IAR 81 1/72 A-Model

[spiton]

I've always liked this little plane. It is a natural link in the evolution of Polish fighters like P-11 or P-24, -)
 Many Polish designers worked on this Romanian fighters, becoused Romania produced P-24 fighters by the licences. 

[Stew Dapple]

Very nice work mate, she's a little beauty

 

Cheers,

 

Stew

[Corsairfoxfouruncle]

Excellent IAR 👍

[Vinnie]

Nice model of a plane I knew nothing about. What kit is it, please?

[Ratch]

2 minutes ago, Vinnie said:

What kit is it, please?

I think its A-Model

[Vinnie]

4 minutes ago, Ratch said:

I think its A-Model

Ah, ok thank you. When I googled the plane there was an A and B variant which I thought was part of the title. I haven't heard of A-Models.

[spiton]

Yes, This is A-Model 

 

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[Roman Schilhart]

Great build!

I have just bought this kit a few weeks ago at a model show.

Yours is a good inspiration.

It's a very attractive aircraft!

[Vultures1]

Great build of a lesser-known but very attractive aircraft - well done!

 

I particularly like that first black and white photo

[Graeme H]

The model is perfect, and the photography stunning

 

the OH&S a little less so, fancy having the engine running with nobody in control  😁

[Meatbox8]

I love that.  A very purposeful and attractive aircraft and some great photography.  I suspect it wasn't the easiest aeroplane to taxi.  It's like the love-child of an F4U and an FW190. 

[stevej60]

Excellent work.

[stevehnz]

That looks terrific, you've done a lovely job on it. How was it to build? I've one of these in stock but don't know much about the kit. Like you, I find its PZL ancestry makes it attractive.

Steve.

[Spitfire31]

At first, and even on second, glance I took that top photo to be of the real plane…

 

Fab modelling!

 

Kind regards,

 

Joachim

[Fin]

First of all I want to say that spiton has done a great model, far better than I can dream of doing based on the A-model short-run kit.

 

Secondly, since many of you are asking related questions on the A-model kit and aircraft in question, please let me make a few observations on this kit, its instructions and the inherent construction above.

Unfortunately, the A-model kit has one (among several) annoying issue in that the propeller blades are set to spin the wrong way (they are also slightly curved towards the tip reminiscent of the blades of a helicopter, but that`s another story). This is true for all IAR 80/81 versions in 1/72 scale from A-model and fixing it is obviously not going to be pleasant. It`s quite disappointing that nobody has come up with an aftermarket for this. LF has a resin engine with cowling but it did not occur to them to make the propeller too. Here`s a photo showing the real blades on an IAR 81:
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/28/Iar80_12.jpg
and the replica from the museum:
https://rumaniamilitary.files.wordpress.com/2011/07/dsc04422.jpg

Then there`s the fact that the kit does not contain the required armament. You`re supposed to scratch build that yourself. I don`t know if those bulges on the upper wings and the 20mm cannons present on spiton`s model were a result of this or artistic license, but all batches of IAR 81 BoPi (Bombardament Picaj - Dive Bombing) were armed with three Browning FN 7.92mm machine guns in each wing. Here`s how the armament schemes and related panels looked like for the different batches of aircraft:
http://www.cartula.ro/forum/topic/334-ltd-148-iar-80c/page__view__findpost__p__6307
Also, even though they are present on the A-model plastic, the actual IAR-81 did not have the lower set of side "gills" and contrary to the kit`s instructions, the RAF Dark Earh-Dark Green camouflage extended on the underside of the fuselage. Only the undersides of the wings, stabilizers and nose (what was not painted yellow) were Sky Blue (similar to the RAAF sky-blue). Basically, it looked something like this:
http://www.cartula.ro/forum/index.php?app=core&module=attach&section=attach&attach_rel_module=post&attach_id=133504

Now, this is not the best picture, but it shows the IAR-81 no.91 which is present on the kit`s decal:
http://backend.brasovorasmagic.ro/istorie/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/2015-10-34-ISTORIE-IAR-80-maturoiul-romanesc-an-2015-autor-Catalin-Badulescu-foto-01.jpg
and these are also IAR 81 dive bombers, an amalgam from the various batches:
http://backend.brasovorasmagic.ro/istorie/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/2015-10-34-ISTORIE-IAR-80-maturoiul-romanesc-an-2015-autor-Catalin-Badulescu-foto-07.jpg

For a short break down of the IAR 80 variants there`s an old article on ipmmsstockholm written by Dan Antoniu, author of numerous aviation titles, including on the IAR 80

http://www.ipmsstockholm.org/magazine/2005/03/stuff_eng_iar80.htm

For a much more detailed technical work on the IAR 80 there`s Radu Brînzan`s book

http://mmpbooks.biz/ksiazki/267

Radu btw is a member of BM (radub) and his store has a forum here:

https://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/forum/115-radu-brinzan-productions/

 

I am hoping I have not annoyed anyone, especially spiton with this "dissertation".

Edited May 25, 2018 by Fin

[spiton]

4 hours ago, Fin said:

........WoW.  Fin thank You for many interesting information. I got two polish monography, about IAR 80/81. 20 mm cannons, its my improvisation ,-) But bubble over cannones , I  saw that at photos. May be not the same, but similar. I like fighters with solid cannones ,-)) It was a fast build. And I made a lot of  mistakes. I forget about pitot tube. I just do it now ,-).

 

[Terry1954]

Very nice IAR 81. I like the weathering a lot.

 

Thanks

 

Terry

[Fin]

Quote

But bubble over cannones , I  saw that at photos. May be not the same, but similar.

Yes, but not for this version. Something of this sort is on the IAR 80C that were armed with the Ikaria MG-FF/M 20mm cannons. Iirc, the first batch of 80C were initially meant to be 81 BoPi like you have done, but were built as fighters with more firepower.

Quote

It was a fast build.

I envy you for that. My first finished model was the IAR 80M variant of this kit and it was a looong, tearful process.

 

EDIT: btw how did you solve the poor fit between the canopy and fuselage?

Edited May 25, 2018 by Fin

[stevehnz]

My kit is of the IAR-80, this one

mostly the same plastic I think, but obviously after Fin's comments I will need to be careful as to the details, luckily I have the MMP book by Radu Brinzan so I feel I am in good hands there.

Steve.

[JWM]

You finish is really great and perfect photos! - very good model even if with some what if  hue...

J-W

 

[stevehnz]

On 5/26/2018 at 11:09 AM, stevehnz said:

I have the MMP book by Radu Brinzan

Confession time, it is in fact the SAM Aviation Guide by Radu I have not the larger, better & later MMP book by the same author on the same subject. Having just had another look through it, I reckon it'll be more than adequate for my purposes, as well as being very interesting.

Steve.

Edited May 26, 2018 by stevehnz

[Les Moore]

Silly question time...was every one of these planes painted the same??  I love the plane, and have built one many years ago, but I've never seen one in any other colors than these.

[Roman Schilhart]

17 minutes ago, Les Moore said:

Silly question time...was every one of these planes painted the same??  I love the plane, and have built one many years ago, but I've never seen one in any other colors than these.

 

According to the MMP book, all IARs delivered between 1940 to 1942 had a two-tone upper camoflage.

From 1942 to 1944 the upper surfaces were painted in dark olive green.

[Unfinished project]

Superb 👏👏👏👏

[RidgeRunner]

Nice, nice and nice again

 

Martin