RS Models 1/72 Zlin Z-212
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History
From what I can gather, the Zlin Z-212 was a more powerful development
of the already succesful Zlin Z-12 light sportplane and was used prior
to World War Two by Czechoslovakia, Germany, France, Great Britain, Egypt.
Italy, Japan, and Finland among others. After Germany's occupation of
Czechoslovakia a number of Zlin Z-12s and Z-212s were used as trainers
and liason aricraft by the Luftwaffe.
The Kit
 RS
Models makes several versions of the Zlin Z-12 and Z-212, this being
one of the latter used by Germany in 1939 and given to me by my friend
Charlie Schaaf. The kit comes in a sturdy top opening box adorned with
nice color artwork. Inside we find 21 well cast resin parts, a vacuform
canopy, decal sheet, instructions and instrument panel printed on a bit
of cardstock. The parts will require a bit of cleanup, but no more than
your average injection kit.
The fuselage halves are nicely detailed, including the sidewall and a sparse
cockpit consisting of two large seats, a set of rudder pedals and forward
bulkhead is included. The wings and tail surfaces are cast as one piece
each and have rather heafty gates to deal with, but the trade off is nice
thin trailing edges. The nose, wheels and prop, as well as some struts
(that would be safer to replace) complete the kit. The parts look quite
good and a bit of dry fitting should make this a quick build.
 The
instrucions are brief, but provide a plan view drawing, cockpit photo
and three photos of a Czech registered example, as well as a dark photo
of a German example. Colors for this machine are listed as overall white
with a grey interior. I have seen photos of these aircraft used by the
Luftwaffe painted silver, and would have thought this the correct scheme
for this aircraft, but was recently informed that the factory paint scheme
for these aircraft was white with red trim, so I will go with the recommended
scheme.
The provided decal sheet looks to be fine and provides the wing and fuselage
registration as well as the fin flash and swastika.
Conclusion
A nice little kit that would looks to be a pretty quick build and has
jumped to the top of my "to do" pile. Nice right out of the
box, this kit could be detailed a bit more if desired. The cockpit could
be dressed up with the provided photo and a bit of research would turn
up info on some of the fiddly bits.
RS Models makes several variants of the Zlin Z-12/212 series, some of the
early ones being quite colorful Czech civil versions that would really
stand out in a fleet of drab and grey warplanes. Recommended! |
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