Clunkmeister

Mine is closed completely, but will allow a select few to come over when they're there. No special trips, but as long as I come when they're there, a secret handshake will get you in.. Or these days, a secret foot or elbow bump, I suppose

Yeah I just slid over when I had a moment and met Adam at the door who gave me the news.

Nice. Where do you source that stuff? I'm going to start a build log up top this evening to keep this area clear for review completion and comments, but I'll move this conversation up there later. A heavier coat of paint is something I'm going to shy away from here, especially on the wings, as the corrugations are so incredibly petite.

If anyone local to me, (Yes Tony, that means you) is in need of supplies during these next few weeks, call, text, or contact me here. I may be able to sneak you in on the sly, when they're there doing inventory, etc. Sometimes it pays to be a Member of the local Chamber of Commerce.

Copy that, Bob. I too, am open for business, but for how long, Only the Shadow knows. If the virus takes the ugly ones first, I'm quickly checking out. Too late to lose a hundred pounds or get a face lift.... I should bend over and kiss me arse goodbye, but I can't reach the darned thing...

Rob, I'm one of those guys who uses RLM66 for just about everything, so when I get down to two bottles, I start breaking out in a cold sweat

My first impression? IMPRESSIVE I think this kit is going to build up into an amazing model of a seriously overlooked early WW2 aircraft. This kit is also available in a Premium Edition with brass barrels and a resin pilot figure, which will enhance and already impressive model. There are plans for a future boxing in Romanian marking as well, so those of you who have built the IAR 80/81 in 1/32 will now have it's predecessor as well. Aside from the apparent sink marks in the fuselage, some of the surface detail seems a smidgeon overdone. A couple inspection panels on the stabilizers appear somewhat Matchbox-ish to me, but that's nothing that can't be carefully filled. Careful sanding of the fuselageshould reduce any pebbly appearance as well. All modeling 101.

As for initial observations, I have a couple concerns, and both revolve around the plastic itself. In some spots, the plastic seems to have a bit of a pebbly surface, which we'd normally combat with sandpaper and elbow grease. But in this case, we'd end up wiping out the prominent rivet ines on the mouldings. Plus, notice the stress lines in the plastic, one on each half. I'm going to give that a slight hit of primer tonight to see if that goes away. If they're sink marks, they'll be problematic to remove without removing those positive rivets. Looking at the one in the first picture, it sure looks like a big ol' sink mark to me. Now my next question. Are the rivets overdone? maybe. probably. I'm pretty sure the answer is yes, but I think that under a coat of paint, they'll show quite nicely. it'll also cut back on the deepish panel lines.

Now I need to look as well at another main spotting feature of this aircraft, and that's the fuselage side mounted engine oil coolers. They're big and obvious. Silver Wings has you build them up from individual PE fin pieces, and thread them onto a couple wires. While extremely fiddly to build, they result in an impressive assembly, so I'll look at those as well, tonight.

The P.11 series fighters came at a time where the world's air arms were changing their way of thinking. Research into monocoque "stressed skin" construction eliminated the need for biplane truss design for strength. The P.11 series reflected that thinking, with a traditional girder structure for the forward fuselage for the cockpit, fuselage guns and fuel tank, and engine room, and an all metal stressed skin for the rear fuselage starting behind the cockpit. The kit duplicates the forward fuselage structure nicely, without being too complicated. Square tubing, brackets, flight controls plus enough goodies to busy the thing up makes it appear that this will look great even OOB. of course the door is wide open for all who wish to tart it up with various aftermarket or scratchbuilt goodies. I’ll have some sprue shots later when I get home from the office. A quick shot of the nicely done instruction booklet shows general assembly techniques are needed, with plenty of tiny PE bits to keep the fiddliest of us quite happy. If you've built any inter war aircraft models, or even a T-6/Texan/Harvard, you'll feel right at home here. Tonight, I'm going to do some basic cockpit framework to see how well it falls together.

I will do an OOB build review on this, yes.

I’ve made absolutely no secret how I feel about 1930s Polish aircraft, and for me, the scrappy little PZL P.11 was one of the best. The P.11c as depicted here was a successful little fighter and when introduced in 1935, was the most advanced aircraft of its type in the world. Powered by a 630hp Bristol Mercury radial engine and armed with four 7.92mm machine guns, by the time WW2 rolled into Poland, the P.11 design was truly obsolete. Being slower than the Bf.109 and 110, it did have a few advantages. It was extremely robust, insanely maneuverable, and could be withstand dives up to terminal velocity. The P.11c has the dubious honor of being the very first Allied aircraft lost in WW2, but not a few minutes later became the very first Allied aircraft to shoot down a German aircraft. The P.11 was responsible for 110 German aircraft losses, against 100 of their own, so this obsolete fighter gave more than it took. This Kit has been highly anticipated by many, myself at the top of the list, and the moment it hit the market, I jumped on one. The kit itself is really nice. I’ll give a quick overview of the items this PZL-o-holic immediately looked for. I was also one of the very first buyers of the Silver Wings P.11c, and I got really close to finishing when the cowl just frustrated me and off the SOD it went, to be looked at again in the future. I’m happy to say that the engine and it’s Bristol cowl collector ring will be a simple build and will look great! Engine construction is straight forward, and the collector ring has the exhaust pipes molded on in one piece. Very nice! The main cowl is two pieces, and the nose bowl a one piece unit as well. You have no idea how relieved I am after the still unsolved dilemma of the previous resin build. My second concern was the surface finish. The P.11 series had an all metal construction, sheeted entirely in aluminum. The aluminum was ribbed, or corrugated, but not like Junkers or Ford construction. Previous P.11 kits have missed on that detail. Somehow it he corrugations always looking like they belong on a 5AT Ford or a Junkers W.34 or 52. these are much, much more highly restrained, and the surfaces looks “right” to me. The rivets on the fuselage look a mite proud for me and may benefit from some good research to check accuracy. The restrained surface detail just screams ‘NMF!’ Under a light coat iPod primer, followed by LIGHT paint application, this kit will SHINE. I'll follow the rest of this up tomorrow. I’ll show a couple more sprue shots, plus a couple areas of concern, Cheers! -Ernie

Awesome build. I have the ZM kit, and I’m not ready for that battle right now.

She finally has arrived! MY PRECIOUS!

Agreed there, Hubert. In this Country at least, everything, and I mean EVERY THING you see, read, touch, hear, or interact with has to be looked at with some bit of minor suspicion of whatever it is you're looking at being overly or underhandedly influenced by political opportunism. It's a sad fact of our times here. This Country is pretty much equally divided 45/10/45, 45% liberal, 10% undecided, and 45% conservative, and each and every thing we consume or experience has political undertones these days. Even stupid kid's cartoons. I've taken to listening to Dr. Fauchi when he gives his briefings every day. He's a bigshot immunologist and a qorld expert on infectious diseases so his words carry alot of weight. He's pretty much universally respected, or at least he was until last weekend, when he stated that the President's actions to quickly shut down all air travel from China in the early part of this epidemic, undoubtedly saved many, many lives. Then, of course, Dr. Fauchi was immediately trashed by the left leaning news orgs as being a traitor, having drank Trump's Kool-Aid, or whatever. Par for the course. Universally liked, as long as he says what your "side" believes in. I'm not the only one here to look at this whole thing with utter dismay. Not for my business, not for our life's savings, not for the uncertainty of my employees lives, but instead, for the uncertainty of when Wingnuts will release the Handley Pages and Lancasters. LOLOLOL (Hey this is America. It's all about ME, right?)

I'm blessed with a semi autonomous staff as well, Hubert, although I CHOOSE to take one of the paid positions myself simply because I haven't been able to fins someone who can do my job as well as I do. But I can, (and do), take time off to do modelling related shows, etc, when I can rely on a staff member to fill in when I'm away. #1 rule in business is not to be "the business" yourself to where the entire resale value of the business is the owner, but as for right now, I still need to be able to work, I'd go stir crazy otherwise. On Friday, the bottom dropped out. We have absolutely zero new business, and worse, website hiots are the lowest they've ever been and the phone is silent other than for spam calls asking about my car's "extended warranty." I have furloughed my two new hires, and my two key employees are keeping things moving. Both are good men who, in our meeting this morning, advised that they would work at the level the shop needs, so one went home already and will stay on call, and the last one will stay and handle all our carryover from the previous week. As is typical for the US Government, one Party put a pretty decent sounding small business assistance plan together, and the other Party just skuttled the entire thing, so as of right now, there is still nothing on the horizon for small business. Government mopving in this Nation involves one side putting a plan together, and, in exchange for their votes, the other side loading it all up with "pork" so they can get their own personal pet projects funded. that's how we get the Bridges to Knowhere and the 10 million dollar studies determining the mating habits of freshwater leeches after being immersed in Jack Daniels Whiskey for 2 hours. But, hopefully, sanity will return and we can get on with our lives. We are going to a "Stay at Home" type order, all resturants are closed, all sporting events cancelled, concerts and symposiums cancelled as well as live Worship Services. All can be done by live feed, but as of right now, only the Churches are taking advantage of that. Discipline here is much, much worse, with young people in many places absolutely refusing to follow the rules, and congregating on beaches, in parks, etc. The pictures of 10s of thousands of young "Spring Break" college kids on the beaches ibn California and Florida just boggle the mind......

Yep, if nothing else, maybe our creative juices will get flowing.

Stunning work either way

Is all this included in the kit, or is it mostly scratched?

I haven’t been shut down yet. An “essential business” they say. But I have zero customers so I’m at a standstill now. We’ll see how things go. I actually had what amounted to a good, solid 2 hours bench time. And, after my B-36, I’m considering building my first wooden sailing ship in 40 years. Cochrane’s brig HMS Speedy in 1/64 scale by Vanguard Models.

Thanks Dale. I’ll remove my response. Your life experiences are such that I admire your strength and determination That’s am amazing testimony to your inner strength

Sure is, Phil. Obviously our lives have been turned upside down here, but I’m still working on this every moment I have. Im wiring the engine right now, Sosa soon as that is done, I’ll get it mounted and we’re home free.

I have an “essential business” But no customers, so I sit and twiddles thumbs.

Bad idea but doable.