Azur 1/32 IAR-80-A

[scvrobeson]

After taking on a couple of non-LSP builds (the Airfix 1/48 Anson and Eduard 1/72 Z-37), it's time to return to the land of Large Scale Planes. I decided that this IAR would be next on my list of semi-obscure aircraft to build, and it even has a connection to my last one. The IAR-80 actually shares its rear fuselage with the PZL P.24, which is of course the upgraded version of the P.11 that I built on here last year.

 

 

The first step so far has been a big one, and that's riveting the airframe. The Azur kit has nice surface detail, but I thought this would be a great test-bed for riveting.  So I grabbed the Element tape and the Galaxy rivet wheels, and got to work. I've so far finished the fuselage from the cockpit back, the upper wings, and the tail surfaces. The lower wing and front of the fuselage are left, and those have some really complex shapes I'll have to figure out.

 

Enough rambling from me, here's the beginning of the project. Hopefully it's a good summer project for me before school returns in August.

 

 

 

 

 

Matt 

[LSP_Kevin]

Excellent rivetting work, Matt! Odd that you left the parts on the sprues, though.

 

Kev

[scvrobeson]

5 hours ago, LSP_Kevin said:

Excellent rivetting work, Matt! Odd that you left the parts on the sprues, though.

 

Kev

 

Figured it would just be easier to do it this way, and then I can do the ones that cross seams when I assemble things.

 

 

Matt

[Jaro]

Looks very promissing!

 

Have you already decided on painting scheme?

[Biggles87]

I’ve always liked the look of the IAR 80 so I’ll tag along if I may.

Also hoping to pick up some tips as I have one in the stash.

 

John

[mc65]

This is excellent news as I just bought the same kit!

an interesting note is that not only the fuselage is from the PZL designs, but also the wing was from another design, appropriately scaled and adapted... look at the wing plan of the SM79?

 

There is the excellent Radu Brînzan's book on IAR, difficult to find, but fundamental for this model, imho.

Cheers, Paolo

[Furie]

When I looked at the last close-up photo of the wing, I thought Tamiya had released a 1/32 IAR 80 !
Beautiful rivetting work, Matt!

[alain11]

excellent job !!! where did you get the riveting drawing 

[scvrobeson]

The rivet drawing comes from the Radu Brinzan book. It's definitely a necessity for this build, it covers all of the minutia about this plane.

 

I'm going to do one of the camo options from the kit, I haven't quite decided yet which of the 4 it will be. I really wanted to do the camo plus yellow theater markings though.

 

 

Thank you all for the kind comments, I hope that this build lives up to expectations.

 

Matt 

[MikeMaben]

Have fun Matt 

[scvrobeson]

Work continues on the IAR. Azur took an interesting design choice with the cockpit, in that it's provided in almost a flat pack format. First order of business was to clean up the flash and mold lines on the parts, of which there definitely is some.

 

Everything was initially primed in black, then the sidewalls were hit with MRP RLM 76. It was lightened and darkened a bit for definition, but it's not an easy color to enliven in a cockpit. Quick brown wash over it, and then a flat coat to seal things up.

 

 

 

 

The flare port was drilled out, and the initial details were added on. Not sure what color the oxygen bottle should be, don't see any notes in my book about it. It needs an oxygen hose added, and a few more detail parts on the starboard side.

 

 

 

The kit instrument panel decals have been used so far, and they are nice. They settled over the surface detail quite well with some Microsol and Solvaset. Some small slicing had to be done on the far right panel because the IAR-80 didn't have the bomb release panel that the decal shows. It was replaced with an Airscale gauge to fill the spot.

 

 

The heelboards and seat were hit with a coat of Alclad Dark Aluminum, then hairspray chipped with the base RLM 76.  It showed up much better on the seats than the floor, so some Vallejo Steel was sponged on the heelboards to pop them out a bit more.

 

The seat is made up of 8 parts so far, with a few more to go. Everything goes together well, but the instructions aren't the most clear in this section.

 

 

 

 

 

Hope to be back soon with more. Please let me know what you think.

 

 

 

Matt 

 

 

[Biggles87]

I like the wear on the seat.
I had been thinking about getting a Yahu panel for mine ( it’ll be an 81C ) but seeing how well the decals fit I probably won’t bother now, and I’m sure I read somewhere that the Yahu panel doesn’t fit well.

 

John

Edited July 15, 2024 by Biggles87

[scvrobeson]

13 hours ago, Biggles87 said:

I like the wear on the seat.
I had been thinking about getting a Yahu panel for mine ( it’ll be an 81C ) but seeing how well the decals fit I probably won’t bother now, and I’m sure I read somewhere that the Yahu panel doesn’t fit well.

 

John

 

Thanks very much John!

 

If you're doing an 81C, the Yahu panel won't actually be correct for it. It's lacking the bomb panel on the right side of the IP. To do an 81C, you will need to use the kit panel and decals. The Yahu panel really only fits an early IAR-81 and the later 80C, so it strangely isn't perfectly accurate for any of the Special Hobby kits.

 

 

Matt 

[chukw]

Beautiful work! The starboard pressure bottle is a fire extinguisher- I painted mine red. The O2 Luftwaffe-style regulator on the port side got a light blue color on the bottle, with gray remainder. EDIT: included my pic from that old build- cheers!

Edited July 17, 2024 by chukw

[scvrobeson]

Thanks Chuck! On the pictures, I can't quite tell is the fire extinguisher should be black or red, it could be a nice splash of color.

 

Thanks for the help on the colors. I appreciate you checking in on this

 

 

Matt