KP 1/72 Avia B.21

KP kit 72161

Purchased: 
Completed: 4 September 2007

• Nation: Czechoslovakia
• Era: 1920-1929
• Justification: Avia produced a number of world-class combat aircraft during the 1920s until overtaken by the rapid changes of the next decade.

The kit

I have quite a soft spot for KP/KoPro kits; in many ways, the poor Czech cousins of the Airfix offerings I remember so nostalgically. While generally nowhere near as nicely moulded, the parts breakdown, surface detail (including generous rivets) and general level of detail invites direct comparison between the two companies' products. Similarly, while Airfix did its patriotic duty in kitting many less celebrated British aircraft, KP produced kits of many important Czech planes that otherwise would not have seen light of day in scale form. The Avia B.21 was one of them.

My example was moulded in an extremely hard, shiny, brittle styrene, this latter characteristic demonstrated by the fact that one part (the cabane struts) arrived shattered into at least four parts. I say "at least" because despite the fact that the sprues arrived in a sealed polybag, I could only find three fragments of this part and there was still more of it missing. Parts breakdown was as expected, with the only remotely unusual feature being the topside of the forward fuselage being supplied as a separate piece, necessitated by the unusual shape of the engine cowling.

Mould quality was what I expected from KP - lots and lots of flash but otherwise not too bad. The instruction sheet was unremarkable but perfectly adequate, and the decals beautifully printed and comprehensive, offering five different aircraft and even a choice of different national markings from different periods.Unfortunately, they would not end up performing as well as they looked.

The build

Construction

Basic assembly was straightforward and presented no real problems until it was time to attach the upper forward fuselage. Predictably, fit here was thoroughly horrid with huge gaps practically everywhere. A lot of filling and sanding ensued, with me getting well and truly sick of it probably a couple of iterations short of a good job.

No prizes then, for guessing that strut attachment was going to be every bit as unpleasant. The key thing to note here is that the pins moulded onto the ends of the struts were simply way too small for the corresponding holes. I felt more comfortable slicing off the pins and basically butt-jointing things together than attempting to enlarge the holes. The other problem was that there was, as far as I could tell, no guidance whatsoever as to where the cabane struts meet the fuselage. More on this later... As I said earlier, the one-piece moulding that makes up all six cabane struts was shattered in my example. I reconstructed it as best I could, using a small piece of stretched sprue to fill in the missing section.

Eventually, everything went together more-or-less OK and I breathed a sigh of relief. I then started to plan the rigging and noticed something strange. There was just no way that the rigging lines could make any sense. As I looked harder at the model, I realised that this was due to the fact that I had actually installed the cabane struts backwards. Given the hassles of the build so far, I was immediately tempted by the "Who's going to know?" solution of leaving things as they were. I might even have done it too, if only I could have worked out how to rig the thing convincingly. In the end, however, the accuracy conscience won out, and I despondently pulled the top wing off the model, of course shattering the cabane struts again in the process.

Well, as with any such ordeal, the second time around is never nearly so bad, and it wasn't long before I was back where I started.

Painting

For the paint scheme, I chose one of the multi-coloured camouflaged options. The very early Czechoslovakian markings added extra interest. Because a few months have now passed since I actually did the painting, I have to admit that I've forgotten exactly what I mixed up. Anyway, this all went quite without incident, and when I finally pulled off the seemingly miles of masking tape, I was very pleased with the result.

Rigging and final assembly

Rigging also went without further hassles now that I had the plane actually assembled the right way, and it was time for the decals.

Decals

And disaster struck again. As soon as the beautiful decals touched water, they shattered into hundreds of tiny pieces. I tried a couple more markings from the sheet with exactly the same result. Without decals and with no reasonable way of replacing these unique markings, the Avia was finally relegated to the shelf sans markings. I'll have to include them on the custom sheet I'll need to get printed one of these days.

Conclusions

Well, this was a really unpleasant build. Admittedly, the worst part of it (breaking the model and having to rebuild it) was all my own fault, but that's pretty cold comfort.

Still, it's the only game in town in this scale, and that always rates highly with me. I guess I'm more usually pleasantly surprised by kits than unpleasantly, but this one left a bad taste.

Lessons

If had to build this kit again, I would:

• Attach the cabane struts correctly the first time!

Images

MAC 1/72 Phönix D.II

MAC kit 72036

Purchased: Squadron, $USD 11.96
Completed: 14 February 2007

• Nation: Austria-Hungary
• Era: 1910-1919
• Justification: The ultimate development in Austria-Hungary's domestic fighter production. Derivatives continued in Swedish service after the war. 

 

The kit

This is a typical example of the nice short-run kits that have been coming out of Eastern Europe for the last decade or so. Moulding is very nice, even accounting for the slightly thick parts and wide sprue attachment points necessitated by the low pressures used in production. The main sprue contains a number of parts not used for this particular Phönix model, but for other variants marketed by MAC (they also do a  D.I and a D.IIa - see this Internet Modeler article for a comparison of the sprues). Fine parts, such as cockpit details, are provided as photoetch, and there's a small sheet of printed acetate to provide cockpit gauges and a windscreen to cut out.

Decals are provided for three aircraft, which are not identified in the instructions, but which other sources identify as those of Karl Teichmann, Alexander Kasza, and Hans Leiner. These are of the high standard that's come to be expected from Eastern European printers. 

 

The build

Construction

The first phase of construction went very well indeed. The interior parts fitted together well, although the photoetch instrument panel was slightly the wrong shape to sit happily inside the fuselage. I had to trim a little off each side to get it into place, and even now there's still a little gap between the top of the panel and the fuselage. I didn't bother with the photoetch control stick and rudder bar, since the former will be practically invisible and the latter completely invisible once the model is complete. The lower wings are provided with locator pins to aid their joint to the fuselage. These, however, are far too large to fit into the corresponding holes in the fuselage sides, and I ended up slicing them off and just butt-jointing the wings on, after roughing up the mating surfaces to give the cement something to really key to. The tailplane assembly is unorthodox - it slides into a slot provided at the rear of the fuselage once the two sides are together - but works well. I left off the engine head and intake manifolds for now, adding them after the painting was completed. With the prominent exhaust pipes such a focal point of the model, I felt I had no choice but to drill them out, which I did by twisting the end of a new #11 blade in them.

Painting

With no preserved aircraft to serve as a guide, I based my paint scheme on information provided in the instructions and on the box-top painting. Actually, I think I followed the box-top too closely, resulting in an aircraft that's predominantly brown instead of predominantly green, as it should be (according to the instructions, anyway). Reading that the real aircraft's camouflage was applied with a rough sponge, I began a search for a suitable tool. I wondered if there were another way to apply this rather than stippling it on with a dry brush. Fortunately, inspiration struck in the form of a type of eye makeup applicator. This is a short stick, about 50 mm (2 inches) in length, with a fine sponge at the end of it. I bought a pack of 12 for just $AUD 4 from a nearby chemist (in a "convenient purse pack"), and tests on some scrap plastic showed it to be ideal for the job when used almost dry. I just wish I had the colours right!

I'm pleased to report that I can indeed learn from past experiences, and after the paint was on, I made small holes about mid-chord where the lower wings meet the fuselage and attached the first rigging lines here.

Rigging and final assembly

This is where things all went pear-shaped. As I proceeded to attach the upper wing, it soon became apparent that something was very wrong.

I had begun by attaching the cabane struts to the fuselage, using a card template cut to the width of their attachment points on the upper wing to keep them properly aligned. I followed this with the upper wing itself. So far, so good. I was still feeling pretty happy with how this model was going together. Next, I went to put the interplane struts in place. They wouldn't go. And as I wrestled with the struts on one side, the cabane struts broke loose from their attachments to the fuselage. Fine, I thought, I'll finish with the interplane struts, then re-attach the cabane struts. Except that when I did, the interplane struts broke loose. Uh oh.

Putting the model aside for a moment, I tried to work out what the problem was. I realised that there were three possibilities: the forward interplane strut was too short, the cabane struts were too long, or there wasn't enough dihedral on the lower wing. Consulting the beautifully-drawn plans on the back of the instruction sheet, I confirmed that the lower wing shouldn't have any dihedral at all. OK - so it's a problem with the struts. MAC provides all four interplane struts as identical parts; however, the drawings clearly show that the forward struts have to be longer than the rear ones. Returning to the model, I trimmed an end off two of the struts and lengthened them about 3 mm with scraps of sheet styrene. Now everything went together with minimal fuss. So beware! Actually, had I done a bit more research, I would have been forewarned of this problem, since it's mentioned in the Internet Modeler review of this kit, as well as in two reviews of the closely-related D.I kit. 

Rigging followed and presented no particular problems, other than pulling out the odd strut attachment here and there (presumably weakened by the foregoing mucking about).

Decals

I only used the national markings from the sheet, and the decals performed exactly as expected. They were  crisply printed, very opaque (even the white around the national insignia) and very thin. Actually, maybe even too thin, given that they were also provided with very powerful adhesive - I managed to tear two while positioning them, but was able to lay the fragments in place before the adhesive really took.

 

Conclusions

This project started out pleasantly enough, but the dramas provided by the strut debacle really soured the experience for me. The struts pulled out and were reattached so many times that the finish around the points where they meet the wings is well and truly trashed. Coupled with my getting the paint scheme wrong (only my own fault), that means I have a model here I'm not very happy with. One day I might come back and re-do it, and when I do, I'll be satisfied to use the same kit.

Lessons

If I had to build this kit again, I would:

• cut the forward interplane struts from scratch!
• read the painting instructions more carefully

 

Images