Parnall Plover

[825]

I bough the this several years ago as I wanted to build a bundle of interwar FAA aircraft. I always left it as I was worried it was more difficult than I was able to build. I don't know why as I've built some Magna kits and this is a much more refined resin kit than anything Magna have made. The Plover was built to the same spec as the Flycatcher and although the Plover had better performance it was not as robust as the Flycatcher which went onto to be the Fleet fighter. Three Plover prototypes and 10 production aircraft were built and they served in 403 and 404 Flights of the FAA for a year or so before being replaced by Flycatchers. It is a very attractive aircraft and this hopefully will be a nice build. I will take it slow and sure. 

 

[Mjwomack]

Welcome, and that takes the Choroszy count in this GB to 3. I assume something went awry in the Polish/ English translateration as Plover became Prover🤩

[825]

5 hours ago, Mjwomack said:

Welcome, and that takes the Choroszy count in this GB to 3. I assume something went awry in the Polish/ English translateration as Plover became Prover🤩

Thanks MJW. I must admit I never noticed the spelling error before. The name's correct in the instructions (I think) so it's odd that it's on the box. 

 

This is the resin content if the box, three sealable bags, one with the fuselage halves, one with the wings and tail parts and a third with all the rest in. It's beautifully moulded, with minimal moulding blocks, although there's a little bit of resin membranes but they'll be easily removed. Overall the engineering is great, there are locating holes and pins formthe lower wings and there are two locating pins to join the fuselage which on a dry fit join almost perfectly. All the holes for the struts and undercarriage have been predrilled as well. Apart from the fact there's a fair amount of little parts for me to mess up with, overall it's rather lovely. 

 

 

One useful thing is the box has a bundle of packing chips which limit damage in transit of the smaller more fragile parts. 

 

 

Instructions and scale drawings. Pretty reasonable instructions but no colour call outs for details. I'll be asking if anybody has Humbrol equivalents for 'Rustle' later in the build. 

 

 

Transfers for two different serials. 

 

[825]

Made a start with trimming off the excess resin from the major parts and started with some paint. As I say above no colour call outs so for the interior going for Aluminium for the metal parts, wood for the wood and brick red for the canvas. If anybody has any info to the contrary let me know. With only 13 or 14 built there's not that many photos, and I haven't been able to find any interior ones. 

 

 

You can see how neat the fuselage is and the locating pins. 

[Spazman]

Great start!  I have a Plover in my stash.  Look forward to your progress!

 

Ted

[TonyW]

A type and a manufacturer that have been completely unknown to me, right up until this morning.

 

It does look like a very well made kit, I'll be following along in the background.

 

Tony.

[825]

On 3/22/2021 at 1:31 AM, Spazman said:

Great start!  I have a Plover in my stash.  Look forward to your progress!

 

Ted

Good to have you on the journey

 

On 3/22/2021 at 8:50 AM, TonyW said:

A type and a manufacturer that have been completely unknown to me, right up until this morning.

 

It does look like a very well made kit, I'll be following along in the background.

 

Tony.

There were only 13 or 14 made and I think it was the last model made by the Parnall company which made a number of aircraft for the RAF after the First World War, the Panther being the best known. 

 

A little more work done on the interior which is nearly ready for assembly. Needs some detail picked out and probably a wash to pull out the detail. 

 

 

Though found a problem, the pilot's seat was missing. No point in contacting the company as I bought this a long time ago from White Ensign Models who have since gone. So out with some plastic card and strip and we have this. I don't know how accurate it is but the cockpit is small and there's and upper wing obscuring part of it. 

 

 

 

 

[825]

The interior finished and ready to be installed. 

 

 

The engine doesn't look that good until it gets a coat of dry brushed Aluminium. 

 

 

Fuselage closed up , which is really good, I've had injection kits that are much worse. There is a small bit of filler needed on the bottom. 

 

 

The lower wings on. The locating pins and holes were useful but they were too fragile and broke off unfortunately. So I made some new ones from brass wire and they seem to have done the trick. I've done the same for the tailplanes 

 

[Edge]

Looks like a really neat little kit. I've been put off by it's size and the fact it's a short run resin but your efforts may tip me towards getting one of these!

 

Edge

 

[Ray S]

This is coming along very well indeed, I am highly impressed with the quality of the kit and how you are getting the best out of it.

 

@825, I know this is a silly question, but what did you use to glue the fuselage, and how did you apply it? This question is what has prevented me from attempting my Choroszy Martyside Elephant aircraft!

 

I have built a couple of resin ships in the past, but never done anything with a long joint like a fuselage and the techniques I use would not work with this.

 

Many thanks

 

Ray

Edited March 26, 2021 by Ray S
Tidy the post

[PeterB]

Hi Ray,

 

I used Araldite Epoxy on my 1.72 Manchester and it worked. Gives you enough time to adjust the fit.

 

Pete

[825]

15 hours ago, Edge said:

Looks like a really neat little kit. I've been put off by it's size and the fact it's a short run resin but your efforts may tip me towards getting one of these!

 

Edge

 

It is quite small, but really nicely engineered. All the larger parts fit really well with minimal work. Once I've cleaned the airframe up I'll paint it and then the challenge will be the smaller parts. Both the struts and undercarriage are quite delicate but here nicely moulded and there's location holes moulded in. So hopefully, should be OK. 

 

15 hours ago, Ray S said:

This is coming along very well indeed, I am highly impressed with the quality of the kit and how you are getting the best out of it.

 

@825, I know this is a silly question, but what did you use to glue the fuselage, and how did you apply it? This question is what has prevented me from attempting my Choroszy Martyside Elephant aircraft!

 

I have built a couple of resin ships in the past, but never done anything with a long joint like a fuselage and the techniques I use would not work with this.

 

Many thanks

 

Ray

@Ray S I used cyanoacrylate, it came from a cheap one bought in a bundle of 6 from Poundland. The airframe is small and dry fitting showed the fit was good so I wasn't too worried about having to do much in the way of adjusting. I smeared the glue thinly on the inner side of the mating surfaces on one side using the end of a pin. Then very carefully working from the rear, where there was a relatively large area, worked forward quickly aligning the upper side. Once everything was in place I then wicked some more glue down the joints. 

 

If the fit was going to be poor I would have tacked the joints round the cockpit and then worked down the fuselage rearwards and forward, wicking the glue into the joint as going along. Then do the underside. Not needed this time. 

 

On a large resin airframe, like @PeterB I would use 5 minute epoxy as it bears weight better than cyano. But the Plover is small and lightweight so cyano is strong enough. 

[Ray S]

@PeterB and @825, thank you both for that information, it will be very useful!

 

All the best both,

 

Ray

[825]

The airframe is complete and first coat of paint on. A little bit of tidying on the seam needed but not at all bad. 

 

[825]

Progress isn't slow, getting the seam on the bottom tidied out took much longer than expected which slowed the painting down. Now a couple of coats of Revell Aluminium on, needs another and then the nose masked off for the Black trim. All the photos I've managed to dig out of the Plover show a straight demarcation all the way round rather than the curved demarcation in the instructions. Which is good as it will be a lot easier. 

 

[825]

Some black paint on the front. I've started with matt but I think a Satin finish might be more appropriate, but that can wait until I'm happy with the Black coverage. 

 

[Ray S]

Wow, that is looking very good indeed!

 

Cheers,

 

Ray

[trickyrich]

On 3/27/2021 at 2:39 AM, Ray S said:

 

@825, I know this is a silly question, but what did you use to glue the fuselage, and how did you apply it? This question is what has prevented me from attempting my Choroszy Martyside Elephant aircraft!

 

 

Hi Ray, there are quite a few glues you can use, CA or Super Glue is the common stuff for resin, but Epoxy based ones can also be useful for big jobs though can be very messy and strangely sometimes a bit too slow too dry.

 

CA is generally the best though some can dry VERY quickly and once it's in place it's probably going to stay there forever! CA Gel glue with accelerator is a good option for filling gaps of fixing bits that may require careful aligning, once in position the accelerator will set the glue.

 

As @825 said the cheap stuff you get from the discount shops is a good way to go. I have a range of different CA glues, ranging for those cheap ones, different Gel types up to Tamiya's Extra Strong stuff. Each has their use on my resin and sometimes plastic builds.

 

Find yourself a nice basic resin model to start with (not a bi-plane ) and have a go, resin is actually a nice medium to work with (much easier to build than VacForm models) and assembly is very quick. I think you'll be quite surprised just how easy they are to build.

 

 

Gosh I'm quite surprised by the number of resin Bi-Planes we're seeing in this build, it's great to see even if the though of building a resin bi-plane scares me!

 

This one has come together really quickly and looks great, you're doing a lovely job of her, well done! 

 

[CliffB]

What a nice subject and build 

 

I'm always slightly amused by some of the bird names chosen for these British inter-war fighters.  I can understand something aggressive like Eagle of Falcon, but Plover?  Not as bad as the Boulton Paul Partridge though - a bird that is actually bred to be shot down 

[825]

On 4/3/2021 at 6:47 PM, Ray S said:

Wow, that is looking very good indeed!

 

Cheers,

 

Ray

Thanks Ray. 

 

On 4/3/2021 at 11:14 PM, trickyrich said:

 

Gosh I'm quite surprised by the number of resin Bi-Planes we're seeing in this build, it's great to see even if the though of building a resin bi-plane scares me!

I think this might be because for many of these interwar biplanes they're only available in resin. 

On 4/3/2021 at 11:14 PM, trickyrich said:

This one has come together really quickly and looks great, you're doing a lovely job of her, well done! 

 

Thanks, it's coming along albeit slowly. 

 

On 4/4/2021 at 6:55 AM, CliffB said:

What a nice subject and build 

 

I'm always slightly amused by some of the bird names chosen for these British inter-war fighters.  I can understand something aggressive like Eagle of Falcon, but Plover?  Not as bad as the Boulton Paul Partridge though - a bird that is actually bred to be shot down 

Thanks Cliff. Yes the Plover doesn't seem like a name to put the frightners on anybody. Parnall's reconnaissance bits that preceded the Plover was the Panther, a more aggressive name for a more sedate aircraft. 

 

[825]

The front end finished off, a couple of coats of matt black and a single coat of Klear. 

 

 

I've also started to put some paint to represent the leather coaming around the cockpit opening

[alt-92]

Have you figured out yet what the 'Rustle' is supposed to be?

 

[Ray S]

11 minutes ago, alt-92 said:

Have you figured out yet what the 'Rustle' is supposed to be?

 

 

Whatever it is, it is also on the Choroszy Elephant instructions! I got that kit out this afternoon, and was almost tempteted to start it for this GB!

 

Ray

[Mjwomack]

27 minutes ago, Ray S said:

 

Whatever it is, it is also on the Choroszy Elephant instructions! I got that kit out this afternoon, and was almost tempteted to start it for this GB!

 

Ray

Go on, you know you want to- resistance is futile unless you want to be shot at by a Plover. Yep it's true; it's not striking fear in your heart is it

[Patrik]

@Ray S Just noticed your build. Please have a look here:

 And here:

Old threads, not too many photos, additionally of rather poor quality, nevertheless I hope you will find some useful tips, especially concerning the central section and interplane struts position. If you like, I will make better photos and post here, but I will not hijack your thread without your consent.