1/72 Hasegawa Dewoitine D-520

by Eric Bade

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Hasegawa produced a nice little model of the Dewoitine D-520, the best French fighter of World War 2. This little fighter had good overall qualities but never was produced in sufficient numbers. Despite good records, its pilots were not able to change the course of the air war over France.

After the surrender of France, some aircraft flew in German and Italian colours.

I decided to model a French fighter before the Vichy days.

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Photo 3 Photo 4

Photo 5

Building 

That is a very nice little kit that builds quite easily. As most Hasegawa 72nd scale models of WW2 fighters the kit boasts nice engraved panel lines and sharp moulding but lacks details, particularly in the cockpit area.

I therefore scratch built the little cockpit using Tamiya masking tape, stretched sprue and plastic card. I also used dials from a generic reheat photo-etched part set to make the instrument panel (see photo 2).

Once completed, I painted the cockpit with Gunze paint. Overall colour is dark night blue for the area. Details are various colours including touches of black, brown, grey, red and yellow (see photo 3). 

My cockpit was enclosed in fuselage halves. From then construction is very straightforward. Kit is small and very few, if any, filling or sanding was necessary

Photo 2

Painting 

After my fuselage was built up and all surfaces were smoothed it was time to paint the little kit. I used my usual mix of Gunze paints. It seems right to me and I prefer this mix than the one that Hasegawa instructs on their instruction sheet. 

Chart of paints follows – based on Gunze paints :

  • Gris bleu clair (light greyish blue – under surfaces) : 85% H67 + 15% H11

  • Kaki (French Khaki) : 90% H80 + 10% H329

  • Ombre calcinée (Burnt shadow = Dark Brown) : 85% H84 + 15% H333

  • Gris bleu foncé (dark greyish blue – upper surfaces) : 85% H56 + 15% H325

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Once painting was completed I used kit decals. Only as my kit was the "D-520 in Vichy markings" boxing and I wanted a plain French Air Force aircraft before the Vichy surrender I simply discarded all yellow or red special Vichy markings.

I believe Vichy colours simply were applied over normal French Air Force colours (no time for a full repaint then). Removing then red/yellow markings should therefore be accurate to backdate my D-520 to pre Vichy colours.

Then it was time to weather the model with a mix of thinned paint and pastel powder. My canopy was thermo formed over the original kit part. 

A few bits were added here and there (antennas, wheels, wheel doors) and I could turn to another project and add the tiny French fighter to my collection. 

Eric

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Photos and text © by Eric Bade