SW-4 Puszczyk released by Aeroplast, a Polish located company, is a rather easy and straightforward model kit. It was already reviewed here, on Aeroscale, so please check our "Reviews" section and related links attached to this article, if you are interested. Although general plastic details in the kit are really fine and represents very big improvement in comparison to the previous releases of the company, the kit is not free of omissions and simplifications typical for the plastic injection technology. Some of the customers will surely build it straight out of the box, however those who think about some more demanding tasks will have to think about few improvements. This is the moment when the Part photo-etched set comes to our rescue.

The set offers one fret with about 80 metal parts and a small film with instrument gauges for a dashboard. The photo-etched parts provided on the fret improves some details and corrects errors of original Aeroplast kit. Instrument panel and its top cover represents dashboard typical for military configuration of the helicopter. By "military" I mean that seen in the Polish helicopters. Aeroplast provides just one option of this part on the tree and it is a civil option – much different in shape from military. This would be correct for the other boxing option of SW-4 with civil machines but in "military" it needs to be replaced. A pretty obvious and popular detail on the PE frets are seat belts. To replace them we will have to use some scalpel and carefully remove original ones made together with the plastic seat. Operation will have to be repeated five times but I bet the final effect will be worth all your effort. From the bigger parts we also get a full set of meshes and ventilation inlets and outlets – some are even missing on plastic kit so you will have to do a small investigation of their precise location. PE parts have correct shape and size of these meshes. Assembly instruction will give you few clues but it's also good to check photographic references. This step will also require removal of original plastic parts on large surfaces. On the real helicopter the main air inlet to the engine is a tunnel with two openings on the both fuselage sides and covered with a mesh. When you look at the machine you can easily see this tunnel through the mesh. I wonder if it will be also so easy to notice on the model. If so, you may need to scratch build this tunnel to make the whole model look more real. There are also many other details like all sorts of antennas, few types of hinges and fittings, wiper, steps on landing skids or side door guides (which, made in styrene, are simply too fat). Generally these are all the details that are very problematic in the plastic injection technology. All these details are warmly welcomed by me.

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