Azur 1/72 Cierva C.30

AZUR 1:72 CIERVA C.30
'INBOX Review'

Reviewer: Warren Inman (rec.models.scale)

Kit Details: Azur 1/72 Cierva C. 30

Aircraft History: The Cierva C. 30 autogiro first flew in 1934 and was ordered by the RAF as the Avro Rota. It was also ordered by several European nations.

France produced 64 of these machines under licence. These flew reconnaissance sorties during 1939/40. Te British ones were used for calibration duties.

The Kit: Opening the normal, end opening Azur box reveals the usual sealed plastic bag containing one injection moulded sprue, 3 resin sprues and a polycarbonate vac-formed canopy sprue. No spare is included. Also included is an A5 format instruction sheet. A total of 46 parts are included.

The parts selection.

The kit has fine, recessed panel detail. No huge trenches or raised detail here. Cockpit side detail is included

Instructions: An A5 format set of instructions 9 pages in length, a parts map, and a total of 3 construction steps.

Construction: First glances show nicely done surface detail and hardly any flash. Construction starts with the fuselage, interior and tailplane. Then the undercarriage and rotor head, then finally the rotor itself and engine. No locating tabs for the fuselage or wings. Butt joints all round.

Options: No construction options are offered.

Colour Schemes: There are a grand total of four colour schemes on offer, French, RAF , Spanish and Czech.

Decals: Decals appear to be of very good quality. Colour register appears to be spot on. They are produced by Cartograf. The French blue may be a touch light.

The decal sheet.

Accuracy: I will not comment on dimensional accuracy as it is a little difficult to hold the kit together while trying to measure rotor/fuselage lengths etc.. Going from the pictures I have of this tiny machine is looks to be accurate in general outline.

Overall Recommendation: For all those fans out there of unusual flying machines then Azur kits are normally a good bet, but this one will always be a talking point of anyone's collection. There are no joysticks on the cockpit floor, there place being taken by a huge looking arm hanging off the rotor head that you move to actuate the rotor directly. Must have meant sore arms from having to move all that mass against the gyro effect of the rotor.

Other: Review courtesy of my wallet. Thanks to NKR Models for being able to supply these esoteric kits at a reasonable price. Complete article including embedded images © Warren Inman 2003.

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