Aero MB-200

[ricleite]

This plane is a quite a monster, much larger than my more usual plane subjects! MPM has a certain taste for odd subjects. Well, I consider a French bomber from the early thirties an odd subject. The kit models the Czechoslovak version of the original Bloch MB-200. I got a copy some time ago, from Answer, and liked it so much that it made the way to my workbench just after the Mirage 2000.
The kit is in A3 format. It includes 10 pages with 1313 parts, cover, but just two pages of assembly diagrams! Not a lot for such a complex subject. It is not as problematic as it looks because simple assembly sketches are spread along the pages. Anyway, there is some room for improvement in this respect.
I got the plastic canopies and the laser cut set, too. As you can see in picture C05, the laser cut set did not arrive in perfect conditions. Fortunately, the damage does not affect the larger parts and I hope that it will not be a problem.
The number of parts is impressive but most of them should not take so much time to process. If all goes well, I’ll have to find a large space in my plane showcase sooner than later…

[Michael Mash]

I like this kind of aircraft.
Looking forward to watching to build it.

[gomidefilho]

Very nice! I build Der Kampfflieger version in 1/100 is a "beautiful" ugly plane.

[Isaac]

Those interwar bombers were very interesting.


Looking forward to your build


Isaac

[ricleite]

Welcome aboard

Radial engines always take many parts, even when they are modelled in a simple way, as is the case here.

[Don Boose]

As always, beautiful clean work on the engines. The MB-200 was a wonderfully fomby old airplane.

Don

[Butelczynski]

I tried bribing/begging author of this model for 1:50 simplified version and got nowhere. Too bad because it was at one time very modern bomber.

[Siwi]

If you are interested in the history behind these types and why French bombers looked so weird (short summary; it was a result of French doctrine trying to invent multi-role aircraft about 40 years early), Rex's Hanger channel has some deep dive videos about them.

[ricleite]

@ Don – The plane is so ugly that it should make an interesting model
@ Butelczynski – Maybe you can scan and shrink the pages, if you prefer a smaller scale. Many parts can be regarded as optional and not used on a smaller scale. However, I think that it would be a pity to discard those details.
@ Siwi – thanks for the tip! There are several subjects in the same class, well worth a kit. I have a few books from Flying Machines Press about old French planes (WWI, mainly). Lots of interesting stuff, there!
Strangely enough, the back part of the cowlings was far too short. I added about one cm, taken from coloured bits of paper that will not be used. The colour difference is visible, but I hope that it be “lost” in the completed model. There is a lack of tabs for the tabs in the front of the cowling. I added them and they will get hidden with the engines in place.

[ricleite]

Today’s pictures show the engine exhausts. I had to discard the thinner pipes, as they were much too thin to fill the emplacements marked on the cylinders and the larger diameter collector pipes. Those ones are made of several sections. I inserted rolled paper bits to ease the assembly. They fit well. It was not necessary to force anything to get the desired shape.
The exhausts point downwards but also to the sides, which is not correct.