Azur PZL.24 B/E - Part II

Well, I'm pretty sure I'm getting the hang of the concept of 'short run kits' by now. In simple terms, there's nothing 'short' about them, except perhaps the short fuse one developes while working with them! Everything else is a never-ending battle.

Don't get me wrong, this is actually a very nice kit. The fit, if you use the term loosely is pretty decent and overall detail varies between subtle and acceptable. Multitude of photoetch and resin parts add that little extra, if you manage to stick them in place - many of the parts are so tiny that chances are about 50/50 you'll loose them to carpet monsters.

But then there are the frustrating parts... and there is a lot of them. First and foremost, instructions are pretty vague at a couple of critical steps, forcing one to guess the correct positions of parts. Engine sub-assembly is the one hit hardest by this problem. Its resin-cast piping section needs to be glued to the engine block - how far 'over' the cylinders it is glued will dictate how far from the fuselage the engine will 'stick out', which in turn will decide the position of engine cover. In other words, if this sub-assembly is messed up, the shape of fuselage will be 'out of wack'. Since I had to pretty much guess the right position of componens, I can only hope that the model will resemble the original.

Once the engine sub-assembly was guestimated together, it was time for another battle - a dry-fit showed immediately that there is no chance in hell that it would fit into its cover. The diameter of engine assembly is a good 3mm too large. I'm never a patient man when it comes to such issues and my solutions to them are usually crude and ugly. This time around was no different - I filed down the details of the engine and rasped out the inner sides of the cover until rough fit was achieved. Once I was done, the engine detail was completely butchered, but at least I can now stick the parts together.

Another critical assembly step that suffers from 'loose instructions' is how the wing is to be alligned with the fuselage. PZL 24's gullwing configuration is its most prominent feature, but it also presents a rather unique challenge for the model designers. In this case the solution is to fit the wing 'root' into rectangular hole in front of the cockpit. The fit between the parts is decent, but not crisp enough to know instinctively when the allignment is correct. In my case, I'm pretty sure that I managed to mess things in with this step, giving the kit a 'lopsided' appearance.

Just to add insult to injury, while wrestling with the problems listed above I've discovered that I was missing one of resin-cast radiators. The part broke off the moulding block and was nowhere to be found. Improvisation time - I cut off a rectangle of 2mm thich polyester sheet, glued it in place, softened it with plastic glue and did my best to enscribe the radiator ribs. The final result is nowhere near satisfactory, but it's either this or tossing the kit.

The chain of one challenge after another made the build process into far bigger challenge and something of a chore. In the end, it is a basic fighter and one should have to struggle so much with such simple kit. Still, once all the major assembly steps were finished and first coat of primer was in place, I have to say that the result isn't half bad after all.

Azur PZL.24 B/E - Part I

PZL.24B/E from Azur is a bit unusual in several ways. First of all, the subject itself is a rather unknown airplane - a Polish gullwing monoplane fighter airplane built shortly before start of World War II and intended as the replacement for obsolete PZL P-7:s and 11:s. For some unexplainable reason however, all machines of this type that were build, were sold by Poland to other countries, more precisely to Turkey, Greece, Bulgaria and Rumania.

Azur's kit makes it possible to make two variants of early B version in Rumanian service and one of later E version in Bulgarian livery. Unfortunately, I managed to delete pictures of the content of the box, but it is a short run kit with both photo-etch and resin parts as well as a vacform cockpit covers. Ergo, it's definitely for beginner modellers and quite a challenge for yours truly.

The construction starts, as usually with the cockpit interior. A lot of tiny parts and a first encounter with photo-etch. Never being a tidy model builder, I tend to struggle with those bits and make a bit of a mess more often than not. The fact that one of resin seat braces turned out to be missing and had to be replaced with tiny styrene strips, while another tiny resin bit supposed to be placed behind instrument panel was swallowed by carpet monsters immediately after being cut from the moulding block didn't improve the results.

Hasegawa Morane Saolnier M.S.406

Here's a short report about the other kit in Hasegawa's 'Battle of France' combo-box - the Morane-Saolnier M.S.406. As can be seen in photos of the sprues, it's another very simple kit. And indeed, the first impression based on contents of the box, is correct - it is a very basic kit, but at the same time, the finished model is quite pleasant to the eye.

There isn't much to tell about the building process - everything fits together rather nicely. Extra attention needs however to be paid when gluing together the wing component - despite the presence of guiding plugs, it is possible to misalign upper and lower wing surfaces, so give them en extra check once they're put together. Another thing I rather liked in this kit was the way cockpit component is fastened in the fuselage. Usually one needs to glue the sides of cockpit to the sides of the fuselage. Here, Hasegawa chose to anchor the cockpit assembly from beneath, with help of four square anchor points. I was a bit worried about the 'flimsiness' of that arrangement, but it worked like a charm. Advantage of this approach is that fuselage halfs can be glued together without having to worry about the cockpit assembly also being fitted and aligned at the same time.

The model was painted Lifecolor paints, in almost in the same way as its sibling -  UA026 Light Compas Ghost Grey (FS36375), UA094 Medium Sea Grey (FS36270) and UA143 French Brown (FS30045). The green disruptive patches were painted with UA146 French Green (FS34128).