Designed as a single seat shipboard dive bomber, the LN.411 was initially flown in 1938 as the LN.40. Ordered for both the French Air Force as the LN 411 and the Navy as the LN 401, the Air Force cancelled their order in1939. They felt that the plane was too slow and too unwieldy for modern combat, so turned over all the planes it had to the Navy. These then joined the LN.401s in forming two Escadrilles; AB 2 and AB 4. Their first combat was on 19 May 1940 in which ten of the twenty attacking aircraft were shot down. Several other sorties were flown over the remainder of the war, all against Wehrmacht targets or on recce missions. After the capitulation of France, the 15 remaining aircraft flew to North Africa and were used by the Vichy Air Force. With the Germans over-running the factory, production ceased and was never re-instated.

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 When I first saw this plane in Azur's 1/72 line-up, I thought "Man, I hope that they do this in 1/48. This thing is so homely that it almost (and I mean almost) makes a Barracuda look good. I have to have one". Well, my hopes have been answered with this kit. It is the usual one expects of short run Czech kits and returns to having lots of resin and vacuformed canopies, though there are two provided as is typical of Azur kits.

The basic airframe, landing gear parts, and prop blades are in injected plastic, which is free from sink marks and with very little flash. It has very fine engraved detailing which looks like it can stand up to light sanding before it disappears. You will have to remove the ejector pin towers from all the large pieces, but this is normal for the genre. Thankfully, the entire lower wing is molded as one piece. This is a huge help as trying to assemble several wing sections to match the gull wing would have been a nightmare. There are no tabs, slots or alignment pins so you'll have to be careful when butt joining the tail planes. Resin is used for just about all the fine detailed stuff. This includes the complete cockpit, exhausts, main wheel wells, wing radiators, aileron and rudder hinges, guns and various antennas. You'll have to stretch some sprue for the gear door actuating rods.

Instructions are clear drawings showing where all the bits fit and basic color information is given. Decals are for two aircraft, both from May of 1940. The only difference is the fuselage markings. Both are in the standard scheme of the day with irregular splotches of dark blue grey, khaki and brown on the upper side and light blue grey undersides. No two schemes were alike so this should be fun for most of us to paint. Decals are by Propagteam and the blue looks properly dark. They are superbly printed and crisp. Typical of Propagteam, they'll also be very thin and need care when applying. Like the previous 1/48 Azur kit, the tail stripes are printed separately and are probably too wide, but time will tell on this one. Of course, you can opt to paint on the rudder stripes should you wish.

I'm looking forward to building this one. It will be headed to near the top of my build pile as I need a nice, ugly French plane in my collection. If it is like the VG.33 done last year, it should be a fairly good build.

Review kit courtesy of my kit collection.

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