KP Models Polikarpov R-1 (KPM0313) 1:72

[Mike]

Polikarpov R-1 (KPM0313)

1:72 Kovozávody Prostějov

 

 

The DH.9A light bomber that the R-1 was a copy of, was the successful offspring of its underpowered and disliked DH.9, resulting from a strengthening of the airframe and replacement of its weakling Puma engine with the V12 Liberty unit that put out an impressive 400hp for the time.  As the name suggests was an American product, used as the intended Rolls Royce option was in short supply at the time.  Ironically, the prototype flew with a Rolls Royce power plant as the Liberty wasn’t yet available, but it eventually entered service in early 1918 with the RAF sporting the American engine.  It served on after the war, becoming the de facto standard light bomber in British service, with almost 2,000 rolling off the production lines during the two years that they were running.  They were opened up again due to foreign orders and conversions of the earlier DH.9s, while the newly minted Soviet Union began making their own unlicensed copies as the Polikarpov R.1, although their power plants varied widely from airframe to airframe.

 

In British service as the standard light bomber, the type remained on charge until the beginning of the 30s, which shows how staggeringly unprepared for WWII the British were at that point.  During this period they served all over the British Empire and assisting Russia’s incumbent Czarists, where a squadron of airframes were left behind during the Russian Revolution, possibly acting as patterns for Polikarpov’s engineers.  The R-1s stayed in service with the Soviets around the same length of time as it did in British service, while the projected service of license-built DH.9As in the US was cancelled after the end of the war, but not before they had experimented with changing the aircraft substantially to suit their needs, and managed to set the first world altitude record in the process, flying from Ohio in 1921.

 

 

The Kit

This is another boxing of the new tooling from Kovozávody Prostějov but in Soviet colours and covered in red stars.   It arrives in a medium-sized end-opening box, with one large sprue inside, plus a large sheet of decals and the instruction booklet that also serves as instructions for the original Airco DH.9A, so ensure you follow the correct steps for this boxing.  Detail is good, and moulding crisp with not a shadow of flash on the sprue, while the engraved panel lines, raised details and the ribbing detail on the wings is perfect for the task in hand.

 

 

Construction begins with the cockpit, which revolves around the extensive floor that takes the comfy pilot’s seat and the gunner’s bench seat both with decal lap belts; additional ammo containers; a box that represents a camera that was sited behind the observer’s position on frame 10 of the aircraft; The instrument panels; control columns and rudder bars.  Before the fuselage is closed around the cockpit, a two-part platform with detail on the underside is inserted under the exhaust outlets to represent the sump of the engine, painted in black, grey and with a wooden surround.  The front of the fuselage is closed up by inserting the radiator in and under the nose, then the single-span elevator with twin supports is added to the top of the tail, followed by the rudder and tail skid.

 

 

 

The lower wings are each single parts and have excellent ribbing detail moulded-in, fitting on pegs that slot into matching holes in the bottom of the fuselage sides, with a dihedral engineered into each wing that should see the tips 5mm higher than the root, as per the accompanying scrap diagram.  Various accessories are dotted around the top of the engine cowling and the deck in front of the pilot, plus his asymmetric machine guns on both sides of his position.  At the rear, the observer is supplied with a ring mount and a Lewis gun on a curved riser, after which the pilot has his tubular gunsight placed on the deck, and a set of curved exhausts inserted into the holes in the sides of the cowling, pushing the efflux from combustion away from the crew in the process.  An optional chin radiator is fixed to the underside of the engine, and while it is upside down, the bombs can be made up on their racks and glued to the lower wing using the red lines on the diagrams to locate them precisely, plus the larger bomb on a pylon that you will need to add some 0.3mm wire to, in order to complete the assembly.  The smaller bombs are single parts, but the larger belly-mounted bomb is moulded in two halves to avoid sink-marks.

 

There appear to be two steps missing from this initial batch of instructions, as the step numbers rise from 8 directly to 11 on either side of the same page. I’ll let KPM know, but from what I can make out, the missing steps include adding aileron actuators on the upper wings, and a cooling flap under the nose, and also seems to be a curved wind deflector missing, but it doesn’t look like the one in the instructions, so I’m a little confused. 

 

We’ll ignore the rigging (mostly), but rest assured that the instructions contain diagrams showing where the wires should be, and there are quite a few, so make sure you have plenty of your chosen thread to hand before you start.  There are four interplane struts and two cabane struts supporting the upper wing, plus a pair of skids under the lower wings, and unbelievably the aircraft even carries a spare wheel under the observer’s station.  The landing gear is sturdy, with two splayed V-shaped struts that rest on an aerodynamically faired axle that accept the wheels on each end, with a two-bladed prop inserted into the hole in the radiator, painted in wood grain, which sounds easy.  The penultimate page of the instructions shows the rigging locations, and suggest 0.3mm thread or wire as your weapon of choice.  The last page contains five profile drawings that could be of use when rigging the model, although two side profiles are duplicated, when I suspect a front view would have been of more use.

 

 

Markings

As seems usual with Kovozávody Prostějov kits, there are three decal options on the sheet with lots of red stars and patriotic slogans, and from that you can build one of the following:

 

 

 

The decals are well-printed in good register, with a thin glossy carrier film close to the printed edges for the most part, but with a few that are a little larger.  This shouldn’t cause too much of an issue however, as the film is thin and has a relatively soft edge.  There are seatbelt decals on the sheet, which should add a little realism to your finished cockpit.

 

 

Conclusion

It’s a well-detailed kit of this copy of a surprisingly long-lived and widely used aircraft that was colloquially known as the Ninak by the British crews and mechanics.  Whether the Soviets had any nicknames, who knows?

 

Highly recommended.

 

 

Review sample courtesy of

 

[Eddie_C96]

It s a pity that opition 3 decals are VERY wrong.

What is even more suprising that the same palne was done (almost) correctly by WnW in 1/32.