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Polish Point Defence Fighter - Heston we have a problem -already


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After prevaricating and almost starting a WIP on a Valom Hampden, (and then chickening out), I am going to have a bash at this kit. Not wanting to walk or even jog, I am going at this at full running speed and have bought both the Part etched set for the PZL and the Polish machine gun set from Jadar Hobby in Poland. So lots of firsts for a first WIP...it could all go horribly fruit shaped very quickly.
Not wanting to buck convention gratuitous pickies of box and assorted sprues before the slicing and dicing starts:


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To me the aircraft has a Flash Gordon look about it, all pointy, aggressive and brave new world.

Two largish sprues together with a small etched fret and resin oil cooler and bomblets, which I won't be using as I want to depict a fighter version.

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Close up of the kit etched fret supplied with the kit
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And the two large frets from Part

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So lots of really small bits to lose/bend/curl and have hours of fun with

Any observations (looks for the fish-heads) will be gratefully received

Reargards

Strickers


Oopsie! looks like there's a hole in my photo bucket!

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After a closer inspection of the parts on the sprues, fine detail such that on the wing representing the corrugated structure,

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is let down by short shot on the engine exhaust manifolds, but nothing than can't be rectified later.

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The little oil cooler comes as a resin part and is quite crude, Part supply an etched alternative with nearly 50, very small parts, so it was on with the magnifying cap and out with the superglue.

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Resin bit

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Etched replacement -

This took me over three hours to build up, and needed the construction of a jig, somehow I had parts left over, so it would seem that I have made the fin spacing too large.

So not being totally convinced with the look of the cooler, I decided to have a bash at making one out of thin plastic card.
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A little bit fluffy, and mine does not have the tiny holes in the fins that the etched set has, but once finished I can judge which looks more in scale.

More Soon

Reargards

Strickers


I continued to build up the homemade cooler until I arrived at this

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Still not convinced it looks any better, and unhappy with the quality of my skill with the etched bit, so having more money than sense I might get another set and take my time and rethink the fin spacing issue. 'It's all in the preparation Dave' as the 80's DIY ad went!

Undeterred I moved on to butchering the engine reduction gearbox covering and in a fit of hope over experience cut out and bent some more brass bits and stuck them on

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the cooling holes were drill to allow enlargement with a suitable tool

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The suitable tool did this

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And the first few plates glued in place. I used a combination of thick and thin cyano, a little spot of thick to tack the edge and after moving to the correct position using the capillary action of the thin to grab the piece. Not yet perfected the dark art of overspill and some parts have remnants of glue where I used too much.

Ah it's all a learning cliff at the moment.

More soon

Reargards

Strickers

Edited by HAMP man
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Good start on what will be an interesting project. I have often though about getting this kit and perhaps this build will make up my mind for me.

Martin

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A few days off work, a trip to north Devon and a walk along the cliffs near Heddon's Mouth has recharged the batteries, so a bit more has been done this evening

I have removed the plastic from the front of the fuselage where the brass sections are to go just forward of what I think is the petrol tank and again had a bash at putting some on the model, not as successful as the nose bits I am taking the view that from about a foot and a half it should look half tidy.

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The macro setting does show up the need to be more exacting in my work and I a bit dis-chuffed with my efforts thus far.

More Soon

Reargards

Strickers

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Well , It's really acceptable so don't worry. Moreover, this won't be visible as much :) Look below:

PC270118_zpskeyktnhj.jpg
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To make good looking oil cooler you can cheat :) Just turn thin wire around piece of styrene :)

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Last survived P-11 sits in museum in city where I live so if you need some photos just let me know :)

Edited by Artoor_K
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One thing...even fighter versions of P-11 had bombs. There is nothing wrong with mounting them:

PC270106_zpsnibweno8.jpg

Petrol tank was in fuselage , between struts there should be engraved circle on the fuselage of model. Petrol tank was designed to be jettisoned in case of engine fire.

Edited by Artoor_K
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After doing a bit of advanced research on the PZL11 on Wakipedillo it would seem that in the two weeks or so of the invasion of Poland the 150 operational aircraft were credited with shooting down over a hundred german aircraft, even though the maximum speed, when new, was over 60mph slower than the bombers they were up against. The article also stated that as the PZL's replacement the hawk, was so long in development that the Polish Government considered the hurricane as a stop gap, but none were delivered by Britain. Based on the obvious qualities of the Polish squadrons in the BoB, if the hurricane had been available in sufficient numbers the air superiority required for the Polish blitzkrieg might not have been achieved so quickly.
Artoor has very kindly provided photos of the preserved machine in Poland, with the attachments for the bomblets, but the article also stated that only a third of the PZL's in front line service had the wing mounted guns installed and even less had radios. The extra weight would have had an effect on top speed and I would suggest that given the choice the pilots of these machines would forgo the additions for a few more mph's. So on this basis I will be leaving the bombs and wing mounted guns off the model.

Turned my attention to the prop and spinner, there was a couple of sink hole in the plastic of the prop so these were filled with milliput, sanded and primed with Halfords grey.

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Then I noticed that the spinner cowl did wrap around the prop blades I razor sawed both blades off the center boss and began building up the missing area on the kit part

[iP8190326_zps4lymg3ap.jpg]

More soon

Reargards

Strickers

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