Loki_v2 Posted March 21, 2019 Share Posted March 21, 2019 (edited) Hello! Long time modeler, first time poster. I'm working on a Zvezda Pe-2 (without Eduard's upgrades), and it's kind of a passion project for me. Back around 2004-2005 I did extensive research on the Pe-2 and modeled the 3D cockpit and interiors for the flight sim game IL-2: Sturmovik. Ever since then I've wanted to do a Pe-2 model, but wasn't happy with the few available kits until Zvezda came along. Also wanted to wait for my skill to improve to do the plane justice. The kit is fantastic, by the way. Zvezda has come a long way. So here goes! The kit includes the option to have 1 engine exposed, and the detail on the engine, out of the box, is INSANE. While the instructions call for the cylinder banks to be black, I almost never paint anything full black because then you lose any ability to contrast or even recognize the shape of the thing. There's a small hitch with fitting the green coolant lines inside the engine mount frame: they interfere with each other. So I ran one of the lines outside the frame. It was funny to notice that in Zvezda's own model shots, that line is omitted entirely. Engine mounted on the wing, BUT another hitch: the instructions call for omitting the piece that covers the red oil tank, but from the wartime pictures I saw that's not really how that all comes apart, so I elected to install the skin anyway. I could be wrong on that, but the issue is the skin doesn't actually fit over the engine. The plastic is way too thick, so I carefully thinned it down from the inside with a dremel. This way the skin thickness is also roughly to scale. Same for the nacelle skin (which, without thinning also doesn't fit over the hose I routed on the outside of the mounting frame). About those nacelles, the rear compartment on the real thing is actually a small bomb bay, but not represented in the model. I might mod it into an open position. The whole thing mounted up and lightly dusted with verrrry thin mix of gray paint to unify the look. Something I might come back to is routing additional hoses to the radiator. It's not clear to my how coolant would get to it in the current configuration! Now for the landing gear mods. There are brake lines that run down both sides that weren't represented in the model, so I mocked some up out of thin wire. Where they cross there is supposed to be a join/pressure equalizer thingie, but I couldn't think of a good way to make it. For the other side of the plane I might solder the lines together and work the solder into a better shape. One other thing: the wheel axle hubs on the real thing are hollow, you can see inside the axle to an extent. On the model that part was flat so I dremeled out a little divot to simulate that, but don't have a small enough drill bit to go deeper. Thinking I might replace the whole axle with a metal tube. The black striping on the wing is a new undershading technique I'm trying: spray on then lightly sand off, so that rivets and panel lines retain the dark colour but the skin is clean-ish. From my time with real aircraft, that seems more representative, but we'll see how it nets out after painting. Thanks for looking! Edited September 25, 2019 by Loki_v2 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
cema_ga Posted March 22, 2019 Share Posted March 22, 2019 Looks great so far! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Loki_v2 Posted April 18, 2019 Author Share Posted April 18, 2019 (edited) Progress on the interior. I ended up splurging on Eduard seatbelts and Yahu (?!) instrument panels, since the kit's own instrument decals are not great, and having built this cockpit in 3D, I'd like it to be right. The Yahu stuff is pretty awesome, will post when I have both sides of the cabin together. Love that radioman/gunner cabin, it's such an interesting space. Thanks! Edited September 25, 2019 by Loki_v2 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Loki_v2 Posted May 26, 2019 Author Share Posted May 26, 2019 (edited) Hello again! About ready to close up the fuselage. I've added a few extra wires and conduits along the way. PE might have been helpful, but all things considered I'm happy with the results. Big parts mocked into place. It's definitely still a plane! Edited September 25, 2019 by Loki_v2 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Loki_v2 Posted September 24, 2019 Author Share Posted September 24, 2019 (edited) Picking this up again after summer break. I have her masked and about ready for primer, but after much deliberation went ahead and opened the rear bomb engine nacelle bomb bay on one side (for now). I haven't found anyone else do this, and there is VERY little reference on what the inside looks like, but I do have blueprints so this should get interesting. First time I hack up a good solid part like this, definitely nervous this late in the assembly process. First cuts to get the contour right... What have I done. All those plastic edges are going to need to be thinned down. Pretty happy with the result though! Test fit of a FAB-100 in there. Looks right! I don't think I'll be hanging the bombs since the model already has one engine cowling off. Nobody hangs payload on a plane during maintenance, right? Edit: fixing image hosting Edited September 25, 2019 by Loki_v2 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Sebastijan Posted October 10, 2019 Share Posted October 10, 2019 Oh, I didn't know they had bomb bays in there as well. Great job so far! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Loki_v2 Posted October 10, 2019 Author Share Posted October 10, 2019 Oh, I didn't know they had bomb bays in there as well. Great job so far! Thanks! Yeah apparently they weren't used very much operationally so photo references are scarce. Too small for payloads worth the trip and probably undesirable Cg effects. Currently using flight sims as reference of what the inside looks like. Anyone in Moscow care to take a trip to Monino for pics? 🙂 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Sebastijan Posted October 10, 2019 Share Posted October 10, 2019 Anyone in Moscow care to take a trip to Monino for pics? 🙂 6 weeks too late. And it's a bit weird now, because the Pe-2 is in the hangar and they have some damaged glass on that side where it's parked, so there are plastic sheets hanged above it to avoid damage, as well as vertical sheets on sides, so you basically cannot see it whole. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Loki_v2 Posted December 25, 2019 Author Share Posted December 25, 2019 (edited) I just have to say that every time I come here, I'm blown away by the builds on this forum. Always a humbling experience. I had a lot of technical issues with my airbrush which are still not fully behind me, but was able to basecoat the underside. Downtime gives me ideas so there are a bunch of firsts for me here: - AK Real Color set. I should love this paint, but what I thought would be an easy shoot turned into fiddling with thinners and getting a "furry" finish instead of a nice smooth even colour. Will need to get AK's own thinner for the upper surfaces, hopefully that solves it. - AK Real Metal. LOVE this stuff. In the images below, the flaps were first rubbed down with Real Metal aluminum, semi-dried Maskol rubbed over future chipped areas, and then painted over. Same for wing leading edges. Love how the resulting chipping came out. In rough landing fields, the lowered flaps would catch rocks/dust kicked up by wheels and prop wash, wearing off the paint, and that's what I'm trying to replicate here. - I had an idea for adding stretching and deformation that metal skin develops with use: each square of skin between rivet lines has Future floor polish brushed on to create a slight bump, on top of primer. In a couple of spots I put way too much (clearly visible bumps) but most squares show a very slight bump that's hard to capture in photos. Hoping with glosscoat they will pop out. Also I have way too much paint on the underside now, upper surfaces should fare better. Happy holidays! Edited December 25, 2019 by Loki_v2 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Loki_v2 Posted January 4, 2020 Author Share Posted January 4, 2020 (edited) The holidays have been productive! Airbrush is firing like new (needle bearing wasn't preloaded properly), AK real colours have been tamed with proper thinner (IPA was a poor choice for these paints). I love them now. Good bye Tamiya. Base colours, markings and decals are on and I'm having fun with chipping and wear marking in the exhaust and prop wash stream, as well as fueling ports and service hatches. Next step is to seal it all with clear and proceed to washes. Loving how it's coming out: Happy New Year all! Edited January 4, 2020 by Loki_v2 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
martin_sam_2000 Posted January 4, 2020 Share Posted January 4, 2020 Looks great. I have always loved the look of the Pe-2! Sean Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Loki_v2 Posted January 6, 2020 Author Share Posted January 6, 2020 She's starting to look like something! The paintwork, chips and decals are sealed under dull coat, on to detailing and weathering. Note the engine open cowling frame is not painted. I need to figure something out there, find it hard to believe the real thing has big chunky box beams line that. The specs in the glasswork is remaining adhesive and paint. After almost 6 months under wraps, peeling all that masking off was a nice cherry to end the xmas vacation. And of course now that I look at the pictures, I notice all the points where I goofed. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Loki_v2 Posted January 13, 2020 Author Share Posted January 13, 2020 Weathering continues... Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Loki_v2 Posted February 6, 2020 Author Share Posted February 6, 2020 (edited) Weathering continues.. A few small details left like nav lights, gear doors and antenna. Edited February 6, 2020 by Loki_v2 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Loki_v2 Posted February 23, 2020 Author Share Posted February 23, 2020 Time to wrap up those extra bomb bays behind the landing gear. I found schematics of the interior structure and tested out scratch building the bay doors. It's a really awkward shape to work with and it's really my first serious attempt at this level, but I'm happy with how it's turning out. The other door will look better, I started with the less visible one to figure this out. Also discovered and fixed an omission in the kit: the landing gear doors have actuators linked to the landing gear. All the hook ups for them are molded into the kit, but the actual rods were missing. Added rods, now it looks complete! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Loki_v2 Posted March 25, 2020 Author Share Posted March 25, 2020 (edited) And she's basically done! I just have to clean the drop of paint off the starboard wheel, only noticed that in the pictures! Happy with the result, especially the mods made in construction. Learned a few things. Kind of unhappy with the quality of the clear parts, they have weird internal distortions that no amount of polish or Future seems to fix 😞 Made a small change to the open engine nacelle, it didn't make sense to me that the radiator ducting would always be removed with the cowling, so I fabbed up the top portion of the duct. Full album of the build: https://ibb.co/album/cpeX0a Thanks for looking! Waiting for Kitty Hawk's upcoming Su-25 new tool as a next step, to be painted in Ukrainian AF digital camo. Edited March 25, 2020 by Loki_v2 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Mstor Posted March 26, 2020 Share Posted March 26, 2020 Really looks nice. I have always thought the Pe-2 was a good looking aircraft. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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