PZL-104 Wilga 1/40 paper replika

**Paper Kosmonaut** · #1 01-02-2018, 03:45 PM

a New year, so off to a fresh start with some long-term builds and several quickies! Let’s start with the latter one.
Some time ago, Julius Perdana made a 1/40 model of a very charming little plane from Poland. The PZL-104 Wilga looks like it’s a ton of fun to fly. A small tail boom, a straight high wing and a cabin that makes the airplane look a little like a dragonfly. Add those cute bended knee-landing gear struts and you have, I think, an altogether very attractive plane. I just made this as-is. This was a one-day build, with a short night of rest in between the two sessions.

I started wrong, by doing the back of the plane's fuselage first and working my way to the front, which left me with a hard to place nose part. I had to do the whole fuselage over again. Started out with the cabin, the main windscreen and the nose part, got the prop inside and turning (on a nail), got the wing on top and only then I did the back of the cabin and the tail boom. The rest was easy-peasy. I thickened the tail gear to a more credible sturdiness and made a separate wheel for it. I used some ribbed cardboard for inside the main gear wheels and rolled a thin strip of black paper around the outside to get the thickness right. All of the 2D struts were replaced by thin rolled solid paper tubes made from red coloured paper in exactly the same shade as the model.

The plane was fun to build and eventually, the fit was perfect. I even left the glue tabs as it was, so no hassle with extra inner glue strips and all that. Is there anything more to say about this build? erm… No. There’s not. This is it!
a Happy new year and until the next time,
—PK