RWD Rekord Racer

Gallery Article by Borg R3-MC0 on Jan 5 2013

 

 

The Polish government tried to make several record breaking flights in the mode 1920's using 2 purpose build Amiot's 123, bought in France (true story http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amiot_120 ). Both these aircraft crashed and thus the Poles withdrew from record flying.

However, spurred by the success of the RWD 5bis (true story http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RWD_5 ) the government decided to give record flying a second chance. They gave RWD an order for a purpose build racing aircraft. This was the RWD RR (for Racer Rekord).  The RR was a build for long distance record flying, the cockpit was located behind the wing to make room for a large fuel tank.  It used a Bristol Pegasus engine to achieve its desired performance.

The RR became well known for it participation in several air races such as the MacRobertson Air Race in 1934. To be able to participate in these air races it had a civil registration and was in the inventory of the police flying club in Warsaw. It survived its racing days and is currently located in the Krakow aircraft museum.

 

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I have used parts from 3 kits, all the green plastic is from a Mikro 72/ZTS Plastyk LWS Czapla, the gray plastic a Heller PZL P.23 Karas and the canopy from a KP Avia CS.199. I am quite happy with how the parts from these 3 different kits are coming together (with a bit of Putty-Sand-Repeat, of course).

The decals are spares from a RWD-5 by ZTS, so it really does say "police flying club" on the side. And RWD on the cowling.

I have widened the Czapla fuselage with scrap plastic to accept the new big radial of the Karas. 

Another radical modification was the change the Czapla wings and fuselage from a parasol to a mid wing configuration. Since the racer was going to have canopy I have scratched a fuselage spine with sheet styrene. The cockpit is also moved to the back, so the original front cockpit is covered with sheet. I have attaches several "in progress pics" to illustrate these modifications.

The priming and painting was done with Duplicolor spray cans. First the red and the the turquoise. I know, it is a strange colour scheme but it is supposed to be a 1930's race plane so I though "let's do some Art Deco colours". 

Anyway, when peeling the masking both red and primer paint started chipping. I really do not understand why, I wiped the whole plane with ammonia to degrease and used primer, waited more then 24hours between each painting and masking session. It looks like the primer did not attach itself to the plastic. I had to do some touch up work with a brush and decanted spray paint. 

All in all I am quite happy with this build, it was a nice diversion from more serious modelling projects. Up close you can see several surface flaws but I think it captures that "look" of a 1930's race plane, a transitional aircraft, a monoplane but braced, powerful engine but with fixed gear, etc.

Borg R3-MC0

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Photos and text © by Borg R3-MC0