amblypygid

Thank, jpl. Kraków, the home base of this particular aircraft, then and now. Some more progress with the decalling to report - the fuselage is done. All that remains now is to attach the wing, the engine, and matte coat once I've got the decals to settle down a little more. Oh, and the tiny windscreen. The decals add some bright contrast to the overall brown uppersides:

That chrome really is bright and shiny; I'm sufficiently impressed to be browsing Amazon for one. I see also that they do a masking liquid pen, what an idea (if it works).

I had never heard of this type before, but it reminds me of a Do-17 on floats (no bad thing), mated with the wings from a He-111. And with the possibility of Swedish markings to boot, how splendid.

I'm sure you'll make something very Frightening-like from it, Ced. Looking forward to it!

Looking very nice, Bosse.

I'm having to pause for a while as I need to paint up the engine and cowling before I proceed any further, I think. That requires airbrush time, so maybe tomorrow if I'm lucky. This is where I'm at in the meantime: wheels are on, but the wing hasn't been attached yet (it sits quite happily in place, actually.) The instructions really do suggest the offset national markings for both schemes, weird though it looks.

Thanks, Marklo. I like the quirkier types too, and I'm a sucker for a gull wing, even if inverted* * Except Stukas. They can naff off, quite frankly.

We paid a visit to Kew Gardens yesterday and so there was little time for PZL action. However, I got some more work done on the wings. The scheme I've chosen has a light blue chevron on the upper wing surface; there are decals in the kit but in the belief that I can become a Better Modeller by doing this sort of thing, I masked and painted them instead. This was, of course, made slightly more difficult by the corrugation of the wing, so there was then some touching up to be done. The photo makes it look rather whiter than it looks to my eye. There are two narrower stripes on the fuselage; I may use the decals there as the spacing may be tricky to mask.

That's a great outcome, Giemme.

Nice work, Sam.

I don't think you need to worry, Cookie, it's a nice little kit, as Hamp Man says. A little care needed, but no major problems. I did, however, have problems with this part: It has four locating pins but I removed them and trimmed back the base of the struts. It transpires that I missed the erratum sheet which gave clear instructions on how to sort the problem! The engine is nicely detailed, and goes inside a two-part cowling that shows what can be done with sensible engineering - no problems with the fit or the orientation. Spring is truly here: a short trip to the park to have a kickabout with the boy also featured a short aerobatic display from a Spitfire and a couple of low passes from a Mustang. This evening consisted of applying brown paint and then decalling the underside of the wings: Techmod decals seem to be going down well enough with Microset. No need now! Though the options in Polish markings are limited, I'd build one in Romanian colours for sure.

Nice, Ced, and as ever, fast work! That masking looks neato.

Thanks, Cookie, Stew, good to know you're watching! Little progress over the past few days as it's been an interesting week (in the proverbial Chinese sense) at work, and I doubt it's going to get any better for the foreseeable future. I'm still waiting for the varnish that I ordered to be delivered, so what little work I have done has been on the PZL. The instructions indicate that the interior should be silver, and that's confirmed by other posts here on Britmodeller (the extant example in Krakow is grey, but that apparently is some anti-corrosion coating applied much later). So silver it is. Very little will be visible once the fuselage is closed up. The ejector pin stubs will be invisible, so I didn't bother removing them. The interior consists of the seat and controls (right top), which attaches to two frames (left top), which go inside the fuselage halves. There are also two MG breeches (not pictured) that go onto the halves. Again, given the lack of visibility inside, I simply gave all of this a wash and left it at that. The IP also is sandwiched, but it's small. The decal is none too impressive, but again: visibility. The fuselage halves take a little more work to get together once all the other stuff is in there, but not too much. Next step, still following the instructions religiously, is the head rest, which isn't a great fit and required a wee bit of fettling. I believe it's leather (as is the coating on the cockpit rim). The PE belts then go on; these were the epitome of thin metal things and I'd recommend trying to make one's own from another, less springy substance. They're attached with matt varnish, so I reckon they'll disappear at some point, probably involving masking. I brush painted the headrest but it got well scraped while farting about with the belts, so it'll need some touching up. I turned my attention to the wings this morning. No pictures but the undersides were sprayed with a coat of Dark Ghost Grey, which is the closest shade I could find to the recommended Polish Light Grey. I can now look forward to trying to get the decals to settle down over that corrugated surface

Congratulations on the new job, PC!

I need something else to work on while I wait for some new varnish to arrive for my Phantom build. Something small and without stencils, preferably. This kit seems to fit the bill admirably! For those not so familiar with the P.11c, this was Poland's most advanced fighter in service when Nazi Germany invaded on 1 Sept 1939. Unfortunately for the Poles, although it had been ground-breaking and had been considered at one time the world's most advanced fighter aircraft, that time was some years earlier, and the rapid pace of R&D in the 1930s meant that the Luftwaffe was plentifully equipped with superior machinery in the form, mainly, of the Bf 109. Nevertheless, the Poles fought and it is believed that they achieved parity in the kill ratio despite the adverse situation in which they found themselves. About two thirds (c.70) of the P.11c fleet was destroyed in September, the remaining 36 aircraft ending up in Romania, where they continued in second line service until 1943. Only one aircraft survived the war and can now be seen in Krakow. So, what do we have? It's a single seat, open cockpit, all-metal construction, high gull-wing monoplane with a fixed undercarriage and a Bristol Mercury radial engine. The kit I have here is Arma Hobby's "Junior" version, which gives two marking options and a tiny fret of PE to go with the plastic. Talking of which, here's the box and the single frame: As you can see, brown is very much the order of the day. The fuselage feels microscopic after a few months of handling a 1/48 Phantom! Surface detail is nice; you can hopefully make out some panel lines but there is also a very slight corrugated effect on the wings that is too hard to photograph. There's a wee bit of flash on a lot of the parts, but nothing to concern one. Early tests with the fuselage halves suggest that fit is more than adequate. I have no paints that adequately match the suggested shades, based on the quoted FS numbers, so I will be substituting some close alternatives. More later; I must go and sort out the salmon and potato things that we're having for tea.

Happy anniversary, Ced & Mrs B! Nice choice for your new build, too. Should be a leetle quicker than the Nimrod...

I'm still going, despite some close calls on the mojo, though I did waltz off with an Eduard MiG-15 so that I could do something that wasn't a tiny decal. I have now finished stencilling. YAY!!! (This is not true, but please leave me with my fantasies. I have yet to apply any of the stencils that go on the landing gear doors.) Last night I hit the topsides with a coat of that bizarrely named Gauzy Coat gloss varnish. Lo: I have an interesting mix of slight orange peel and pebbledash as a finish. And the decal film shows up very clearly under the coat, which is kinda weird. I'm not sure how easy it is to remove this varnish without obliterating the decals beneath. Although this isn't the first time I've had difficulty spraying Gauzy Coat, this is probably the worst it's been. Any tips on how to spray it successfully would be welcome! Anyway, I've opted for the usual modeller's solution: change tools! I've ordered some Alclad Aqua Gloss as everyone seems to rave about it. Hopefully I can get better results with that on a mule and then I'll try to even the varnish coat out as much as possible, I think.

Best wishes to you and Mrs M, and I hope the cardiologist can give you some positive news tomorrow.

Hi all, this is something I built as a distraction/relief from the endless decalling of an ongoing Phantom build. I'm still decalling, but this is finished. It's the Weekend edition of the Eduard kit, with added cockpit etch that I can't adequately photograph. I'm very fond of desert camo, and I'd already built one in the shiny silver scheme that is the alternative option in the box. That first build taught me that I needed to take a lot more care with the fit of the cockpit tub, and this time I got a far better fit in that area. The rest of the kit is very straightforward to build and I've left it unweathered, as though ready for a high-ranking visitor to inspect. Thanks for looking, and apologies for my dodgy photography!

Lovely scheme, very striking, and the fading is very effective.

One heck of a model, Rob. I'm very sorry to say that I have turned up nowt of any relevance to Little Max in my books.

It's got knobs on! God's blood, Tony, what modelling mojo is in that chilli pickle? And do you eat it, or rub it into your finger tips while prostrating yourself before the holy sihrsc?

Good practice for when you do a big-scale Phantom, Ced. Keep going, it's all good Calvinist soul purifying work

Lovely work, Giorgio.

Neat Navy-strength? Feel the burn!