Czech Resin 1/72 Myrsky II
Kit Number: ??
Price: $14.00
Media: Resin/vac canopy
Decals : None
Date of Review: 29 November, 1996
Comments: The Myrsky (Storm) II was Finland's first indigenous fighter to see any use during WWII. First flying in 1942, the development of this aircraft was long for its time and did not see any action until after Sept 1944 when the Finns made peace with the Soviets. Then the Myrsky II was used in a half-hearted attempt to get the Germans out of Finnish territory. It was a large aircraft slightly smaller than a P-47. It also had numerous design weaknesses from the undercarriage to the aft fuselage. This made it less than popular with its pilots. A small production run of 51 aircraft was all that was made and an improved version, the Myrsky III, was halted after one prototype due to the end of the war.
The Czech resin kit consists of two major parts (the front fuselage with
wings and a tail section that includes the entire empennage). Other parts
are the landing gear, engine, cowling, propeller, gear doors and various
interior pieces. A bonus was that the landing gear parts were reinforced
with wire. This prevents the relatively soft resin from warping and
bowing under the weight of the kit. My kit came with two vacuform canopies,
each having prominent framework and rather thick plastic. All detail is nicely
etched and deep enough to withstand some preliminary sanding to get rid of
a rather greasy coat of what I guess is mold release agent.
Building any resin kit requires sanding and use of superglue for construction. When sanding, make sure you wear a filter to protect your lungs from the resin dust. This kit had very few bubbles it and that is a blessing as filling numerous tiny holes is a real pain. What was prominent was flash. All the small pieces were in a 'cake' of resin flash and took quite some time to properly clean up. The gear doors are quite thick and would benefit from replacement with thin card. The interior components fit quite well in the pre cut out cockpit, and included a roll-over brace. The engine is sufficiently detailed and fit well into the cowling. The propeller came complete with a brass tube inserted into it for ease of attachment to the engine. However the blades are way too thick and seem to be rather short.
When completed, the kit was sprayed in primer to show up any areas that needed
work. There were few, but the biggest area of concern was the attachment
of the empennage. The fit there was not good and needed some building
up with card stock and then several coats of putty to get an acceptable fit.
Once the aircraft was primered it was painted using various brands
of paint in the three colors of green and black on the uppersurfaces and
light blue on the lower. I found the scheme in a back issue of Air
International as there is little written on this aircraft. Decals were
scrounged from a spares box and the numbers were obtained from a Modeldecal
sheet. The individual aircraft number is quite distinctive and had
to be hand painted as on the original aircraft.
The Myrsky II has since been released by MPM and while I have not built that kit, from my experiences with other MPM kits, I cannot see how it could be much easier to build than the Czech resin. My experiences were mostly positive and I enjoyed researching and building this kit. While it does require some ingenuity and a bit of minor scratchbuilding for a nice interior, that is what modelling is all about.
Note: New photos added Nov 2012, by which time the radio mast had disappeared.
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