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PZL 43A Chaika Bulgarian AF, scratch conversion of Heller PZL 23


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Hi,

PZL 43 was a light bomber and recce airplane, it was an export version of PZL 23 Karas. The main differnce between them was in engine - while PZL 23 was driven by single row radial, nine cylinders Bristol Pegasus VII the PZL 43 was driven by double row, 14 cyliders Gnome Rhone GR 14 NO1 engine. To balance airplane fuselage had to be extended by about 30 cm. The rear part of canopy was extended and it came to a rounded at the end. There was no this model on market at all (about 10 years ago), so I made a conversion of PZL 23 model by Heller. The conversion was made of scratch based on a monography of this type which was issued in Poland.

Some 40 of PZL 43 were bought by Bulgaria before outbreak of WWII, they were produced but not finished and they were delivered to Bulgaria later by Germans. It was used by Bulgarians during war. Five PZL 43 took part in defence of Poland in 1939.

pzl 43 DSC02282pzl 43 DSC02280pzl 43 DSC02281

 

pzl 43 DSC02283pzl 43 DSC02284pzl 43 DSC02286

 

 

 

 

Below, on a foreground is PZL 43, in background Heller PZL 23 Karas (this model I made 40 years ago, when I was in secondary school :) ) - in these times there was opinion that Polish airplaned were painted dark green, now it is considered, that they were painted khaki or light brown-green)

pzl 43 i 23 DSC02287

 

 

Edited by JWM
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Rare and exotic

Thank you. It might be interesting to some, that now there is a rather nice kit of this bird, not in 1/72 but in 1/48 - by Polish Mirage company.

Regards

Jerzy-Wojtek

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  • 2 years later...

This is another excellent build J-W :) !

 

There is a lot to like; the exhaust pipes look very in scale, with shield along the fuselage. The radiators along the fuselage are superb (the photos make us thing these are big, but in 1/72 these are tiny parts). 

 

It is interesting that that in this design they have a forward firing gun with corresponding hole in the cowling.  Great work on a complex transparency shape.

 

Now if only someone would release one of these (and a new Łos) in 1/72 :pray: 

 

All best regards

TonyT

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Thank you Tony, Stefan and Invidia for comments! 

I made this conversion some 10+ years ago. Still I do not know about PZL 43 in 1/72 - I think it is not present. Sooner or later some Polish minor (but great!) company will modell it for sure in 1/72. However there is nice kit in 1/48 of PZL 43 by Mirage ( https://www.scalemates.com/products/img/0/2/8/138028-47-instructions.pdf ).

 

"There is a lot to like; the exhaust pipes look very in scale, with shield along the fuselage. The radiators along the fuselage are superb (the photos make us thing these are big, but in 1/72 these are tiny parts)." 

Thank you Tony - the radiators I cut out from the side of CD box, which has this kind of corrugated-like surface...

PZL 43 has two MGs firing, when P 23 has just single one on right side. The Bristol engine in PZL 23 was larger then Gnome-Rhone one of PZL-43 - therfore in case of Karas MG was firing between cylinders and here they must move it a bit outside and firing outside the cowling. 

 

Cheers

Jerzy-Wojtek

 

 

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On 11.11.2016 at 9:13 AM, JWM said:

 

PZL 43 has two MGs firing, when P 23 has just single one on right side. The Bristol engine in PZL 23 was larger then Gnome-Rhone one of PZL-43 - therfore in case of Karas MG was firing between cylinders and here they must move it a bit outside and firing outside the cowling.

 

The diameter is one thing, but not so important (GR14K measures 51in, while Pegasus shows just 55"). The main reason is that in 14-cylinder double-row Mistral Major there's no possibility to drive the gun between the (overlapping) cylinders - you simply have to move gun outside the engine outline.

Cheers

Michael

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1 hour ago, KRK4m said:

The main reason is that in 14-cylinder double-row Mistral Major there's no possibility to drive the gun between the (overlapping) cylinders - you simply have to move gun outside the engine outline.

Indeed - you are right :)

Cheers

J-W

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Hi again,

now that you gave very useful directions about usage of readily available components you used on your Fazan kit, could you please do the same here? I guess you also utilized some parts from other kits in this project, so any guideline is most welcomed. Thanks.

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Hi Marco - thank you for your interest :) Here majority of details are really scratch and my memory is so good in this. The extension of fuselage was done just by cutting and adding plates, rounded shielding of rear gunner was also done from flat plate. About canopy and radiatirs I wrote already above. The most important is engine and propeller. They basis likely was taken from some French machine equipped with 14 cylinders Gnome-Rhone but I do not remember what exactly it could be. Likely I took them from box with spare elements event not thinking where they cames from...Of cource there is a lot of reshaping in cowling - the details are unusul. I am sorry that I do not remeber it better. Regarding drawings - I used one from a Polish monography of PZL 43. Send me PM if you need copy of drawings - I have to have it somewhere...

Cheers

J-W

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I came to almost end of rescueing my threads from bucket crisis  - currently it is from A to end of P. 

The PZL 43 is announced now by IBG (1/72) to be available in some future...In 1/48 it is available from couple of years by Mirage.

Cheers

J-W

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