The Zlin company from Czechoslovakia (now Czech Republic)  developed the small Z-242 prop private aircraft in the 1970s. First flight was made end 1978 and it was powered by a Walter M337 six-cylinder engine. The cabin is for two persons and it has a fixed 3-point landing gear. The "L" version was powered by a Lycoming 4-cylinder engine with 200 hp in a wider cowling driving a 3-bladed propeller of either Hartzell or Muhlbauer. The Z-242L first flew in February 1990 can also fly aerobatic manoeuvers. Max take off weight is about 1090 kg and max speed about 250 km/hr. Some Zlins were sold to small air forces to be used as trainer.

A 1/72 model of this small aircraft was released bij AZ Model, the first release came in 2008 which had a vacu canopy and some resin.
A later release #7608 came in 2019 with a injection moulded canopy and no resin and decals for:
-1- Z-242L of the Bolivia air force in a grey scheme;
-2- Z-242L of the Hungarian air force in a grey scheme;
-3- Z-242L of the Peru air force with a nice white and orange scheme. 

 
 
The instructions are OK with schemes shown on the carton box with Humbrol enamel colours.
 
   

The short run kit has about 40 parts in 2 grey sprues and a small sprue with the single piece canopy hood (not shown). The parts need to be carefully separated from the sprues and sanded. Some shrinkage in the wheel fairings was filled with putty.



A small detail set #AZA7037 was additionally purchased with some etched metal parts like antennas and seat belts:
 

I also bought decal set #KPEX020 from KP with decals for the armed forces of Mexico, Croatia AF, Peru and Yemen. Note: the Yemen scheme has still a factory company registration and it is unclear if a few were ever delivered to No 1 squadron Al Anad with codes 2101, 2102 and 2107. 


I bought a few kits.
 

The kit assembly needs care and quite some sanding the soft plastic. I installed the seats at a later stage. The canopy is one piece. If you want the large canopy hood open, a vertical cut needs to be made VERY carefully with a razor saw in the canopy. The forward section slides to the front.

The gear struts are very vulnerable, so I did not add nose weight but will use a small transparant piece of sprue to keep the nose down.
 

   
The wing has a rather thick rear trailing edge, sand on a flat surface with dry-wet sandpaper.  
 
A missing transparant light panel was made in the leading edge. a piece of transparant was glued in the made opening and sanded in shape. Polish to a clear sheen.
(The missing small trim tabs will be added later on).
 

When assembling the engine cowling (in STEP 12), set the blanking plate #27 a bit more aft. The hole for the propeller was drilled a bit larger. Do not yet install lower fairing #18 until after puttying and sanding which was needed.
 

A base coat was airbrushed with Revell Aqua 75 steingrau to check for any flaws and to get an even base coat. Some repairs still needed.
 
The paint scheme can now be airbrushed as desired.

 
The canopy hood was split with a razor saw and the frames painted white. The rear section was fixed.

I painted the cabin interior light grey with coloured seats that also got seat belts. The instrument panel is from the extra etch set.


This model was made as a Croatia Air Force trainer with decals from set #KPEX020. The overall gloss white colour was airbrushed with Gunze Sangyo H1 acrylic. The anti glare panel was masked off and airbrushed black.

Decals than were applied with very nice trim.
 
The gear struts were set, note that the fairings are not at 90 degrees but a bit tilted on the real Zlin. Wheels were painted.
 
The other small missing details added from scrap and with the extra etched set are:
- small pitot tubes below the right wing
- various antennas
- small trim tabs from plastic strip
- flap actuator rods below the wing
- entry steps
 

The propeller was painted light grey and sometimes has no painted tips. It was set in place.  

A small piece of transparant strteched sprue was set below the tail to keep the model on its nose.

Finally a gloss coat was airbrushed to get an even sheen and protect the decals. The canopy hood was fixed with white glue slided open forward. 

Check of the final Z-242 model dimensions:
Wing span was 9,34 m = 130 mm in 1/72; kit: 129 mm fine. Length overall 6,94 m = 96 mm in 1/72; kit: 97 mm so fine.  

CROATIA

[ area: 56,594 sq.km | population: 4,1 million | capital: Zagreb | GDP USD 15,000 nominal per capita] 

The Croatia air force "Hrvatsko ratno zrakoplovstvo" is part of the armed forces. From 2007 some 5 Z-242Ls were delivered to replace the old Yugoslavian UTVA-75 trainers of which dozens were used. 

 Croatia