PWS-10 1:33 Modele Kartonowe / Cardplane

[Leif Ohlsson]

It makes me very happy, and slightly awed, to see this kind of craftmanship. Many of your peers have acknowledged it, and the best I can add to what they've said is that I know for certain, that I could not reciprocate that kind of standards in the much easier, more than double, 1/16 scale. And of course you should carry on your detailing. You, and we, know that it's there. And - who knows - one day the ability to do it might inspire you to make a true cut-away model. The card modeling scene is ripe for it. Leif

[birder]

Leif put that vey well!

[redhorse]

Originally Posted by shrike

The seat attach fittings typify "never be seen again" and are the sort of thing that prompts the wife to tell me I'm nuts.

Yup, but you'll know they are there and that they look just right. It's not nuts, it's just being meticulous. I know the feeling well

[dansls1]

Great looking cockpit! Extraordinary!

[shrike]

Stop it guys, you're making me blush. What'll probably happen is I 'll get all of the fiddly detail stuff going well, then put the wing on backwards.

Anyway, last of the fiddly details til the cowling goes together, with all of it's various vents and such. The guns are just boxes with tubes. I figured I was on a roll so I cut the charging handles from my other print and added them. These for sure will never be seen again as there is only a 1X6mm slot in the cowling in front of the cockpit, and the gun troughs don't extend that far aft. Oh well.
The guns, numerically, are supposed to go on before the fuselage gets skinned, but I've learned to keep the fragile sticky-out bits to a minimum at this stage.

Next pic is cockpit going away. The joining strips have to go on first, as each tab aligns with a facet and set of tick marks on the former. That in turn locates the stringers embossed in the skins.

[Leif Ohlsson]

Interesting. First time I've seen joining strips going on like this. Another sign of the future. I always imagined an ideal sequence of first formers & longerons (skeleton), then joining strips (both lengthwise and circular, like yours), and finally covering parts. Sort of creating a broken shell within the actual fuselage shell. Looks like Lech & you are realizing it. Kancho Iliev had something like that going, on much smaller and softer models, right? - Leif

[shrike]

I don't know Leif, while I understand why it was done here, to keep the faceted stringers aligned, but I don't think I like it. Joining strips attached to the skins allow for final adjustments to formers if necessary, whereas the strips on the formers have to be dead-on.
In fact on the turtle deck I assembled the skin pieces into a complete unit and trimmed the formers to make it fit right.

One of the neat features of this kit is the use of applique details to create a depth and texture. The cockpit has an additional overlay to finish the opening, there is a separate pieces for the baggage compartment door, the access panels over the guns and an inspection cover on the aft fuselage (not shown well). The cowling is covered with little panels and cutaways beneath them - more on that as the build progresses.

As I said, I knew as well as the detail was going I'd screw something up. The edge colouring that looked really good on the individual pieces is coming together to look way too dark and cartoon like on the completed structure. <sigh> I'll continue with it for consistency's sake.

On the up-side, more of the cockpit is visible that I expected but, as anticipated, the guns are completely lost to sight.

[shrike]

Moving on to the cowling.

A really nice feature of this kit is the inner structure of the cowl. Since there are a number of holes in the finished cowling, the designer has provided a black inner section of skin with it's own formers and all to prevent "white' or 'hollow' from showing up. There are similar pieces to go inside the cowls for the cylinder heads as well - they also give you something to mount the exhaust pipes to.

One other noteworthy point. On Polish kits the "W" in an area means to cut it out. "WS" means to cut it out after assembly. I know I learned that the hard way<g>.

In good timing, and a nod to my last PWS build, addition to my collection arrived today in the form of a set of Spanish Nationalist wings.
Now if I can get a copy of WAK's Spanish Fury.....

[Don Boose]

It gets better and better, Mark.

How do you deal with cutting out areas after shaping and gluing? A series of very light cuts?

You must have a large collection of wings by now!

Don

[shrike]

A series of light cuts and a VERY sharp new blade.

Not a huge collection. I'm trying to keep it focused on pre-WWII to keep from being distracted by every shiny thing I see