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Luedemann 1/72 resin Morane-Saulnier L "Parasol"

By Grzegorz Mazurowski

The Plane

Roland Garros, nowadays known only from the tennis cup, was the world's first fighter pilot. On his airplane, the Morane-Saulnier L, he installed the first fixed machine gun that fired through the propeller arc. It was revolutionary, but still primitive design, as Garros hadn't invented an interrupter gear, but simply armoured the propeller with steel plates to deflect the bullets which struck it.

With this airplane Garros scored three victories in three weeks in April, 1915, which for that time was an outstanding success.

The Morane L, called the "Parasol" for the appearance of its wing, was a fragile two-seat reconnaissance aircraft. Although a pre-war design, the Morane L was very popular with the French, Russian, and British air services during the first years of WWI. This design was known also in Germany, as the Pfalz company had purchased licence rights for the "Parasol" before the war and produced it under the designations "Pfalz A.I" (unarmed) and "Pfalz E.III" (armed version).

The Morane L was powered by the 80 hp rotary Gnome engine, which allowed for only 115 km/h (71.5 mph).

The Kit

Nicely moulded in ivory coloured resin, the kit depicts the "Parasol" variant which was license built in the Russian "DUX" factory in Moscow; it was built in both wheeled or ski versions.

The fuselage, as often in Luedemann's kits, is very nicely cast in a single piece with an open cockpit, but surprisingly it has a very nicely moulded interior structure on the sides and floor. Some small pinholes here and there are easy to fill and sand without danger of damaging surface details. The wing is very thin and has a very nice surface and a sharp trailing edge. It looks great but it's very fragile - my example has a very small bit of resin broken off on the left wingtip. The wingspan of 15.5 cm matches the scale drawings perfectly.

The elevators and the rudder/fin unit are very simple and flat, and the other small details are decent, including a very nice engine cowling. There are two identical engines included, each one with some small air bubbles in the cylinders, but you have enough good cylinders to make one decent engine without using putty - just use one engine as a cylinder donor ;-) The skis are very precisely moulded and look very interesting, but they have some air bubbles which would not be so easy to fix.

The kit also contains two nice seats, a decent propeller and the wheels.

Conclusion

Although the kit is not perfect, and absolutely is not for a beginner, I really like it very much, as the main parts are very good, and the smaller details can be fixed or scratchbuilt. I also admire the possibility of converting this Russian Morane into a French one or even into the German Pfalz by modifying the rudder and possibly the undercarriage legs. Because I like its white and red markings, I'll build it as a Bavarian Pfalz A.I used as a German support for the Austro-Hungarian troops in the Alps as seen in Bob Pearson's profile of this airplane below

Acknowledgment

Big "thank you" to Karen Rychlewski for language help!