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R-5
R-5, 1/72 scale ( Uwe
Borchert ). "In 1994 I made this Polikarpov R-5 from a Russian
kit. The kit was very poor, the surface-details and many other things were wrong.
But for this big and beautiful plane I was ready for more work. The fabric of
the wings was produced with a file and sandpaper in many working hours. The
shape of the fuselage at the tail was altered with plastic-sheet. I added equipment
to the cockpit and made a new gun. For the bracing between the wing I used thin
wire."
R-Z
R-Z, 1/72 scale ( Alex Ruchkovsky ). The R-Z was built from a vacuform kit produced in St.Petersburg, Russia. No company name was given on the instruction sheet but the quality of the kit is amazing. The kit was very accurate and its quality even allowed me to use the main struts from the set. Improvements were as follows, scratchbuilt interiors, propellor, aileron and trimmer rods, exhausts, minor struts, main undercarriage, gun+turret, and rigging. The rigging was made of the thinnest copper wire I was able to get. I find the nylon thread to be too thin and not good to represent the rigging. I made anchors for each wire, stretched the wire and then faired the anchors with the piece of foil to reproduce the way it really looked on the R-Z. Colors were mixed from Humbrol enamels, no decals at all, all codes and markings airbrushed.