The PZL P.11h El Halcón 1/72

[Frank3k]

 Apophenia had some great artwork in his Spanish Civil War - Polish PZL Fighters. I was taken by the P.11h that Stephen drew:



I have an old Encore (ex-Heller) PZL P.11c that I started (and abandoned) back in 1998 or so that would make a good basis for recreating his artwork. Since I have a P.11c and his artwork is based on a P.11f, the main and most obvious mod would be changing the cowl, exhaust ring and prop.
I found some pictures of the Azur P.11f kit and recreated the cowl in 3D. I was going to print it in resin, but since my FDM printer had an ABS-like filament loaded up, that's what I used instead. A few minutes later I had the cowl and the exhaust ring:



I added a small piece if styrene tubing to replicate the flared exhaust, since I forgot to CAD it. The good cowl (next to the engine) has been smoothed and has two holes drilled for bullets from the guns to exit. It didn't take log at all to smooth the cowl - just a combination of acetone, a slight amount of sytrene goop and some sanding and scraping. A rejected cowl is just above.

Here the plane with the engine and cowl stuck on. The artwork shows bullet ejectors/chutes under the wings (that look like exhausts) but I'm going to leave them off.



The prop is a spare from an Azur Frrom 1/72 Northrop Delta that I may keep if I don't find a closer match. One of the blades was a short shot, so I filled the missing part with thin styrene. There are also more vents behind the engine in the older marks, but I'm not going to fill them in. I have to smooth the transition from the flared exhaust to the regular exhaust pipe as well:



I'm not sure of which color scheme to go with. The markings will be slightly different as well, since this isn't quite a P.11f. I may keep the domino on the tail, though.

[Old Wombat]

 

[raafif]

  Always liked the PZL stuff.  I have a 1/48 kit somewhere - wonder what it would look like with an in-line engine 

[apophenia]

Oh yes! Fantastic news, Frank!

Your IAR cowling is gorgeous - especially if that 'reject' is an indicator of your starting point 

On markings, one of the beauties of depicting FARE aircraft is that nothing near to standardised markings appeared until very late in the civil war. Pick a whif FARE scheme and there was probably something RW that was close 

... I have a 1/48 kit somewhere - wonder what it would look like with an in-line engine 

The original PZL P.1 and the later P.8/P.9 series of prototypes give you a pretty good idea.

The P.1/I and P.1/II prototypes both had a 630 hp Hispano Suiza 12Lb V12s.

The P.8/I was powered by a 640 hp Hispano-Suiza 12Mc. The P.8/II switched to a 675 hp Lorraine Dietrich 12H Pétrel.

The P.8/II was later redesignated P.9 ... which may have also been the designation for a planned production variant of the Pétrel-engined fighter (Poland having a long history of fighters with Lorraine Dietrich engines). P.9
development stopped with Puławski's death in March 1931.

[Frank3k]

Camo, ID bands and panels applied. I somehow managed to completely screw up the brown shade. I may redo it... or not. Maybe this is the pattern for more arid regions or the paint they found in the barn.
I've fixed most of the masking errors visible in these pictures. A few remain:



The wing red ID panels are not quite as far inboard as Stephen suggested:

[Old Wombat]

House paint slapped on with a big hairy stick.   

 

[GTX_Admin]

Looking good

[apophenia]

... Maybe this is the pattern for more arid regions or the paint they found in the barn...

Perfect! My Polish colours might have been okay in winter but the brown would be too brown for much of Spain in summer.

The wing red ID panels are not quite as far inboard as Stephen suggested...

This is what happens when you hand the técnicos aeronáuticos paint brushes too close to siesta time. The circadian rhythms may get reset but the break will play hell with standardised markings 

I'm not sure that the FARE had any standard schemes in mind. RW, those red panels varied wildly in size and exact positioning (sometimes resulting in more red than camo!). I'd say that your's fit into the less-is-better category 

[Frank3k]

Perfect! My Polish colours might have been okay in winter but the brown would be too brown for much of Spain in summer.

If the Ingeniero Jefe Principal says the lighter brown is OK, then el personal de pintura will have no objections. ¡No pasarán!

[Buzzbomb]

Well it is looking very Ole! to me 

[Frank3k]

I'm going to keep the sandy brown. There are plenty of obvious paint errors, but I'm going to chalk those to busy mechanics in a war zone or a modeler who just wants to get this shelf of doom kit finished.

The decals are on, they just need a clear coat to seal them and some light weathering before I attach the windscreen. I have to trim the fin flash decals (I always print them larger than needed):



The NO-26 (NOvember-26) is a little crooked. Not fixing it. My ancient ALPS printer was having a tantrum printing black (of all "colors!") so I only managed to print the white lettering, artwork and background for the dominoes and the fin flash. I had to print the pips/outline on my laser printer. The purple in the fin flash came out far too dark, so I used an AK Playmarker (the ones with a brush instead of a felt nib) to fill in the color. It worked surprisingly well and once dry, didn't run when I put the decal in the water or when I softened it with decal setting solution:

[Buzzbomb]

 

It's done.. on to the next project

[Frank3k]

Not quite - I'd say around 75-80%

[apophenia]

Not quite - I'd say around 75-80%

But already a thing of beauty, Frank! 

[Old Wombat]

Not quite - I'd say around 75-80%

But already a thing of beauty, Frank! 

Yep! 

[Frank3k]

Finished! The paint job isn't the greatest, but it's good enough. The grazing sunlight  also brings out even the tiniest paint defect:



There were a couple of sinkholes in the top wing. Pedro the mechanic was careless; he stepped on some wing panels and dented them:



I took these pictures just before 2PM and the Sun was already pretty low. It was 92F/33C on the patio, so I didn't stay long:



The PZL P.11 was a larger plane than I imagined.:



Thanks for all the comments. I'm glad this plane is finally finished after more than 25 years on the half built shelf of doom.

[Jeffry Fontaine]

Great work as usual Frank.  What is the base that you have the model displayed upon? 

Imperfections?  What imperfections?  Arms length protocol/three foot protocol applies and no one is the wiser. 

Is there an actual tail wheel on this aircraft or is that some kind of skid?  Hard to determine from you WIP and final images. 

[Frank3k]

Thanks Jeff!

The base is a lasercut cardboard that I bought years ago from a company that is out of business. It works well as dried out mud.

The PZL P.11 (at least on this kit) had a skid for a tail wheel.

I have to thank apophenia for the excellent inspirational artwork, even if I deviated from it. I think this is the third model that has been inspired by his work.

[Old Wombat]

She looks fantastic, Frank! 

Like Jeff: "Imperfections?  What imperfections?" 


Stephen does produce some great graphics (having built two models based on his profiles/ideas) & I know he's quite happy for personal interpretation to assist turning pixels into plastic. Thanks, Stephen! 

[apophenia]

... I'm glad this plane is finally finished after more than 25 years on the half built shelf of doom...

Not at all unusual to take 25 years or so to mature into a thing of beauty   

I appreciate the compliments on my profiles, folks. But, in reality, it is always a very humbling experience to see one's pixel-pushing efforts rendered in styrene!

...The PZL P.11 was a larger plane than I imagined...

At 10.72 m (~35 feet), the span was substantial. But the rest of the airframe was quite compact - compared to, say, a later Curtiss 75A or Fokker D.XXI. (Probably the closest WW2 aircraft of comparable size was the Curtiss-Wright CW-21.)

Something that may be exaggerating size with this kit could be the stance of the main gear (Heller having modelled those undercarriage legs unweighted/in-flight).

BTW: That finish on your cardstock base is highly convincing as drying mud 

...The PZL P.11 (at least on this kit) had a skid for a tail wheel...

Jeffry: As Frank said, the PZL gull-wings used tail skids. The skid 'shoe' was hinged from the forward arm. The spring-balanced rear arm absorbed shocks and, once the weight was off, returned the shoe to its extended position.

[Frank3k]

Something that may be exaggerating size with this kit could be the stance of the main gear (Heller having modelled those undercarriage legs unweighted/in-flight).

And this is after I removed well over a millimeter of length. I didn't want to overdo it.

[Dr. YoKai]

I've always liked the P.11-I fondly remember the Revell kit from ages ago, and finishing this one on the right side of the Spanish Civil War is
a lovely tribute to those warriors and Stephen both.

[raafif]

Looks Great !   Anyone who's been around aircraft knows the paint job is never 100% even when new.

[apophenia]

Looks Great !   Anyone who's been around aircraft knows the paint job is never 100% even when new.

Too true! And particularly true of fighters like these whose schemes were more than a little ad hoc