1:72 Polish National Insignias

An insignia with no counterpart in Europe

While most air arms reached for a circle or a cross, in 1918 the restored Poland chose a square checkerboard of four alternating red and white fields, framed by a thin border. It came about practically improvised, at a time when machines were being taken over from retreating armies and had to be told apart quickly. It caught on so well that Polish aircraft carry the same insignia to this day, that is for more than a hundred years. It was painted on the sides of the fuselage and on the upper and lower surface of the wing, so one machine carried several of them.

A detail that matters

The relative order of the colored fields and the width of the border went through several adjustments over the decades, and the air force returned to the original arrangement of the first years only in the nineteen-nineties. For building a particular machine that is no trifle: an insignia from the interwar era and one from a later period differ in exactly this. It therefore pays to compare the sheet with a photograph of the subject before you lay the first piece on. The ratio between the width of the border and the size of an individual field also shifted in the regulations, so two insignia of the same size need not look identical.

A universal sheet instead of a type-specific one

The set is not tied to one aircraft, it contains checkerboards in several sizes and it serves where the insignia from the box have yellowed or fallen apart. With older kit editions that is a frequent reason to buy. The procedure is the usual one: a smooth gloss base, lukewarm water, steady tweezers and finally a unifying coat of varnish. The model, paints and glue are not in the package.