Assembling the fuselage. Hint: Use ultra-thin Cyanoacryllate glue
Cabine intrerior. Paint it before installing, dont forget to paint cabine inseide near to pilots’ door. If canopy doesn’t fit correctly, cut and sand as mentioned on last picture
I prefer a clear canopy. Although it’s not perfectly transparent, I think it’s more than adequate for this scale.
While the putty on the fuselage is drying, I’m assembling the trolley. It consists of eleven parts and goes together quite quickly. There are no tricks to it.
Let’s attach a tail to our birdie!
It’s time for the wings! Please note that the trailing edges are very thin, so I recommend protecting them before starting work—for example, as I did (see photo below). The wings are quite heavy, and to position them correctly and prevent sagging in the future, I’ve included a steel rod in the set.
Test primer coat. Most of the seams turned out perfect. Just a bit of filler is needed at the wing-to-fuselage joints. I masked the cockpit windows using Microscale Micro Mask, but it creates a very thin film that is difficult to remove later. I decided to try this method – I glued small pieces of wood on top of the mask so that I could later use tweezers to pull off the entire film by gripping the wood pieces. Let’s see how it works.
Let’s begin painting works! Motors were the first. I decided to build “Lionel de Marmier” – F-BANT registration in Light-Green-Blue color scheme. Each motor consists of 4 details. UPDATE: After finishing paint job decided to open my own manual and realised, that motors should be in Aluminium color. Will repaint them later!
Here comes my favorite little Carriage and floaters. Carriage consists of 11 details and floaters of 3
Blue whale is ready for weathering. I prefer not to weather the model too heavily, as it was a prestigious transatlantic liner, and its appearance would have been meticulously maintained.
Adding some weathering to my Latecoere 631.
The process is moving very slowly – holidays, family time, bathroom renovations, and work on the Cant Z511. At the same time, I’m improving my skills: following numerous recommendations, I’ve started making vac-formed canopies (which will now be included in the kit instead of a clear resin canopy). I’ve also developed masks for these canopies, which can be printed directly onto masking tape adhered to paper (make sure to cover it with clear tape afterward to protect the print).
Decal Time! Have put them on Tamiya’s Mark Fit and got more than satisfied with result.
So, consider it DONE! The first model by RareBirdModels in home collection of RareBirdModels owner:) Mighty and extremely beatiful Latecoere 631 in 1/144 will land on my models’ shelf. It is Open Doors version in F-BANT registration in colors of early Air France, it had its own name – Lionel de Marmier.
More pictures here: