This is a development of the B&V P192 ( also from Planet ) with a pusher propeller at the tail with the engine mounted over the wings with a tricycle U/c and a tail on the underside. Armament is 2 20/30 ?? mm cannon mounted outside the radiator intakes on the wings ( similar to Hs 129 one that was centrally mounted ) with a 1000 kg bomb mounted on the underside . The P.192's parentage is obvious in this plane. The colour scheme is RLM 81 overall with 76 patches on the upper surface. The decals look quite nice with 2 puzzling elements , the first being a skeletal hand at the nose reaching out to grab something - does anyone have info on whether this symbol was ever used on a real plane ( Doug Devers advised me that the skeleton used on my email area was used for 3/JG51 but just recently I also saw the exact same hand in a book called Flying Colours - Gunston & Sweetman being used by 1&2/ZG1 in 1944 in Rumania which is probably where the decal manufacturer got the idea from . The other puzzle is the tail swastikas which have a small Balkenkrauz at the centre which pasted in the middle make up a complete swastika . This two part swastika is obviously a solution to some countries problem with this symbol but it just makes things harder . I think we can expect this in all future Planet kits - pity tho . Still it's not as bad as those swastikas in 2 halves that you have to join up or Huma's funny squares that you have to cut out bits to get a swastika . My advice is just purchase a sheet of swastikas and use these .
The actual kit is vintage Planet/Czechmaster stuff. The main body is hollow in the centre with mould lines and a little flash to clean up. The wing tips and rudders as well as the nose section ( 2 parts ) are on the newer moulding block arrangement and need to be cut off . Personally I find this a little annoying as more care and time must be spent in parts cleanup but the quality is certainly there with fine crisp panel lines . The rest of the parts are on the traditional circles of flash and parts with the occasional pin hole. The nose wheel is 1 piece but is a reasonable attempt given this - I'd rather a separate wheel myself tho. On the whole a good kit and very much what you expect from Planet - BUY ONE. The price above was current May '98.
Below are some scans from the kit - again this kit is now discontinued and so will become a collectors
items and a consultation with people like Kingkit ( www.kingkit.co.uk)may be necessary see Links section
.As you can see I started this kit but got sidetracked . You can see the problem with the body / cockpit
section join where the sizes are different - lots of fairing / sanding needed here . In hindsight it may have been
better to insert a shim here .
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