International Scale Modeller

Hey Guys!

Here's my entry for this GB; The Polish Trainer and Light Attack aircraft PZL TS-11 Iskra.





The PZL TS-11 Iskra (English: Spark) is a Polish jet trainer, developed and manufactured by aircraft company PZL-Mielec. It has been used by the air forces of Poland and India. It is notable as being the first domestically-developed jet aircraft to be produced by Poland, its service for over 50 years as the principal training aircraft of the Polish Air Force, and as the oldest jet-propelled aircraft still in service in Poland.

As a part of efforts to preserve Poland's ability to independently develop aircraft in an era of political and economic subservience to the neighbouring Soviet Union, during the 1950s, Polish engineers at the Poland's Aviation Institute (IL) commenced early work upon the design of what would become the first jet aircraft to be developed in Poland. Following the death of Joseph Stalin, work on the initiative could be performed more openly and government officials became supportive of such a venture. The fledgling design was heavily influence by the requirements specified by the Polish Air Force, who had formalised a requirement for a jet-propelled aircraft for training purposes. On 5 February 1960, the first prototype conducted its maiden flight, powered by an imported British Armstrong Siddeley Viper turbojet engine.

During 1963, deliveries of the first production model of the type, designated as the TS-11 Iskra bis A, commenced to the Polish Air Force. During the 1960s, the Iskra competed to be selected as the standard jet trainer throughout the Warsaw Pact. However, it was not selected to fulfil this significant role, the rival Czechoslovakian Aero L-29 Delfín having been chosen instead, which went on to be built in greater numbers for a wide number of export customers. Production of the TS-11 came to an end during 1987, however the type remained in service with the Polish Air Force and the Indian Air Force into the 21st century. From 1969 onwards, a handful of TS-11s have been used by the Polish Air Force's Biało-Czerwone Iskry aerobatics display team. It has also been used for aerial reconnaissance purposes. During the aircraft's later years of service, several examples have been sold onto private owners.



General characteristics

Crew: Two – student and instructor
Length: 11.15 m (36 ft 7 in)
Wingspan: 10.06 m (33 ft 0 in)
Height: 3.50 m (11 ft 5½ in)
Wing area: 17.5 m² (188 ft²)
Empty weight: 2,560 kg (5,644 lb)
Loaded weight: 3,734 kg[20] (8,215 lb)
Max. takeoff weight: 3,840 kg (8,470 lb)
Powerplant: 1 × WSK SO-3 turbojet, 9.81 kN (2,205 lbf)

Performance

Never exceed speed: 750 km/h (Mach 0.8, 404 knots, 466 mph)
Maximum speed: 720 km/h (388 knots, 447 mph) at 5,000 m (16,400 ft)
Cruise speed: 600 km/h (324 knots, 373 mph)
Stall speed: 140 km/h (92 knots, 106 mph) (power off, flaps down)
Range: 1,250 km (673 nmi, 776 mi)
Service ceiling: 11,000 m (36,000 ft)
Rate of climb: 14.8 m/s (2,913 ft/min)
Wing loading: 213 kg/m² (43.6 lb/ft²)
Thrust/weight: 0.30

Armament

1x 23 mm NS-23 or NR-23 cannon in the nose
4 underwing pylons, up to 400 kg (880 lb) of bombs or unguided S-5 rocket pods Mars-4 (8 rockets) or Zeus-1 (12,7mm) gun packs.


The kit I'm gonna build is the "Expert set" (whatever that means..) of the ARMA Hobby 1/72 TS-11 bis DF.




And I have added some aftermarket parts to spice it up a little bit


I will start building this tonight, so stay tuned for more updates soon


Tommy

That's a nice looking jet!

very cool looking Tommy. Looks to be a good build

Super cool Tommy
A great background read at the start
I am on-board

DBMiller wrote: ↑Sun Aug 11, 2019 12:46 pm
That's a nice looking jet!

jmurphy18 wrote: ↑Sun Aug 11, 2019 2:39 pm very cool looking Tommy. Looks to be a good build

Twokidsnosleep wrote: ↑Sun Aug 11, 2019 3:28 pm Super cool Tommy
A great background read at the start
I am on-board

Thanks guys!

Let's start the build with the cockpit (as ursual)

The ejection seats have a couple of details that should be replaced with PE. The assembly instructions aren't very helpful, so I spend a good couple of minutes cleaning up parts that I later discovered that I should cut off
Well, it's always a good idea to chech the instructions thorougly before starting to build








The PE is really nice to work with - soft (annealed maybe?) brass with nice crisp details. I used a glassfiber pen to scratch the backside of the PE details, because they will stick better to the plastic when I glue them with CA-glue.


Ok, next up is the instrument panels.

This is an "old-school" method of getting dials and other details - no prepainted PE here. A printed sheet of acetate that is painted on the backside.


First we need to sand off the moulded details


The IPs of the Iskra have a beautiful electromechanical horizonball, that I want to detail






The IP faceplate has a vertical white line (for orientation I guess)


Next up is the IP covers




And I have started to work on the sidepanels


That's all for now


Tommy

Looks cool and the etched parts look great

jmurphy18 wrote: ↑Mon Aug 12, 2019 5:42 pm Looks cool and the etched parts look great

Thanks John
Yeah, my first thought was that the PE seemed quite bad, but it is great to work with and the details are really crisp. It will be interesting to see what it looks like with paint on and some drybrushing.

Added a couple of handles to the rudder pedals


Started to assemble the cockpit tub to prepare it for painting...


...but I got stopped dead in my tracks by these ejection pin marks




I'll continue tomorrow when the sprue goo has cured


Tommy

Great! I also made Iskra from Arma Hobby. It was first plastic kit from Arma Hobby, so you need to use putty here and there (especially near intakes. But generally, it is the best Iskra in that scale. Good luck!

jpl wrote: ↑Wed Aug 14, 2019 9:59 pm Great! I also made Iskra from Arma Hobby. It was first plastic kit from Arma Hobby, so you need to use putty here and there (especially near intakes. But generally, it is the best Iskra in that scale. Good luck!

Thanks for the advice, jpl
It's not a bad kit for a first from a small manufacturer.


Okay... I continued with the cockpit by assembling the rear bulkhead


Time for primer!




...aaaand we're off painting

Lots of masking and painting












And some detailpainting with a good ol' brush




Next up is to place the PE for the seatbelts and paint a couple of details on those...


Tommy

Hey Guys,

Had to do a whole lot of research to figure out the colours of the seat-belts... I found a couple of pictures that seems legit so I painted the belts in XF-20 Medium Grey and some details in metal and XF-67 Nato Green.




Some drybrushing with XF-19....


Added sticks and rudderpedals


Tested the acetate IPs.... I must say that this is far better than an Eduard Zoom-kit in this scale


And I started working on the ridiculously small control panels - I added backing made from plasticard to make them easier to glue into place



Tommy

What a great looking aircraft, and a superb job done by yourself, i really enjoyed the info and commentary with the photos and looking at how the build evolved.

Thanks for upload etc

Gregwatters wrote: ↑Sat Aug 17, 2019 12:01 pm What a great looking aircraft, and a superb job done by yourself, i really enjoyed the info and commentary with the photos and looking at how the build evolved.

Thanks for upload etc

Thank you, Gregwatters
The kit have been a pleasure to work with sofar and I'm really enjoying the build.


Okay... It has been a cold, windy and rainy Saturday so I have spent most of the time at the bench

I have continued with some weathering of the "office"


Next step is to try to replicate the colourful controlpanel (for the air-to-ground weapons I think) in front of the stick, below the IP.




I start by priming the panel with Ultimate White Primer, the panel is approx 2 x 3 mm


Some dodgy handpainting....


Masking....


Airbrushing XF-1 Black



The result

The colours are a bit stark, so I might dull the down a bit with some wash later....

Flatcoated the parts for the cockpit






Dryfitting....


So I continue with the fuselage halves, a couple of really nasty ejection pin marks


But thankfully they are covered by the cockpit tub


Sneakpeak of the office






Fit seems OK sofar... the problems will probably show up when I attach the wings to the fuselage.


Drilling some holes and I made a mistake... One location-hole on the inside was missing so I found a couple of marks on the outside and thought I could use them. Bad move, but luckily I only drilled one hole


So I have to fill the hole with some dissolved plastic


Some PE in on the sidewalls


Painted with H307 (FS36320)


I'll continue tomorrow....


Tommy

Hello!

I have continued with some detailpainting of the sidewalls


The GX-100 thinned with Mr Leveling Thinner is my to-go gloss nowadays


Weathering...


And we have officially kicked-off the Buddy build with a video:



Tommy

Okay!

Short update today from the bench

I continued with the nose landing gear compartment - a single piece of photoetch that needs to be bent into a "box".




Just for fun I decided to solder the joints instead of using super-glue


I cleaned it with IPA to remove the flux residue


And sanded the soldering "beads" flat



Tommy

Hi!

I got some done today... not much but atleast it's something

Removing the moulded airbrakes from the wings




I used a trick that I see PLASMO use a lot - a quick sweep with a brush with TET to clean up burr and dust


The PE has a small slot prepared in the plastic - nice job Arma Hobby!




I'll continue with the upper halves of the wings tomorrow.... I havent decided if I should have the airbrakes open or closed


Tommy

Great! Your skills are perfect!

jpl wrote: ↑Wed Aug 21, 2019 10:45 pm Great! Your skills are perfect!

Thank you very much, jpl



I have continued the work on the upper half of the wings




Drilled holes for the underwing pylons


I will replace a couple of fences with PE


Well this wasn't exactly a walk in the park.....

One down - three to go


Tommy

thats great so far with some intricate details, you can always tell the scale when the fingerprints on the hand holding the piece are so clear. Looking forward to the rest of the build...

Gregwatters wrote: ↑Thu Aug 22, 2019 10:54 pm thats great so far with some intricate details, you can always tell the scale when the fingerprints on the hand holding the piece are so clear. Looking forward to the rest of the build...

Thanks Gregwatters, this is a small aircraft so in 1/72 some parts are tiny...


I had some good progress yesterday and I spent a couple of hours at the bench.

Finished the wing sections














Added the exhaust to the fuselage




Added some aluminium foil for the light






Painting and weathering the nose wheel bay


...and I glued that into the fuselage as well

I added a "bulkhead" as support to give it more stability. Next step will be to add some noseweight before I close up the fuselage

And it's time for the second build update video:



Tommy

Nice work with all that photo etch! Some of those parts are microscopic!

WOW

You are flying along!!!
Cockpit detailing looks great, soldering pE awesome

DBMiller wrote: ↑Mon Aug 26, 2019 12:14 am Nice work with all that photo etch! Some of those parts are microscopic!

Twokidsnosleep wrote: ↑Mon Aug 26, 2019 12:58 am WOW

You are flying along!!!
Cockpit detailing looks great, soldering pE awesome

Thanks guys!

Added some noseweight - the assy instructions states 5 g but I think I want to be on the safe side so I filled one half of the fuselage


There are some sinkmarks on the topside of the wings and of the fuselage, so I filled them with dissolved styrene


The horisontal stabiliser was slightly warped


I dipped it into hot water to straight it up


After a day I could sand and polish the sinkmarks


Main wing subassembly is completed.

There are a couple of fit issues between the wings and fuselage, but I will deal with them later...


Tommy

Nice looking kit there mate great progress so far

WOW Tommy, you really got a lot of work done while I was gone on vacation and such. That PE work you did was outstanding! All you details work and so tiny on a 1/72 is sweet.

Thanks guys!

So I have continued with some filling and sanding.....





I'm using CA-glue to fill the remaining imperfections in the seam


Also started to clean up the small parts. The rocket pods will need some work for sure...



Tommy

I spy with my little eye a disposable contact lens case used as a glue pot
Exellenté

Twokidsnosleep wrote: ↑Thu Sep 12, 2019 10:02 pm I spy with my little eye a disposable contact lens case used as a glue pot
Exellenté

Indeed it is!
I get two of these every month


Tommy

Okay!

I have actually done some modelling yesterday and today

Started to work on the air intakes and the joint between the wings and fuselage. O'boy... lots of work to do





After some dryfitting and adjusting I managed to get it together.

There are still a couple of gaps that needs some work

Let's continue with the remaining small parts in the kit


Ejection pinmarks


Drilled out the rocket tubes with a 0.4 mm drillbit




The "addons" on the fuselage does not really fit and they leave gaps here and there... So I used dissolved putty to fill the tiny gaps.




Masked the wheel wells to avoid overspray


Primer!



Tommy

Coming along beautifully!

DBMiller wrote: ↑Sun Sep 15, 2019 4:09 pm Coming along beautifully!

Thanks!

Painted the undercarriage parts and air intake with H307 (FS36320)




And it's time for a vlog update on the build:



Tommy

Cracking work on the cockpit.

Looking great there mate

mse240966 wrote: ↑Tue Sep 17, 2019 10:33 pm Cracking work on the cockpit.

gaz45 wrote: ↑Mon Sep 30, 2019 1:44 pm Looking great there mate

Thanks guys!

So... back to this one.... It's been on stashed away on the shelf while I was finishing the Mondoshawan figure.

It's time to attach the wings now

I glued the upper side first and the let that cure before I glued the underside - it seemed to work pretty well








But there are a couple of ugly gaps near the air intakes... I need to fill and sand those



Tommy

Hey Guys!

I have continued with fixing the gaps and seams around the wings yesterday and today

I used shims made from plasticard to fill the gaps at the rear wingroot






After that I scribed the panel lines that should be there


And I attached the pylons



Tommy

Okay...

Got some more stuff done!

Attached the horisonal and vertical stabilizers after the obligatory dryfitting and adjustment cycle.






Only a minor gap on the tailfin to deal with - it turned out better than expected


I ran into some problems with attaching the front seat IP... It hangs in sills of the cockpit tub (or it is supposed to do that)


So I had to add some material to glue it to






Made a HUD glass from some PET sheet (these are salvaged from a number of blisterpacks over the years).


Painted the sides of the HUD glass with some Tamiya X-25 Clear Green to make it visible through the windscreen



Tommy

Still coming along nicely despite the fit issues.

DBMiller wrote: ↑Tue Oct 08, 2019 2:50 pm Still coming along nicely despite the fit issues.

Thanks !
Yes, there is some it of work to do to get everything fit together... This is probably the most mojo-draining part of the build, but I will soon be through it I think

Okay!

I have continued with the windscreen.


As I mentioned earlier the are som minor fit issues here as well, but some of it is caused by me...


All the sanding left a lot so scratches on the windscreen, so I had to polish it back to a shine again,,,


And we could attach the masking foil - the masking set is using the black vinyl tape, like Montex is using. Not my favorite - I prefer the Washi masking tape type like Eduard has.


Masking the main wheel wells so I can take care of the unpainted parts...








Replacing the plastic 23mm autogun with the turned brass part




My 5 year old bottle of Kristal Klear had dried up completely, so I had to buy a new one. I used this to fill the hole for the landing light, since the clear part didn't fit properly....


Stay tuned!

Tommy

Hey Guys!

Rescribing some access panels on the spine of the fuselage


Masking....








And drilling some 0.3mm holes on the edge of the "rods" (it's exactly as tedious as it sounds)






And holes for the main landing gear indicators



It's time for a update video



Tommy

Hello!

The build is moving on with the painting phase

But first we need to attach the antenna on the spine of the fuselage




Cleaning the whole model with IPA to prep for paint


Primed with Black Ultimate Primer


I forgot to prime some spoons for paint tests, but luckily I had a couple left from an earlier project.


The Polished Alu looks best I think, so I will go for that!


Tommy

Hey Guys!

I did some more testing with spoons

The one on the right is Polished Alu sprayed on Black Utimate Primer and the left one has a coat of GX-100 on the primer.


...so I decided to for the the gloss surface before the Polished Alu, since it looks much better

But this revealed a very prominent sinkmark

So I had to sand down the spot and fix that




But after an hour of sanding, polishing, priming and glosscoating we where back on track again


So let's hit it with Polished Aluminium







Tommy

Okey...

Did some detail painting today.


Masking of the anti-glare paint on the nose cone








Decals!

I'm applying the decals on the paint directly, no glosscoat.


I bought a sheet of technical stencils for this kit, that I was planning to use. But when I compared the stencils supplied with the kit they where identical So I will will only use the decals in the kit




Lot's of stencils, I will continue with the rest tomorrow I think....


Tommy

Hey Guys!

I have been away from the bench for a week and done some 1:1 scale work on my cottage/house up north in Sweden, but now I'm back and I am eager to finish this build - it's not much left now....

Decals have been completed and I have added a protective glosscoat








Panel line wash - I will not weather this model a lot...






Unmasking


The under carriage indicators - I will paint them red with a silver top


Ok... the kit contains tiny photoetch FOD-covers. I broke one of the parts so I had to replace it with some thin wire










....and we can mask the canopy and prep it for paint!







Tommy

Awesome work! I read the whole thread and got amazed. Excellent job mate!

pikos wrote: ↑Fri Nov 01, 2019 12:04 pm Awesome work! I read the whole thread and got amazed. Excellent job mate!

Thank you very much, pikos!


Tommy

Awwrajt!

This build is almost completed now and I'm moving into the final-assembly-frenzy

Painting of the canopy - same procedure as for the rest of the aircraft of course...


...some final parts to cleanup and paint


I always sand resin wet to avoid dust.




Added a locationpin to the antennas on the belly of the aircraft


Painting






The top of the undercarriage indicators should be metal


I knocked off the pitot tube (as ursual) so I had to fix that!


Flatcoat with GX-113 thinned with MLT


Unmasking...


Glued the landing gear legs


Wohoo! No Tailsitter


BUT I discovered a PROBLEM.
I placed the pylons for the rocket-launchers in the wrong position, so they point all over the place

After a fierce discharge of all swear-words I could remember I calmed down and decided to fix it instead....

I snapped off the pylons.... Yeah, I felt the same way you do now....


...and glued them back in the right position using TET




Ok... Let's continue with the rest of the undercarriage






Looks OK


Attached the undercarriage indicators




And the underside is finished - next step will to decorate office and add the FOD covers



Tommy

Hey Guys!

It's time to finish this build now

I forgot to paint a small beam made from PE; so let's do that




And the small protection glass between the tandem seats


Added the seats and the FOD covers






And after attaching the canopy - the Iskra is finally finished !










More and better photos will soon be posted in the Final Reveal section.

I will also post a final build log video with my conclusions of this kit and this build, so stay tuned

Btw; I found this great walkaround of the Iskra on YT:



Tommy

Isn't this the same plane you are building? I found this on a photo site I use.

https://500px.com/photo/1002393226/Late ... d=27798889

This is a cool shot too.

https://500px.com/photo/1001990940/Even ... d=27798889

DBMiller wrote: ↑Sun Nov 03, 2019 2:25 pm Isn't this the same plane you are building? I found this on a photo site I use.

https://500px.com/photo/1002393226/Late ... d=27798889

This is a cool shot too.

https://500px.com/photo/1001990940/Even ... d=27798889

Yep, that's the same. Awesome photos!


Tommy

Greetings!

The Final Reveal Photos of the Iskra have been posted (can be found here: viewtopic.php?f=696&t=27798) and it's time to conclude this build.

The kit from Arma Hobby was a really nice surprise; to be honest I didn't have too high expectations on the fit and detailing of this kit, but luckily I was totally wrong and it turned out to be a very pleasant build. Not trouble-free, of course; there are fit issues around the air intakes that requires some effort, sinkmarks and I had to fill and rescribe a lot.
But the wonderful details of the cockpit, the photoetch, paint masks that where included in the kit and the quality of the decals (and supplied stencils) made up for that

If I come across this kit again I will buy it without hesitation and I'm eager to try other kits from ARMA Hobby as well...

This has been a long build, with a lot of work for a 1/72, but I hope that those of you that have followed this build have found it interesting - I have certainly learned new things!


Tommy

Hello!

Here's the final build update



Tommy