The
Pilatus
PC-9M
Advanced Turbo Trainer is the latest version of the PC-9 trainer aircraft, and
probably the best trainer aircraft today in the world. The Croatian AF acquired 20
PC-9 planes for pilot training. Also, these planes are used by AF acrobatic
group ‘’Krila oluje’’ ( ‘’Wings of storm’’ ).
The
kit itself is produced by the Croatian company L&M Resin Models. It is all
resin, limited edition kit which consists of around 50 parts. The casting is
excellent without air bubbles, or warped parts. Parts are clean of casting
residue so there is no need for excessive cleaning Panel lines are finely
engraved. Cockpit details are very nice. There are 2 vacuformed canopies and
resin master, so you can produce your own canopy if necessary. Also, nose weight
is part of the kit.
I
built the kit basic mostly OOB with only few modifications. The kit went together without problems,
with little sanding and only a small amount of putty were
needed. The only modification I did was replacing the landing gear and antennas.
Resin landing gears seemed fragile so I made them from steel wire. Antennas were
made from thin aluminum sheet. My model was painted according to photos I had.
Since there are only stencils and numbers on decal sheet, complete scheme was
airbrushed using masks. Weathering was minimal, only thing I did was thin panel
line wash.
Now,
if only there was one in 1/48 scale……
Mislav
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images below to see larger images
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