Mistercraft RWD 8, 1/72 scale

[Mitch K]

The RWD 8 was a parasol-winged training aircraft, built by a variety of different manufacturers in both Poland and Yugoslavia in the mid to late 1930’s. Over 550 were built, making it the most widely-produced Polish design, certainly of the time, possibly of all time. Given this, I’m slightly surprised that the design didn’t enjoy a larger export market, although it’s fair to point out there were a great many equally effective designs out there competing for the market. Looking at the design, it’s rather like a parasol-winged Tiger Moth.

The kit is a Mistercraft example, and it’s a rather odd thing. On the fuselage, the detail is fine, neatly engraved and really extremely good, whilst the wings are like something from a 1960’s offering from Airfix, with hugely overdone rib detail – scaled up the ribs would be protruding about two inches out of the wing… I bought this for about two pounds – the decals alone (four schemes, Polish, Czech, German and Hungarian) are worth more than that! I pulled it out of the stash as a fit-in, around all the Group Builds which seem to be monopolising my modelling time.

 The kit comes with a floor, some ropey seats and control columns, so most of that went the way of the wind and I replaced it with this.

I also built some structure into the fuselage sides:

The interior colour is a total punt, but aluminium dope seems like a reasonable guess. I've added straps, throttle/mixture controls and other bits and pieces. The control panels only had three or four dials on them, plus a couple of extra ones set outside the cockpit on the fuselage sides!

The wings and tail unit, with their original grotty detail:

 I've scraped a layer of polyester filler onto this, leaving the rib detail just visible. I can sand this back and leave a hint of how a fabric wing should look!

[Xmald]

Your work is very good indeed! Keep it up! There`s a much nicer and newer model of the bird by IBG. However the wings in that model are wrong...

 

Edited October 30, 2016 by Xmald
a

[Mitch K]

With the fuselage together and the tail on, I added the undercarriage. Despite my reservations, the U/C went on very well.

 

I'm quite pleased with how the tail surfaces look. A little filler was required ahead of the rudder to get the right "look" here for the gap where the entire tail unit fits on. I need to add the control cable attachments to both the rudder and the elevators. The kit provides these, which is handy for the placement, but they're quite crude and can do with some finessing.

 

 

The exhausts come with the ends hollowed out, which is very nice. but I refined them a little. The tail supports struts in the kit would scale up like fenceposts, so they get some stretched sprue to replace them.

 

[Martian]

This build is looking very promising !

 

Martian

[TonyTiger66]

Hello Mitch

I'm quite fond of this kit, I last made one 13 years ago. It's broken, but I still have it.

 

One thing I remember is that the individual (very chunky) four or so struts (I'm not sure if they're called 'cabane' on a parasol) are a bit of a pain.

 

I ended up making a jig to get the parasol aligned on all 3 planes.

 

Looking at what you've done so far. I think maybe you'll be making new struts out of plastic rod or stretched sprue?

 

I have the IBG kit and I'm not sure if it's really all that much better; both benefit from just the same improvements. Arma-Hobby provide just about everything to correct the IBG kit (wing, rudder, tailplanes, cowl), very little of the original remains.

 

If you want a laugh I'll get a picture of my broken RWD-8 here, or I can PM to you, it's terrible  ! I did the olive drab Polish military version, have you decided on a scheme yet?

 

Keep up the good work, this kit is a great mojo builder.

 

 

TonyT

[JWM]

Hi Mitch, have you seen those web pages with drawings and some photos of RWD-8? - could be helpful, I hope.

http://www.samolotypolskie.pl/samoloty/2571/126/RWD-8

http://www.pwm.org.pl/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=47511

And especially that one:

http://www.muzeumlotnictwa.pl/index.php/digitalizacja/katalog/391

Nice construction!

Cheers

J-W

[Mitch K]

Martian, thanks!

 

Tony, go on,I dare you!

Looking at the plans, the triangular cabane struts in the kit are about the right shape, just massively over-scale. The other four are just wrong. The kit shows them going from the wing to the base of the "triangle" whereas on the real thing they run from the wing down onto the sides of the fuselage, at about the undercarriage top level. More to follow!

 

Jerzy, I had some plans which I have worked from, but these are superb! I had found one of the sets you shared, which was very useful. I'm surprised you couldn't hear the cog wheels in my brain grinding as I tried to figure out the Polish text with the help of Google translate!

[JWM]

Mitch - Polish is easy, my 4 years old grandson is speaking this language fluently!  

[TonyTiger66]

Hello Mitch,

Thanks, I hope this is ok. If not no worries; I can edit the post.

 

This was almost the first model I built when I returned to the hobby around 14 years ago. I wasn't on any online forums, everything was hairy stick and all painting was Humbrol enamels. 

 

I did mix colours by eye, but that was fairly hit and miss as I'm quite colourblind  .

 

I almost finished this to the best of my (and the OOB kit's) ability.

 

I then moved 10,600 miles to Australia and this, and all my kits, followed in big boxes on a ship.

 

It arrived very smashed  .

 

This kit is made so badly, and damaged, that  showing it here is a little like admitting that as I turned 50, my piles became really bad  !

 

I hope the pics help you make a better job  of yours than I did of mine  !

 

Working up to it; in a zip lock bag with a nice, red unmade one:

 

 

 

Then the frightening reveal begins  !

 

Silvered transfers, lost undercarriage, broken failplane  

 

 

Port control cable hanging off, starboard missing, silvered transfers

 

 

Crash landing  

 

 

Part of transfer missing, propeller broken off.

 

 

 

 

 

There we have it, what's left of it  .

 

I kept it with the thought of using the other kit to provide patterns to scratch build the missing parts. To remove the paint and transfers and paint it again. I still have the propeller and one wheel  !

 

I don't like throwing kits away, even if they only cost a couple of pounds like this one.

 

Should I aim it for the bin or restore it?  

 

Thanks for letting me post this, hope to see more on yours soon  

 

TonyT

[Mitch K]

Tony: get it fixed!!!

 

Here she is with the wing in place.

 

 

 

This lot involved a great deal of cyanoacrylate, steel pins, stretched sprue and green putty, along with a nearly limitless amount of tooth-grinding and swearing under my breath.

 

 

[Ed Russell]

That's looking very nice. Great job on a lovely plane.

I read something years ago which I thought might be apocryphal but it's in several unrelated sources. In some versions he goes directly Poland - France - England. Here's another version .......

 

I believe it's an RWD-8 which contributed the battered wooden propeller in the foyer of the Polish Institute and Sikorski Museum in London. The pilot of the aircraft, shot down during the September campaign, removed the propeller and carried it with him into internment in Romania. Then, escaping from Romania and ignoring orders to carry nothing that would give them away as Polish and to keep a low profile, the pilot took the propeller with him first to the Middle East, then France and finally to England, where it remains.

 

[Martian]

Looks like the tooth grinding and swearing is beginning to pay off!

 

Martian

[Mitch K]

I managed to put all the paint and decals on and didn't do even one picture of the process! Colour scheme is simple: Polish olive drab all over with the engine panels silver. The markings are from the kit, a Royal Hungarian Air Force example, one of the two that escaped from the Germans in 1939 by being flown there. A significant number of RWD's ended up in Romania and Latvia, where they continued to serve, although none survived the war.

 

 

The register on the white on the decals is fractionally off, something you can't see until you apply the things, since the backing sheet is white! I'll dodge this in later.

[Mitch K]

And here she is, done. There was a fair amount of little bits and pieces to still do: control cables, some external instruments attached to the outside of the cockpit, plus a little bit detail painting, but she's now done.

 

 

I'll put some more pics in the RFI area. Thanks!