PZL-55 Projected Polish fighter, 1/16 scale (a "Model by Marek" reworked)

[Leif Ohlsson]

I'm an editor, more than anything. I've been editing texts professionally & academically for most of my life, and it seems that's the aspect of modeling I ought to try to develop. For some time now, I've searched for a suitable subject to edit. By pure chance, and out of fatigue after looking high and low for a subject that attracted me, I suddenly found this model:



What you see above is my new cover page for an obscure model that I had never heard of until I ran into it by chance. It is the Marek Pacinsky design of the projected – but never completed – Polish 1939 figher PZL-55 (also known as PZL-62, which however seems to be an erroneous designation, if recent Polish research is to be trusted).

The model has not been mentioned on this site, or any other major paper-building site, as far I've been able to ascertain. The only (unfinished) build of the model I've managed to find is at the Polish Papermodels.pl. Here are a few of the build photos of the 1/33 version from that site:



There are a couple of plastic builds out there, which give you a better impression of what an attractive aircraft this in fact is (or would have been):



The attractive outline of this model is also my main reason for spending some 100+ hours on editing the original kit. In my view, it simply has among the most pleasing lines of any aircraft of the era – even today I believe it would give rise to admiration painted in civilian colors. Second, it was a most modern design for its time, and as projected it would have matched all comparable aircraft of the same era, like the Messerschmidt, Spitfire or Mustang.

Unfortunately, all drawings together with the prototype under construction were confiscated by the German invading forces in 1939, and have since been lost. The only source material is a postwar drawing from memory by the original designer Jerzy Dąbrowski of the PZL works. This drawing has been included in the kit, as I'm sure it's what the original kit designer Marek Pacinsky has used:



The original paper model kit is readily available as a 1/33 scale model, either from Ecardmodels or as a printed model from by Answer in the "MP Models" series (MP for Marek Pacinsky). It is in fact an extraordinary well wrought design. What impressed me most was the rich amount of rivet lines, and how these were made in different shades of black/grey over different colors. That feature in itself was a revelation to me, and I've taken it one step further in the reworked 1/16 scale model presented here, in that all lines – rivet and panel lines – are made in darker nuances of the color they cover, so that they all appear to be of the same darkness, regardless of background.

I have also reworked all the camo colors into lighter shades of dark green, brown and sky blue. The latter may be taking things a bit too far – sky blue may not have been used on Polish fighters of the era, but since this in any case is a fictional model, I felt free to do so for aesthetic reasons.

The original design called for making up the fuselage in sections to be buttjoined. A more modern way is to use gluestrips, and I've constructed new ones to that end. It is left up to the builder to choose which way to go. I have also added a number of other refinements, which would please me to tell you about as we go through the new kit.

[Leif Ohlsson]

One of the basic features of my reworked 1/16 scale kit is that it can be printed without problems on regular-size inkjet printer, using either A4 or Letter paper sizes. If you buy Marek's original 1/33 scale kit from Ecardmodels, as I did, you will get an extra set of sheets for parts in Letter size, although not the complete kit (which you get in A4; including instructions).

As a contrast, I've managed to fit a more than double the size parts into a common "universal" paper size, printable on both A4 & Letter. You will see how it was done (rather elegantly if I may say so myself) as we go along. First the usual instruction pages:



I have gone over the instructions, corrected a few mistakes, and translated all notes into English (plus added a few of my own). The sketches are organized in a more attractive way (all in my subjective view, of course). Hundreds and hundreds of superfluos and spurios litte paths in the original files have been eliminated. (Let me stress here that I'm very, very grateful for the designer and publisher to allow the design to be accesible for editing in a vector programme – otherwise, none of these small refinements would have been possible!).

We continue with a few parts pages:



Above is the first real part page in the new kit. What we see is parts for the nose section. Please notice how prettily the colors go together, and how similar the rivets and other lines appear, although they are over quite different shades of light and dark colors! This is accomplished by dividing the lines and rivet lines as soon as they cross between different colors, then attributing each set of lines & rivets a darker shade of the same color they are covering. Experimenting with the shades rendered what I believe is to be the same visibility over all colors, although in reality they vary widely.

I am grateful to Marek's careful design for alerting me to this way of doing things. Although quite laborious, it is a great step forward from what I've been doing up until now, and I will in fact go back to and old Mustang kit in 1/16 which I have lying around and attempt the same method. It is surely worth the effort.



Above: Refinements include a new canopy inside (which was missing in the original). I have made a complete set of new such insides (all missing in the original kit), which are sized some 0.75 mm less width in order to fit inside the outer parts (not shown here).



Above: Note the slightly fuzzy lines between the different fields of camo colors, simulating spray painting. This feature is an addition to Marek's original, and I'm glad I found out how to do it. (For those interesed, you use the "Feather" option in Illustrator). This page is repeated later on in the kit, featuring the alternative markings for Marek's two other versions.



Above: Note also the addition of zinc-chromate primer in the interior tail section, instead of light grey.



Above is an interesing new feature – the slight shading over areas on the rudder, which were fabric covered on the original aircraft. In the original kit this was marked by rather heavy shading, which is unrealistic, since these fabric-covered areas were quite taut, and often indistinguishable from neighbouring ply or metal areas.

You may also take a moment to ponder the camo colors chosen. I like them better than the original very dark hues.



Above is a typical page of details. I've tried, wherever possible, to place parts that belong together with the appropriate instruction sketches. If parts do not belong together, I've made a note where they belong.

[Leif Ohlsson]

When you enlarge to 1/16, the wing parts almost always have to be divided up into several sections. The trick is to find a natural way of doing it, so that the joins become as invisible as possible. Here's my way, for this model:



Starting from the left wing tip, the first division is along the panel line bording to the aileron inner edge.



Next cut is on the remaining root section of the wing, along a panel line on the bottom side, which is comparatively flat.



This means that the top part of the root section will curve over the leading edge.

My recommendation on how to join these large chunks into an even larger complete wing cover part, is to tape a piece of white surgical tape, sticky side up, on a glass plate or your building mat. Then place one section of parts to be joined along the centerline of that strip. Apply glue thinly along the edge of the other part and place it firmly againt the part on the tape, at an angle, aiming for a butt join. When certain of proper alignment, press down and let it dry out under pressure. Same procedure for the remaining part.

This method really works, even without gluestrips on the inside, since the wing framework, and the bending of the wing part itself, will keep things very properly in place. If the composite part appears floppy while still unfolded, this changes dramatically as soon as it is folded up along the leading edge. An advantage – in addition to simplicity – is that there are no gluestrips to interfere with the framework below.

[Leif Ohlsson]

I've cleaned up the clutter of interior details and placed them as logically and spaciously as possible together with parts that they belong to. An example:



This is the inside skin of the cockpit section, and details belonging to that section (other details, like pilot's seat and radios, are grouped together with the other interior skin page, not shown here). Note the various shades of interior green and equipent green, replacing the rather uninteresting neutral grey in the original kit. Note also the suggested possibility of making up the tubular framework from rolled paper tubes. That ought to add a lot of realism to a model of this scale.



Above a few other interior detail pages. Note the further addition of zinc-chromate primer on landing gear doors inner sides, and some other details. This ought to add some variety to the model.



And the fuel tank is rather pretty, isn't it?



On the formers page you will notice that formers are uncolored. The idea is to enable printing on light grey copy paper (or any other shade you like better). I suggest you laminate with this kind of paper on both sides of laminated parts. Not that any of it will be visible in the finished model, but it will look nice when you take pictures of the build…

Incidentally, I believe lamination thickness or material is quite indifferent for this model, since the wing framework is built up of many separate elements, and the overall dimension is fairly uncritical, except at the ailerons position, but this problem is in fact taken care of by the ailerons spar. As long as that is of correct length, compared to the finished ailerons, everything is well...

[Leif Ohlsson]

I have provided a number of extra details and optional new parts. Marek's original parts for two other versions are included on alternative pages (not shown here), which is clearly marked as options to the pages in the original kit. Here are pages with some other ideas:



The first page is one of two with extra framework for the parts of the original aircraft that were fabric covered (elevators, rudder, and ailerons). The idea is that you glue these frames, printed on you usual kind of model paper, under the original parts, and carefull emboss in order to get a hint of real, physical depression of the fabric areas. Don't overdo this, however, since fabric areas as mentioned already were quite taut. The outlines of these parts have been made 1 mm less width all around, so that the parts will join up neatly when wrapped around their framework parts.



The second page contains extra layers for parts which obviously simulate areas that ought to be cut out. The idea is that you make these cutouts first, in the original parts, then place the parts on this page under the cut-out original part to get the correct and shaded background. Then laminate further if called for.



The last extra page is newly constructed gluestrips, which will enable you to use this method of constructing the fuselage, instead of butt-joining sections.

The new kit, as outlined here, amounts to 36 pages. Yet the high-quality pdf-conversion of those pages does not take up more than 2.1 MB of space. I was very pleased and surprised when I saw this. Incidentally, I also learned a way of converting the Illustrator files to a pdf-file which displays the colors correctly in a way I haven't quite mastered until now.

So, you will understand that I feel rather pleased with this job finished up as completely as I'm able to.

Over the years I've checked with two publishers, who neither of them believed very much in the prospects of people wanting to build in 1/16 scale. My way of sharing models like this (reworked from someone else's original) therefore is to share them privately with anyone who want them, on the provision that they can show proof of having purchased the original, electronically or in paper form. Should you feel an irresistible urge to try out a model like this, no-one would be happier than I. PM me, and we'll discuss of how to proceed.

Leif

[OSTOJA]

Fantastic idea Olaf.

[Leif Ohlsson]

Thanks Ostoja. As a correction to what I wrote in the last post, about publication, Ecardmodels just go back to me, stating that they would be happy to have the model at $2 more than the 1/33 original, which would make it $8.95, a most reasonable price for 36 pages of a fine kit.

So be it. I'll get back in this thread when it appears (as I'm sure Robert, "3Turner", will do in the regular thread for new arrivals at Ecardmodels).

This is good news, since it means this version of the model will be readily available whether me or my server is around and responding.

Leif

[Don Boose]

Another magnificent project, Leif!

This thread is very rich in content and rewards detailed study. It is a beautiful airplane, your editing makes for a superb model. I will certainly buy this model.

I'm very glad you are doing this. I love to see good historical research, and I appreciate good editing, having done a fair amount of it myself, both as a copyeditor for the U.S. Army Strategic Studies Institute and having edited several books (and working with students on their research papers is a kind of editing).

Don

[cardist]

I shall also be adding this to my digital pile when it is released on Ecards. Another detailed and well researched project Leif, thank you for your efforts.

All the best and happy modelling,

Bernie

[struna]

Awesome. I was thinking about this Marek project to do with PZL-50A "Jastrząb" I have done.