Tonys Korpak 1/72 polikarpov po2 L

[yak face]

Heres my entry for Ians GB . Its an ageing eastern european kit of the Po2 . Apparently this was a Frog tooling that never got released before they went belly up. Like all the other toolings it ended up in Russia and ended up in this boxing . Its not a bad kit considering its vintage (first tooled in 1977 ) and offers options to build several different types ( floatplane , ambulance , bomber , polar )
Its reasonably detailed but suffers from a fair bit of flash and some of the smaller mouldings are a bit misshapen but nothing that's a deal breaker.
Im going to do the all red Po2 L polar version with skis and fully enclosed cabin

 

[papa 695]

Nice one Tony, should look great after a little cleaning.

 

[therapy]

It's surprising how different that version looks with the enclosed cockpit and engine cowling. Watching with interest...

Nick

 

[Steve-the-Duck]

Nice. And something different from a Night Witches Sewing Machine. If I saw it on a show table I'd be hard-pressed to recognise it a s a Po-2

Now, there is an interesting collection in itself of all the red Soviet Polar explorer planes

 

[yak face]

Nice. And something different from a Night Witches Sewing Machine. If I saw it on a show table I'd be hard-pressed to recognise it a s a Po-2

Now, there is an interesting collection in itself of all the red Soviet Polar explorer planes

Cheers chris , yes the inter war soviet polar and record breaking aircraft were very unusual and interesting . I did another dodgy old eastern bloc kit a few years ago of the Tupolev ant 25 , another one that needed bashing into shape but it turned out to be one of the most satisfying models i ever built , i love the challenge of a poor kit.

 

[yak face]

Made a start today , cockpit has been assembled and painted , some basic harnesses added from painted strips of tamiya tape , eyelets punched through with a pin. Its not brilliant but very little will be seen once the canopy and rear decking goes on . Speaking of which , the clear part is atrocious , not very clear and covered in lumps and bumps . Its all ive got to work with though so I’ll have to try and sand and polish it later .
Once I got the fuselage together I could start with the butchery! The rear cockpit divider and rear fuselage were marked out and sawed off leaving plenty of excess to sand off till I could get the decking and canopy to fit near enough.

 

[Andy T]

A great start Tony, and major surgery already!

 

[Neil Merryweather]

Wow that canopy is BAD!
But we know you will knock it into shape, Tony.

 

[adt70hk]

Wow!! That canopy is awful......I can safely say I have never seen this ever done before.

ATB.

Andrew

 

[yak face]

Cheers guys , yes its one of the worst ive had . The inside is nice and smooth though so its just the outer surface . I'm going to have a go at polishing it first and if that doesnt work i’ll use it as a former and try and crash mould a new one .

 

[Steve-the-Duck]

Save what you can of the canopy, buut...

Very nice cockpit work. Interesting, isn't it, how many smaller scale kits have the foot pedals in them mowadays, or at least in the last twenty years?

 

[papa 695]

Great start Tony, the best thing to do with that canopy is cover it up with a tarp Ha Ha.

 

[Mark1]

Nice job with the chopping but yeah that canopy does look like it was excreted rather than moulded lol

 

[The Smythe Meister]

Cracking along there Tony
..... as for the Canopy.....
.... What's wrong with that?!!!

 

[colin m]

This GB really has got the esoteric aircraft popping up, and here's another. Very interesting Tony.

 

[tr1ckey66]

Another Bi-plane build off to a flying (pun intended) start!!!
Hi Tony!
You've got a really unusual and, by the looks of things, challenging little build on your hands there.
That canopy is really bad. I think I'd probably have a go at crashing a new one, something I've never done before, as the original will probably have any framing detail removed in the polishing process (I may be wrong, and you may have a cunning plan!!!)
Either way, I know that this will prove to be a really interesting build with (perhaps) some cracking pointers on how to form canopies!!! As usual, the office detail you put into these tiny models is incredible.

Great and unusual stuff - I can honestly say, I didn't know anything about this aircraft until this morning!
Good luck mate
Paul

 

[yak face]

Now the rear decking is in place its time to sort the canopy. I thought i’d try polishing it first before resorting to crash moulding . On looking at the colour profile on the box it appears the top part of the canopy isnt glazed so thats helped a little , only the side windows and windscreen to sort . I started out by sanding it all with a very fine grit ( old sanding stick , best guess equivalent to about 2000 grit ) to get all the lumps and bumps off .
Once I had done this it was time to give it a polish , using——— Brasso!
Yes you read it right , good old Brasso , rubbed repeatedly with cotton buds and then polished up with more of the same . Eventually i got a good shine and as clear as the thick transparency is going to get . Then it was masked up and fitted , and painted in the internal frame colour of blue grey. It needs a smear of acrylic putty to sort the joint on the windscreen and it should be fine .

 

[papa 695]

Great work on the canopy Tony, at least the pilot may be able to see where he’s going.

 

[Andy T]

Nice one Tony. I thought that canopy was bin fodder but you've worked wonders with it.

 

[Mark1]

Well whoever came up with the saying you cant polish a turd needs to sit down and reevaluate their life