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1/48 Polish Il-2KR Shturmovik


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Hello!

Build Introduction

Well, this is going to be an interesting few posts. Having been away from model building for some time, I found myself wondering what it would be like to start again. I found myself going from one forum to another, looking at work being done, contemplating whether I wanted to get back into it, and low and behold, the next thing I know I'm registered here at ARC, and am elbows deep in a model. This particular subject combined a few things for me, and really peaked my interests enough to finally say 'yep, let's build one!'

Being a huge fan of Second World War aviation, and the history behind it, I always found those little stories dancing outside the lime light to be very interesting, and I found one within this kit. The Il-2, "as important to the Soviet Army as air, and bread" as Stalin proclaimed, is still recognized as a key asset of the Great Patriotic War, yet, oddly enough, it was not the common place of Russian/Soviet Union aviation mentality as many have come to say. In a time when the Russians new war was on their doorstep, various aircraft manufacturers were all taking different routes. Not so much of approaches, but simply designs and aircraft types. Some worked on fighters built of wood, others a high altitude fighter, while Ilyushin was working on this ground attack aircraft.

The colourful development of the Il-2 was not such a stunning success, nor was the initial debut of the Shturmovik. In fact, the initial operations of the single seat Il-2 could be seen as a failure for the aircraft and squadrons, but a success when looking at the greater picture, only because of such large numbers being built. The development of the Il-2, like the tactics it was employed with, came about by lessons learned the hard way, again... and again... and sadly again. It was lightly joked that if you survived 1 mission, you were lucky. 2 missions you were great. 3 you were a Hero of the Soviet Union. Survive 4 and you were a coward and a traitor. I say lightly joking, because it was not far off the truth.

Regardless, the Il-2 quickly became a formidable weapon of war, a symbol of hope and moral for the Soviet Army when the aircraft was in the air; an absolute terror to those on the receiving end of what this flying tank was capable of.

As the Great Patriotic War continued on, in mid 1944, Polish units found themselves being trained to fly Soviet aircraft of various types. Now, when I say this, this is nothing new, as many Polish pilots, like the French, were flying along side the Soviet pilots. I make mention of mid 1944, because this is the first time we see whole squadrons. The Shturmovik was among these aircraft platforms, and although initially there were many Soviet pilots embedded within these fledgling squadrons, as they grew in experience, and ferocity, the necessity for mentorship from Soviet crews became less and less necessary.

It was also around this time that a new field modification began to make an appearance. A photo-reconnaissance and artillery spotter variant of the Il-2, the KR Variant, or the KorrektiRovschchik ("Artillery Spotter") was nothing more than the new swept winged, dual seat, Il-2 with wooden wings and fuselage. The difference was a small camera mounted in the belly slightly off center and aft of the flaps. Although initially there were successful missions flown, as an Artillery Spotter, the aircraft found itself trying to do more than its flight envelope would allow for. Simply stated, you cannot take an aircraft meant to fly low, and slow, and try to quickly maneuver it into a slightly higher altitude and not make yourself an easy target.

None the less, the KR continued to be made, with further modifications such as cameras in the wheel wells. There were a few other features though that did work, and did give the KR a few extra advantages. The large antenna mast located on top of the front canopy was a give away, and was indicative of the larger, more powerful radio added to the aircraft. This is seen located above the fuel tank between the pilot and gunner, where the tank and armour plate was cut down to fit. Additionally, the rear gunner/spotter was also given more armour protection, although this was of little help to the expected (and short) lifespan of the rear crew member. A few extra instruments were also slowly introduced, including a direction finder, airspeed indicator, clock, temperature gauge, altimeter, amp and volt meters, and controls for the camera.

The specific aircraft I wanted to build needed to be a Wartime Shturmovik KR, that flew with the Polish. Wartime, mainly due to the role it played, but also because post war, the simple blue/green paint scheme was absolutely boring. The multi-colour upper surface camouflage has a certain look to it. It took a lot of searching for a particular scheme I saw while in Poland at Ujazd some time ago. I found other Il-2 aircraft with the similar mid 1945 scheme, however, that particular KR was no where to be found. One simple little e-mail later, and a bit of luck that the fine photo-technicians there happened to remember me, and low and behold, here is that image:

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As you can see, this Il-2, part of 6 PLSz, at Ujazd airfield in March/April of 1945, has the traits of the Il-2KR. Of interest to me, were the national insignia. Rather than the red and white chess-board, the national insignia was simply a matter of over-painting the red star, and hand painting the white of the checkerboard over it. This is very visible on the fuselage, and from a similar paint scheme of another Il-2 (not a KR), the same went for the vertical stabilizer, however, the lower wings were simply over-painted with a brown or green, and no markings were present on top of the wings. Further, as was common with these types, you'll notice that the spotter has the MG, but no hood (often removed to allow for better visibility.

And so, this is going to be the subject of my build.

The Kit & Aftermarket

After reading many reviews and comparisons of Il-2 kits in 1/48, I decided to go with the Tamiya kit:

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I must say, I regret not taking pictures when I first started the kit, but my word... this is certainly one of those kits, that if you cut the parts free, throw in some glue, and shake the box up, the kit will build itself! When I had decided to get the aftermarket, it was not due to a short-coming of the kit. What I mean is, this one, without question, will build into a fantastic kit straight out of the box.

For aftermarket parts, I wanted to lower the flaps, so I went with the Eduard Flap Set:

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For the interior of the aircraft, truthfully, the only reason I picked up the Eduard set, was just for the instrument panel - but more on this later:

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Eduard has a new line of items that blew me away. The Brassin set is something that just screamed at me to try. I picked up both the Brassin Wheels and the rear UBT MG:

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The last set I picked up comes from Quickboost, and it is the hollowed out exhaust stacks:

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As for markings, I will be using the set from Montex, as well as the canopy screens that they offer. I really liked the idea of interior and exterior frame pieces being painted to give that sandwiched look. Sure, the scale thickness of the canopy is brought to light when you do this, however, the Il-2 and its thick armour glass is more of an accurate highlight, rather than an overly thick scale kit piece. The great thing though, is using this set, I will be able to first paint the Soviet markings on, and then overpaint and cover them with the mentioned Polish insignia. Here is the Montex set:

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References

The following were references I had used:

Duchy Stalingradu by Krzystof Janowicz, Kagero Publications

Ilyushin Il-2 Shturmovik; Il-2 Type 3, Il-2 Type 3M, Il-2KR, UIl-2 of 4+ Publication

Iljusin Il-2 - Jakab 11 - by Oleg Rastrenin of Jakab Publications. THIS Is the best KR reference material!

Special Museum Line Il-2 Type 3 and Il-10 / Avia B-33 in Detail by Frantisek Koran and Michal Ovcacik - Excellent Model Reference Photos!

Samolot Szturmowy Il-2 by Tadeusz Krolikiewicz. Good Polish information.

Other than books I've collected and picked up over the years, I've also found a few websites. The greatest battle however was the discussion of paints, and which colours were used, and what was what when it came to Soviet colour codes. If you want an instant reaction of wanting to throw up... ...google "Colors used by VVS Aircraft", and get yourself a puke-bag. I'll touch more on colours as I go on through the build, but what I can say is that the information is out there. Read past personal opinions, and emotions, and the facts are there. Especially when backed up by recently recovered Soviet aircraft over the last 10 years.

The Build

I will post some of the few progress shots I have, only because as I mentioned, I started this before thinking I'd be posting on a forum. The photos taken were more for myself to compare with other images, but they do lend themselves nicely here. Truthfully, the model is nearly finished with regards to main construction, and it's a matter of finer details and painting that remains. So, there is going to be a lot missed. However, as there was almost 6 months of on-and-off research into the Polish KR, mainly because there was such a scarce amount of information available, I will be more than happy to provide as much information as I can to make the necessary modifications to make this variant, so that anyone wanting to, in any scale, will be able to.

I'll post more shortly, but after writing all this, I need to grab a coffee. Cheers.

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Construction stages happily haven't changed, and so we start with the cockpit. The Tamiya cockpit straight out of the box covers everything nicely. There is definitely room for some addition, but don't get me wrong, it certainly does have a fantastic bit of detail.

The additions I wanted to add however, were the instrument panels, and the seat belts. The look of a wonderful 3D cockpit IMHO is really brought down by using decals. Seat belts are dynamic in aircraft that fly... ...in that, aside from airshows and B-Checks, ours are seldom ever neatly crossed. For this, using the Eduard seat belts, I first sprayed them with dull-coat, and then applied a bit of dark pastel chalks to them. I think I measured them up to the seat about a dozen times before I was happy with how they sat. The great thing about the engineering of this kit, is that you can make the seat, attach it to the rear bulkhead, and not have to worry about carefully working around the cockpit details. The back piece can be added to the cockpit floor once most of the details have been added.

But, I'm getting ahead of myself. I started with the floor, sidewall, rudder pedals, and control column, as well as the instrument panel. Everything but the panel was first sprayed with an Alcad metal paint. Once it was dry to the touch, I added a clear gloss coat with an enamel to the metal paint, and then it was left for a couple days to harden. Once that was done, I went along with the grey for the cockpit. I opted to add some depth by using different grey colours, as was quite often found inside the cockpits of these aircraft - a combination of both different sub assembly steps, age, wear, and field replacement/repairs. Here is a small index card I used to keep track of what colours would end up looking like. So to one degree or another, all of these were used through-out:

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These were all acrylics however. What I did was spray the base colour down that I would have selected, and given it a slight amount of pastel chalk, followed by a quick coat of acrylic dull coat. Total time from first coat of colour, to dull coat was less than 5 minutes. Literally waiting until the coats were just dry to the touch. Thin coats are the key here. Once the dull coat was dry to the touch, using a toothpick, I "chipped" away the paint to reveal the fresh paint scuffs. But, don't do all the paint chips just yet.

By now, about 45 minutes after the first coat of acrylic, the paint is a bit harder. What I do now is spray a second coat of dull coat, and once it's dry to the touch again, I apply some more of the thin pastel chalk with a brush, and repeat with the toothpick. This time, I try not to scrape through the paint, but just the dull coats. What you are left with is a variety of paint chips. Some are slightly glossy scuffs, some are slightly dull (older/aged) scuffs exposing metal, and the rest look like fresh paint scuffs. They were all done to areas where I thought either the pilot would cause them with his gear (be it parachute, or boots), and others from buckles from seat belts, getting in and out, etc:

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With the instrument panel, no doubt due to both scale limitations, and to make life easier, Eduard had small connections between the 6 sub-panels that make up whole of the instrument panel. When looking at Il-2 panels, I noticed that not only was there a noticeable gap between these 6 panels, but they were seldom all flush with each other. In fact, even on the newly restored Il-2 that is flying around, if you can find the video on YouTube that shows the start-up sequence, you'll see how much play these sub panels have when the pilot makes various switch selections. So I cut all 6 panels apart, and treated them to paint chips around the edges of some of the panels.

Rather than just sticking the self adhesive face to the instruments, I sprayed the gloss black instrument faces with flat black, and then went over a few of the needles and dials with my own needles, adding a few different shades of white to a yellowish white, just to add a bit of depth to it. Next, I measured up 6 small thin pieces of clear plastic, and cut the edges down by about a mm, so that they edges of the plastic wouldn't be seen. The clear plastic was then dipped in future and allowed to dry. In all honesty, it does nothing for adding a glossy finish, the plastic already had that, but it does protect the plastic so that you can use CA glue, and will not get frosting. So, they were then attached to the back instrument faces, and the 6 pieces were carefully aligned and mounted on:

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Most of the other details were added in from the Eduard set, being given a similar treatment of dull coat and pastels, except for the flap and radiator levers, as they would be added right before the cockpit was installed. I didn't want to knock them off and lose them.

A quick word about the engineering of this kit... it is fantastic - so much so, that when you join parts, really ensure to scrape the paint away. Otherwise the parts will sometimes have a difficult time to line up properly. The case of the armoured bulkhead and the cockpit floor is one great example. The two male plugs that help hold the two pieces together need to be nice and clean of any paint.

So, this is the cockpit about 90% complete. Some of the smaller dials and knobs on the sidewall are intentionally left off as I mentioned. They would have been given a dab of future for any glass face, and then once dried, CA'd with a needle in place. I also opted to keep the paint masks on the bulkhead on as long as possible, to prevent any unintentional scratching.

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From here, construction moved towards the rear cockpit, engine, and the remainder of the fuselage components.

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This is the state that she is in as of tonight, so quite a bit more done since the cockpit was started:

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Not much more to add with regards to the cockpit aside from a few extra details. The paint callout for the molded in lines on the cockpit sidewalls went along with one reference I found, but every other reference had different colours, so I opted to go with those instead. As well as adding a few extra lines, electrical cables, and other various details that would be seen within the cockpit. As far as the KR goes, the only major difference will be added later on, and that has to do with the antenna mast mounting, and the electrical wires connecting it to the radio, but I'll touch on that later as I get there.

Here are some general all-around shots looking into the cockpit (a big open tub which really does allow you to see all the work put into it:

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The rear cockpit had me almost laughing with joy... a big open tub where I could cram in as much extra as I wanted. I started out with cutting down the armoured bulkhead, and using the scuffing method mentioned in the previous post to give the impression of the rear spotter/gunner leaning up against the bulkhead as a back-rest... not much other support when your seat is a sling. After that, some staining was added to give the effect of spilled fuel, as with the radio there, it made filling the tank very... difficult. Further to this, I also opted to show the wooden floor by using a thinned down piece of balsa wood. I had stained it by using ground chalk pastels with a brush, and then using 600 grit sandpaper, lightly wore away any areas where the spotters boots would have inevitably worn away as the varnish of the wood.

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You'll notice two small open holes, that was going to be used as the mounting bracket for the amp/volt gauges... but, I decided to keep them out. And by keep them out, I lost the gauges somewhere in the mix of things, and so this KR didn't get the full mod for those two gauges. You can also just make out some of the lighter wear on the edge of the wood floor board.

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The three gauges you see there are the altimeter and airspeed indicator (two stacked vertically), and the larger one is the Direction Finder just aft of the small pair.

The radio hasn't been installed yet, as I needed to have the tray mounted and then be able to have a good look at what dimensions I was left with. Lastly, the bundles of electrical wires were added using the same thin white thread as in the cockpit, along with a few Eduard details. If you're making a wartime Il-2, keep the fire extinguisher mount, but get rid of the bottle - they were seldom there, and quite often were used to hold other items by the spotter:

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It looks like your off to a great start. I've read nothing but great reviews of this kit and I really look forward to watching your progress.

Thank you so very much! I cannot say enough good things about this kit! To come back to the hobby with this kit, wow! No frustrations at any point with the build. I am not kidding in the slightest, that there is no need for filler when the wings come together with the fuselage. I found that if parts don't fit, it's because I was too full of myself to look at the instructions, and missed something very simple, usually the arrow that shows which way I'm supposed to insert the piece. I'm very serious though about keeping paint off of any joining surfaces - the parts are engineered and fit that well together!

Again though, thank you for the feedback, and it is so much fun to be back at this! The builders are awesome on this forum and I am so happy to be a part of this!

The last little detail that needed to be made to give this an early KR mod, was the camera pieces underneath. Looking at the reference photo's, I saw that really, all that would be visible from the small field mod window below was the lens and a bit of the frame. Using some thin evergreen plastic, punch, and needle, I made the front of the lens, and filled in the center with a few layers of future. The rest was painted flat black, a bit of dry brushing, and then mounted in the belly. Here are a few shots of that, along with a couple shots to show where it is located - which, incidentally, if you want to see me stop laughing, trying to find it, and the panel (which came off another kit now in the stash, a Spitfire Panel that looks closer to the shape of the panel than I would have believed) in old grainy black and white Soviet photos. I ended up using the 4+ line drawings (which given their reputation leaves little to no doubt). After the hole was cut, an old friend from Poland fired me a few images that easily confirm they nailed the placement). But, before I go off on another tiff, here are the shots:

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The camera and lens should be slightly aft of the center point of the cut out, and aimed to look slightly forward by 10-15 degrees, but centered looking down.

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It was here that I needed to try an find the right mix of the underside blue. Out came the index card to try and find the right mix for the look:

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After comparing this with as many paint chips as I could find of the AMT-7, 50% + 50% worked out well with the white being the variable (darker areas like the upper flap, inside the wheel wells, inside the back of the radiator will be 50-50 to give scale shade, while 10% white will be added to the remainder of areas like under the wings and fuselage.

The ultimate goal (though maybe not right after the model is complete) is to have a diorama set up for the moments before the crews board for take off. I want to have the scene reflect March of 1945 (though there were raids made earlier on). With that, a few things are being made to cater to that. During any Il-2 start-up, the radiators are at the very least half open. The only bit of a drawback I found with this kit was at this area. The molded pieces were a bit thick, as was the bathtub the radiator sits in. Quickly sanding down the leading and trailing edges with some sandpaper cured that, and then it was a bit of nip and tuck to get the radiators half open/closed (and the lever was then added in the cockpit to reflect this):

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Next up were the upper flaps mounted in the wings. When Eduard says you need to shave the inside of the wing, this is a kit that they weren't kidding about! A lot went out! (if you look at the top of the wing, the brass you see from above, that is sanded smooth into the wing... that's how thin this one ended up being to fit just right). This being said, it all fits like a glove! No need to worry about the fitment of the spar piece, or the rear compartment in the fuselage! Eduard really did a bang up job with these flaps. I used the same treatment here as I did inside the fuselage with the Alcad and toothpick method:

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Part of the diorama will have (I hope) a mechanic doing some last minute checks on battle damage repair done to the flaps. The upper flap section here is still unpainted sheet metal and ribs, with some paint chips around it. The lower flap will have much of the same effect done to simulate thru-and-thru damage of the flaps.

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it looks to me that the Il-2KR in the photo has "Straight" wings---the Tamiya kit has swept wings

planning on converting ???

Hi Flint. I was looking over that photograph for far longer than I would ever care to admit to anyone. There were a few things that could have gone either way with the shape of the wings, but what I sided on (the 3 series, or the swept arrow Winged) came from these points:

-There is enough of an angle visible in the port wing just outside of the main landing gear nacelle to show it is likely (not positively) a bent wing Il-2 - The problem though, is that without seeing if the trailing edge is a straight line (for the straight wing) or if there is also an angle at that point (for the swept wing), it's not enough of a visible angle to go either way. But there is definitely and angle different than the section of wing inboard of the nacelle;

-Arrow Wings began flying on the front in the beginning of 1944, replacing the straight wing Il-2 - the KR followed the same progression as the standard Il-2's;

-Pitot tube in the outside position found on Arrow wings, rather than more inboard and closer to the cannons typical of straight wings; and

-Dates played a huge part, and the unit that gave the 6th their Il-2's (658th ShAP of the VVS) also helped sway me to the swept wing, in that by the time of the transition and first operations of October 1944, they were nearly completely converted to the Type 3 (swept wing) Il-2's, and no longer the straight wing. This also coincides with, none of the 178 Il-2's the Polish kept at the end of the war were straight winged. This last point, I thought about not even putting in... that number was post war, there were a number of Il-2's including KR's that were lost. Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence...

So, nothing says 100% to me that it is one or the other, but simply that it is a lot more likely to be a swept wing rather than a straight wing. Yeah, I keep looking at that photo even now, and the angle you see at the nacelle really points me towards a true swept wing Il-2. But the combination of swept wing style pitot tube position, the dates of conversion being nearly complete in October of 1944 (I use October because that was the only true verified date of the status of the aircraft when the handover to Polish was fully formalized and aircraft were no longer Soviet on Loan but truly Polish), and I'm depicting this one from March '45.

Edit:

Just wanted to add this for anyone wondering, the straight wing is swept back 9 degrees outside of the landing gear nacelles, where the swept (or commonly called "arrow wing") was 15. With a wing that has very, very little dihedral, unless you can see both leading and trailing edges, it's a toss up. Some cropped photo's of Il-2's (where the wingtips were not visible) that were once thought to be straight winged were confirmed many years later simply because someone took the time to find the lines in the shadows on the ground. Are we splitting hairs about 6 degrees of sweep? In this case, no... The last straight wing field modified 2 seaters from 1943 had metal wings (different panels, different lines, different... ...everything). The first swept winged Il-2's (like what I believe this KR to be), had wooden wings like this Tamiya kit represents. It's like comparing an A-36 Apache wing to a P-51D, same basic shape, and yet so different.

Edited by Aurora Mark
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Excellent work!

Regards,

Thank you very much for your kind words!

The last post for tonight deals with the last bit that was completed, and that is the wheel wells. I cannot stress how impressive the engineering here is again! The construction is very simple and straight forward, and allows for you to assemble the outer wing halves, with the center section either by assembling the wing completely on its own, or if you would prefer, the center piece to the fuselage first, and then the wing halves later on. As well, there is no need to assemble the main landing gear struts until the very end. Conveniently, the small nacelle cap at the front of both landing gear nacelles was never completely flush. Frankly, from all the reference photo's I've looked at, you would get a better (flush) fitting by taking a flat piece of aluminum, and bashing it into place with a 5lb sledge hammer! So, I opted to leave the caps, and main landing gear off until the very end of painting/assembly.

None the less, the guts of the nacelles were worked on with a lot of fun. Painting again started with an Alcad base, and then the layers of acrylics followed with a toothpick to simulate the numerous chips of paint that would have occurred from things getting kicked up into the wells from the dirt strips. As well, the March/April time frame was very wet where they were based from, so there would have been a larger than normal amount of mud, dirt, and dust kicked up and stuck in the wheel wells. I simulated this by simply painting the interior regular colours grey up in the wings, and then the nacelle covers were painted the bottom blue. Once it was all completed, using a fine tip brush, I dipped it in a little water, and then picked up ground chalk pastel dust, got it clumpy and simply started dabbing it into everywhere.

Keep in mind, the Soviet and Polish mentality was that these aircraft were simply tools of the trade. No sentimental attachment to them like was common in the West. The maintenance was performed in the field with the most basic of tools - in fact, there are quite a few pictures (more than you would believe) showing maintainers using lengths of logs and thick branches as hammers around these aircraft! Heck, if it worked, let it work!

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Lastly, to give a bit more movement in this, the control column was tipped forward slightly, in order to have the elevators angled down slightly. This needed a bit of work, including adding a few hinges and profiling the elevator once it was removed from the horizontal stabilizer. This is one place I wish that Tamiya did in fact give separate control surfaces, as rarely do you see an Il-2 with the elevators in the neutral position. Same with the rudder, but I'll get to that one a bit later.

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So, that's about it for work done on the Il-2KR so far. As a quick summary of things so far, I'll start with saying that this is a fantastic kit! Tamiya seems to be the most consistent model manufacturer over the years, and this kit is certainly no exception. The build is VERY simple and straight forward. With many small steps, the only trick is to ensure you do what I'm horrible at, and that is to study the instructions. There are a few "gotchya's" on it, in that you need to know what you want for underwing ordnance, because you need to predrill holes inside the wings before assembling them. The same goes for the control rods. I'm very happy they're not molded on, as they are very pronounced control rods for the trim tabs. But remember, you need to drill them out before assembling it all.

More than anything though, it is absolutely fantastic to be back at this. I didn't realize how much I missed it until I started again. Thank you all for looking. Any questions, comments, questions, advice and suggestions are always, always welcomed. Next step... finish the wing/fuselage assembly, along with the tail surfaces, and then the smaller pieces getting prepped for painting!

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  • 3 weeks later...

An interesting snag. The delay from any construction or work on this kit comes from missing parts. I've searched high and low for the other halves of the horizontal stabs (parts 5 and 14 I believe). I cannot find the pieces anywhere! Everything else for them is there, and I don't remember cutting the parts off the sprue... ...I'm hoping someone has a spare they're willing to give up...

More to come soon.

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Thanks! And yes, they do offer the sprues, but all I need are the two parts. Finding out that the cost and shipping comes to about 3 dollars more than the CMK Resin Control Surfaces offered for the Accurate Miniatures Il-2 (which could be made to fit this kit with little effort).

I'm hoping that someone has a spare set (for whatever weird reason that someone would have a spare set of horizontal stabs), and if not, I'd be happy to simply order the CMK set.

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My personal preference in plastic modeling has always been WW11 over jets, so when I saw your build, I wasted no time in reading through your build blog to date. Just a fantastic journey that you're sharing with us. While you might have been away from the hobby for some time, your detailing skills are certainly right up to date. Looking forward to your next update, once you can locate or replace those missing parts.

Joel

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Thanks Joel! I really appreciate the comments.

While I'm waiting for the horizontal stab situation to sort itself out... and I'm really thinking it will be the CMK set that does the trick, there's still a lot of work left to complete on this one. Tonight I plan on getting right into the main wheel wells, and detailing those up. After that, it's simply a matter of finishing off the brass PE flaps, the horizontal stabs, and front canopy work. Then it's masking 'er up, painting it all up, and then building up the landing gear. I say that now...

Hopefully there will be a good bit of an update tonight (as the Aurora needs a break, and the Spit really can't go forward until the cockpit 'floor' problem is resolved).

Again, thank you!

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Thanks Joel! I really appreciate the comments.

While I'm waiting for the horizontal stab situation to sort itself out... and I'm really thinking it will be the CMK set that does the trick, there's still a lot of work left to complete on this one. Tonight I plan on getting right into the main wheel wells, and detailing those up. After that, it's simply a matter of finishing off the brass PE flaps, the horizontal stabs, and front canopy work. Then it's masking 'er up, painting it all up, and then building up the landing gear. I say that now...

Hopefully there will be a good bit of an update tonight (as the Aurora needs a break, and the Spit really can't go forward until the cockpit 'floor' problem is resolved).

Again, thank you!

Also been following your 1/48 CP-140M Aurora vacuum form build. Talk about skills !!

Joel

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Joel, thank you very much! Hanging around here on this site and looking at the incredible builds, and reading some of the older posts and threads, a lot comes from you all here. So much information, so many tips, so much advice - it's AWESOME!

Clioguy, thank you for the offer. In my bout of complaining about the missing part, my wife surprised me with ordering a set of the CMK control surfaces I mentioned to her. She calls it a stocking stuffer... really, we all know it's just to shut me up, hahaha. Thank you regardless though - greatly appreciated.

Work started again today on the landing gear. A bit of a quick tip, as we all hate having broken legs on our aircraft as we paint and finish the kits off after installing the landing gear. The instructions at step 17 show this:

20141216_180516_zps9774ff14.jpg

As per the pen notes, there is absolutely no need to mount them. Keeping parts C33 and C38 off until you're ready to mount the gear really makes life a whole lot easier. Here is the opening to the front of the nacelle:

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And you can quickly and easily slide the main gear into place, and back out without causing any damage:

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The other thing I made sure to do, as the instructions are a bit over-complicated, was to split the parts up port and starboard. There are a number of parts that are universal between left and right side, and a few parts that mount the same way on both sides, while the remainder of the gear are mirror images of each other. Coupled with repeated part numbers, pretty cluttered instruction drawings, and well, recipe for backward legs... easy solution:

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I'll be using a couple items from Eduard, their Il-2M3 Set, which was used quite a bit inside the fuselage, contains a lot of little details for the wheel wells, as well as the Brassin main gear wheels. I've put up a shot of the kit tires. Eduard certainly did hit the nail on the head with the aggressive tread pattern, and far more crisp detail:

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First things first, the parts were cleaned up from a few injector pin marks, and the fine (but noticeable) mold lines on the landing gear components. Once done, they were washed in dish-soap to get rid of any oil dirt, and the first two pieces went into the wheel wells. Once I was happy with their positioning, a dab of thin CA glue ensured that I kept the pieces together with the right angle:

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Next up, the other two detail pieces went onto the gear. The locking piston is the same position on both legs, but the operating jack is on the outside leg:

20141216_193608_zpsb786a63c.jpg

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From here, the Eduard pieces were slowly added. The "piping" took a very long time, as they still needed to be bent into place around everything, and then "scrunched up" as they would have been:

20141216_204906_zpsd779dac9.jpg

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In a few fantastic references of museum piece and restored Il-2's, the plumbing hangs in a very elegant, perfectly coiled manner at the rear of the nacelle. Every photo I have seen looking into a wartime Il-2 wheel well... ...well, lets just say it wasn't neat, and it was impressive that the hydraulics still worked!

Wanting to make these look heavily cast, and tough, I didn't want a nice, perfectly smooth paint job on these legs. I used a combo of a light spatter with the primer first (by turning up the PSI, adding a little less thinner, and spraying further away), then once dry, finished the primer work with a soft thin coat like one would normally spray with an airbrush. Here it is with a fresh coat of primer:

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So, soon the starboard leg will be completed, and then once it all dries overnight, I'll start with the base coat of the same grey used inside the wheel wells, and work out to the smaller details.

Thanks for looking!

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Mark,

Excellent update on the landing gear. I really appreciate the time and effort you put into these updates with pictures of the instructions and your work notes. You have no idea of how lucky you are that you wife bought you the parts as a stocking stuffer. In the 33 years we've been married, not once has my wife for any occasion bought me a model, supply, or fishing gear. She kind of tolerates my hobbies then appreciated them. But I do have my own model/computer room, so life is good.

Joel

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Thanks guys. Joel, I'm a very lucky guy, no doubt about that. Both of us being aviators really helps as well, as she has a keen interest in the subjects I'm building.

I've got a bit of an interlude between now and the next photo update, so I thought I would take a bit of time here to help out anyone who is planning on doing a KR conversion, or just wants to know a bit more about the KR. Specifically talking about the radios.

The KR variant had a more powerful radio that was placed over top of the center fuel tank in the fuselage. Located on a rack between the pilot and the gunner, the radio is visible whether you have the gunner/spotter 'canopy' open or closed, so getting this right is a key part of the conversion. Many references list the radio as an RSI-3Bis that replaced the RSI-4. This is partially correct. The old radio was the RSI-4, however, the new component was seldom ever called the RSI-3Bis - it's a mistake. So, if you do like me and try to search for this radio, you'll come up to a dead end (noting that the RSI-3 and the RSI-3Bis are completely different units).

The radio that replaced the RSI-4 was designated as the RSB-F HF Transmitter. It is known by a few other names (RSB, RSB-Bis, US-P), but for our KR, the RSB-F is the ticket!

There is a fantastic write up in the 4+ Publications reference book on the KR variant, as well as on this website:

Mig 3 Soviet Warplanes - Il-2KR

If you scroll down on the website to just below the first colour profile, you will see an image showing a smiling aircrew member and a shot looking up into the back of the Il-2. This one threw me for a loop for a long time, for a number of reasons (paint chips, orientation of the radio), until I found the full image in the 4+ Publication. That image shows both crew members of the unknown OKAP unit, as well as great detail of the AFA-3 Camera. Here it also lists the radio as the RSI-3Bis. However, in the 4+ publication, you see the full image, and that the one on the website is a mirrored image (explaining why everything on the radio face is opposite). I still like the one on the website, as it is a very clear, high resolution image.

There are a few great websites that show this radio to great detail, making scratch building it very easy:

Army Radio Sales - This link shows three great images of the radio and some great technical information on it as well. This is where I found the dimensions of the RSB-F, which in 1/48 will be 7.4mm x 6.9mm x 4.2mm.

RKK Museum - RSB Page - This is the first page for the radio. If you are looking for any reference images for Russian/Soviet radios, the RKK Website is an absolute gold mine for images and technical information. They were also kind enough to respond to me confirming that this was indeed the radio set mounted in the Il-2KR.

RKK Museum - RSB Virtual Tour - This page here has the fantastic image set I'll be using as my references for the radio I'll be scratch building. It also offers a schematic! The only thing though, is that where there are two lead cables going into the bottom right of the transmitter on the Army Radio Sales site, the Aircraft mounted unit only had the one (as pictured on the RKK website).

So, there you have it! The question as to the radio, colours, sizes, and wires going in has been happily answered - something that has been dodging me for a few months! I hope that this little bit is a bit interesting, and if you yourself are building the KR variant, awesome! I hope this helps.

Thanks for looking!

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Tonight I am happy to say that the main landing gear - aside from the mud - are complete! If there ever was an aircraft which has one heck of an interesting layout between port/starboard, mirrored, and not mirrored, it is this aircraft. So, I'll pick this one up from where I left off.

The two landing gear legs were left with a glossed over primer that was made to look a little rougher than most other aircraft would have. Now that they're all cured, all that was left was to add the brake line to them:

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There will be two other smaller lines added later on, once the landing gear is fixed with the wheels. From here, it was a mix of 50/50, acrylic Light Ghost Grey and dull coat, airbrushed onto everything. This is key, as a few steps from now, with pastel chalk, it is the dull coat that will help hold onto the pastels:

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From here, the basic colours were added. A light blue for the hydraulic and brake lines was added using a thin bit of wire. The normal hydraulic lines were a deeper, almost dark blue colour. I went with a light sky blue as I wanted them to look aged, and the pastels will really help to add some depth to the colours. The boots were painted with a 50/50 mix of leather and earth, and the upper part of the brake line was painted just earth:

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Once all that paint was nice and dry, I prepped the pastel chalks. I REALLY enjoy using these, as they really allow you to layer on different tones and shades. The colours I used were 80% black, 100% black, Red Earth - a fancy name for red-brown, and a sand colour. The first layer will be the 100% black, applied with the soft brush to everything:

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One side with the black pastel chalk applied, and the other still just the paint:

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Here, the left side is just the 100% black, while the right side also has 80% black applied to it:

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Once both sides were done, it was a matter of focusing on the boots. I first applied the red-brown colour, in a vertical motion, so as to just get the ridges, and leave the black in the grooves to add some depth/shadow:

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The last bit was to add some dry-brushed silver over some key parts to highlight some pieces, and then with a toothpick, silver was applied to the locking piston and retraction jack shafts:

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So there are the main gear legs almost complete - just need to add the tires, but I'm going to need them for a tread pattern in for a base first. Once done with that, they will be mounted, glued, and the last pieces of brake line added, then a little bit of mud splattered on them.

Next up, I'm hoping to be able to get the lower flap pieces completed, along with scratch building the radio. By then I'm hoping that the stocking stuffer will be here, and that I can continue on with the build. If not, it's onto the tail wheel and canopy.

Thanks for looking!

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Mark,

Very nice job on the landing gear. You've certainty duplicated their precise brake hydraulic lines :thumbsup:/> I really like your method of weathering with the chalks. I've resisted buying them, but I've weakened to the point of biting the bullet and buying a basic set or just a few individual sticks.

Joel

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Mark,

Very nice job on the landing gear. You've certainty duplicated their precise brake hydraulic lines :thumbsup:/>/>/> I really like your method of weathering with the chalks. I've resisted buying them, but I've weakened to the point of biting the bullet and buying a basic set or just a few individual sticks.

Joel

Thanks Joel! Here are a few more shots, with the leg in the nacelle. There are still a lot of smaller pieces to add, but, this is roughly what it will look like:

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Joel, with regards to pastels, I use them wherever I can. All the shading so far is done with just the pastel chalks. I prefer to only use oil staining where oils and liquids would be present. Airbrushing stains from exhaust and gun-dust from cannons and machine guns comes from pastel chalks, and a mix of the chalks and pencil lead for gun dust - I find the graphite gives a good effect for what gun dust actually looks like. The great thing about the chalk, is the easy mixing of colours, ability to layer different colours, and a quick dull coat in between colours helps to really give a great look. But, there are a few places where they don't lend themselves well, such as colour staining on a NMF, or the colour changes from heat in metal around the exhaust of jet aircraft for example.

What I use are pastels from General, as they are very soft, and go on very easily. I use these for a base coat in the primary colours:

20141219_203943_zpsc9618480.jpg

For a mix of any other colour, I picked up this set for about 10 bucks:

20141219_204105_zpsb8e652df.jpg

And for shadows and shades, this 12 piece set also works well, another set I picked up for about 10 bucks:

20141219_204024_zpse81dce20.jpg

The chalk can be "painted on" like I did with the landing gear, or, if you want a bit of a semi-gloss, rubbed onto a dull coat with a q-tip. I just find them very flexible in their use, application, and very forgiving. Hope this helps.

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