SCALE MODEL AIRCRAFT

The Bernard 191GR known as the "Oiseau Canari" is the first French Aircraft to succeed a nonstop transatlantic flight, although with an American registration after refusal from the French government to give approval for that flight. Of course, when the three crewmen (Jean Assolant, Rene Lefebvre, Armand Lotti, with 22-year-old Arthur Schreiber, as a stowaway) completed their flight from Old Orchard beach, Massachusetts to Comillas beach, Spain on June 13, 1929, those French politicians were brave enough to validate the crossing and assign a French registration to the aircraft which is now preserved at the Paris Le Bourget Musee de l'Air.

The Bernard 191GR is a derivative from the Bernard 190T transport plane, featuring extra fuel tanks instead of cabin seats, and a 600 hp Hispano-Suiza 12Lb engine.

To carry out such a project in 1/72nd scale, I used two different kits:

• A resin kit with decals and detailed instructions by the long defunct producer Mach (nothing to do with Mach 2 and its injected plastic range) which I found on eBay,
• Another one which seems a straight copy of the former one by Vami Models from Belgium, the latter being still recently available I believe, however without decals nor instruction sheet.

Reference material is not so difficult to obtain as the real aircraft is still preserved. I had the opportunity to make my own walkaround page some years ago, which adds to some interesting stuff via Google Search and the following French publications:  

• Docavia #31 "Les Avions Bernard" (Bernard Aircraft)
• Docavia #9 "Records Francais de Distance" (French Distance Records)

I elected to use most of the Vami kit parts for construction as with very few bubbles and a better casting quality overall. However the wing was slightly warped and showing uneven thickness at some points, so the Mach kit's wing was retained although in two parts (top and bottom) instead of a single one (which by the way was the only difference between resin parts from one kit to another) but would anyway imply easier work.

Construction began by making the side windows and the interior. Mostly scratchbuilt items except for the basic seat structure. The floor and bulkheads were rebuilt in styrene sheet. As on the real aircraft, fuel tanks were made slightly wider at their base in order to provide a narrow  access from rear cabin to cockpit.

Joining fuselage halves showed a fair step behind the cockpit up to the stabilizer, which was remedied using styrene sheet and superglue.

Unsurprisingly the engine needed special care, mainly due to a fair amount of inlets and outlets, and all sorts of holes that one may notice on Hispano-Suiza engine cowlings including the classic 1/2/2/1 exhaust pipe configuration. Everything needed to be reworked or repaired with serious concern about those small triangle shaped inlets and outlets. Thanks to some fellow modellers tips, I rebuilt them by removing the resin in the areas to work, to replace it by Milliput.

While Milliput was beginning to cure, I printed the triangles using a small piece from the trailing edge of a Contrail aerofoil section which I had glued to the tip of a toothpick. Once the Milliput was "rock hard" as per instructions, everything was sanded smooth and flush.

After gluing wing and tail using a lot of superglue, cockpit components were then installed. The instruments come from a Mike Grant Decal sheet. The purpose of the crank was to operate the retractable radiator on the real aircraft.

Both the vac canopies provided by either kit were of poor quality and wrong as the top should be flat overall.

However it wasn't that difficult to scratchbuild a canopy as only to be made by flat panels, for which I used the same clear plastic as for side windows, first by cutting the top part and central windshield together to fold them the required angle and glue them in place. Some Future polish was applied to the internal sides prior to proceed, and Maskol was applied on the external sides, both actions in order to avoid superglue fumes deposits. The side panels were then cut out and glued in place, however without a perfect match as expected, but to be sanded to correct shape later on. Some scratches being inadvertently made on clean surfaces while sanding the edges, I had to sand smooth and polish every panel, proving useless the earlier Maskol treatment...

While sanding the edges another problem occured: Superglue (the very thin grade) had not set at some point of a joint, which allowed dust and debris to spread onto the internal side of a panel. Therefore I decided to clean it up from the interior by making a small hole at the bottom of the fuselage while using the vacuum cleaner to prevent more dust from spreading inside. Then I used the high technology precision tool one may see below, the tip of which being a Microbrush piece. The job was completed using a small piece of plastic and some superglue.

Masking the clear parts was the following step, with re-engraving of the access door which had been wiped out during flush sanding of the side windows. Engraving was done using a template made from styrene sheet. The template was stuck at the suitable position with a drop of superglue gel and was later separated by applying the tip of my twizzers between surfaces. A quick sanding then removed the small amount of dry superglue. Same process was done for the side doors ahead of the landing gear.

Prior to start painting process, some details were added on the upper wing central area, canopy, and landing gear chassis, using Contrail aerofoil sections, Evergreen styrene stuff, and items from the spares box. The bulbs on top of the canopy were cut from a Falcon 1/48 reco Spitfire vac canopy. 

A coat of "Insigna White" AS-20 Tamiya spray as primer was then applied, followed by TS-47 "Chrome Yellow". The engine area received a coat of TS-30 "Silver Leaf" directly without priming.

Because most of the Mach kit decals were either out of register or in the wrong color, only the tricolor stripes, Hispano-Suiza stork logo, and tail registration were used. Wing registration was home built using my old HP photosmart printer, and fin red lettering come from various origins including some from my friend Shinichi Miwa from Japan. Red lettering was a tedious job as letters had to be set one by one!

While waiting for the following Future coats to cure, a radiator was scratchbuilt from styrene sheet and corrugated aluminium tape which I had found in a japanese hobby shop some years ago. The exhaust pipes were made from Evergreen rod sections bent under warm water and painted with buffed humbrol metalizer (steel).

Except several errors and inaccuracies, this model represents the aircraft as flown on June 13, 1929 across the Atlantic, which means some differences with the currently preserved aircraft, such as exhaust pipes, landing gear oleo covers, and American registration.

Cheers!