PZL P.23 Karas by Wojciech Perkowski (Mirage Hobby 1/48)

Mirage Hobby's 1/48 scale
PZL. P.23 Karas

by Wojciech Perkowski

PZL P.23A Karas

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Introduction

Here is my 1/48 Mirage Hobby PZL P.23A Karas with Part photo/etched exterior detail set.

The kit of this ugly but cool looking plane was long awaited by Polish AF enthusiasts and finally issued few weeks before Christmas 2005.

Unfortunately sink marks were almost everywhere (this probably prevented worldwide distribution), so it takes some work to deal with this problem. Other than that the kit was generally trouble free.

Construction

The only modifications I made to improve fit were:

reducing height of wing spars - parts 22W and 23W – this considerably improves wing/fuselage fit,
repositioning the reconnaissance camera located inside radio operator compartment (the shelf at the cockpit wall is placed to low) – resin parts PR4 and PR8,
lengthening fuselage wing roots about 1 mm (the rear end) to eliminate “tooth” between wing trailing edge and fuselage – superglue gel drop filed to shape
ventral gondola after was folded, required reducing height to fit properly to its front and rear transparencies (step under lower fuselage provided for gondola was deleted as well), and despite this, rear external window required plastic pieces to fill the gap above its upper edges (fortunately photos of the real thing show small solid sheet here

There were few others fit problems, not that important to mention and easy to overcome. All critical areas – wing/fuselage, fuselage/canopy, engine/exhaust ring – are well engineered and fit well.

There is rough texture in places, especially wings - sanding with fine sandpaper helps a lot.

Part’s exterior p/e set is strongly recommend as it delivers corrected wing walks (the kit ones aren’t wide enough) and detailed fuel and inspection caps. I didn’t use the interior set (with unbelievable level of detail, BTW) to speed up the build and reduce the cost.

The small intakes in front of the windscreen just behind the engine cowl were not defined accordingly in the kit and were scratch built (I had no luck with Part p/e equivalents).

Painting and Markings

I painted my Karas with Pactra Polish Khaki I and Polish Blue I (both acrylic; undercoat is Humbrol Matt Black enamel to improve adhesion and also as pre-shading) and used kit decals (with Agama Setting Solutions, and they worked well).

My model represents trainer plane (with gun cameras at the top of the canopy and rear machinegun) from Polish Airforce College in Deblin, circa 1939.

References

P.23 Karas, Monografie Lotnicze No 23, AJ-Press 1995.
Mini Replika No 46.
Model Hobby No 21 (excellent P.23A scale drawings with rivet pattern by Witold Szewczyk

All above are in Polish.