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.
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