COPPER CAUDRON Caudron G.Ill in 1/32

Copper State Models have carved a name for themselves in the last few years producing high quality plastic kits of  World War One subjects.

-  Dave Hooper

The company has gained a huge fan-base, especially in the armour modelling community as a result of their growing range of high-quality World War One armoured car kits, and one gets the impression that this is where Copper State Models make their money from. However, they continue to support the large-scale World War One aircraft market with the occasional release, the most recent of which is the Caudron G.III.

The Caudron G.Ill was an early workhorse of the French Air Service and other air forces. It was a pre-war design that was very stable and easy to fly, making an ideal platform for observation in the early years of the war. Even when it became obsolete on the battlefield the aircraft was still valued as a trainer and as such continued to be produced until well after the Armistice.

On the face of it a Caudron in 1/32 scale sounds like a huge financial risk for a company like Copper State Models. Given the cost of development of this kind of model I find it difficult to imagine enough modellers will buy the kit en-masse to cover the investment. If so, this will be a shame as the kit itself is fantastic straight out of the box. When Copper State Models began producing plastic kits five or so years ago, they were hailed as a Wingnut Wings beater. At the time I felt this was a little over enthusiastic as the early kits had some way to go to reach the high bar set by the New Zealand company. However, the Caudron is every bit as good as a Wingnut Wings kit, just lacking the finesse of the packaging in comparison.