Airfix Model World – July 2018

ADVANCED BUILD

FARMAN F.190

ADVANCED BUILD

FARMAN F.190

58 Airfi x Model World

golden age gaul

ADVANCED BUILD

FARMAN F.190

golden age golden age gaulgaul

b

etween the wars is a

somewhat neglected era

in the aircraft modelling

world...its civilian subjects

even more so.

Add French origins, and SBS

Model’s Farman F.190 can

genuinely be classified as an

esoteric subject, but one that

falls firmly within my range of

interests. Packaged in a small,

sturdy box, the kit impressed

immediately with the quality of

its presentation: a full colour

paint/decal guide, large decal

sheet, separately bagged

photo-etched (PE) metal fret

and white metal components,

well-illustrated instructions and

several bags of resin parts. The

casting quality of the latter was

superb, with flawless surfaces

and sharp detail devoid of any air

bubbles. And while many resin kit

manufacturers provide vacuum-

formed clear parts, SBS opted for

clear resin, which makes them as

easy to work with and install as

injection-moulded parts.

Modellers’ block

The first stage in building the

Farman was to remove the parts

from their resin casting blocks.

SBS engineered the parts with

great forethought to make this

as straightforward as possible,

some parts requiring just a few

scalpel cuts to separate them.

The fuselage halves were not

attached to blocks but had a

ridge of resin that required

removal by sanding. My failure to

remove all of this excess evenly,

along the full length of each half,

led to some minor issues later in

the build, such as the canopy not

fitting as well as it should have;

Mike Grant

celebrates the

pioneering

period of

aviation with

SBS Model’s

sublime

Farman F.190

 The wings exhibited fine trailing edges, subtle ribbing and sharply defined fuel tank detail.

 Arctic Decals’ ARC72-FR04 provided die-cut vinyl masks and chromed rims for the

circular windows, but unfortunately no canopy mask.