1:48 Mignet Flying Flea (G-AEEH)

Mignet Flying Flea, a resin kit in 1:48

LACI has rendered Henri Mignet's tiny aircraft as a resin kit for experienced modelers. The registration given in the name refers to one particular British-registered machine, so the model does not stop at the general type but aims at a single surviving example.

The flea that stirred up the 1930s

The design designated HM.14 and nicknamed Pou du Ciel, the Sky Louse, had two lifting surfaces one behind the other and was meant to be built at home even by an enthusiast with no aeronautical training. Mignet's manual set off a wave of amateur building in France and in the British Isles in the middle of the 1930s. After a series of accidents that revealed dangerous behavior in pitch came wind tunnel tests and changes to the arrangement of the surfaces. The surviving examples are popular exhibits in aviation collections today.

Working with resin

First wash the parts free of remnants of the mold release agent, otherwise neither primer nor paint will hold on them. Cut the casting blocks off with a saw or a knife rather than breaking them, and level the surfaces with a file. The parts are joined with cyanoacrylate; when sanding, use respiratory protection and work wet if you can. Check the fine struts against the drawing beforehand; slightly warped castings can be straightened by careful warming.

Who it suits

• modelers with experience of resin castings
• collectors of interwar amateur designs
• lovers of unusual shapes and small machines
• builders of one particular surviving aircraft

It is supplied as a resin kit, unassembled and unpainted; glue and paints are not enclosed.