1/32 IAR 80 Options

[Radub]

I can tell you exactly when I fell in love with the IAR 80: It was in late 1989 when the Romanian magazine Modelism published their seminal drawings of the IAR 80 series. Since then, I have been dreaming of a model of this beautiful plane and never stopped dreaming (it is also my avatar). Well, here we are - this will be my next kit.
I am going to do an aircraft from the last series of the IAR 80 production (technically relabelled IAR 81C) which was also the most numerous. There are plenty of colour schemes and markings for it and it should make for an interesting kit.
I will keep posting pictures here as I progress with it.
Radu

[Rigor]

radub you my friend you are a machine can wait to see the progress

[Texas]

HI That sounds like a project that will be very interresting to watch and learn from. Keep us updated.

Texas

[AEROPOXY]

Great news and wish you luck with your new project.
Will eagerly wait for photo story.
Always learn some new modeling techniques from your work.

[ironman1945]

Radu

Will this be from scratch? Am very interested to see, as I have the old Combat Models vac sitting in my basement (its pretty basic). Over the last while I have slowly been gathering references (very slow... at least, I have not come across much) and decals, but the refs seem hard to come by. Hoping your build can be a ref for my version as well, as I have no doubt that you have collected better references then I.

Dave/Ironman1939

[R Palimaka]

That's awesome, I can reverse engineer it back into a PZL P11c! No, not really... but I will be anxious to see what you will do with an aircraft you obviously love. Looking forward to watching the process.

Cheers,
Richard

[LSP_Hacker]

Man Radub you been wanting to do this plane for a while now the question is .....is this a one off or are we talking about another master for a kit ( hoping for the latter)
l will also be watching this with interest and taking notes

[Radub]

Thanks everyone for your encouragement.

Radu

Will this be from scratch? Am very interested to see, as I have the old Combat Models vac sitting in my basement (its pretty basic). Over the last while I have slowly been gathering references (very slow... at least, I have not come across much) and decals, but the refs seem hard to come by. Hoping your build can be a ref for my version as well, as I have no doubt that you have collected better references then I.

Dave/Ironman1939

Hi Dave
Yes, it will be done from scratch. The Combat models kit is not in any way related to the IAR80 Granted, there is a vague resemblance, but that may be accidental
As for references, there is a beautiful new book out in French from Editions TMA. I got mine from the author, I do not really know where to get it otherwise. I also have the Romanian version of that book, but the French version is superior in quality and coverage. Good drawings were published by Modelism magazine in Romania in 89. The magazines are hard to come by - Modelism sell the drawings in 1/25 separately, but they are pricey. There is a good reference section here: http://www.cartula.ro/forum/index.php?showtopic=243

That's awesome, I can reverse engineer it back into a PZL P11c! No, not really... but I will be anxious to see what you will do with an aircraft you obviously love. Looking forward to watching the process.
Cheers,
Richard

Contrary to the widespread belief, the IAR 80 does not share anything with the PZL11. All parts that resemble the PZL are modified to some (or total) extent. The IAR factory was building the PZL24 and they were inspired by it, but no parts were used directly - all parts were redesigned. The only part that may be similar is the botom of the fuselage section between the cockpit and the tail mast.

Radu

[mgbooyv8]

Interesting subject, Radu!
I will follow your build with interest.
The link to the discussion to the Romanian forum is also interesting, with a good selection of pictures.
Too bad my romanian is not good enough to fully understand the kit reviews...

Cheers,

Peter

[ron]

The IAR factory was building the PZL24 and they were inspired by it, but no parts were used directly - all parts were redesigned. The only part that may be similar is the botom of the fuselage section between the cockpit and the tail mast.

Radu

Nooo not true. I think the valve stems for the tires were the same.

That's a different subject for sure. Cooling looking plane though

[ironman1945]

Radu

From what little ref material I do have I heartily agree with your statements about the Combat Models kit; I've been holding on to it in the hopes of salvaging something from it, but in i have thought for awhile now that it would have to be scratchbuilt.

In fact, before I started my scracthbuilt Whirlwind, it was a choice between it and the IAR80. Thanks for the info on references, I will have a look to see what I can find.

Cant wait to see your build!

Dave/Ironman1945

[LSP_Kevin]

Great news Radu. I think we've all been wondering when you'd get to this! I too have the Combat kit in the stash (thanks Ray!), but haven't looked at it too closely, and don't know enough about the prototype to judge it. It's one of only two vac kits that I own, so I'll be building it just for the practise, combining tips from Jeff Herne's vac thread and now your thread too! The only references I have that I'm aware of are a couple of magazine articles, so I probably can't help there.

But you still haven't answered the question Radu - one-off masterpiece or commercial kit master?

Will be following this one closely!

Kev

[DougN]

YES!!!! It would seem all my pestering and non-subtle hints have paid off! Hopefully it's a kit, and I'll take two to start please, let me know when and where to send my $$$!

Multsumesc!!!!!!

Doug

[Radub]

Thanks everyone.
This will hopefully be a kit, as I already said in the opening post.
Radu

[LSP_Ray]

Great news, Radu!! Look forward to seeing the master at work again!!!

Is it too early for a pre-order?!!?