Mistercraft 1/72 PZL P.7a
The PZL P.7 was a single-engine fighter aircraft designed in Poland. First flight took place in September 1929, 149 machines were built in 1932/33. In September 1939 about 40 took part in the fighting but most of the P.7a were destroyed. Some fled to Romania and the captured aircrafts were used for training in Germany and the USSR.
For this build I used Mistercraft (No. B-37) 1/72 PZL P.7a. The box cover calls it the 'Transylvanian Fighter' and is a reboxed PZW (Podlaskie Zaklady Wytworcze) kit. I added some details into the cockpit area and had to build up the headrest fairing area. The struts for the wings and landing gears was thin and very delicate. I took my time in that area and the engine cowl also needed some care too. This kit was originally release sometime in the 80's.
The decals from this kit was not used, instead I used a set from Techmod which also had the same Romanian markings that were in the kit's decals. I used the Techmod drawings to paint the model and used a pencil to high light panels and some light weathering.
This kit build up okay but not as nice as the Heller PZL P.11c. It does have some issues on how the engine cowling and engine goes together, a lot of flash had to be removed in which ruined some of the parts and the shape of the spinner, fuselage and tail plane were off. Still when done I was happy with it and looks good next to the Heller PZL P.11c.
You've done amazing job with this kit, my friend Bob!
Hard to believe it is only 1/72.
Also, interesting to know that the Heller offering is nicer.
Thank you Spiros. The Heller kit fits better and the shape of the fuselage, tail plane, propeller, spinner and the whole engine cowl are more accurate. Can’t say that on the P-7a. If you ever want to make a P.7a, the Arma Hobby kit is the way to go.
Very nice result, Bob @v1pro
I was also surprised that it was just a 1/72 build.
Well done.
Thank you John. ?.
It is very nice build Bob. I am always afraid about the quality of MisterCraft kits. Taking this into account it is amazing result.
Thank you Łukasz. My biggest issue was the engine/cowling area. The shape of the spinner is wrong and the cone shape fairing for the engine gets damaged while removing the flash. Plus the plastic was a bit brittle and grainy. The older PZW boxing looked cleaner. The Arma Hobby kit engineered this area very nicely.
Greta model! It's unimaginable, but on P.7 outdated plane, Polish pilots shot down in september 39 as many as 7.5 enemy aircraft, including at least a few Bf110s!
Thank you Lis, when I was working on both P.7a and the P.11c I was thinking about the pilots who flown these aircraft during those days.
@v1pro Pilots that flow on P11 shot down between 97 -126 german planes (depending on the source). I think it's great result (P11 was outdated too).
They flew very aggressively, the Polish pilots in the No. 303 Squadron RAF demonstrated that with great results too.
Nice job, Bob!
Thank you Gary.
Nice work, Bob!
Thank you John.
Great build on a not so great kit, Bob.
Lovely job with the choice of camo and markings. Nice work!
George thank you. I am glad to go with this camo and markings, it is more eye catching than the plain Khaki scheme.
Very nice! I hadn't thought about looking for alternative markings for some of these Polish aircraft in my stash - that got me thinking... Nice to know there are some alternate decals available in the aftermarket for that!
Thank you Greg. The Techmod sheet that I used has Polish, Romanian and a captured German markings. Techmod makes another sheet but I think they are all with the Polish markings. You will find many Polish aircrafts with Romanian markings. Some capture planes in German and sometimes Russian.
The PZL P.24 were exported to Greece and a few PZL P.7a with Spanish Civil War markings.
5 attached images. Click to enlarge.
@v1pro a large group of P.11 and P. 7 - planes from the flying school in Dęblin and the school bomber squadron on PZL P.37 ŁOŚ planes crossed the border of Romania when the Soviet Union treacherously attacked eastern Polish territories on September 17, 1939. Then they were used by the Romanian air force (successfully). In addition, Romania had a license to manufacture P.11 aircraft (in addition to a number purchased in the 1930s).
Yes, the Romanian Air Force put them into good use, the IAR-80 took the PZL P.24 rear fuselage into its design.