SNCASO Griffon II

Fonderie Miniatures 1/48

Built and Reviewed by Mick Evans

Fonderie Miniature's 1/48 scale SNCASO Griffon II is available online from Squadron.com

This is the first kit in 1/48 scale Nord Griffon to my knowledge.

Fonderie Miniatures' kit of the Griffon is an excellent rendition of the experimental aircraft. The kit continues the improvement in both resin and plastic moulding by Fonderie Miniature.

The kit contains 19 injection moulded plastic parts, 9 resin parts, 18 white metal. 2 vacuum formed clear parts, and 24 etched metal parts.

The plastic parts are the usual soft grey plastic with very little moulding flash. The plastic parts are extremely detailed for a limited run injection moulded kit.

Resin parts are crisply moulded in a light grey soft resin. The wheel wells, cockpit and main wheel doors have some really nice detail moulded in.

White metal parts are cleanly moulded and quite detailed, in particular the ejection seat.

My only criticism is of the clear canopy. It has no mould lines or even a template for the small windows on the canopy. This may have something to do with fact that the later test flights had a clear canopy and not a solid canopy with small view windows, but nothing is mentioned on the instruction seats.

Click the thumbnails below to view larger images:

Fonderie Miniature could still improve the instructions as these have always been bereft of detail and leave a lot of interpretation to the modeler. When I built Fonderie Miniatures 1/72 scale kit of the Griffon, I managed to get some good reference from various web sites to fill in some detail on the aircraft.

The big plus for the 1/48 scale kit over the 1/72 scale kit is the vast improvement in surface detail, the separate air brakes, cockpit, and the wheel wells. The detail in the wheel wells and cockpit is great, considering that there is not much reference detail around.

Overall Fonderie Miniature is to be congratulated on covering a rare aircraft that was the foundation for the French experiment into engines and supersonic flight. Bring on more kits Fonderie Miniatures, the improvement in detail and moulding is almost beyond belief.

Highly Recommended for experienced modellers

Thanks to Squadron.com for the review sample.

Model, Review and Images Copyright © 2003 by Mick Evans
Page Created 01 August, 2003
Last updated 15 August, 2003

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