Mirage Hobby 1/48 PZL-23B Karas

[MakingModelsAgain]

So here is my entry sneaking in under the banner of it being a light bomber. Basically, it's the same as a regular bomber, only with less calories.

I've had this in the stash for just over a year now and have been putting it off too long. Enter ISM GBs!

Unfortunately, the kit doesn't come with any ordinance, making it an even more tenuous link to the subject matter, but there is a set of 'Polskie bombys' available, so I might have a look out for them. Failing that, this will have to represent an aircraft returning from a mission! A bombing mission, 'cos you know, it's a bomber.

It's made of nice, crisp, dense, grey plastic with a slight texturing to the surface. Panel lines are Airfixy-ish, but not too bad. The clear parts, thankfully, are optically perfect and there is a wee baggy of resin stuff and a fret of photoetch that resembles a sheet of heavy steel, so it might be hacksaws and blowtorches to get the parts off the damn thing!

Also, this is a limited edition kit and comes with a poncey little medallion/coin type thingy and a certificate to tell me I have no 0896 of 1300. So, that's nice.

Because there's PE and resin, I'll be building it OOB with maybe some additional wiring in the cockpit to busy things up a little.

The bonny box...


A poncey coin...


Polskie bombys which if located, will be utilised!


Clear CGI instructions.


The styrene...





The other stuff...

[T3hGuppy]

Very nice kit dude.

Really looking forward to seeing your work on this

[ModelingMatt]

In the words of Monty Python "Now for something completely different!"

[Lee]

It's a nice choice for sure Gary

[Nige201980]

That looks a great kit Gary really looking forward to this one.

[patrickroos]

Fantastic subject, the Polish equivalent of the SAAB 17!
Very similar Aircraft indeed, type, design, performance...cool!
The kit looks very nice and in Your capable hands Im sure this will be a stunner.

Good luck with the build!

[wally]

Nice to see polish bomber in the GB. It was thew main medium bomber in our Polish airforce during first weeks of second world war. Nice subject though. Looking forward to see how it will glue together. Fingers crossed.
Cheers

[Jamesday1998]

nice choice

[coladito1]

Its nice to have something different in the GB, it sure looks like a great kit!! Will be following with interest.

[Rob]

Great choice. To be watched with interest.

[MakingModelsAgain]

RIGHT! Time to kick this bad boy off once and for all!

So, as you can see, I've done the ol' cockpit. There were so many freakin' colour call outs for this damn thing - dark grey, light grey, blueish grey, silver, steel, canvas, leather, blue, black, gun metal, red, wood and of course, the most important of all - Polish Khaki - which will be used on the airframe as well. Now, Mirage give you their interpretation of this charming hue by asking you to mix half the Vallejo range together in order to get it. I don't have Vallejo, so I decided to use a colour recipe for Polish Khaki that's been handed down through generations of my family dating back to my Polish uncle, Stanko Kabanos. Ok, that last part may not be entirely true. So, basically, I made my own based on the many pictures to be had on the world's wide web. Besides, it must be ok, it says so on the bottle.

If using PE seat harness, heat them gently over a flame as it makes them so much easier to place in a more realistic, haphazard fashion.






See? It says so!


The radial engine looks fine OOB.

[UKscalemodeller]

Amazing work Gary, maybe you could start your own paint company OK! paint

OK.jpg (22.03 KiB) Viewed 1922 times

but.....are you yourself 'OK'? an engine that is useable OOB?!?

[MakingModelsAgain]

but.....are you yourself 'OK'? an engine that is useable OOB?!?

It was close.... and painful.... but I held on, gritted my teeth (splintering a few in the process) but I pulled through, relatively unscathed with a plain painted plastic part.

Uncle Stanko would often be found of a morning after the night before on his Spitfire. Or someone's.

[UKscalemodeller]

Uncle Stanko would often be found of a morning after the night before on his Spitfire. Or someone's.

Well he won't fall as he is 'propped' up


I'll get me coat

[MakingModelsAgain]

I was cowling with laughter....

Get mine while you're at it...

[patrickroos]

I Think he looks a bit exhausted...

[Nige201980]

Brilliant Gary

[coladito1]

Amazing work Gary, and go ahead and write "ok by Luis" on that bottle. Because I am 1/4 polish!!

[UKscalemodeller]

Oh! Mr Gary sir!I have just watched your update vid, I have a 1/72 Kara's to do at some point, I almost exclusively use Vallejo so would you be able to tell me what the call out is for polish khaki pweese?

[conradschmid99]

one of the best cockpits ever

[jdog102398]

Hey great start on the kit Gary, been wondering about getting something from Mirage.....Looking forward to following your build!

_____________

Jonas Bryant on YouTube



on the bench:
Academy 1/72 B-17
Revell 1/48 F-15E Strike Eagle
Tamiya 1/35 SdKfz 251/1

[T3hGuppy]

Fantastic work on the interior dude.

Your work always leaves me

[Opapapa]

Absolutely stunning job with the interior!!

Nice to see a plane little bit outside of the "mainstream".

I'm looking forward to this one!

Olli

[Joesdad]

Amazing

[MakingModelsAgain]

Looking a tad more Karassey now that it has it's flying surfaces on. This kit has some exquisite surface detail, from straps to fine mesh textured walkways. The snag is, that although Mirage Hobby are by no means a typical example of the short-run kit variety, they are, by that same token, no Tamiya either and with a rather complicated wing arrangement, there are a lot of nasty gaps that need attending to. Typically, these gaps often border the aforementioned surface detail and if those gaps were filled and sanded in the conventional way we all know and love, the result would be the obliteration of that detail which is irreplaceable.

So I have employed a method of gap filling that uses the liquid, Mr Dissolved putty from those lovely people over there at Gunze. I was going to use a filler recipe handed down by my Great Great Uncle Stanko, but it involves the use of a cauldron, some animal parts(mostly) and a type of magic that we dare not speak its name. So hello Mr Dissolved Putty!

Because Mr DP is soluble, it is quite easy, once it has been applied liberally to the offending crevice, to remove the excess with the aid of a cotton bud dipped in Gunze's own Mr Color Thinner which is a solvent-based laquer-ey type stuff. I don't know if any other thinners work, but if you have the corresponding one, I'd tend to stick with it. This method leaves a nice, clean line of putty left in the gap with the surrounding plastic totally unharmed. There is a brief tutorial of this method on my latest YT video. (It starts at 09:58 fyi)
[youtube]ZBnjI6SmMuo[/youtube]

Unless you can be assured of a precision fit, then this combination was asking for teee-rubble!


And this was some of the trouble it caused....


Fortunately, some optional photoetch strips were used on both the topside and underside that effectively covered the wing-to-wing joins. Voilà!


Although some further clean-up is required, you can see here the benefit of using this filling method with the surface detail that would otherwise have been lost to the paper of sand...



Poor old Great Great Uncle Stanko pictured here having to leave town in a bit of a rush after a batch of filler paste started turning the young modellers pink and sort of elephant-shaped.

[Jamesday1998]

looks great you've done a awesome job so far!

[5Craven]

And god bless Great Great Uncle Stanko the incident with the pitchforks and blazing torches was just a misunderstanding as I hope his grieving relatives will understand.

[T3hGuppy]

Great work dude.

And useful tips in your video.

Deffo a cool looking bird.