A lonely diver

Quick look at IBG Models kit

PZL 42 is not some incredibly important construction, even in context of Polish aviation history. There was only one prototype produced, so a fairly niche topic. All the more surprising that IBG Models, releasing the series of PZL 23 kits in 1:72, offered us also the model of this unusual machine. Let’s check it out.

The kit in question (catalogue number 72509) is packed in typical for IBG top-opening box. Usual simple graphic design, complemented by an eye-pleasing illustration by Arkadiusz Wróbel, provides a positive first impression.

Inside- plastic sprues, decals sheet, instruction and a small PE set. The last one is kinda novelty, which appeared with PZL 23 and 42 kits. IBG recently started to put small photo-etched frets into military vehicle kits and continue this trend with aircraft models too.

The PE itself, although quite small, is of course a welcomed addition. However the selection of details provided in that form is a little bit disappointing. To be more precise, there is a lack of couple rather obvious elements. Crew seatbelts, instrument panel or the front of the radio- you will have to look elsewhere for those.

Decals sheet printed by Techmod is also quite modest in size. This is although perfectly understandable, considering the subject in hand- real life PZL 42 didn’t have too many markings applied. As far as quality goes- the chequerboards are nicely printed, while the instrument panel and radios looks kinda mediocre.

Instruction manual is quite typical for this manufacturer. If you seen one from any other IBG kit- you know what you get. Simply put- OK. You can also download it as PDF from manufacturer’s website. Despite the quite limited options- two painting schemes were proposed. One depicting state of the prototype from 1937 and the other from 1939.

The most important part of the kit are of course the plastic sprues, this time in a rather original (and not easy to photograph) colour. They contain nicely moulded parts, with neat, sharp details and not overdone panel lines (although the control surfaces could be set apart from the rest of the airframe a bit stronger).

Sprue A contains wings, engine with cowling and couple other details.

B- fuselage (slightly different than one in the PZL 23A boxing which was released simultaneously) and bunch of other elements.

J is filled with parts characteristic for the PZL 42 prototype.

Small sprues F, H and M comes with a plethora of landing gear covers.

And last but not least- transparencies. At first glance- quite OK, without any obvious moulding flaws. However, after a closer look- it turns out that this is manufacturer’s weak point. The material is not completely uniform, which negatively affects the transparency of the part. Nothing bad, just that the glazing lags slightly behind the rest of the injected elements in terms of moulding quality.