Letov Š.328.v (SH72330) – the target winch
If you say Letov Š.328.v, what every modeller or at least
every Czech modeller expects you to talk about is the floatplane version of
this iconic Czechoslovak inter war biplane aircraft. But do not be mistaken,
the 328.v version was not only a floatplane, it was first of all a specialised target
tug machine. The main reason for mistaking the real identity seems of course be
the “v” suffix seemingly standing for vodní or water, but in fact it meant
vlečný, or target tug. And yes, to be capable of towing the targets, the
aircraft needed some specialised device installed, the target winch. This winch
was located between the front and rear cockpits and unfortunately for today´s
modellers, this detail does not seem to be photographed too much leaving us
with the necessity to try and reconstruct its closest possible appearance,
using help from a leading Czech aircraft historian and author Michal Ovčáčik. The
target tug device to be added to our kit as we have designed it will be made
part of resin components and part of photo-etched details. In the computer rendered images below, you
can see a grey styrene floor of the crew attending the winch, brown resin parts
depicting the winch reels inside the fuselage and a pulley beneath the fuselage
and in yellow is the pulley mounting made from photo etches. The resin winch is
shown with its cast supports inside the framework and the fuselage styrene
parts have been omitted from the renders for better clarity.
Take a glance at the illustration and you'll be able to see what you would like. Some winch makers provide a key for unlocking the highest inner ring, however within the absence of that, Allen keys, a hammer hard rubber preferred, brush, tube of winch grease, rags and a bucket with a sizable depth of diesel oil in it garatools.com.
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