1:48 French Bomber Pilot and Gunner

The crew of a French bomber

The pair of figures represents the pilot and the gunner of a French bomber aircraft from the end of the 1930s and the beginning of the 1940s. Crews of that time flew in padded flight suits, leather helmets with goggles and life vests, because the cabins were not heated and the gunner's positions were drafty at any altitude.

With this subject the gunner is a figure in his own right. In many French types he manned a turret or a ventral position, had to keep shifting about in a tight space, and his stance therefore differs strikingly from the pilot's. It is precisely this difference that makes the pair interesting outside the cabin too, for instance beside an aircraft parked on the flight line.

Why add a figure to a model

A human figure is the simplest way to give a model a sense of scale. A person one hundred seventy-five centimeters tall is roughly thirty-six millimeters in 1:48, so next to him the viewer gauges the real size of the aircraft at once. Without a figure, even a large bomber looks like a small toy in a photograph.

When painting, work from the darkest shades toward the lightest and leave the face right to the end. A flight suit will take coarser transitions and drybrushing suits it, but the eyes, the hands and the straps decide whether the figure looks alive or like a plastic dummy.

What you will find in the package

Two unpainted figures for 1:48 are supplied. The aircraft, the paints and a base are not included and the modeler buys them separately, according to the scene the crew is meant to go into. The figures can be used beside a parked machine on the flight line as well, where a pair in conversation brings an otherwise static scene to life.