RWD-6 - ZTS "Plastyk" 1/72 scale

fjaweijfopi4j48 · October 25, 2018

(I am posting this build from 5 years ago because I will start another release from this Polish manufacturer, the RWD-5, soon to be posted as WIP here):

Those nice little kits.
Not long ago I received a mysterious package from Lübeck, Germany. The sender’s address read: “Zönke - Evil Empire, Sekret Lair Unter Ze Volkano”. Intrigued –as the reader may have guessed- I opened the box and found a certain number of kits, of varied fur, quality and degrees of unbuildness. Some have been already started, some were pristine, some were arcane, some were known. Many treasures laid amidst or inside the battered boxes, bread crumbs, sandwich leftovers, insects, portraits of a woman called Helga and plans for death rays.
I selected one to start the pile, the object of this article.

I love nice little kits, even if they require, as it is certainly the case with this one, a small dose of love and care. The “Plastyk” Polish brand of kits was not totally unknown to me, although I had only the vague reminiscence of having seen an ad or two. They also released an RWD-5 and an RWD-8, among other subjects. Opening the box revealed the contents, which for the original –and current- price are a total bargain. The images that illustrate the article convey the idea of the items included: a number of detailed and not-so-well-molded parts, thick, scratched but not bad transparencies, a comprehensive decal sheet, extensive instructions, and a free visa to Poland, stamped in blue. Or may be that could be the quality control tag, who knows, I don’t speak Polish although I love Polish food. As you can see in the close-up images some effort was put in representing surface detail. There is plenty of it and even the fuselage internal sides have some detail. The fabric texture is just a tad off, and some raised panel lines are not really very subtle. You could sand them, over-prime them, or leave them as they are. There is an aftermarket photoetched set made by PART (PART S72026 1/72 RWD-6) that could be used to complement the nice kit, I didn’t think it was a must for me. Browsing the net showed a high number of these kits completed - some to a nice level of quality and detail - and posted, which is always a good sign.

The RWD-6, although in the right time-frame and mind frame, is not a subject that aligns with what I normally build (or should I say abnormally build), but it is a stress-free divertimento that I take as a relaxing vacation from the hardships of the life of the scratchbuilder. If you do an Internet search you will find plenty of background info and images. Perhaps its most famous appearance was in the Berlin Air Show of 1932.

As you start the kit some cleaning, refining and adjusting are in order, and perhaps a few parts should be better replaced with card stock, airfoil stock, or in some cases scratched; that is not really a necessity, but more of a personal choice. The wing panels’ trailing edges are a tad thick, so I sanded the aileron down on the intrados and separated the flaps, which allowed me to thin them down too.

Building notes:

The model presents two options. Single wing struts for the "-6", or “V” wing struts for "-6bis". Choose accordingly.

In photos I can see a bulkhead after the seats, closing the cockpit, absent in the model.

There are two protuberances on each wing tip that some modelers have mistaken for nav lights. They are actually wrongly-depicted tie-down holes, surely misinterpreted from a plan, since the holes are visible in photos.

The Engine shield has a cutout for some engine element. The kit part depicts the cutout but said element is not provided.

The kit does not provide instrument decals, but does present a little panel that goes on top of the coaming. Photos show both panels as having a black or dark grey background, three instruments for that little top panel and several for the "normal" panel bellow it.
The clear parts once glued showed to be a tad bigger than their fuselage contact surfaces in width, about half a millimeter each side.
The decals in this very old release I got are bad for many reasons (they may be better in current releases): the images are not good quality; for example, the edges of the registrations are a bit wobbly. The carrier is excessive (way beyond the images), thick and not really transparent. The decals take a long time to be released from their backing sheet, so be patient. They do not conform well to relief on the model's surfaces, even with decal solution. Trim your decals to eliminate as much carrier as you can.
The Stanavo logo on the decal sheet is the wrong color, it should have a red background.