New from Arma Hobby comes opportunity to model in 1:48 scale one of the country's most significant aircraft of the interwar years: the PZL P.1 - forerunner of the long line of famous gull-winged fighters.

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Thanks!

Got mine about two weeks ago. Shipping was very cheap. About the best resin kit I have seen. Just about perfect fit for the parts. Follow the build on their blog.

http://www.armahobbynews.com/

Honest to God , Golly Gee Whiz! This is the airplane of those comics and Air Adventure stories from Those Thrilling Days Of Yesteryear.

,The Black Baron hovered over the prey a thousand feet below. His Red winged parasol fighter posed like a hawk after a pigeon.

He dived!....'
Continued in next week's "Dive Of Doom!"

Captn Tommy (Him I wonder where he got that name?????)

Hi again

I've just ordered one. As Antoni says, really good price on the shipping. It looks set to be a real beauty!

All the best

Rowan

Hi again

Mine arrived yesterday - so, really good price, quick postage - and what looks to be an absolute gem of a kit! I'll review it in due course.

All the best

Rowan

Perhaps this is a good time to explain exactly what the model is. There were two prototype PZL P.1s, P.1/I and P.1/II. Like many prototypes they differ in details and underwent modifications. The model is of the second prototype in its late configuration.



The first prototype in the original configuration with radiator under the chin.



P.1/I after the radiator was move under the fuselage.



P.1/II original configuration.



P.1/II with new rudder and and second radiator at the front. This is what the model represents.



Note the propeller blades were silver or maybe white but not black.

I am sure that somewhere on their website they that the aircraft was first natural metal and then later painted red and white. From photographs the first prototype seems to have always been natural metal but I have only seen photographs of the second prototype painted red and white. Anyway it clearly was red and white before it was modified to the version represented by the model and so that is the only authentic scheme for it.

Cheers Antoni

It's interesting how stressed the fuselage skinning looked (certainly in the early photos) - something Arma haven't tried to replicate (to be fair, most modellers would probably prefer it smooth, so I reckon they made the right decision).

All the best

Rowan

The first prototype seems to have suffered badly from dishing. It looked fine when it left the workshop.



But during the first flight this happened.



The cause was air pressure. The culprit appears to be Elektron, an alloy of Magnesium (90%) and Aluminium (9% to 5%) Aluminium with a pinch of rare earth metals. The structure was Duralumin with Elektron leading edges on the wings and much of fuselage skinned with Elektron. The second prototype does not seem to have been affected to the same extent as the first, perhaps they used thicker material. The P.8 had basically the same fuselage as the P.1 but was skinned with Duralumin and does not seem to have suffered much from dishing.

Arma Hobby have now released two 1/72 kits of the PZL P.1.

The first is described as an Esi-kit of the P.1/I (first protype. Cost me £17.84 with postage paying with Paypal.

The second is described as a pro kit of the P.1/II (second prototype). Looks like a scaled down version of the 1/48 kit. Costs 30 euros + postage (should be about 5 euros outside of Poland).