Kit: PZL.50

Scale: 1/72

Kit Number: ????

Manufacturer: ????

Price: $5.00

Media: Injected Plastic

Decals : None

Date of Review: 29 November, 1996

Comments: The PZL.50 was the last of the PZL fighters to fly before Poland was overrun in 1939. There are no known photographs of the entire aircraft and only the prototype was completed.  According to references, the prototype was destroyed by its own anti-aircraft batteries who mistook it for a German aircraft.  Had it gone into production, it would have been a formidable opponent as it was fast and quite maneuverable.

The kit is finished in a milky white, semi-translucent plastic and has a clear canopy.  None of the wheel wells are boxed it or is there a proper interior.  The interior consists of a seat and a floor.  You can easily see into the interior from the front.  The engine is just a shape of  nine cylinders with no backing.  It fits into the cowling by gluing the cylinders to the inside of the cowling.  The fit of the wings is poor and the wing/fuselage join is equally terrible.  On my example the horizontal stabilizer mounts were badly misaligned and needed fixing.  The wing left a large gap behind it that needed to be filled with plastic card  and putty.  The canopy was very much oversize, brittle, and nearly impossible to fit to the fuselage.  No gear doors were supplied although it looks like the aircraft might have had them from the cutouts on the bottom of the wing.  The gear and wheels look like they belong on toys.

Once the kit was built to the best of my ability, it was painted an overall silver.  Decals from Modelaid magazine were used and consisted only of the Polish checkerboard insignia in six places.  The finished kit looks like an airplane and may even be representative of the PZL.50.

As you might tell, this is probably the worst kit I have built.  The only kit I have not finished was Heller's P-36 as it is a real dog (nice propeller, though).  Even though the kit consists of only 18 parts, it took an age to complete it. It came in a bag with no instructions and I would not recommend this kit to anyone.  If you see it, run away.