Poles Apart - a PZL 'In Foreign Service' Tri-andem ride for your amusement! *2 down, 1 to go*

[Savenosouls]

20 hours ago, clive_t said:

Thanks very much for the offer, but I would like to try and make a mask for spraying it when the time comes. Incidentally, today I learned that the 'geometric pattern' does in fact signify a folded paper horse! This according to the armahobbynews.pl blog. Every day is a school day

 

Thanks again for your kind offer though

Bet the Armahobby version builds better than the Mistercraft one!!  🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

 

[clive_t]

On 5/27/2021 at 11:55 AM, Savenosouls said:

Bet the Armahobby version builds better than the Mistercraft one!!  🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

 

Without a doubt - I suspect carving it from balsa wood with a rusty spoon would also yield a better result than the MisterCraft version! Sadly, I am all out of balsa - and rusty spoons

 

Anyway, a small but significant step forward, with some positive implications for future projects - I managed to 3D print a pair of cockpit cradle sections from my own design! A bit tricky for an old dinosaur like me, but I managed with the assistance of Mr @lesthegringo to get a better understanding of what I was trying to achieve and how FreeCAD could facilitate it.

 

So, I was able to go from this:

 

 

... to this:

 

 

... which after a bit of tidying up gave rise to this:

 

 

You're absolutely right, I could indeed have made something similar in styrene; however the fact that I was able to produce a second, identical part in about 2 minutes with next-to-zero additional effort was, to me at least, quite gratifying

 

[clive_t]

A bit of work on something approximating to a detailed cockpit continued today, this time fashioned from the more traditional tactic of offcuts of styrene sheet, styrene rod, and some PE leftovers from the Karas:

 

 

I was about to apply some ribbing to the underside of the wing, when it occurred to me that I still needed to relocate the blisters that represent the cartridge ejection ports to be slightly closer to where the wing struts join the wings. To that end, I mixed up a little bit of 2-part mould medium and squashed it over the blister:

 

 

Once cured, I had this:

 

 

The aim is to fill the mould with liquid plastic (old sprues dissolved in some liquid poly), which when cured will form the replacement blister once I've cut the old one off. This is a technique that those who perused my 'Ju52/1m' thread will probably recall being used extensively to reproduce the corrugated interior and some new exterior sections. Well, if a trick works, why limit yourself to only using it once!

 

[clive_t]

The first of the two replacement blister mouldings:

 

 

... and here it is in situ:

 

 

As you can see, I've also added the underwing ribbing fashioned from some 0.3mm styrene rod, and cut the ailerons out so that I can reposition them in a slightly deflected position.

[clive_t]

A little more progress today, although it took me most of the day to do what is shown in this one photo:

 

 

I wasn't happy with how the scribed vents on the front of the fuselage looked, so I drilled them out. I also made a little gizmo to fix on the starboard side above the gun - no idea what it is, apart from it's on the aircraft in several old photos! Finally, and it's not that obvious from the photo, but I also pared down the chamfer on the front where the engine cowling will eventually go, to try and get the taper of the nose nearer what it should be. I still have a little bit of work to do there, but I will attend to that once the fuselage is zipped up.

 

All in all I am quite pleased with how today went

 

[clive_t]

Afternoon folks, another update following a modest flurry of activity at several points around the subject.

 

The underside ribbing on the main wing is now complete:

 

 

The hand-cranked cockpit detail is now looking reasonable if not entirely true to reality:

 

 

On the subject of being true to reality, I have been once again greatly amused (as so often in the past) by the cosmic abyss that exists between how MisterCraft kit parts look compared with their representation in the instructions! In this case, the fitting of the rear stabilisers:

 

 

It will come as no surprise to other MisterCraft victims that the above two parts are nowhere near compatible! The instructions, by contrast, make great diagrammatic efforts to convince me that there is no stupidly large hole in the tail structure, and that the rear stabiliser just magically joins on to the fuselage as it might actually do on any sensible kit! It did fit - eventually, following a sustained and frenzied scalpel attack on that monstrous lug at the root of the stabiliser. Once that was done, I was then able to add some ribbing to the underside of each stabiliser, and score the moulded flap lines so that I could gently fold them to a downward deflection:

 

 

Next up, and after a waft or two with some suitable interior colour, I hope to fit the office into the fuselage and get the thing zipped up.

[ModelingEdmontonian]

1 hour ago, clive_t said:

Afternoon folks, another update following a modest flurry of activity at several points around the subject.

 

The underside ribbing on the main wing is now complete:

 

 

The hand-cranked cockpit detail is now looking reasonable if not entirely true to reality:

 

 

On the subject of being true to reality, I have been once again greatly amused (as so often in the past) by the cosmic abyss that exists between how MisterCraft kit parts look compared with their representation in the instructions! In this case, the fitting of the rear stabilisers:

 

 

It will come as no surprise to other MisterCraft victims that the above two parts are nowhere near compatible! The instructions, by contrast, make great diagrammatic efforts to convince me that there is no stupidly large hole in the tail structure, and that the rear stabiliser just magically joins on to the fuselage as it might actually do on any sensible kit! It did fit - eventually, following a sustained and frenzied scalpel attack on that monstrous lug at the root of the stabiliser. Once that was done, I was then able to add some ribbing to the underside of each stabiliser, and score the moulded flap lines so that I could gently fold them to a downward deflection:

 

 

Next up, and after a waft or two with some suitable interior colour, I hope to fit the office into the fuselage and get the thing zipped up.

Wow, wow, wow. Your patient attention to detail is quite something... looks very impressive!

[clive_t]

On 6/9/2021 at 7:40 PM, ModelingEdmontonian said:

Wow, wow, wow. Your patient attention to detail is quite something... looks very impressive!

Thanks Mr Edmontonian, much appreciated.

 

I have made a little more progress over the past few days. Most notably the cockpit cage is now more or less done, with the addition of one set of the PE seat belts I obtained right at the start. I also applied a wash to the fuselage interior as well as the cockpit itself, to give a little more visual interest:

 

 

OK it doesn't look much, but that little photo encapsulates about a day's work overall!

[clive_t]

A small but significant step forward today, but first a few embellishments courtesy of a painted PE instrument panel (with bezel) sourced from the Big H when I obtained my second set of decals recently:

 

 

You might just be able to discern that I also added a scratch-built compass that sits in the middle, to the rear of where the gap is at the top of the IP:

 

 

So with that, the promised significant step forward - the zipping up of the fuselage halves:

 

 

One other small embellishment may be noticed here: the grab handles either side of the cockpit at the front (made from short lengths of 0.3mm styrene rod).

[clive_t]

Another day or so of 'bits and pieces' yesterday and today - the wings had their armaments upgraded to something less blob-like:

 

 

Meanwhile, the funny hatch-like thing underneath the fuselage between the undercarriage struts (looks like some kind of inspection hatch for the back of the engine, or something like that) was fashioned from some thin styrene sheet cut in a 10mm diameter circle:

 

 

Finally this evening, I fixed the rudder and the horizontal stabilisers in place:

 

 

I am now turning my attention to the engine and the cowling, but not before tomorrow sadly.

[Savenosouls]

It would seem you can polish a turd!

[TheyJammedKenny!]

Nicely done on this!

[clive_t]

19 hours ago, Savenosouls said:

It would seem you can polish a turd!

Haha, my preference is to roll it in oatmeal and call it a Granola bar

 

18 hours ago, TheyJammedKenny! said:

Nicely done on this!

Thanks Mr Kenny!

 

More, if somewhat sporadic, progress on this yesterday, and this morning - the engine and the inner nose cone thing have received a coat of Tamiya gunmetal, while the fuselage has received further PE adornments:

 

 

Belatedly, i.e. this morning, I found out that the cartridge ejector ports under the wings actually had chutes fitted on them, presumably to force the ejected cartridges even further away from the fuselage. So I cut some small lumps off one of the sprues to form my own:

 

 

Still, at least I found out now rather than after!

 

Before I fit the wing to the fuselage, I want to make a proper (ie more feasible) head rest, which will probably require some Milliput. That is for another time though.

[blueYeti]

Interesting built, mate ! 

 

Head rest will be quick and easy for You...   🤣

 

pictures from internet

[clive_t]

Thanks @blueYeti and thanks for the very interesting photo

[clive_t]

Morning folks, more updates including the new headrest, which started life as a piece of thin styrene sheet cut to an approximate outline:

 

 

I figured it would be better to apply Milliput to this rather than direct to the model, as the prospect of having to fish out numerous errant lumps of putty was not one I cared to contemplate!

 

So with that, a small (but still too big!) amount of Milliput was mixed and applied - eventually:

 

 

OK it looks a bit ragged, but it's a start. Once the putty had cured, I was then able to glue the whole thing to the fuselage, and apply some filler here and there:

 

 

A lick of paint when the time comes, should see that right.

 

Finally for now, another small item was struck from the to-do list - the wheels had some modest detail added:

 

 

Nearly wing-fitting time...

[clive_t]

Morning folks, well as promised the wing is now on:

 

 

So, that's some good news... now, it wouldn't be a genuine MisterCraft offering if there were not some bad news to rein our cautious optimism back to normal levels - and I am talking in this case about this:

 

 

This is what MisterCraft would have us believe is the wind-shield 'clear part'. Suffice it to say, that if PZL had selected frosted glass as a design feature for the real thing, then in this kit MisterCraft would have absolutely nailed it! I don't know about you but I personally can't see it, unless PZL were anxious to preserve the modesty of the enemy aircrew as they indulged their penchant for flying around in the nude! So, this part is basically bin fodder.

 

Fortunately, I have two things going for me on this: firstly, the geometry of the part is fairly linear, in that there are no compound curves to worry about. Secondly, I have some experience of making my own canopy from folding a suitably shaped piece of clear acetate, from my exploits with the Ju52/1m a while back.

 

So firstly, I made a mockup from some scrap styrene sheet:

 

 

That was then carefully flattened out to form a template, and placed on a sheet of clear acetate with some masking tape covering it:

 

 

I then used a needle to make small holes at each point on the template, and used the holes to direct the cutting of the shape from the clear acetate:

 

 

Finally, the clear copy was folded up, and glued with Gorilla Glue Clear:

 

 

I still need to add a framework made from 0.3mm styrene rod, but I need to let the glue dry first, and maybe tidy it up a little.

 

But, another step forward!

 

 

[TheyJammedKenny!]

Brilliant job on that windscreen!  I would have used clear Evergreen Styrene, because it doesn't yellow over time.  

[clive_t]

2 hours ago, TheyJammedKenny! said:

  I would have used clear Evergreen Styrene, because it doesn't yellow over time.  

Interesting, I had no idea such a thing existed! I shall have to investigate further, thanks for the heads up

[clive_t]

Another faltering step forward today - the undercarriage legs have been fitted, along with a scratch-built tail skid - as with the Karas, the kit part was a blob of nothingness, so had to go:

 

 

Dangerously close to painting now - oh, and there's the engine/cowling/prop to finish too.

[clive_t]

Yesterday's progress was to mask the underside in preparation for painting:

 

 

Then today I set about applying the 'Polish khaki' colour:

 

 

To those people far more knowledgeable than I, who are even now audibly wincing, or sucking their own teeth in anguish, take heart - I couldn't find it within me to wade through all the evidence, opinion, judgements as to the true nature of the colouration for this particular aircraft. I acknowledge the fact that it did vary with time throughout the 30s, however I've simply chosen to avoid spending a huge amount of time on research - if it's wrong, it's wrong!

 

For anyone interested, it's actually good old Tamiya Flat Earth XF-52!

[TheyJammedKenny!]

Looks fine to me, but you might want to apply another coat to darken it just a bit, maybe add a few drops of olive or RLM71 if you've got it on hand.

[clive_t]

Thanks, I appear to have missed a couple of places, so I will try again over the weekend with a thin spray of a slightly modified version of the colour.

[clive_t]

This morning's attempt: more Flat Earth with a modest contribution from my pot of Tamiya Olive Drab XF-62. Sprayed at low pressure with a restricted pull-back on the trigger (to limit the damage in case I went too stupid with it), this is the result:

 

 

It's probably not that obvious in the image, due to differing light conditions and a somewhat overzealous camera app on my new phone, but it does look to have improved somewhat

 

I think this is as far as I will get over this weekend, but at least it will have some time to dry!

[TheyJammedKenny!]

Looks great to me!  Nice job with it.