Found another photo of the TRD today, same source, Fortepan / MHSZ.
I started making notes about the custom decals/masks I need to make. The old registration letters are simple, but I will need a blue "Trener 6" sign, matching the blue from the livery. I believe that it is too complicated to cut, even with machines, so I need to see whether I can match a self-printed decal with the blue color. Same goes for the new registration, I have to match the red with the livery. It will be tricky, but I will see what I can achieve.

The original stencils are interesting too. It seems that the planes arrived with Hungarian stencils (or applied shortly after their arrival). However, I can´t read them on the photos, bit I have an idea what they say. I have seen a lot of planes from that period, and all of them used very similar wording on the stencils.
Eduard provides full stencils on the decal sheet, but almost all planes in the kit are Czech or Slovakian (or from the former Czechoslovakia). You can also buy a stencil aftermarket set from Eduard, and they provide both Czech and Slovakian stencils, in white and black. Not really helping my plans of building a Hungarian plane.
However, the instruction PDF is a huge help. I can see where the commonly applied stencils were, and what they said. I just had to type in the text to Google translate, and got the English translation. From that I can easily find the best (and most probably applied) Hungarian translation.
I can see on the photos that not all stencils were applied on that batch of Treners. There is nothing on the stabilizers, rudder and elevator. The wings and fuselage have the usual warning signs applied, but I don´t see any external power port or stencils in that area on the fuselage (neither the original T, or the restored MS version). Maybe it was an optional item.

If you wonder what the common stencils on a 226 were:
Czech - English
vonkajsi zdroj - external power
tu zdvinat - lift here
tu nezdvinati - do no lift here
tu netlacit - do not push
nedotykat sa - do not touch
palivo - fuel
olej - oil
neopirat sa - do not push or pull - I think the placing on the dorsal fin makes both correct, but I am not sure what the correct translation is correct here
tu nestupati - do not step

You can see their placing on Eduard´s instructions.

Tom @tcinla yeah, language learning is fun, but some are more difficult to learn than others. Even in the eastern part of Europe, there are many, very different language groups, and a few of them sound terrible for me as well.

Sometimes I also play with the recent version of Microsoft´s flight simulator, and look what comes on Thursday - a Reno air race extension! . I was lucky enough to get into a short beta testing a few weeks ago, and it is a great addon to the simulator. You can fly with 4 different classes, one of them is the T-6.

@tcinla yes, it indeed is dangerous. I would not try it in real life, prefer to stay on the safe side when flying. I have also witnessed fatal accidents and very close calls in our club, and those made me focused on safety for life.

In the meanwhile, Eduard released its December newsletter. This time, the editors included a build report of the kit, and a few photos of another build. Looks very promising, I can´t wait to get started.

Thanks for notifying, Csaba @pikofix
Indeed a very interesting newsletter.

I managed to call the former school principal of Darnózseli, and he remembered the TRD, being on display in front of his school for a few years in the 1970s. The background of the story is that two persons from the town worked for the local MHSZ (a paramilitary sport organization, handling flying clubs, among other sports). They managed to get the grounded TRD somehow and put it on display for a while in their hometown. He did not know why, but the plane disappeared later (the time when it was taken back to the hangars for storage). I managed to surprise him with the fact, that the plane got into the air again, nearly 20 years later.

Unfortunately, he does not have photos but recommended reaching out to the local community. I managed to find the local Facebook group. Hopefully, someone can find a photo in the family albums.

I received this photo M. Borbely, and with her permission I can share it here. It shows the TRD around 1979-80, in very poor condition, resting on three concrete blocks. According to multiple people, the plane was pretty much empty inside, without tires and propeller. Most probably everything valuable was removed from the airframe.
Interesting addition to the story that most people recalled red and yellow colors, not green/blue as the last known paint scheme.

It is indeed a small plane John @johnb I know the feeling of seeing something in photo, and then being surprised to see the difference between the expected and real size. My wife is really bad in guessing the size of things based on photos, so we have a few oddly sized items around the household. “Oh, it looked smaller on the webpage!” 🙂