Vintage French Hydroplane

[Thumb Dog]

Hi All,

Well, the ice is out on many of our Minnesota lakes, so it’s time to start thinking about throwing in the dock and greasing up the lower unit on the outboard. But before all that, I just had to finish a paper model or two.

The photographs below show an interesting model that I received late last month from fellow Papermodelers member Tom Greensfelder. It depicts a small, French hydroplane called, Hors-Bords de Course, or Racing Outboard. Tom believes it to be unique in his collection of vintage paper models as it’s his only boat model that sports a three-dimensional outboard motor hanging off the stern.

Published by Editions du Pélican Blanc, Paris, the model dates from the summer of 1941. That puts it right in the middle of the German occupation of France during World War II. Surprisingly, the colorful model is beautifully drawn and finely printed on quality paper. At the time, anything printed by a French publisher needed to be approved by the administration of the occupying army, and when the model was found to be free of anti-German propaganda or a call to resistance, it was allowed to be published and distributed. Maybe it was believed that a population engaged in quiet, homebound hobbies was preferable to one planning an armed insurrection.

After receiving the scan from Tom, I enlarged all the parts in my computer so my model would be larger than if I had just printed the whole model on one sheet of 8 ½” X 11” cardstock. After quickly building a test model out of 110 lb. card, the lengthened hydroplane measured a little over 8 ½ inches long. It was a tough model to build, as mating the deck to the hull sides took some trial and a few errors. A successful deck was ultimately created by laminating each fore and aft deck half to a separate piece of 110 lb. cardstock. To impart the necessary curve to the parts, I taped the wet laminations to the side of a plastic, one gallon paint can. Once dry, the two curved pieces were cut to the line and joined together by a paper tab. The stiffened deck created a strong backbone for the rest of the model.

The highlight of the boat is of course the outboard motor. It bears a resemblance to an early 1930s Johnson or Evinrude twin cylinder motor of about 20 horsepower. Adding to its unique paper construction, it is also a rare, waterline model of an outboard motor, missing its propeller, skeg and cavitation plates. The motor came with a tiller attached to the mounting bracket, but I removed it as a hydroplane’s motor isn’t to be steered by a tiller but rather by a steering wheel. Most hydroplane racers remove their motor’s tiller as its constant swinging back and forth during a race would just get in the way.

The red seat in the aft end of the cockpit may not be prototypical, as the pilots of these small vessels were usually found hunched forward in the cockpit, kneeling on their knees. And the designer left a few things off the drawing, too, such as a throttle quadrant and a fuel tank. But all in all, the finished hydro presents as an attractive and quite different boat model

In fact, the boat’s so nice, I built it twice. My friends Ron and Bob are both ardent collectors of toy outboard motors, and I’m pretty sure they don’t have anything like this in their collections. Thanks to Tom Greensfelder for the scan.

Score and fold,

Thumb Dog

[papermodelfan]

Thanks for sharing your build. It came out super well. Very fancy. The Ingenias were usually modeled on something real and part of French popular culture. Was this a specific and illustrious craft, do you suppose?




Here is one for the historians among us to puzzle over This is published under the Ingenia Imprint and designed by Jean des Gachons, who designed many other Ingenia models before during and after the war. His signature is bottom right under the drawing, along with '41. Other intrawar Ingenia models included allied aircraft and warships, (like the Dewoitine 520, Breguet 690, P-38, Thunderbolt, B-29, the cruiser Richelieu) that would not have been permitted by the Nazi occupation. It is a puzzle how they did this - were they publishing them from Britain? From North Africa? Underground paper models??

[rockpaperscissor]

Beautifully done, as always. I wonder what the story is for the strange looking identification number: F-1?

[Thumb Dog]

Hi All,

And thanks papermodelfan and rockpeperscissor. Rob, I did try looking up prewar French hydroplane racing, but I didn't get very far, so I haven't found any history on this particular boat. As far as where the Ingenia models were printed, I can't say with certainty. However, I'd listen to an argument that they continued to be published in France throughout the war. The Germans themselves famously printed their own paper models of the enemy's tanks, aircraft and so fourth to serve as recognition models and a quiet pastime for their own troops. Why not let the French do the same, under a watchful eye. It's interesting to note that the hydroplane model will be 80 years old in a matter of months. Our father's war was so long ago, wasn't it.

And thanks for the full name of the designer, Jean des Gachons. I couldn't make out his scrawl on the model itself.

And Don, I think we have a new Laurel/Yanny conundrum. While you may see a question mark, I usually see it as the number 2. And some might see it as a number nine. I've seen it before, usually on vintage European race cars. I've attached a photograph of a Bentley with the number in question.

P.S. I always heard Laurel.

Score and fold,

Thumb Dog

[Rubenandres77]

That looks really nice. A pretty model.
And thanks too for all the information!

[missileer]

Boys and girls,

That is what I love about this forum. Someone posts a very simple model and it suddenly becomes a truly fascinating history discussion! Thanks much, for the model and the history lesson.

John

[whulsey]

The particular Bentley you shown is Old No. 2
Bentley Speed Six ‘Old No 2’, chassis number HM2868, is one of the finest and most original works Bentleys in existence today. It formed part of a now-famous trio know as Old No.1, 2 and 3.
Old No. 2 was built by Bentley specifically to compete in the iconic and commercially important 1930 Le Mans race in which, driven by Bentley Boys Dick Watney and Frank Clement, it came second, behind stable mate ‘Old No 1’.

[wireandpaper]

thank you for sharing!

[Madbrit]

After seeing Rob Tauxe's reply in which he identified the model designer, Jean des Gashons, I hied myself into the stacks to pull out an as yet unbuilt Ingenia kit, Chateau de Coucy, to see if the designer had a credit . Inded. Rene Schambert and the year was 1950. Lynn, my wife, bought it for me in 1979. Now I'm curious...when did Ingenia cease publication ?

Derek

[papermodelfan]

Hello Madbrit. There is not a lot of documentation. It has been a challenge to find anything written at all about the company. What I have learned comes through haunting eBay. Ingenia's first model (published with a big #1 on the cover) was a trimotor that first flew in 1934 - the Wibault-Penhoet Type 282, designed by Emile A Schefer. Jean des Gaschons was designing by 1941, when he drew perhaps a dozen intrawar models, and then continued with the SS France in1962, and a DC8 in 1963. Rene and Marg Schambert did a number of the architectural models after WW2. The last Ingenia model I have heard of was the Concorde SST, published in 1971 (designer unknown to me). Cheers, and good luck with the Chateau de Coucy. Hope you can share the results of the build here.