Aviation Skid Trolley (Poland 1920-39) – 1/48

Written by Krzysztof Skibicki, published on
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1 June 2009 in Features category and viewed 1286 times.

Keywords: airfield equipment, Polish Air Force (1918-39), scratchbuilding

A bit of history

A lot of Polish military and civilian aircraft were equipped with rear skid during interwar period. This feature limited maneuverability on airfields and in maintenance areas. Ground crew developed special skid trolleys for easing their job. With use of such trolleys aircraft could be moved by few technicians even when engine was shut down.

Photo references shows that trolleys were build with similar pattern in most of Polish aviation regiments. Few steel pipes welded together giving strong two-wheel trolley. Wheels were taken from different aircraft operated by Polish Air Force. Wire spoked wheels from Breguet XIV were installed most often but full wheels from Lublin and PZL aircraft could be seen too. There are few photos with trolleys equipped with mixed wheels. On trolley’s top technicians welded mounting for aircraft’s skid.

Materials required

For scratchbuilding skid trolley in 1/48 I’ve used:

Two wheels from Lublin R-XIIID kit
Polistyrene rods, 1.2mm diameter
Aluminum sheet, 0.2mm thick with 5 x 12mm area

Plastic (polistyrene) rods are easy to get at home by melting and streching old kit sprues.

For trolley in 1/48th scale I needed following rods:

axle — 24mm
drawbar — 45mm
drawbar handle — 9mm
2 drawbar struts — 18mm
vertical girder — 4mm
2 vertical girder struts — 10mm

All rods should be cut perpendicularly except struts which shuld be cut at the proper angle to provide larger glueing area.

Build

I strongly recommend use of cyanoacrylate glue for quick and comfortable work. I started with joining wheels and axle. In the middle of it I placed drawbar. Two drawbar struts were fixed to the axle and the drawbar. Point on drawbar where struts were glued to it was place where drawbar was bent about 35 degrees up. Vertical girder was fixed to the axle together with two vertical girder struts. Last but not least I fixed handle to the drawbar. Main construction was ready.

Mounting for aircraft’s skid was build from 0.2mm thick aluminium sheet 5 x 12mm bent to the channel iron form with all three walls 4mm width. Ready mounting was fixed to the vertical girder.

Note from the Editor: You may try to use Construction materials — channel iron set from Aber (catalogue number D-31) which allows to cut sheet with similar dimensions in 1/48th and almost exactly perfect in 1/72nd.

Painting

Before painting I covered kit with Mr.Surfacer 1000 to correct any imperfections and to make surface smooth and primed. For base colour I choose khaki Pactra 69. You have to remember that skid trolleys were in heavy use so weathering is essential. Paint scratches were made with silver Mr.Color H8, dust and mud were drybrushed with several shades of grey and brown.

Summary

In my opinion every modeller can build some airfield equipment for his collection of kits. Aviation skid trolley shown here can be placed with every Polish aircraft during interwar period. Every kit will look much better with such airlfield stuff especially on dioramas or during photo session.

Building this particular trolley shouldn’t be too complicated even for beginners. They can learn something new and first steps in scratchbuilding can benefit with larger conversions. A lot of airfield equipment is visible in the background of many photos published in books. All you have to do is to find something interesting and build it.