PWS-10 by ccoyle - FINISHED - CardPlane - 1/33 - CARD - Polish trainer c. 1930 - Two for One build

[ccoyle]

Hello, and welcome to my build log for the 1930s Polish trainer, the PWS-10.

 

 

Many westerners are unaware that Poland had a vibrant aircraft industry in pre-war Europe, producing both military and civilian aircraft. Some of the designs produced were cutting-edge and among the best aircraft types of their time.

 

The PWS-10 was not one of them. 😬

 

Designed by the Polish Aircraft Factory (Podlaska Wytwórnia Samolotów) and first flown in 1930, the PWS-10 was intended to be a fighter, but from the beginning its performance was underwhelming, so the type was quickly relegated to training duties (the excellent PZL P.7 first flew the same year and quickly became the backbone of the Polish Air Force fighter corps). Only 80 were built. A parasol monoplane powered by a 12-cylinder, 478-hp W engine of French design, the type was armed with two 7.7 mm machine guns and had a top speed of 150 mph (240 km/h). In 1936, twenty examples were sold to Spain, where they also served as trainers for the Nationalist side.

 

 

The kit is designed by Lech Kołodziejski, who first made it available under his own brand and website, CardPlane. CardPlane has since closed for business, but Lech's designs are still published by WAK. The first "real" card airplane I ever built was one of Lech's free models, the WZ-X, and I have since built two more of his models (below, l to r: WZ-X, Bartel BM-6, PWS Z-17).

 

 

As you can see, Lech's design interests lean towards obscure and experimental aircraft types rather than those that went into large-scale production. After completing the WZ-X, I sent Lech some photos to use as promotional material at his website. Not too long afterwards, I received a very pleasant and totally unexpected surprise in the mail -- a set of all of Lech's designs then available in print, among which was the PWS-10 in Spanish markings. Later, a different designer made a free repaint of the model available in Polish white-tail markings. For this grand adventure, I will be building both models side-by-side.

 

 

 

Lech's designs, including this one, typically have very robust skeletal structures. Unlike the recently deceased P-36 attempt, whose fuselage consisted of a number of conic sections glued end-to-end, this model's fuselage will be built using a profile former and a number of transverse bulkheads coupled with longitudinal formers. The wing is built around two spars. It should all prove very stout.

 

I recently found some laser-cut formers for this kit and snapped them up. The retailer only had one set, though, so one model will use the laser cut set while the other uses formers cut from brown chipboard. The laser-cut set has been coated with shellac for additional strength, but the chipboard already cuts like iron, so it will not get the shellac treatment.

 

 

Construction is already underway. The first task was to mix up the necessary edge color paints, which I was able to successfully do using only paints that I already had on hand. I'm quite pleased with the results, which I tested out on a part from each model.

 

Next time: fuselage construction.

 

Cheers!

[Canute]

This should be an interesting build. I'll follow along.

[ccoyle]

Rear fuselage skeletons complete. This is the easy part . 🤨

 

 

Next up is the internal cockpit structure. As you can see from the diagrams, Lech chose not to make this a simplified element -- there is a lot of open and delicate framing involved. This will not be a sequence for the faint-of-heart builder.

 

[mtaylor]

Ah... now for something completely different.... I'm in.  

[Egilman]

Pullin up the easy chair.....

[Lt. Biggles]

17 hours ago, ccoyle said:

Some of the designs produced were cutting-edge and among the best aircraft types of their time.

 

The PWS-10 was not one of them. 😬

 

Haha Gold!! That got a giggle out of me! 

 

These are unique, what will be their length once complete?

[ccoyle]

5 hours ago, Lt. Biggles said:

what will be their length once complete?

 

I can't find the specs, but it should be somewhere around 15-20 cm.

[popeye the sailor]

look'in good Chris!    here's something funny........I used to work with a fellow named Chris Coyle { I believe he spelt his last name like this}.  we drove forklift together......good co worker   

[ccoyle]

On 12/16/2020 at 11:05 AM, popeye the sailor said:

I used to work with a fellow named Chris Coyle

 

Back when I taught school in Upland, California, a teacher friend of mine who taught in Oceanside sent me a text that his school had hired a new chemistry teacher -- named Chris Coyle. I thought he was pulling my leg and told him as much, so he sent me the link to the guy's bio on the school's website. Sure enough, that was the guy's name. Small world.

 

Anyways, back to the PWS-10. Here's a couple of shots of the cockpit on "White Tail." First, without the forward bulkhead  and instrument panel -- this gives a better view of the framing and other details.

 

The most challenging aspect to this point has been the chipboard. Like I said, it cuts like stone, but afterwards it is very bendy and rather delicate. I'm using the chipboard parts for "White Tail" because WT is a repaint, so I can't guarantee that its parts are a perfect 1-to-1 match for the parts sizes of the original kit, the Spanish Nationalist version, so WT gets the cheaper material.

 

With the forward bulkhead and instrument panel in place, you can already notice that a lot of the fine detail will be difficult to see once the cockpit is skinned. C'est la vie.

 

Now, you might be wondering where the other kit is. Well, there are so many parts in this cockpit build (59 by my count, give or take a few), that I decided to hustle through with this one cockpit first before moving on to the other. That one probably won't be finished soon, because I am heading out to California for Christmas. An unforeseen benefit of this decision (the cockpit, not the California trip) is that I discovered some pitfalls to the build sequence that I will know about in advance for build #2.

 

Until then!

[Old Collingwood]

That is looking so cool.

 

OC.

[lmagna]

Very nice work and to me it is hard to see that the cockpit is even card, not plastic or wood Chris. One thing that kind of sticks out to me though is the curved instrument panel. I cannot remember seeing a wrap-around panel used on a military aircraft before. Not a bad thing certainly but just odd looking, at least to me.

[Canute]

Lots of detail in that cockpit. I had to look twice to make sure.

[popeye the sailor]

good to develop a direction in which to build........the fuselage is look'in really good   I also share the thought of a wrap around instrument panel....are you working from images of the plane?

[ccoyle]

1 hour ago, popeye the sailor said:

are you working from images of the plane?

 

Nope -- just going with what is shown in the diagrams.

 

Here is the finished cockpit for Spanish Nationalist (SN).

 

 

And together with White Tail (WT), which already has her inner cockpit skin attached.

 

 

And that's all until after Christmas. Happy holidays to all!

[popeye the sailor]

and a very merry Christmas to you and your as well!  🎅

[Old Collingwood]

Same as Denis  -  all the best to you and yours Chris.

 

OC.

[Egilman]

1 hour ago, ccoyle said:

And that's all until after Christmas. Happy holidays to all!

And the same to you Chris, and don't go drinking all the nog, save some for the rest of us.... {chuckle}

[Captain Slog]

Fanastic cockpits Chris, so clean and precise.

[ccoyle]

So, being out of town at the moment and pretty bored, I've been surfing around card modeling retail sites. Lo and behold, I found a second set of laser-cut formers for the PWS-10. Since I have already broken like four or five #11 blades cutting the chipboard parts for just the cockpit and rear fuselage alone, I decided to pull the trigger and order the second set. To justify the postage from Poland, I ordered a few other goodies as well -- a Christmas present to myself. The laser-cut set will be greatly appreciated during wing construction, since it consists of a large number of internal parts. Construction on White Tail will thus be delayed a bit while I await the new parts.

[lmagna]

8 minutes ago, ccoyle said:

To justify the postage from Poland, I ordered a few other goodies as well

Likely story Chris. All of us here live with the same affliction and are too smart to fall for that one.  It  is like my wife telling be how good of a deal it was because it was on sale and buys five of them!

[Canute]

Nice rationalization there, Chris. I use that on a frequent basis.

[ccoyle]

Rear fuselage complete. As usual, close-up photos show all the warts more clearly than can be discerned by the unaided eye at normal viewing distances. I had to do a little "tummy tuck" along the bottom of the fuselage, and there were some gaps between the side panels and upper fuselage. I got these filled in and touched up as best I could. Overall, I'm happy at this point.

 

 

[Old Collingwood]

That is looking smart Chris  - its looks so real  like we are looking at a real rear section.

 

OC.

[ccoyle]

Work continues. Next comes the forward fuselage. The fit of these parts has been exemplary. The only hiccup was the most forward section, and the difficulty was caused by my not getting the joiner strip properly positioned on the adjacent internal bulkhead. The fix was not difficult. The recesses for the gun channels are cut out after the skins are attached, and the channels are formed from separate parts; got these done decently, too -- they're not easy.

 

 

Along the bottom of the forward fuselage are four louvered panels. One option for these is to simply glue the printed louvers onto the fuselage skins. The kit is designed, though, so that the louvers can be "opened" -- there are even two black cylinders incorporated into the internal fuselage structure to present a properly inky interior. As designed, there are panels to be cut out (one is visible in these shots) and replaced by the louvered parts. This seemed to me to be too ticklish a detail to pull off, so I settled on a third option. I painted the cut-out panels black and opened up the louvers before gluing their panel over the painted space. The glued panel required quite a bit of touch-up afterward, but I think the finished result is worth the effort. On the next panel, I'm going to try gluing the panel down first before opening up the louvers.

 

 

 

Until next time! Which might be a while, because my vacation is officially ending, and it's back to work tomorrow. Bleah! 😜

[ccoyle]

Eh, squeezed some more work in. All louvered panels done and a dry fit of the two fuselage sections. The machine guns are 95% hidden.

 

[Canute]

Looking good, Chris. Nice work with the louvers.

[lmagna]

Moving right along Chris. It is looking a bit like an aircraft now instead of a coffin. 

[Landlubber Mike]

Really nice work Chris.  So impressive that you can get card to turn out like that.

[popeye the sailor]

looks great so far Chris.....I gotta mention the louvers as well.........they look super!  some very good detail  

[ccoyle]

Thankfully, unlike my canoe project, the PWS-10 requires no fiberglass work. After the cylinder head covers were done, the two fuselage sections mated, and a few other bits added, this part of the build came to a successful conclusion. Of course, I still need to do this all over again for White Tail when its laser set arrives in the mail.