Pioneer 2 Polikarpov R-5 in 1/72 Scale

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AndrewR
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Pioneer 2 Polikarpov R-5 in 1/72 Scale

Post by AndrewR »

A $4.50 (3 quid) impulse buy on Ebay. I did check to see if anyone had built it, and the comments were that it was "surprisingly good".

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It's been boxed by lots of people, so it's been reviewed previously. This one is from the Apex boxing:

http://modelingmadness.com/scott/preww2 ... apexr5.htm;

Here's a build:

http://airfixtributeforum.wonko3.myfast ... 19136.html;

You can see from these comments and the build pictures that there's a nice kit in there somewhere. Lets take a look at the plastic:

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Very simple construction. White plastic, which was quite grubby in my boxing, before I scrubbed everything in soapy water. Some flash, but not as extensive as all that.
There is no front firing machine gun, and the rear firing one has gone from the sprue on my boxing. There are also no transparencies, and no crew figures.
You do get separate ailerons. There is a very small seat (not to 1:72 scale, and it looks a bit small for 1:87 come to that) and a joystick, which is very crudely moulded. There are no side-wall details. One very notable missing feature are the exhaust stubs for the engine. They are referred to on the instructions diagram, but nowhere to be found on the sprue. That should be fairly easy to remedy.

The instructions leaflet is A5 sized or thereabouts and has a terse history of the R-5 in several languages on one side and the single instructions diagram and paint guide on the other.

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The decals are very, very sad. Yellowish varnish, curled up and I will not be trying them out. There are versions for Soviet and Spanish Republican markings. You do get decals for both the front and rear seat instrument panels. I will make some new ones.

I've played with the contrast of this picture to exaggerate the detail, which is finely engraved.

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Better than current Airfix engraving to be honest. There's just one snag - it would be better as finely raised detail, to represent the ribbing under the fabric of the wings. I haven't decided whether to try and fill everything up and have real raised detail, or whether to try some clever arty trick to make them stand out and look raised.
Either way, something has to be done about the undersides of the ailerons, which are completely smooth!

The fuselage is largely smooth, but that isn't too surprising, as it was essentially a wooden box, so I don't have to worry about that.

I'll be building this one as a Spanish Republican Night Bomber, so it will be dark green on top, light blue underneath and red wingtips/stripes. The rudder gets red, yellow and purple stripes. I can paint all of this, so I'll only need to print a few decals for the serial codes. Here are a couple of examples.

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The various planes in the squadron all have the code RR followed by a number. There is a wide variation in the position and size of the red stripes and the lettering. Some aircraft have a squadron crest of a bat flying across the new moon. Very tempting...

cheers

Andrew
Up in the Great White North
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Eric Mc
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Re: Pioneer 2 Polikarpov R-5 in 1/72 Scale

Post by Eric Mc »

Looks a rather nice little kit.
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AndrewR
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Re: Pioneer 2 Polikarpov R-5 in 1/72 Scale

Post by AndrewR »

Eric Mc wrote:Looks a rather nice little kit.
It captures the essentials quite well. I did find the exhausts last night, they are the two bits of sprue framing the seat!
A look at a walk-around shows that the spinner is completely the wrong shape and the nose needs reshaping around the engine cylinder casings.
Plenty of scope to make it look pretty :)

Cheers

Andrew
Up in the Great White North
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novokits
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Re: Pioneer 2 Polikarpov R-5 in 1/72 Scale

Post by novokits »

this old russian 1990s Apex kit, later you can seen this in AER-Moldova, Eastern Express, Maquette, Encore label
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AndrewR
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Re: Pioneer 2 Polikarpov R-5 in 1/72 Scale

Post by AndrewR »

novokits wrote:this old russian 1990s Apex kit, later you can seen this in AER-Moldova, Eastern Express, Maquette, Encore label
Yes, I've seen it as an Encore, but I didn't know about the others! The Apex decals looked better than the Pioneer ones I got in my boxing. It's quite a fun kit to work with. I'm enjoying adding a bit of extra detail.

cheers

Andrew
Up in the Great White North
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