1:48 FA 223E-0

An airframe with two rotors

While elsewhere they were still trying to keep a single-rotor machine in the air, this one had two rotors, each on a tubular outrigger at the side of the fuselage. The arrangement freed the designers from worrying about balancing the torque and brought a load capacity unheard of at the start of the 1940s: it carried cargo under its belly, rescued people from the mountains, and towing was tried with it as well. Only a few dozen were built and most ended in air raids. One of the surviving examples, however, went into the history books in 1945 as the first helicopter to cross the Channel between the continent and Britain. The flight lasted just under two hours and the crew made it in a machine the technicians had first had to put together from several wrecks.

Contents

The cockpit is masked from both sides and the envelope also holds the outline of one national insignia. The cut follows the moldings of Special Hobby.

Film on doubly curved glass

The glazed cockpit of this machine bends on two axes at once, and a flat mask will not lie on a shape like that without help; it either ripples or lifts at a corner. Work from the center out to the edges, press down with a wooden toothpick and do not hurry. If the edge wrinkles anyway, notch it with fine cuts at right angles to the rim and let the segments overlap slightly; spraying straight down from above will not creep under the joint. Before painting it also pays to go around the whole perimeter with the tip of the toothpick and press again; the warmth of your hand has softened the adhesive in the meantime and the film settles a good deal better.