopy, as provided.

All colours are called out throughout the construction steps in Gunze names/numbers. No nose weight is mentioned but the modeller should try to jam in as much as possible - this aircraft is a renowned tail-sitter! Speaking of which, there are three different noses included in the kit, differing ever so slightly for each variant that can be built from these moulds.

Undercarriage is nicely detailed and the nose-wheel is in two halves to represent the anti-shimmy grooved tyre. Wheel bays and struts are neatly done. Wingtips cater for the short and long span wings in clear plastic so that the lights can be shown.

Colours & Markings

Decals are provided for three aircraft as illustrated on the box rear and in more detailed four-view colour drawings in the instructions booklet which also includes a detailed plan for the multitude of tiny stencils - all 62 of them!

Density and colour look spot-on.

The aircraft are all a dull doped aluminium (not natural metal ) and are:

• No. 82, 8 - PB of EC1/8 Mahgreb, Morocco, in 1957, with red trim

• No. 145, 7 -BC of 7CEC, Algeria 1958 with yellow trim, and

• No. 64, 20 - LF of EC1/20 Ouarsems, Algeria 1959, no special markings.

I am sure that either Azure or SH will produce a kit of the naval version of the Mistral which appeared in overall deep blue.

These Azur FRROM kits enhance the basic Special Hobby kits by adding something new and different to produce a nicely moulded, well-detailed kit. A good standard Vampire Mk3 or 5 can be produced from the parts in the box, although you would have to dig out your own decals.

Thanks to Azur FRROM for the review sample.

Review Text & Images Copyright © 2018 by Graham Carter
Page Created 14 February, 2019
Last updated 14 February, 2019

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