RWD-8 DWL, PZW 72 1/72nd kit + Sagittarius3D decals and some additions

 

Why build yet another model is a question I cannot answer to myself. Of course I like building models, but there is something deeper. Perhaps is that they are never perfect; there is always something no matter how well the model comes out. We know perfection is not attainable, and yet we try, obsessively so, seemingly. We know that there is no stairway to heaven, each successive model is not necessarily better than the previous one. True, we learn, and with time in general they do become better, but then our senses start to play out as we age, and we forget (I do) many solutions we found before, or commit the same mistakes (guilty aussi). And yet we persist…

“E la nave va” (And yet the ship sails on) one could say with Federico Fellini.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZCNAvdqGI0g&t=10s

I find great pleasure in taking an old kit and trying to make it better by adding, correcting and substituting. Some are good platforms for this endeavor, and I have done for example multiple versions of the venerable Williams Bros.’ Northrop Gamma and Boeing 247, Heller’s Caudron Simoun, and others -all featured in this blog. This is my second (but perhaps not last as I have another kit) RWD-8. In this case besides working on the overstated flying surface detail, the interior was replaced, an engine was provided -a section of the nose opened to show it, an oil tank was added, the luggage compartment was opened and a hatch added, and some crude parts like struts and exterior details were substituted. A few parts from an aftermarket P.E. sheet were used, marketed for the much newer (but not perfect) IBG kit of this plane. The Polish Sagittarius 3D aftermarket decal sheet I purchased for the first model was used again, as it provides multiple options (but watch out that some images are common to some of the options). Unfortunately, this excellent decal sheet is nowhere to be found nowadays, and their website is no more. Good things do not last.

For those of you that have the newer IBG kit, you already know the wing is inaccurate and you will have to buy the aftermarket one from Attack Squadron No. 72077 (if you can find it). Furthermore, their Israeli release has the wrong (vertical, perpendicular to the trailing edge) wing regs on the decal sheet, but the right (slanted, as in the model presented here) wing registrations on the box art. Talk about kit bloopers.

The step-by-step construction post is here:

https://wingsofintent.blogspot.com/2026/03/rwd-8-dwl-civl-pzw-172nd-scale-injected.html

A truly affordable kit -readily available- that can be used to hone those skills as it surely can be improved with not too much work. It was released long ago, in 1988 (48 years to date) and subsequently under other brands. I bought mine for a few dollars on the second-hand market.

 

Cessna T-50 - Pavla multimedia 1/72nd kit + Arctic Decals

 

Yeap, couldn't resist, have to build another twin.

Why build a model of a plane you like, with a kit (1999 release date according to Scalemates) that is worse than the last time you build the same type of plane? Some time ago I built an Argentinian Cessna T-50 using the KP kit (release date 2020 according to Scalemates), that, if not perfect, is much better than this Pavla kit. 

https://wingsofintent.blogspot.com/2021/03/cessna-bobcat-civil-pema-enlo-argentina.html

The answer is: I have the Pavla kit in the stash. I must confess that I smirked when I had a look at the contents out of the box: a paradigm of old “low-run” releases. Indifferent molding, 1 (ONE) vacuformed transparency, thick sprues and gates, thick trailing edges, rough edges on all parts, no locating devices whatsoever, butt-joints, abundant flash (in some cases hard to distinguish from the part itself), and a few resin and P.E. that may have had the intention of making up for the already listed deficiencies. One look revealed that many parts wouldn’t do at all: props, landing gear (both poorly rendered), exhausts and seats to start with. Furthermore, you are on your own regarding nav and landing lights. The resin Jacobs engines have undernourished cylinders. The kit (unlike the KP kit) caters only for the military version. I will of course be doing a civil one. In any case, the modeling exercise is welcome, lest one becomes soft and wanting to build reasonable produced kits of high standards, heaven forfend. 

 Instructions:

The resin engines. A cylinder broke in transit thanks to the rattle-around effect combined with the ubiquitous squeezable box. As commented above, the engines, although not bad, look somewhat starved. I know I have somewhere Jacobs from "Engine & Things" that may replace these:

The one sprue:

Not a paradigm of sharp molding:

P.E. fret and inst.pan. film:

Both sides of the nose had molding imperfections:

 

They are carefully removed and the surface restored: 

Work commences by detaching the parts from the sprue. The plastic is very soft, and I found out that when using a Xuron tool on this type of kit -if you want to make the cut flush and really close to the part- chances are you will take some plastic of the part with you; so I cut the parts of these kits leaving a short length of gate, later to be carefully trimmed back:

Next is the ejector towers, very prominent and in places that may hinder the build. 

Absolutely all parts need exhaustive cleaning and refining, as they nature is coarse. The gluing surfaces must be trued to get a good contact:

After a few hours the parts are almost ready:

Using a scraper the inner surface of the wings, especially at the trailing edges and wing tips, are thinned-down. This is necessary to correct molding-induced defects that will show as gaps all around:

The the parts are taped while the glue dries:

The cowl and nacelle halves are glued. To say that the fit is poor would be a compliment. Some halves would need to be carefully pried open, while others would need squeezing to fit. These assemblies will use plenty of putty and sanding, and some rounding:

Again, good ole' short-run of yore... sigh 

The cowls openings are made round (they weren't) and their trailing edge is thinned down. The nacelles are given a cursory cleanup for the moment:

The ejector towers were removed from inside the fuselage. The exact location of the floor is of course NOT given, nor there is a clue on the fuselage via a ridge or line... sigh... 

The interior elements are supposed to go on specific places on the floor...problem is there are again no marks or indicators as the where exactly, in spite that their location is shaded in the instructions:

As we can tell, this a "sighing" type of kit. You will sigh many more times as you go on with the build.
 

Hello old kit vacuformed transparencies! I see you are not yellowed... But we know you want to! I also see the pips created by the holes you practiced on the master to help suction*!:

But I have to give it you though, that you are clearer than many a resin and even injected window:

*You can live with those pips or could sand the windows down. It you do, you will spend a lot of time using decreasing grades of sandpaper and then polishing and then acrylic-bathing them, and may not have yet restored total clarity. Your choice. One thing is for sure: you are precluded from installing acrylic sheet windows (as I often do) because the location of the windows is very heavily beveled from inside to account for the inevitable corner curvature of a vac window, i.e. you have no "frame" to speak of. Do I hear you sighing? I told you so!

The poor rendition of the back seats is dressed up. Instead of using the inexplicable P.E. disks as firewalls, styrene circles are cut and glued:

New front seats are made (as the kit's P.E. ones seem to depict military ones). Dry-run of the interior following an ad schematic. The floor looks to me suspiciously as the reverse of Pavla's orientation, as in the ad drawing the narrowing part goes to the front. Food for thought:

These images of the floor of other kits I found on the Net seem to confirm the narrowing towards the front, and not the back of the plane:

 

So this arrangement seems to make more sense. You can see the door on the fuselage side that is aligned with the space between the seats, and there is no useless space/floor behind the bulkhead that closes the cabin area:

Could it be that kit manufacturer IS WRONG??? (background of stormy night with thunder and lightning)...how can that be! 
 

I will proceed as if Pavla made a mistake regarding the orientation of the floor. The asthenic LG legs are deprived of all the other elements present in reality. Pavla didn't even stated (as some times it does) "it's for you to complete this assembly with your own scratchbuilt bits". The only clue is a sketch vaguely describing other elements, no size, no angles given. Furthermore, Pavla does not indicate either by dimple or drawing where the legs should anchor on the wing. It's the "You-figure-it-out" school of instructions.  The axles are too long and need to be shortened, and the wheels drilled:

Parts are given a wash. The wing has only a small circle for one light. There were two. Their locations are drilled to install a home-made lens:

These is how the LG legs were in the KP kit. I will use them as a guide (the legs were a bit too long and had to be shortened):

This was the position of the LG on the KP kit:

The KP kit needed the opening enlarged as seen below:

 As you can see in the photos above of the KP kit, the wing had much more detail (not to mention better engineering).

 A few parts get their base colors:

 

 To be continued...