Pantera 1/72 PZL 37B

PANTERA 1:72 PZL 37B
'INBOX Review'

Reviewer: Ray Bull (raybull@hotmail.com)

Kit: 1/72 Pantera #003 PZL-37B

Aircraft: The PZL-37 Los (Elk) was a Polish aircraft of the 1930's, and enjoyed a little export success, with Bulgaria, Yugoslavia, Greece, Romania and Turkey all picking up a few aircraft. The '37' was a twin engined light tactical bomber, with a defensive armament of 3 machine guns. It could carry up to 2500kg of bombs. The 37A was a conventional single tail aircraft with 873hp PZL Pegasus XII engines (under licence from England, I think), while the last 20 37A's and subsequent 37B were twin tail aircraft, with 918hp PZL Pegasus XX engines. The 37D was the export version based on the 37A, and had 1050hp Gnome-Rhone engines. I have been unable to find any labelled pictures of the 37D, so it could be single or twin tailed (I am pretty certain it is twin tailed - Ed).

Instructions: The instructions are in Polish, for the most part, a language I have no idea about, and hence I can't read the history of the aircraft, which is quite lengthy. Colour callouts in the instructions are given in 4 languages (Polish, English, French and German), but only generic colours are given. For the scheme instructions, they do give a Polish description, FS numbers and Humbrol callouts. The scheme illustrations are sufficient, though for the smaller decals on the sheet, no placement is given. The numbers on the decal sheet do not correspond to anything at all. There are 12 construction steps, which have colour callouts where relevant. The construction looks hard to follow, but I think if one doesn't rush, things will be ok. The colour callouts complicate things a bit, as there are numbers and icons everywhere among the busy construction illustrations. I think here, one just needs to pay attention, and not rush through, as can be done with Revell, Hasegawa et al. If giving the instructions a rating, I'd give them a 6 out of 10.

Decals: The decals look really nice, and have a satin finish. No sign of a misprint or bleeding anywhere. A maker is not given. The decals get a 9 out of 10, but it remains to be seen if they won't disintegrate on contact with water.

Options: Only one aircraft can be made, a Polish example. You could try a wheels up version, but on appearances, the fit would be horrible.

Parts and Impressions: There is a total of 60 or so parts on 5 sprues. 1 clear, 2 light grey and 2 dark grey. Having 2 different greys is peculiar, as all the grey sprues have "PZL-37B Los" imprinted on them, and therefore I see no reason for them to be different colours. If there was a generic PZL-37 sprue, then I could understand. The grey sprues are all the same size. The clear sprue is finely moulded, with little flash, and small sprue gates, which is a surprise for something so cheap. The light grey sprues are soft and carry the fuselage, its contents, the engines and props plus the tailplanes. Panel lines are very finely raised. The quality is inconsistent, with some parts moulded very finely, but other parts with flash. The sprue gates are a decent size to work with, and the parts (for the most part) won't require too much work after separation from the sprues, other than flash removal. The engines don't have any cylinder detail, and the machine guns are a little simplistic. There are some sink marks in the fuselage, some potentially visible, and some on other parts, but nothing overtly visible. The dark grey sprues carry the wings and the landing gear. This plastic is even softer, and the moulding a little worse. Sprue gates are small, but there is weird flash on these sprues. The upper wings are mismoulded, with the trailing edges not matching (the flaps are moulded onto the upper wings). It is obvious the wings are going to take some effort to get right. A quick dry fit proves that point. The landing gear is very simplistic, but it looks adequate. The parts, I'd give a 6.5 out of 10.

Conclusion: For the money, ($8 Australian, before the horrible sub 50c performance), a decent buy. There are a lot of parts here for the money, and the decal sheet looks really nice. A place where it will let you down is fit, which looks to be horrible. It looks to be a tough build. In the end, worth the money, as it is a rare aircraft, and the only kits (as far as I know) are the 1/72 PZL-37A, also by Pantera, and the 1/48 PZL-37 by Mirage (which costs a ton).

Boxart for the Luftwaffe version of the Pantera P37B Los

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