Scratchbuilt 1/72 Breguet Biplane III By Joel Christy

Introduction

One of the more unusual appearing aeroplanes to come out of the era of pre-World War One aircraft was the Breguet biplane. Louis Breguet was one of the pioneers of aviation and an innovator. He was an advocate of using metal components rather than wood. With the biplane Breguet established the tractor type of aeroplane in it’s definitive form. The wing structure was tubular steel whilst the front of the fuselage was sheet aluminium. By 1912 the French Army had ordered 32 Breguet III’s and several more were consigned to the British, Italian and Swedish governments. As a result the aeroplane was one of the first aircraft to be used in the Great War. In fact as early as September 1914 Louis Breguet flew a reconnaissance mission on the eve of the Battle of the Marne.

I have always wanted a model of the Breguet biplane but until recently I had next to no information except some grainy photographs of the aircraft. Then a member of the World War One Modelers Internet Site sent me some pictures and plan views of it. That whetted my interest and after a search of the internet I felt I had enough material to start building a 1/72 scale model of the Breguet III biplane from scratch.

The Model

I started on the fuselage and constructed this by utilizing a bamboo kebab skewer and little round formers made of 40 thou sheet plastic. The skewer and formers were then covered with 10 thou sheet. The front was covered with a solid sheet whilst the area behind the cockpits was covered with tapering pieces of the same material using liquid poly cement. Once all was thoroughly dry the cockpit area was carefully opened up which exposed the bamboo skewer. This was neatly cut out from between the formers with a side cutter.

Next I turned to the flying surfaces. These had to be relatively thin so I used 20 thou sheet plastic curved in a Harry Woodman jig to create a permanent camber. Once that had been established I sanded the wing blanks from the top down to achieve a proper airfoil. Next I scribed the rib stations on both sides using a set square and a number 11 scalpel blade. All this bending and scribing caused the plastic to warp but by some judicious tweaking between thumbs and fingers I was able to manipulate the wings until they were flat again. The tail surfaces were made in a similar fashion to the wings only out of 15 thou sheet. Scallops were made in the trailing edges of the flying surfaces using a bit of sandpaper attached to a small dowel. Just a couple of swipes to the thin edges was all that was necessary. Lastly I gave all the plastic a coat of liquid poly to give it a smooth finish.

At this stage I chose to paint the rear of the fuselage and flying surfaces. I decided to use Humbrol number 70 brick red as many of the photos I had seen of the Breguet biplane appeared to have a dark colour. I attached the tail surfaces to the end of the fuselage and made the wing cellule as a unit by attaching the 4 interplane struts between the wings. Now all of this is incredibly delicate which is another reason I was so attracted to this aircraft. It’s difficult to see how such construction stayed together when we think of other aircraft of the same era with their myriad of struts, wires and braces. But it obviously did!

Once the parts were painted and dry I turned to the front of the fuselage. I covered the front area with Kit Kat foil attached with clear polyurethane varnish. When dry I made another cover out of thicker foil which I embossed with a few rivets to make the cowling forward of the cockpits.

The Breguet III was normally fitted with the Une-Canton 7 cylinder water cooled radial engine. To make this I cut the cylinders off an Aeroclub Clerget item and replaced them with 7 cylinders made from bits of sprue. I painted them and the crankcase silver and when dry gave the cylinder sleeves a coat of thinned down Tamiya clear orange to give it a brass metal appearance. Once mounted on the nose of the fuselage I attached bits of hot stretched sprue to represent the pushrods.

The two seats are Aeroclub items that I left natural metal colour after burnishing them lightly with 1200 grit wet’n’dry. I added a cockpit floor of scribed 10 thou sheet and attached the seats and a steering wheel type control column.

I flattened some 10 thou brass wire on a small anvil to make struts for the undercarriage. These also extended through the lower wing to act as attachment points for the fuselage set between the two wings. Here again the fragility of the aircraft presents itself and one can only think in awe of it. The Breguet III had a tricycle landing gear; one of the first I would imagine. I found some wire wheels in an Omega kit of an MF 11 that were perfect for my model. Once the two halves were glued together I coated the outside rims with white glue. When dry the thickened rims were painted grey to simulate tyres. The small skid on the nose wheel was made of 10 thou sheet. I painted all the struts silver.

The two vertical radiators were bits of 40 thou sheet scribed with a razor saw and mounted to the two cabane struts. The Aeroclub propeller was painted Humbrol number 94 yellow brown and finished with a coat of Tamiya clear orange. After applying a coat of Klear/Future mixed with Tamiya white base the model was rigged with hot stretched sprue.

As far as I know the Breguet biplane III had not been kitted. It’s a shame more of these fascinating aeroplanes have not received the attention their near successors have. But as can be seen a fairly good replica can be achieved by scratch building one.
Go on, go for it!!