PZL P.11c in Finnish service, 1/72
The very enjoyable Arma Hobby P.11c in Expert variation comes with a PE fret with all neccessary details - instrument panel, harness etc. But I decided to go a little sideways from what the kit suggests and instead of a film make this panel in a way used in their Yak-1b. I.e.: sand down the plastic panel, paint it black and apply the (very nice) decal...
...and then cover it with a properly painted PE part. This way I preserved the coloured look of the gauges which immediately stands out. Even if not entirely visible in the ready aircraftt
I decided to go with a Polish experimental splinter camouflage. Truth be told - sources are not sure what exact colours were used apart from the venerable Polish Khaki. So I looked at many profiles and chose the pair that IMHO looked best. Winter War took place before issue of the formal orders to paint all of the Finnish aircraft in their now famous camo. Camouflage is historical and it makes the plane more visually interesting than a uniform, flat looking khaki.
Arma Hobby kit was a real pleasure to build. Everything fits, there is just the right amount of details and PE parts to please most modellers. You can, of course, superdetail but not very much of it will be visible at all... Instructions suggest much brighter variation of this camo but it might be printing as well.
Upper wing coated in gloss varnish and ready for the markings. I painted the model with Hataka C series lacquers - Polish light grey for undersides, Polish light khaki for brown and a Verde OTAN - French Cold War AFV colour - for green. Coated with ever popular X-22 from Tamiya.
And the markings. This might not be striking for some of you, but believe me - we almost have genetically coded our checkerboards on this wing 😉 Jokes aside - swastikas were taken from a general Techmod decals set and with a little help from the Microscale solution they conformed to the corrugated metal texture very well - I was a little amazed because their older decals - like this set - tend to be a little stubborn.
It's almost there - all main subassemblies are painted and ready for final assembly and some slight weathering. Though it might seem difficult - the wing and its struts fits just perfect, with slots of solid depth to add some rigidness to the kit. Also the engine and cowling fit nicely and all of the other details.
And here's our lady in a Finnish gown this time. I used skis from Kora Model but in fact, casting was rather poor so I remade most of them. Rubber bands and wheel strut rigging was made from EZ-Line and painted black. I also used Browning 7,62 barrels as the MGs are almost the same size as Polish wz.33 MGs (7,92 caliber) but I thought that the Finns would rather not want to have another ammo type and stick to the more common in their Army 7,62 mm.
PL-04 is my guess what the Finnish letter code would be. Besides - there are only 3 letters to choose from anyway... The intricate antenna rigging was made from Uschi Superfine thread.
A better view at the antenna knot. Some P.11 were equipped with radio, others didn't. I spent two evenings getting this rigging right and I was regretting that I decided to leave it. But I succeeded eventually!
Why I didn't made a whitewash camo? I didn't find that many evidence of this practice during the Talvisota. It was specified in the orders later on and on the other hand, taking all of the performance of the P.11c into account I doubt it would be actively used past mid-1940.
And a nice view on the gull wing of the famous P.11c.
Kommentare
21 15 November 2021, 21:23
NeulingVery clean and careful build! Excellent rigging! Incredible: a 1/72 scale build?
16 November 2021, 10:35
Michael KohlThe panel lines come out quite strong. Apart from that it is a very precise and clean build of an interessting subject.
16 November 2021, 17:08
Wojciech KuczaThanks all so far! @Neuling - yes, this is indeed a 1/72 scale 🙂 Though frankly - a lot of the effect is just simply very well made moulds from Arma!
@Michael Kohl - yes, panel lines are quite prominent and on the wing especially, I also added a strong accent to better define the shape of the aircraft - but refrained from washing the corrugated sheets (which I saw some did). All in all we have our own taste in those areas 🙂 Many thanks!
16 November 2021, 21:00
Album info
One of the latest, small projects was a little what if combining a Polish aircraft-symbol with some rather unusual (but not entirely impossible) markings. See, as I view it, with P.11 there are two main problems - it's such an iconic aircraft that almost every Polish modeller makes one and the second - virtually all built planes are known and there is a very limited choice of paining and marking option. If you aim for historical accuracy - you're left with either Polish or Romanian air force. And it's been done. Countless times.
I wanted to be a little more original, so I made myself a small thought experiment - what if either the Finns bought some brand new P.11c's for their AF or just before the Talvisota Poland had maybe 4 new machines to spare. Maybe to help the fellow nation and at the same time see how this plane would fare in the harsh, northern weather?
After all - Finland was interested in buying some PZL 37 Moose bombers...
