KP Avia B.35 prototype

[stevehnz]

I bought this probably 6-7 years ago from the local auction site, from memory it was about NZ$7.00 plus a few dollars post from the local auction site so easily under £10.00. It is pretty basic but looks as though it should make up quite well. At first look there'll be some deflashing & dry fitting needed. At least the decals aren't yellowed & appear in good nick, they'll still get a coat of liquid decal film just in case. I do like the look of this scheme & it appears fairly accurate looking at reference photos available on line.

Steve.

[AdrianMF]

Looks like a nice kit. 
 

Regards,

Adrian

[stevehnz]

11 hours ago, AdrianMF said:

Looks like a nice kit. 
 

Regards,

Adrian

The in box review is favourable, it remains to be seen how the build review goes.

Steve

[Graham Boak]

I made mine last year (better late than never).  I don't recall any problems.  A fun kit to make.

[PlaStix]

Hi Steve and welcome to the GB. Great to have you here. That looks like an excellent choice of kit for this GB and I'm really looking forward to following your progress with it.

Kind regards,

Stix

[stevehnz]

Sorry for the lack of activity all, the last couple of months have been a bit of a whirl, it may or may not be coincidental with adopting a second Burmese kitten & since then, my time management seems to have gone down the tube, something to do with feeling I'm being held hostage most of the time.  

I have been doing a fair bit of thinking about this kit though & the odd little task from time to time. After agonising on what improvement I could make to the engine radiator area, I found the online references I could find for this area were very slim so in the spirit of the build have decided to do it as close to OOB as possible. The areas which could have been improved by detailing have been painted black so as to be as invisible as possible, this should also help to foil the see through effect, radiator opening to cockpit & vice versa, so some interior painting, some tape seat belts & tomorrow I hope to close it up. I'm going to have to start with the nose & work back, there is a fair amount of bow in each fuselage half, though the fit when together seems reasonable.

 

Steve.

[AdrianMF]

4 hours ago, stevehnz said:

as close to OOB as possible

It's a refreshing challenge! 

 

Regards,

Adrian

[stevehnz]

A bit more progress, the fuselage all buttoned up, I ended up extending the "radiator" to the top of the nose cavity & painting black. The engine cowl top was too wide so I sawed it down the middle, stuck it back together & glued it down. It seems to have worked quite well. Peeking through the gaping intake, there is a silver u-shape visible & nothing else much, Ok by me. The fuselage fit into the wings is exemplary, there'll be very little filler needed, the cockpit needs the turn over pylon installed & another couple of braces putting onto that from behind the seat then I can stick the canopy down & sand it to march the fuselage contour. There is a small crack at the rear of this but it will mostly be covered by paint. I can live with it, as long as it doesn't get worse. It really is quite an elegant shape, I like the prototype better than the production version, which had straighter wing leading edges & looks a bit more angular.

Steve.

[Ray S]

This is a very nice subject. I made quite a few of those old KP kits back in the 1980's and was very pleased with both the manufacturer and their subjects.

 

Ray

[stevehnz]

4 minutes ago, Ray S said:

This is a very nice subject

I agree, if I could resist over thinking it & just build it, it is not to bad. Certainly kits have moved on a bit but I've contended with worse than this.

Steve.

[JOCKNEY]

Hi Steve

Any chance of a bit of history on the type, it's not one I'm familiar with.

Looking great and surprisingly quick, are you practicing for the next Blitzbuild  ?

Cheers Pat 

[stevehnz]

6 hours ago, JOCKNEY said:

Hi Steve

Any chance of a bit of history on the type, it's not one I'm familiar with.

Looking great and surprisingly quick, are you practicing for the next Blitzbuild  ?

Cheers Pat 

A last post war development by Czechoslovakia, which was overtaken by the German occupation. RSmodel did these as well as KP. they also did the production B.135 version (all dozen or so of them) which served with the Bulgarian Air Force, one of the latter is supposed to have shot down a B-24, their only claim to fame/infamy afaik. @AntoineG did the RS kit very nicely, wish I'd seen it before this, some of the detail he has put in would have been useful.

Steve.

[PlaStix]

On 22/07/2021 at 12:45, stevehnz said:

Sorry for the lack of activity all, the last couple of months have been a bit of a whirl

No need to apologise Steve - I think a lot of us have been struggling to keep the modelling going for a variety of reasons........yours sounds like a fun reason!! I hope your cats are doing okay. Nice to see you have been able to make some progress with your build though!

Kind regards,

Stix

[Troy Smith]

On 29/05/2021 at 12:33, stevehnz said:

I do like the look of this scheme & it appears fairly accurate looking at reference photos available on line.

Neat choice Steve, only just spotted this one,  I find this era of aircraft evolution,  late 30's, especially from the smaller countries fascinating, over the years I've picked up various 1/48th kits of the family, an AZ of the 2nd prototypes, and very crisp looking vacforms by MPM of the 1st prototype and the B.135....  and then the MBI monograph on the type in sale, which has details of what scheme was applied when, so if you want anything confirmed I can have a look, it does have FS595 approximations to the colours I think (or one of the kits does) though given that KP were a Czechoslovak firm, I think they took a certain national pride in their local subjects.... wouldn't be surprised if there was even a subtle anti communist aspect to them as well as a pre war indigenous design of an independent nation....

cheers

T

 

 

[stevehnz]

Thanks Troy. I have managed to glean a reasonable amount of info on line but can't recall if that colour info was among it, at work just now. A download of a later boxing's instruction has given some Humbrol equivalents, I know the brown was given as 170, the old brown Bess colour I think, so I'll need a mix or equivalent for that but as long as it looks about right, I'm trying hard not to over think such things, more than I need to anyhow. I'll be sure to sing out if I need more/better info than I have.

Steve.

[Graham Boak]

1 hour ago, Troy Smith said:

Neat choice Steve, only just spotted this one,  I find this era of aircraft evolution,  late 30's, especially from the smaller countries fascinating, over the years I've picked up various 1/48th kits of the family, an AZ of the 2nd prototypes, and very crisp looking vacforms by MPM of the 1st prototype and the B.135....  and then the MBI monograph on the type in sale, which has details of what scheme was applied when, so if you want anything confirmed I can have a look, it does have FS595 approximations to the colours I think (or one of the kits does) though given that KP were a Czechoslovak firm, I think they took a certain national pride in their local subjects.... wouldn't be surprised if there was even a subtle anti communist aspect to them as well as a pre war indigenous design of an independent nation....

cheers

 

Can you please clear your message box, Troy, as  I can't send a message to you re the Xtradecal Hurricane Mk.I sheet and the MBI book.  Apologies to interfering with this thread, so I'll just add that last year I did the B.35 which went quite nicely with the Huma Ar,81,  AModel I-17 and a few other types of this (approx.) period.  I've also almost finished the B.135.  There's certainly a pot of potential in these "almost" types - he IBG P-11G Kobuz would have been bought but for having a P-24 and a Mercury engine spare for one, already.

[Troy Smith]

35 minutes ago, stevehnz said:

I'm trying hard not to over think such things,

Indeed. A very wise course of action!

If a later it gives Humbrol matches, given their origin, im sure TLAR..

28 minutes ago, Graham Boak said:

Can you please clear your message box, Troy, as  I can't send a message

OK, I'll drop you a line in a mo... apologies for delay.

[JOCKNEY]

Hi Steve

 

Can we have a picture of the new Bengal kitten, in the meantime here's our 6 ragdoll kittens when they were a few days old, now 2 weeks old,a real handful !

 

 

Cheers Pat

[stevehnz]

13 hours ago, JOCKNEY said:

Can we have a picture of the new Bengal kitten

Not quite kitten is as much as yours are, Jonesy, our younger Burmese, is a bit over 5 months old now, we got him at 3 months. I draw your attention to this post on the "Cats taking over thread", the darker one is Jonesy, the paler one is Marty, the first one we got, he is about 18 months old now, though even so, the younger one has established his place at the top of the pecking order, stroppy little git.

Steve.

[stevehnz]

Time for another update, finally put the cockpit to bed, other than some paint around the roll over structure which has been the stumbling block, really fiddly to put together with no locating points & in truth, it is somewhat of an approximation of what it was but looks OK to me. The wings went on a treat, the undercarriage not very exact in its location & needed some supervision before it decided to behave. I've started playing with colours, the box arts appear somewhat bright to me & unless anyone can convince me they're right or has more info on the colours in use by the Czechs at that time, I'm going to try & follow the colour calls only to a degree. The upper surfaces being described as Black Olive (suggestion Hu 66) Brown (suggestion Hu 170) & Ochre (suggestion Hu93) I thinking Hu 116 in place of Hu 66, Hu 29 with a bit of Hu 186 or 160 mixed it to give the reddish tinge the box arts seem to prefer & either Hu 93 or Tamiya XF 57 for the ochre. There is still a wee bit of filling to do before paint but very little at all.

Steve.

[PlaStix]

Hi Steve. Good to see you have been making some progress and it's looking great! Very smart work.  

Kind regards,

Stix

[stevehnz]

Hoping to get some colours on it in a couple of days.

Steve.

[Troy Smith]

6 hours ago, stevehnz said:

Hoping to get some colours on it in a couple of days.

Steve.

 

On 02/08/2021 at 13:28, stevehnz said:

I've started playing with colours, the box arts appear somewhat bright to me & unless anyone can convince me they're right or has more info on the colours in use by the Czechs at that time, I'm going to try & follow the colour calls only to a degree. The upper surfaces being described as Black Olive (suggestion Hu 66) Brown (suggestion Hu 170) & Ochre (suggestion Hu93) I thinking Hu 116 in place of Hu 66, Hu 29 with a bit of Hu 186 or 160 mixed it to give the reddish tinge the box arts seem to prefer & either Hu 93 or Tamiya XF 57 for the ochre.

FWIW Steve, the MBI B.35 book gives these approximations. The book is from 2003, so I don't know if more has come to light.   

 

Sand(light ochre) - FS16160

Dark Brown - FS 30040

Green - FS 34097 - which is apparently Humbrol 105 or Mr Hobby H340, Hu116 maybe too drab

light grey FS 16376

 

I don't know if this is much use, but may help give an idea of what you are looking for,   from googling the FS numbers, the brown is 'burnt umber' or 'chocolate',  the grey 'French Grey' and the Sand/light ochre is , erm, light ochre....

 

I just put Avia B.35 colours into google...  this is from the MBI book.  This drawing, (I referred to English captioned one) says FSfs 34095 BTW

 

I'd suggest a greener forest green, and a more redder chocolate brown....  I'd have a look at my FS595B deck, but it's dark here....    

 

this is a link to online colour chart, but I never find the screen colours on here much use

http://www.colorserver.net/showcolor.asp?fs=16160%2C+30040%2C+34097%2C+16376

 

HTH

[stevehnz]

Thanks for that Troy, yes, maybe 116 is a bit dark, I'll look at 105 or maybe 86 for the green. After I'd posted that I started to think in terms of a RLM 76 type under side though in 1939, was RLM 76 a thing even. I have a tin of Hu 147 which does an Ok job of a light grey with a slightly greenish tinge, that could be a candidate. & for the brown I was going to redden up the Hu 29 with some 186 probably. I think.   I will try them on a card before committing. Thank goodness I'm not over thinking this.

Steve.

[Troy Smith]

12 hours ago, stevehnz said:

for the brown I was going to redden up the Hu 29 with some 186 probably.

It's now day, a quick look at 30040,   it's pretty dark,  reminds me of Humbrol 98 'Chocolate' , the chip is like dark chocolate but less saturated, the IPMS stockholm list Tamiya XF-10 as a 'match' to H98.... 

 

16160 - tamiya XF-49 Khaki is in the area,  looking at the chip vs the paint in the jar.

 

 16376 - Tamiya XF-20 Grey, is in the area,  looking at the chip vs the paint in the jar , 16376 has a slight green hue, not blue.  

 

34095/34097 

97 is lighter greener version of 95.     Humbrol 86 is about the same tone as 95, but a lot greyer, h117 is slighly greyer than 97

Tamiya xf-58 in the jar is a bit greener, tamiya xf-67 NATO green in the jar is between 97 and 95.

 

These are just eyeball in indirect light,   but perhaps might be worth trying if you have them about.  I could have given some Vallejo eyeballs, but you seem to have mentioned Tamiya and Humbrol,  

 

I know I know, eyeballing paint in the jars from 'near' FS595....      Agama do specific Czech colour, but that's really not much help! 

 

Anyway, if you have these to hand you might want to give them a brush out,  

13 hours ago, stevehnz said:

Thank goodness I'm not over thinking this.

sorry if this does.....