Czech, mate! Avia B.534 Series I, Eduard 1/144

[marvinneko]

This seems a good excuse to revisit my box of Avia B.534s. I did one for Xmas Blitzbuild 2023 and still have three left. Did #4. Might do the first scheme this time.

 

Last time I did do rigging but with resin glue. Mixed results.

 

This time I think I would try thinning out the trailing edges of the various flying surfaces (which look pretty thick) and cut and deflect the control surfaces. I might try rigging differently.

 

 

[Marklo]

Welcome to the GB

[marvinneko]

Or might try this scheme and paint markings and scratch skis

 

http://www.wardrawings.be/WW2/Images/2-Airplanes/Axis/4-Others/Slovakia/1-Fighters/Avia-B534-3/p1.jpg

 

EDIT this is for next series 4 but top and bottom wing info is shown

http://www.wardrawings.be/WW2/Images/2-Airplanes/Axis/4-Others/Slovakia/1-Fighters/Avia-B534-4/p1.jpg

 

EDIT another portrayal... 

 

https://pin.it/PYsq4enEB

[ModelingEdmontonian]

13 hours ago, marvinneko said:

Or might try this scheme and paint markings and scratch skis

 

http://www.wardrawings.be/WW2/Images/2-Airplanes/Axis/4-Others/Slovakia/1-Fighters/Avia-B534-3/p1.jpg

 

EDIT this is for next series 4 but top and bottom wing info is shown

http://www.wardrawings.be/WW2/Images/2-Airplanes/Axis/4-Others/Slovakia/1-Fighters/Avia-B534-4/p1.jpg

 

EDIT another portrayal... 

 

https://pin.it/PYsq4enEB

Cool! I know you're good at scratch building and seem to enjoy it but let me know if you want the spare skis from my 1/144 Gladiator kit?

[marvinneko]

8 hours ago, ModelingEdmontonian said:

Cool! I know you're good at scratch building and seem to enjoy it but let me know if you want the spare skis from my 1/144 Gladiator kit?

 

Thanks for the offer. They seem simple enough to make so I'll just hack some together  . If you post some pix of them though, that might be helpful.

[ModelingEdmontonian]

On 6/28/2025 at 6:07 PM, marvinneko said:

so I'll just hack some together 

I figured, sounds good to me. 

 

On 6/28/2025 at 6:07 PM, marvinneko said:

If you post some pix of them though, that might be helpful.

These are them--resin and include two forward skis and a little rear ski.

 

[Corsairfoxfouruncle]

The Avia is an interesting aircraft. Ive considered the bigger version of this kit a few times myself. 

[marvinneko]

Well it turns out that this 4 planes kit only has one sprue suitable for the Slovak ski plane and I already used it years ago. So, I'll make the early version of the plane version shown here, which is the first of four sprues.

 

I may give in and just do the kit decals here (boo!) or I may try the markings and wing top gun camera (black blob on lower starboard wing near fuselage) of this plane from the Profile Publications book (badly AI colorized... colours swapped on the rudder roundel)

 

Tonight got a start with cutting and cleaning bits. I had some regrets from my Blitzbuild from this set: not thinning trailing edges of wings and control surfaces, and not cutting out the control surfaces and deflecting them. So, here I've thinned the edge of and cut out the rudder....

 

And here (below the bits made ready for primer/paint) I've thinned the two elevators' trailing edges and cut one out...

 

The benefit of 1/144 -- there is a lot less plastic so thinning and cutting are a lot faster. I used my Tamiya scribing saw for this fine work.

 

So my goal here is making this bird seem more delicate and alive than the last one I built  

[marvinneko]

Today I read Ocean Bridge for awhile... amazing story of establishing Ferry Command in WW2 to fly planes from manufacturers in the USA to Canada, and then on to Britain. Brave men. Crazy conditions. Breathing oxygen through a rubber tube at 18k feet with wings icing and engine dodgy. Ignorance of a quirk in the plane such as the oil cooling system in the Hudson ... plus crew and passenger not following instructions about where to sit and belt in, or to bale out... could lead to tragedy.... the death of Frederick Banting after a crash in Newfoundland.

 

Then some work on the Avia. Hopped onto the PC to draft some masks for painting: the 6E and E6 for the sides, and the various Czech roundels... this will allow me to paint the codes for the plane I found and adjust roundels for the deflected ailerons, because the roundels go over the hinges. I added them along the bottom of a sheet of masks I am making for five other planes.

 

 

Cut the other elevator and the ailerons. Ailerons will need some styrene grafted back on to fill gaps... I've sanded down the rib detail and thinned all the trailing edges.

 

Primed black then sprayed silver on the internals...

 

Painted cushion... added tape belts (later discovering decal belts on the decal sheet... missed these twice now). Drilled out paddle for control stick.

 

Glue various bits together... here you can see the instruments decal on the IP. The decal was way too big and wouldn't stick at all. So I zapped it with a few dabs of Tamiya extra thin. The decal conformed nicely. Wow!

 

Yes, we'll be able to see inside... this is an open cockpit plane... I think these belts are better than decals.

 

Glued rudder on at an angle. Then a dry fit of lower wings.

 

I'd like to drill out those exhausts... they are tiny. And the ends are slippery. I have bits that might work but I'll need to establish a guide divot first.

[Marklo]

3 hours ago, marvinneko said:

I'd like to drill out those exhausts... they are tiny. And the ends are slippery. I have bits that might work but I'll need to establish a guide divot first.

For stuff that tiny I  find it’s easier to start the hole with a fresh scalpel blade then open it out with a small drill bit. 
 

love the build btw.

[marvinneko]

On 21/09/2025 at 02:04, Marklo said:

For stuff that tiny I  find it’s easier to start the hole with a fresh scalpel blade then open it out with a small drill bit. 
 

love the build btw.

 

Thanks, Mark. I tried with a real medical scalpel. It's so tiny and the plastic kicked up so much fluff it was a challenge to see what was going on.... but I got somewhere  

 

🚶‍♂️

Sunday wife had a birthday lunch out and some shopping for Asian treats, so I was on escort duty and rewarded with some fine tuna sushi. A couple months ago, I wasn't so sure she would be ok. Mind-blowing to be slipping back into old habits. All those weeks of recovery seem like a dream now.

 

Tonight's challenge was opening up the tiny exhausts on the Avia. I have 3x magnifiers but I decided to give the ipad on a stand a try to give me some distance and comfort. Here you can see the initial holes... (starting small and then a bigger micro-bit). Messy!

 

And then moving back and forth between bits, deepening and widening holes, dosing with tamiya extra thin (and regretting it... even a tiny bit was too much... maybe quick dry might've been better), then more drilling, scraping and sanding... Perhaps AdrianMF would build a jig to ensure the holes lined up. Alas... I dove right in 😛 

 

And then back to regular view

 

Well, it's more interesting than it was, so that's a plus. They should be more oval. Maybe I can adjust them.

 

Maybe I'll do the other side tomorrow.

[marvinneko]

adrianMF provided some helpful tips for flattening and cutting exhausts. I did try flattening my brass tube using a jig but didn't have much success. I cut some thin bits of tube and CA'd them to the plane but they fell off.  

 

OK... drilled the holes a lot bigger... and cut longer segments of tube (which I subsequently cut in half before installing)

 

Dipped them in CA and slid them in their holes... then filed them down and sanded.

 

Not horrible. I think if I had the right tool I could squeeze the ends to be a bit ovalish.

 

Looks like needs a bit of clean up.

 

 

[AdrianMF]

Looking good!

 

The kit looks phenomenal. I have the 1/72 version in need of a KUTA (built mainly in parallel with a KP one (which got finished) earlier this year) which is amazing, and this one looks to be just as detailed at half the size! Somewhat ironically, I thought about replacing the exhausts on the 1/72 version but decided to go with the kit plastic...

 

Regards,

Adrian

 

 

[marvinneko]

1 hour ago, AdrianMF said:

Looking good!

 

Thanks, Adrian

 

1 hour ago, AdrianMF said:

The kit looks phenomenal. I have the 1/72 version in need of a KUTA (built mainly in parallel with a KP one (which got finished) earlier this year) which is amazing, and this one looks to be just as detailed at half the size!

 

Yes, it's nicely detailed which is probably why I felt some pressure to put more effort into this one than my blitzbuild. Some of our 1/144 members have done some amazing stuff! 

 

1 hour ago, AdrianMF said:

Somewhat ironically, I thought about replacing the exhausts on the 1/72 version but decided to go with the kit plastic...

 

It's one of those things where my curiosity about if I could do it created an interesting challenge, particularly after your post  . 

 

Tonight, a bit of cleanup. Scraped CA away from exhausts, then squished the round tubes a bit with a side cutting nail clipper to get a more oval look. For top wing, added some styrene strips to fill gaps from my aileron cuts.

 

Next, need to do the other side and get some symmetry 😛 

 

I do plan to rig this... if I can do it for a blitz, I can do it better now. Perhaps fitting struts to the wings for alignment, gluing thread into the fuselage holes, fitting the aligned struts into those holes with glue... that would secure one end of the threads. Then remove wings from aligned struts and glue other end of threads to the tops of the struts before fitting wings back.

[marvinneko]

Tonight, a little 600 grit sanding to scuff up some surfaces. Then I drilled out the six exhausts on the other side and superglued some little pipes. Dry fitted wings and tailplanes to get a sense of things... That fin looks a bit squarish along the front....

 

Looks interesting  . I considered scribing those vents (90 of them???) but I think I will just use a wash. I dunno. They could use a little tweak.... Even those square plates might benefit from a scribe around them.

 

Oops... forgot gun camera on top of the lower wing. Need to scratch one up!

 

... and then I need to think through stuff.

 

1. round edges of fin?
2. dry fit tailplanes with tail struts, then glue
3. glue on elevators tilted down
4. prime and paint everything (including markings) with ailerons taped (need to paint czech roundels overlapping ailerons, then deflect after)
5. then glue ailerons at opposite angles
6. glue ends of rigging into holes in fuselage and lower wing
7. use wings as a jig for the struts and dry fit whole assembly onto fuselage
8. apply glue to secure lower wings
9. apply glue to lower ends of struts in fuselage and lower wing, which also secures lower ends of rigging
10. remove upper wing
11. glue top ends of rigging onto tops of struts
12. replace upper wing onto struts and glue
13. landing gear
14. windshield

[Marklo]

For such a little plane that’s a long list 😀

[marvinneko]

17 hours ago, Marklo said:

For such a little plane that’s a long list 😀

 

True. Trying to make the most of it  

 

Tonight, a few tiny steps. 

 

Sanded the leading edge of the fin to round it a bit. Glued the tailplanes and elevators. Decided to go ahead and glue the ailerons slightly deflected now... I can't cut my paint masks for awhile because the cutter is booked for days. Some plastic putty to reduce the gaps for all the cut and glued control surfaces.

 

the tail struts took some work to clean up and fit into the holes with my tweezers... a strut spun off but I got down on the floor and just wiped my hand on the hardwood and there it was. Lucky! Putting on the magnifiers helped a lot with lining strut to hole.

 

Unfortunately, the skid broke off at some point. Oops.

 

 

The list shortens... the list lengthens 😛 

1. prime and paint everything
2. glue ends of rigging into holes in fuselage, gear, lower wing
3. use wings as a jig for the struts and dry fit whole assembly onto fuselage
4. dry fit landing gear struts
5. apply glue to secure lower wings
6. apply glue to secure landing gear struts
7. apply glue to lower ends of struts in fuselage, gear, lower wing, which also secures lower ends of rigging
8. remove upper wing
9. glue top ends of rigging onto tops of struts
10. replace upper wing onto struts and glue
11. windshield
12. fix skid!

 

[marvinneko]

Today I chased my tail a bit figuring out sequencing. 

 

First thing was adding little actuator arms for the ailerons. Tiny bits of stretched sprue. First one went on ok but lost a few before got second one done.

 

Assembled the landing gear struts...  originally I thought I could use fine thread for rigging and I put it in the holes for the landing gear then glued the gear together. The thread was too delicate and though it sort of worked, it broke. So I glued the gear and the lower wings.

 

Decided to go ahead and fit the wing struts. I used the top wing to align them and glued the bottoms in place. Cabane strut was not cooperative, so I had to drill the hole bigger.

 

Removed top wing so I could drill fine holes for rigging. Drilled hole above main landing gear struts, in wing roots....

 

Drilled fine holes beside front struts in wings... on fuselage top in four places....

 

And holes drilled on the bottom of the top wing in six spots... not sure if I can trim and fit rigging into holes at both ends, but I'll give it a try

 

This is fine earphone wire from cheapie dollar store earphones. I cut segments ready to glue....

 

Then I glued the bottoms ends of the rigging into the various drilled holes...

 

Then I decided to glue on the top wing. Originally I thought I would use fine thread and glue it to the tops of the struts to cheat... but since I am using wire I will try to trim the rigging and fit it into the top holes under tension somehow.

 

I think that is a tomorrow task.

 

I am hopeful that careful trimming, then using my fine tweezers I can fit and glue the top ends.

 

Ha ha ha.

 

Maybe!

 

Then I will prime and paint the whole thing (wheels and prop separately).

 

I'd like to paint the roundels and squadron codes but I can't cut masks for a few days.

 

[ajmm]

I finished this same kit a month or so ago and loved it. It’s beautifully done and you’re making super progress. 

[marvinneko]

18 hours ago, ajmm said:

I finished this same kit a month or so ago and loved it. It’s beautifully done and you’re making super progress. 

 

Thanks very much!

 

I'm afraid I got a dose of tunnel vision with this kit. Initially I had great intentions of painting then assembling. But I couldn't get my masks cut on the weekend, and then I was concerned about paint filling the rigging holes I drilled. I suppose I wanted to see the plane and not have to wait days for masks.

 

Hm. Well, here's the wire rigging glued in place.

 

Here's the primer...

 

And here's some paint. "Interior green" and a couple shades of brown on the prop.

 

Tricky bits (tho I am no stranger to tricky masking and at 5psi on the airbrush, I don't anticipate problems)

 

- exhaust strips in burnt metal then rusted

- guns painted gunmetal

- copper segment on bottom fuselage

- silver bottom of fuselage and wings (not sure if I should have a green overlap edge)

- tires black

- prop

--hub coloured

--prop wood grain using oils

--prop masked stripes

- oil weathering

[marvinneko]

Life would've been easier painting then assembling. That was the original plan but I suppose I went a little all or nothing because the markings would have to wait. I tend to over estimate the damage from glue and putty. But I suppose fixing that would be simpler in the long run.

 

Masking and painting engine exhausts... burnt iron and some rust red

 

Painted bottom silver... this was so silly and will need some green touchups....

 

From a distance, not so bad... prop needs more work. Silver is not a great texture. It is thinned but not a lot and this was 5 psi

 

Rigging at 1/144 still not my thing

 

Rear shot shows the control surfaces. This angle I like as it looks interesting and fits my desired tone and action

[Corsairfoxfouruncle]

2 hours ago, marvinneko said:

Rigging at 1/144 still not my thing

 

Your rigging in 1/144th would be better than mine in 1:1 scale. 

[marvinneko]

21 hours ago, Corsairfoxfouruncle said:

Your rigging in 1/144th would be better than mine in 1:1 scale. 

 

That's very kind, thanks. I'll try to tweak it. It seems I've already broken one end off 😛 

 

So the plane looked too green to me. And I needed to fix overspray on the struts. So... masking

 

And more masking... then added some green brown over this interior green. Fixed some areas but mucked up exhausts a bit... but prob not matter if I add some staining

 

You can see the struts repainted here... Also masked for the copper plates on the bottom and painted that strip

 

This colour in reality seems a better match for the profile in the kit. Here I've also done some work on the prop but it needs stripes and a painted hub and copper leading edges.

 

In profiles, the hubs and wheel covers might be yellow or other colours. No idea for my b&w photo.

 

I dunno. I'm not thrilled with this. Vague temptation to rip out rigging 🤔 and replace it with thread again.

 

I'll keep plugging along for now.

 

- paint guns

- paint stripes on prop

- improve woodgrain on prop w diff brush

- choose colour for hub and wheel covers and paint 

- paint markings (roundels, squadron code)

- decals for stuff I won't paint

- oil wash

- hint of exhaust on pipes and strip

[marvinneko]

When I called the library fab studio they said the cutter was out of vinyl and they didn't know when it would be restocked.

 

Bummer.

 

I gave some thought to using the decals. But I just couldn't do it.

 

So, tonight I got out my circle cutter to make czech roundels.

• I learned how to find the centre of a circle using chords and perpendicular lines
• I used a protractor to establish the angles for pie slices
• then I mangled a bunch of tries during cutting

I was too tired to go through it all again... but each try had at least one good-ish pie slice so I took those and combined them.

 

After painting each slice in turn... not too bad. 

 

And then I placed a slightly smaller circle over the roundel to paint the blue outline. Then I took off all the masking to reveal.... a roundel!

 

Somehow despite measurements and trial placements of the pie slices first and then putting on the outer mask, I still got this too forward. This vinyl is a bit stiff and the plane is tiny.... and um... well, my eyes aren't great. That's my excuse!

 

However my goal of making a mask by hand and painting a Czech roundel on a 1/144 plane has been realized . I just need 3 more this size then two half this size on the rudder.

 

Yikes! 😱

[Marklo]

That looks really good, just a tiny touch up on the red and it’d be perfect 😀
 

Fr staff likecthat i usually inkjet print or punch and cut decl film Mind i have just bought a secondhand shillouette so repair for anew eta of painted markings from me 😀