I'm an editor, more than anything. I've been editing texts professionally & academically for most of my life, and it seems that's the aspect of modeling I ought to try to develop. For some time now, I've searched for a suitable subject to edit. By pure chance, and out of fatigue after looking high and low for a subject that attracted me, I suddenly found this model:
What you see above is my new cover page for an obscure model that I had never heard of until I ran into it by chance. It is the Marek Pacinsky design of the projected – but never completed – Polish 1939 figher PZL-55 (also known as PZL-62, which however seems to be an erroneous designation, if recent Polish research is to be trusted).
The model has not been mentioned on this site, or any other major paper-building site, as far I've been able to ascertain. The only (unfinished) build of the model I've managed to find is at the Polish Papermodels.pl. Here are a few of the build photos of the 1/33 version from that site:
Attachment 220237 Attachment 220238
There are a couple of plastic builds out there, which give you a better impression of what an attractive aircraft this in fact is (or would have been):
Attachment 220239 Attachment 220240 Attachment 220241
The attractive outline of this model is also my main reason for spending some 100+ hours on editing the original kit. In my view, it simply has among the most pleasing lines of any aircraft of the era – even today I believe it would give rise to admiration painted in civilian colors. Second, it was a most modern design for its time, and as projected it would have matched all comparable aircraft of the same era, like the Messerschmidt, Spitfire or Mustang.
Unfortunately, all drawings together with the prototype under construction were confiscated by the German invading forces in 1939, and have since been lost. The only source material is a postwar drawing from memory by the original designer Jerzy Dąbrowski of the PZL works. This drawing has been included in the kit, as I'm sure it's what the original kit designer Marek Pacinsky has used:
The original paper model kit is readily available as a 1/33 scale model, either from Ecardmodels or as a printed model from by Answer in the "MP Models" series (MP for Marek Pacinsky). It is in fact an extraordinary well wrought design. What impressed me most was the rich amount of rivet lines, and how these were made in different shades of black/grey over different colors. That feature in itself was a revelation to me, and I've taken it one step further in the reworked 1/16 scale model presented here, in that all lines – rivet and panel lines – are made in darker nuances of the color they cover, so that they all appear to be of the same darkness, regardless of background.
I have also reworked all the camo colors into lighter shades of dark green, brown and sky blue. The latter may be taking things a bit too far – sky blue may not have been used on Polish fighters of the era, but since this in any case is a fictional model, I felt free to do so for aesthetic reasons.
The original design called for making up the fuselage in sections to be buttjoined. A more modern way is to use gluestrips, and I've constructed new ones to that end. It is left up to the builder to choose which way to go. I have also added a number of other refinements, which would please me to tell you about as we go through the new kit.
What you see above is my new cover page for an obscure model that I had never heard of until I ran into it by chance. It is the Marek Pacinsky design of the projected – but never completed – Polish 1939 figher PZL-55 (also known as PZL-62, which however seems to be an erroneous designation, if recent Polish research is to be trusted).
The model has not been mentioned on this site, or any other major paper-building site, as far I've been able to ascertain. The only (unfinished) build of the model I've managed to find is at the Polish Papermodels.pl. Here are a few of the build photos of the 1/33 version from that site:
Attachment 220237 Attachment 220238
There are a couple of plastic builds out there, which give you a better impression of what an attractive aircraft this in fact is (or would have been):
Attachment 220239 Attachment 220240 Attachment 220241
The attractive outline of this model is also my main reason for spending some 100+ hours on editing the original kit. In my view, it simply has among the most pleasing lines of any aircraft of the era – even today I believe it would give rise to admiration painted in civilian colors. Second, it was a most modern design for its time, and as projected it would have matched all comparable aircraft of the same era, like the Messerschmidt, Spitfire or Mustang.
Unfortunately, all drawings together with the prototype under construction were confiscated by the German invading forces in 1939, and have since been lost. The only source material is a postwar drawing from memory by the original designer Jerzy Dąbrowski of the PZL works. This drawing has been included in the kit, as I'm sure it's what the original kit designer Marek Pacinsky has used:
The original paper model kit is readily available as a 1/33 scale model, either from Ecardmodels or as a printed model from by Answer in the "MP Models" series (MP for Marek Pacinsky). It is in fact an extraordinary well wrought design. What impressed me most was the rich amount of rivet lines, and how these were made in different shades of black/grey over different colors. That feature in itself was a revelation to me, and I've taken it one step further in the reworked 1/16 scale model presented here, in that all lines – rivet and panel lines – are made in darker nuances of the color they cover, so that they all appear to be of the same darkness, regardless of background.
I have also reworked all the camo colors into lighter shades of dark green, brown and sky blue. The latter may be taking things a bit too far – sky blue may not have been used on Polish fighters of the era, but since this in any case is a fictional model, I felt free to do so for aesthetic reasons.
The original design called for making up the fuselage in sections to be buttjoined. A more modern way is to use gluestrips, and I've constructed new ones to that end. It is left up to the builder to choose which way to go. I have also added a number of other refinements, which would please me to tell you about as we go through the new kit.
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