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PZL P.50


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Now I know what you're thinking - don't I have enough builds of obscure aircraft from questionable sources going on at once? Well, yes, I do, but that isn't going to stop me.

 

I have been intrigued by the PZL P.50 since I first heard about it, and I've been after building one for a while now. If the P.50 were an animal, it would described as being "data deficient" - we don't know everything about it. Hey, I'm not even sure we know what we don't know! Therefore, there is a certain upper limit to the accuracy and authenticity that can be obtained. I accept this limitation very cheerfully, and if in five years time, ten thousand pages of new data are found in a long-forgotten cellar and somebody kits an accurate one, I'll built that too!

 

The P.50 was in pretty much all senses a "modern fighter" of its time - single engined, with an enclosed cockpit, retractable undercarriage and an all-metal structure. Designed around an armament of four rifle-calibre machineguns, it would have been slightly undergunned, but certainly in the class of aircraft like the P-35, P-36, Brewster Buffalo and the like. The weakness of the design lay in the engine. At the time of the building of the first prototypes, the aircraft was fitted with a Bristol Mercury VIII (as per the Gloster Gladator and Bristol Blenheim). This gave the P.50 the rather disappointing top speed of 275 mph. I have found this slightly surprising, since the Bristol 146 and the Gloster F5/34, both aircraft of very similar size, weight and design managed speeds of around 290 and 315 mph respectively with an eight-gun armament. Possibly the Poles were more honest in their assessment, or were restricted in the grade of fuel they had to hand. To my eye, the P.50 appears slightly less refined aerodynamically that the Bristol and Gloster designs, but not hugely so.

 

In any event, the Poles were well aware of this and had plans to use other engines, including the less than entirely successful Bristol Perseus and and mighty Bristol Hercules.

 

I bought the kits from a supplier in Poland and they arrived very quickly. I say "they" because the box contains TWO models for a fraction under ten pounds! Now, there are those who will say looking at the kits that at five quid a throw I was still overcharged! They have the appearance of somewhere between a modern short-run kit and an Airfix offering of the 1960's. Three canopies (all a bit cloudy) are included, along with a set of decals with some of the nicest Polish unit markings I've managed to get my hands on!

 

Here's a view of the sprue parts:

 

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I managed to find some plans, but given the lack of authentic data, I do wonder if the kit matches the plans so well because they were cooked up in parallel! The surface detail is raised so I will fix than with a rescribe, move the landing light add details throughout.

 

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4 hours ago, Mitch K said:

Now, there are those who will say looking at the kits that at five quid a throw I was still overcharged! They have the appearance of somewhere between a modern short-run kit and an Airfix offering of the 1960's.

 

No, mate, you're on the right track. This is what its all about :) Good luck :).

Martin

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It could be interesting to you that there is a testimony (by "eye witness") about civil markings on first prototype of P-50 in August 1939. It is here:

p50%20malowanie_zpslgmjr1su.jpg

It apeared in Przegląd Lotniczy 12/99. It is said, that author of this testimony as 12-years old boy spent summer 1939 on Okęcie airfield in Warsaw (as son of some important figure there) and had opportunity to play around prototype of P50 prepared likely for Paris exhibition in 1939. Le Bourget show is now in June, how it was in 1939 I do not know...

Anyway - the P-50 is said to be painted as above in dark blue on natural metal. The civil registratin was there for sure, although he didn't remeber the exact code, so SP-BXY it is fictional, it is just as example of some registration here. I am curious - perhaps somone knows already more about it?

Cheers

J-W 

 

 

Edited by JWM
misprint corr.
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20 hours ago, JWM said:

prepared likely for Paris exhibition in 1939. Le Bourget show is now in June, how it was in 1939 I do not know...

I 've just found in Net,  that Le Bourget airshow was every two years since 1924, so last before the WWII break was organised in 1938. It means that the special painting scheme of PZP P -50 was apparently for another planned event...

Cheers

J-W

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  • 3 weeks later...

Some progress here: 

 

The kit has no cockpit at all - not a thing! Although, there are some raised dots on the inside of the fuselage that look like they are the location marks for a detailed aftermarket set (which isn't there of course!). So here are the seats. Sheet and strip styrene, based on the design of the seat in the PZL P.24. Total punt of course, but as likely as anything else.

 

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The fuselage got a new floor and a rear bulkhead, then some internal structure from microstrip. I've added some speculative controls and details: trim wheels, throttle, radio, swazzle flange... The fuselage interior has had a coat of white primer here.

 

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After a coat of Tamiya silver, I dodged in the details. I've given the whole thing a light wash with a dirty "dark" mix of ink and Klear to give a bit of depth.

 

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Here's the seat, a bit further along. The cushion is kneadtite greenstuff. The holes in the seat back were added, I guess for ventilation and lightness. The bar across the top will fit into existing fuselage structure. The straps are Tamiya flexible tape and will be cut to length, painted and have some buckles added later.

 

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Nice progress, and the interior looks very well, ideed.

Not much about this aircraft can be found in the Net, here you can find some usefull photos and drawings, however most of them showing a production version.

 

Watching with interest, good luck!

Best regards

Hubert

 

 

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The landing light is in the wrong place (based on the plans), so I filled it with milliput then re-cut it into the correct position. The light itself is a lump of clear sprue filed to shape then sanded with various grades of micromesh until it was transparent. The panel lines are now engraved, and the wing gun ports have been drilled in.

 

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Bolstered by how this came out, I went in with wingtip navigation lights!

 

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And finally, a propos of nothing, the seat straps done and wire buckles in place.

 

33303013174_48904b8e50_k_d.jpg

 

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

The wingtip lights were filed down, then gone through with grades of micromesh to get to them to a nice, glassy finish.

 

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The fuselage went together without too much grief. The plastic is weird: hard but a bit rubbery. It isn't awful to work with, but it's odd.

 

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Underneath I've hacked out most of the wing root area, to give enough depth to the wheel wells.

 

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Here's the new cowling. This is from an ancient Frog Blenheim I acquired from fellow BM'er Selwyn. I've filled in the original exhaust outlet position, as the exhausts on the P50 run in a different position. The cowlings and Mercury engine in the Akkura kit are ropey as hell so these, even though the ones I'm using are from a kit made in the Stone Age, they're far nicer.

 

 

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I've got the wings, tailplanes and engine dry-fitted. As you can see, the fit is a bit hit and miss! So much fun to look forward to on this one...

 

34006211610_b33e1e3344_k_d.jpg

 

 

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12 minutes ago, charlie_c67 said:

You sure that's not a Macchi? :huh:

Indeed. It's eerily similar to the Re.2000, Seversky P35, Curtiss P36, Koolhoven F.K.58...

 

What biologists would call "convergent evolution", I suspect.

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A bit of fettling got the tailplanes to fit pretty well. I haven't gone mad with wheel well detailing so far, but I might add some "creative gizmology" as Shep Paine used to call it.

 

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The nose gun fairings are sprue, chisel-cut and then sanded.

 

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The new exhausts were added into a mortice cut into the cowling. These need a bit of work to sort them, obviously.

 

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With the cowling in place, and the guns drilled out, we're definitely progressing. The headrest and head armour is totally speculative, but I think it's reasonably plausible.

 

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I opened the ends of the exhausts. The wire loop in the cockpit is a cocking/charging handle for the nose guns.

 

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I've glued the canopy down with UV-activated glue. The fit is truly horrible, but this is after cutting away a vast area with a saw and carving, sandling and building up (in different areas!) the instrument coaming and the edges of the fuselage. The canopy itself was polished with micromesh and had had about three coats of Klear by this point. I'll mask up, then hopefully white Milliput should close this in.

 

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The sobering thought at this point is that I have ANOTHER one of these to do!

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10 hours ago, charlie_c67 said:

Maybe splice on an inline engine of some sort?

There were plans to stick a Gnome-Rhone 14R on, or a Bristol Hercules. I did some back of an envelope calculations, and fitting a Hercules would give you an aircraft in the power and weight class of a Grumman Wildcat, albeit with a significantly higher wing loading.

 

I think I know where I can get a Hercules with cowling and prop...:evil_laugh:

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Some (a little!) "creative gizmology" in the wheel wells, made from ultrafine wires, twisted up.

 

33751175853_436ee50e36_k_d.jpg

 

Canopy glazing faired in with Milliput. Sadly, there's a little bit of infiltration of the filler into the cockpit, but it's better than it was.

 

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The less said about the kit main undercarriage the better. In one of the photos in Hubert's link above, there is a reasonably good photo of the main landing gear, and it looks nothing like the plan I've been working from, so it's a good job I checked! This is all cobbled up from various diameters of steel tube, drink  can metal and heatshrink(for the "collars"). The oleos are connected to the stirrups with short pieces of steel pin, suitable ground to size/shape.

 

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It's been test-fitted for the wheels, and it does work - at the moment. The axles will be more steel pins and I'll add some scissor assemblies and brake lines from stretched sprue/wire when I'm more certain all the heavy work is done.

 

34175538690_e05a248c8a_k_d.jpg

 

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Following priming and the last fettling of any lumps and divots that aren't supposed to be there, it was on with some paint. This scheme is, obviously, totally speculative. It is intended to represent what a batch of early-production fighters, put into service as part of a field evaluation with a single active squadron might have looked like.

 

It's based on the well-known series of pictures of a PZL P.11C carrying an experimental two-colour upper surface camouflage. One colour in those photos seems to closely match the tone of the uniforms of the bystanders, so by inference could be the usual khaki. The other is lighter and highly contrasting. There are records of a light-ish green being used on Lublin R-XIII, purporting to be similar to FS 34151. I had some mixed up for a different project, so used this, with a sharp-edged division as shown in the pictures of the PZL P.11C.

 

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The underside is the light blue, as per usual practice. I've wrapped the fuselage camouflage, but left the area under wings blue.

 

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Decals are a mix of the Akkura kit and leftovers from various Mistercraft P.7 and P.11 builds, and show an aircraft of 112 Esk. who had the task of carrying out the operational evaluation. I will find some underwing codes from somewhere, or print my own. I've gone with smaller underwing cockades that were usually seen on P.11, a move toward a lower visibility effect.

 

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The undercarriage needs painting and fitting, but it's (largely) built now, and I'll add nose guns, gunsight and some aerials right at the end, but she's well on the way.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Here she is with the undercarriage on. I've added brake pipes, and undercarriage doors (visible in photos, but missing on the plans...). The fixed tailwheel is out of the kit, with a leg made from a dressmaking pin. I put a very light wash on he, not enough to make the aircraft look tatty, but perhaps enough to represent an aircraft returning from a sortie.

 

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The exhausts need some more work, and once the masks are off, it's home straight.

 

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And done! The guns are 25Ga steel tube. I left the wing guns with no visible barrels: as licence-built Brownings the barrels wouldn't have been long enough to stick out. The radio aerial is speculative, of course, but connects into a convenient panel on the fuselage. The canopy is clearer than it started out, but it's far from perfect, I think, in both clarity and fit. The Akkura kit has limitations, but I've really enjoyed doing this. I'll put some pics in RFI in the next couple of days.

 

34821119361_508da58e33_k_d.jpg

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