1/72 IPMS Austria Kit, Pilatus PC-7 Turbo Trainer

by Juergen Klinglhuber

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This is my second entry with an IPMS Austria resin kit. The kit was a limited kit sold by the Austrian branch of the IPMS and shows a trainer aircraft that serves at the Hinterstoisser airbase in Zeltweg, Austria in the colours of 2003.

The Pilatus PC-7 “Turbo Trainer” is a Swiss-made military trainer aircraft that is fully capable for aerobatics. The two-seated aircraft has retractable landing gear and a 650 hp turboprop engine from Pratt & Whitney. The PT6A-25A pulls the bird up to 425 km/h and makes it easily carry additional external loads such as cameras, guns and missiles. The fist flight of this bird was back in 1966, but serial production did not start before 1978. So the plane had a bad start, but since that time it is a quite beloved aircraft among civil and military instructors all over the world.

Click on images below to see larger images

  

  

  

The Austrian Airforce has 16 Pilatus PC-7 in service at the Hinterstoisser airbase in Zeltweg. They use it for basic and advanced training at the local military flight school Center. Corresponding with their possibilities of armament the aircraft are also involved in tactical operations and airborne surveillance.

The kit was built quite a while ago but I remember that it was the very first multi-media kit I built.  There was a vacuum-formed canopy, resin parts for the fuselage, wings, rudder and interiors and some metal parts for landing gear etc.  Beside the fact that the bird turned out to be a tailsitter (yes, I milled out the nose to fill it with weight, but…) the quality of the resin kit was outstanding.  I put a tiny piece of a two-sided adhesive film under the nose wheel and still after all those years it is sticky enough to keep my PC-7 in place.

 

I built another PC-7 with a special paint scheme last year - I will present this bird on my next entry.

 

Enjoy the pictures – greetings

Photos and text © by Juergen Klinglhuber