1/48 Eduard Avia B.534 IV

by Matt Bacon

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  Slovakia National Day 2008 

 

You're lucky if you work with people you get on with, and even luckier if you meet people through work who become genuine friends. This project kicked off because a good friend of mine who'd worked in our London office is leaving to go home to Bratislava, to a good job that enables him to spend more time with his wife and small son. I wanted to make something to remember us by. Since his dad was an R/C modeller, my friend understood our hobby, and I'd even introduced him to my workroom - and stash. One of the things in that stash was the Eduard Avia B.534.

The Eduard kit is a tour de force - the B.534 occupies the same place in the hearts of Czech aircraft enthusiasts as the Spitfire or P.51 does for us Brits or our friends across the water, and Eduard have made a superb job of kitting it. The kit comes in a Mk III version, with a low-back fuselage and an open cockpit, and this natty-looking and more streamlined "razorback" Mk IV. The Mk IV also came with marking options for an aircraft flown in the Slovak National Uprising. Beginning on August 29th, 1944, the Slovaks rebelled against the puppet government installed by their Nazi occupiers, mobilising nearly 50,000 soldiers united in their determination to rid their homeland of the Germans. In September, the Slovak units included a small air element, flying Bf 109s and Avia B.534s. One of these B.534s was the last biplane to shoot down an enemy aircraft, when a Hungarian Ju-52 was downed on September 2nd. The Eduard kit includes the markings for "S-13", with its Czech Air Force roundels modified with the white cross of Slovakia. It was this aircraft that I decided to model - adapted to my "memento" theme of a Slovak flying off into the sunset, waved of by the crew and colleagues he leaves behind him.

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The Eduard kit is finely moulded in tan plastic, and in this boxing includes excellent pre-painted etch and pre-cut painting masks. The figures I used are from the Zvezda (ex ICM) "Russian Pilots and Ground Crew" set. They're not as crisply moulded as their superb RAF set, but they are pretty good, I think. My only previous experience with biplanes has been with the excellent Inpact Bulldog and Fury, which have solid strut attachments and very clear step by step rigging instructions. Neither is true of the Eduard kit, so I was quite apprehensive! The cockpit is very well detailed, with plenty of internal structure and a superb etched instrument panel. It went together quickly, with the biggest job being carving the seated pilot figure so that he fits into the cockpit. Of course, once he's installed and the fuselage put together, you really can't see much of the excellent sidewall detail. The fit of the all the parts is very good, as long as you take your time and dry fit first. I joined the fuselage at the front first to get a good seam under the nose, and then slowly worked my way backwards a bit at a time. This way I didn't need filler, and just scraped down the seam line to remove it. The lower wings and tailplanes are a very snug fit, though you do need to set the dihedral carefully to ensure that the struts fit. I used balsa "chocks" to support the wingtips the required 13mm above the base of the radiator on the fuselage. The lower surfaces were then painted with Tamiya Aluminium from a rattle can, and the upper surfaces with a mix of Olive Drab and Desert Yellow Tamiya acrylics.  Before long, I had a painted aircraft and a separate painted upper wing. I put the decals on at this point  as well - there aren't too many. In fact, the aircraft with these markings didn't have the wheels in "spats", or a canopy, but I thought both would make the aircraft look cooler for my friend (who isn't a Slovak military history buff). Eventually, I could put it off no longer - time to rig the beast!

When I asked for advice on rigging on various forums, "Bob's Buckles" came to the rescue. Bob makes tiny wire "turnbuckles" - a sort of "P" shape with a 0.5mm loop and 0.3mm diameter "shank" 5mm or so long. Bob sent me 20 to try out, and I'll never rig a biplane any other way again! Fixing the rigging wires using Bob's Buckles was a breeze. With the model painted and decalled, I drilled 0.35mm diameter holes at each of the rigging attachment points, angled to point along the rigging wire. I dropped a buckle into the hole, and fixed each one firmly with a tiny drop of thin superglue applied to the hole. Then I attached Lycra thread to all the buckles on the top wing, by threading it through the loop and applying another drop of thin superglue. The struts have only the tiniest "pip" on the strut and there are equally small dimples where they fit. Some people have drilled and pinned them, but I was scared of breaking them. In the end, I fixed them by putting a tiny drop of Poly cement in the dimple and putting the strut in position, supported by a Blu-Tak "prop". As the poly set, I flexed the strut into the right position, set by measuring the distance between the upper wing attachment points. Once I was happy that they were symmetrical and the right distance apart, I applied a drop of thicker superglue to each fixing point to set them in position. With the interplane struts, I made a "jig" from foamcore board cut to the angle at with they flare outward (taken from the head-on drawing in the instructions which shows the dihedral angle) and stuck to the wing with Blu-Tak. When everything had set solid, after several hours, I turned the aircraft upside down onto the upper wing, and worked along the wing with the superglue and a tiny tube applicator, fixing each strut into position onto the upper wing mountings. Finally, I threaded each Lycra thread "wire" through the corresponding turnbuckle on the lower wings and fuselage, pulled tight, and fixed with superglue. Although the struts seem very flimsy on the sprue, the finished structure feels very solid indeed.

The figures are all painted with Vallejo acrylics, with some shadow washes using Citadel's outstanding new washes, and dry brushing to bring out the highlights. The uniforms may or may not be correct - details of the gear worn by the insurgent Slovaks are hard to come by, but khaki-green and vaguely Russian in style seems likely. When you start to paint the figures, the character sculpted into the faces really starts to be visible - particularly in the two pilots and the officer with the coat. The "diorama" base is just Citadel grass with a model railroad tree, and a few rocks from the garden. The drums and table come with the figures, and the map (which if you look closely shows the route from London to Bratislava) was downloaded from the web and printed out very small!

Overall, I really enjoyed this project, and it's helped me face my fear of biplanes - which means the Camel, Brisfit, Gauntlet and Fury in my stash may actually get built! My friend liked it, too - though he's not actually seen the real thing, which is in a sealed box completely surrounded by polystyrene granules until he gets it back to Bratislava and unpacks in his new home! Bon Voyage, Roman...

Matt 

Photos and text © by Matt Bacon