Azur 1/72 Fleet 10G

The Consolidated line of trainers were widely used in the US as the PT-1/3/11 or the NY-1/2/3. They were also operated as the O-17 by the National Guard. Fleet, which at the time was a subsidiary of Consolidated Aircraft, built several of the aircraft for export. They were sold to Canada as the Fleet Fawn and Finch, to Portugal, Romania and to China. By 1931, Romania impressed into service 20 Fleet 10Gs, powered by either Gypsy or Gypsy Major engines.

More than 330 additional aircraft were built under license by three of Romania's major aircraft builders; IAR, SET, and ICAR. The Fleet 10G was used for initial training, liaison, and courier duties. Some were allocated to headquarters of infantry divisions and other Romanian Army units. During WWII, any civilian aircraft were also impressed into service.

When I first opened the box I wondered where the kit was. It is quite small and takes up only a fraction of the space inside what is a standard size box for Azur. There are two sprues along with two resin bits and two sets of vacuformed windscreens. The resin parts are control sticks for the understandably basic interior. The kit does have sidewall detail in terms of framework. There are also two seats, two instrument panels and a floor to insert in between the fuselage halves. I should point out at this juncture that no interior color information is provided so one is left to one's own devices to figure that one out. One must also make a tail skid from wire.

Thanks to the low parts count, building this one should not take very much time once one cleans up the parts. I found some slight mold misalignment in a few parts and others show a tiny bit of flash, but this is pretty well standard for short run kits. As a single bay biplane, this one will not tax the rigging skills of even the newest rigger. There is a forward view to help and one can also use the box art and painting guide to fill in the blanks.

Instructions are well done aside from the lack of interior color information. Markings are provided for three planes that are all painted the same. In this case it is dark green over light blue with yellow fuselage band and lower wingtips on the bottom wing. The three unit options are a pair of training unit planes plus one that was impressed into service and retains its civil codes. The back of the box duplicates much of the color and markings pages in full color. The small decal sheet is well printed and should provide no surprises.

It is nice to see these more unusual aircraft being released. Trainer and liaison aircraft are frequently overlooked by kit makers and yet they were as important to the war effort as fighters and bombers. This one looks very nice and should provide for a most interesting build.

Kit instructions

October 2008

You can get this beauty and many others at GreatModels

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