The Little World

The aircraft depicted by this model was a sample put out by the PZL firm to promote sales to other air forces. It seems to have been taken up by a number of Balkan and middle eastern countries and used on both sides of WW2. Whether it was a successful fighter I cannot say, but I wouldn’t have put it up against an Me 109, Hurricane, or a Yak. Perhaps they used them in secondary roles.

The kit on the sprue trees looked naff – as it was assembled it got better and better. The main parts fit plumb and square and the seams vanished with no filler whatsoever – and you can’t say that about many kits.

I will say the surface textures were overdone and it has raised panel lines. Accepting this for the low price – $ 14.95 – meant I could enjoy the thing rather than fuss. Hats off to the ambitions of the designer – there are tube sidewalls in the cockpit area and they fit.

The engine is one of those radials with exposed pushrods – you get a separate layer of these. Also two banks of cylinders and a separate exhausts layer – that’s pretty complex for 1:72. Then you hide it behind a nose fairing, but you can see round the edges.

And the joy of this is there is just enough variation between it and the dive bomber to make a good display pair. Now to find an airliner…