Styrene

Styrene

Tuesday, February 14, 2017

SZD-16-Gil (bullfinch) 1/72nd scale

 

This is the building article, the completed model can be seen here:
http://wingsofintent.blogspot.com/2017/03/szd-16-gil-bullfinch-completed-172nd.html

Second of the four kits of the Polish gliders of the fifties that I purchased at Jeff's store in the Palm Springs desert is the "Gil" (bullfinch).
The first one, The Bocian, is being built here:
http://wingsofintent.blogspot.com/2017/01/pzw-siedlce-172-bocian-stork-glider.html
This is another beautiful, elegant glider, this time of "pod and boom" configuration. The person that made these masters may be other than the one that did the Bocian, since the solutions are slightly different, most noticeably in the "fabric" effect, that in this case is a bit raised and may need to be somewhat subdued.

As with the Bocian, I started by gathering references, of which I found a decent number in Polish sites to cover for example instrument panel and such. 
The same sort of naive box illustration is present, as well as decals seemingly in good shape, a very nice transparent canopy and the reasonably-sized instruction drawings and the -seemingly customary for the manufacturer- display pedestal. The kit has seen a couple of re-boxings with new graphics.

 Clear clear parts, wow!:
 The unitary sprue:


The parts are separated and cleaned-up. The texture on the "fabric" is toned down. A few more detail parts are fabricated to dress-up the cockpit a bit:
 Parts for the cockpit painted and ready to be put in place:
The kit's Pitot is fairly good, but I made smaller ones with stretched sprue:
 The fuselage is assembled:
 Dry fit revealed the wing sockets needed to be filed down a bit for the wing roots to seat properly on the fuselage sides:
 All is glued checking alignment, and the canopy, that was really clear and thin on my kit, is nevertheless given a bath in floor polish:
I made these airbrakes with small T stock, not sure I'll used them, though:
Primer is applied:
The primer revealed that the wing joint needed more putty:
Once all is smooth, the model is masked to apply the grey color:
The grey paint is airbrushed:
 Masks removed:

A clear coat is applied before decaling:


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