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Hobby Boss Il-2 Single-Seater


Learstang

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Well, the only way I'm going to finish this bird is to start a thread where people can hound, I mean encourage me to continue working on it. Below are some in progress photographs starting with one of the cockpit (not great quality - the photograph I mean, but I'd rather spend the money on models than a better camera). Note the three holes I drilled into the seat. I think these may have been lightening holes on the real thing, or perhaps even attachment points for the harness. Enjoy!

 

Regards,

 

Learstang

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Here's one of the fuselage, which I laborously sanded down to rid the rear fuselage of the inaccurate panel lines and rivets. On the real aeroplane the rear fuselage was all-wooden, and very smooth. You can still see some faint traces of the lines, but I'm hoping most of these are ghosts (traces that are differently coloured from the surrounding plastic, but flush with it) that will disappear when I prime it (again).

 

Regards,

 

Learstang

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Thank you gentlemen for the kind words, and Kev, I consider myself properly hounded. Below are some photos I took whilst building the wing centre section. The port upper part was simply glued to the lower section, but the starboard side was a little trickier. On the kit, they have the external carburettor intake filter, which did not appear on the ski-equipped version. Therefore, I had to cut it off, and put a tube inside the wing, instead of just having an open hole. All will become clearer as you peruse the photographs (one of them is particularly blurry, but as reshooting it would involve prying that glued wing section apart, I am afraid it's now the photograph of record).

 

Regards,

 

Jason, A/K/A Learstang

 

 

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Here's a view of the centre section from the front. The area where the carburettor intake tube is will be sanded down flush with the wing leading edge when the glue has set. I usually give the glue about a week to set. As this is setting, I'll have a go at working some more on the cockpit and the guns and ammo. Notice how I've sprayed the interior portion of the centre section grey, in this case Testors Light Ghost Gray, which to my eye at least is a fair approximation of the Soviet A-14 Steel Grey interior primer.

 

Regards,

 

Jason

 

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Some more pictures. The first one shows the forward fuel tank, the radiator intake trunk, the big fuel tank behind the pilot, and the guns, with the VYa 23mm's at top and the ShKAS 7.62mm's at the bottom. The forward fuel tank needs to have some work done on it, as it's too plain, and I intend on weathering the guns as I'm planning on cutting out the ammo panels on the upper wing surfaces to show off the gun and ammo details. The second picture shows what I've done so far on the AM-38 engine, which isn't much. The engine is quite detailed, although it may be missing a few accessories, so I'll have to check my references to get it right. What the kit does include looks pretty spot on. I don't plan on leaving the cowling panels clear, but I do plan on cutting away the panels on each side under the exhausts, which were commonly opened when the Shturmovik was being worked on in the field. I don't have to worry too much about thinning out these panels, since they really were like boilerplate!

 

Regards,

 

Jason

 

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Looks great so far! :speak_cool: This should be a great reference build for anyone else wanting to get it really right. Thanks for sharing it!

 

Thank you Dave! Hopefully I won't muck it up too much. I certainly don't want to lead anyone astray. Here are a few more pictures. In the first picture you can see I've removed the access covers on the port wing (such surgery to be repeated on the starboard wing). I won't use the cut out pieces, as they are too thick, but I will use them as templates for the thin white sheet plastic. I'll also punch out holes where the screws were, in the new access covers (no, I don't think I'm going to try and make some 1/32nd scale screws to go with them!). In the second and third pictures you can get some idea of how much you can see with the access covers off (I've just placed the wing halves together and placed the guns and ammo boxes in, nothing is glued yet). Unfortunately, the answer is not much. You can see the grey ammo box at the back of the bigger opening - why it isn't directly underneath the opening I don't know - I'll need to do some more research to see if I need to move it. There are some other small covers that I'll probably just drill out, and use the openings to make my templates. In that case, you'll be able to see some of the 7.62mm machine guns, and maybe some of their ammo boxes. I suppose I could also cut out the access covers on the bottom of the wing, which would really open things up. At any rate, I'll also need to add some more wing structure, such as extending the kit spars, and making up some ribs. With all that's going to be visible on this kit - the cockpit, the guns, the engine (at least a little bit of it), this model will just scream out for a diorama. Something with a snow base, of course, and maybe a 1/35th scale T-34/76 sitting next to it, with the tank having a white camouflage and a suitably big patriotic slogan splashed across it. The problem is space, of course. Oh well, I have to finish the b****y thing first!

 

Regards,

 

Jason

 

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Here are some more pictures of my slowly disappearing wings. In addition to cutting out the small access covers as I threatened to in my last post, I've also removed the large access cover under the 23mm cannon in the port wing. The attachment point was there, but I'll now just attach the cannon to the built-up spars, as it was on the actual aircraft. In this case, I'm going to probably keep the cut out cover, suitably thinned, as it has some nice rivet holes moulded into it that will be hard (for me) to reproduce on a replacement cover. I'll probably have the cover hanging from its hinge, as I've seen in a photograph. The edges of some of the holes I've cut/drilled out need some more cleanup, but overall I'm pleased with the results. What I'm not looking forward to is scratchbuilding spar extensions, ribs and stringers. It's starting to look like the wings are going to be the most difficult area on this kit, although I could have gone the easy route and left everything closed, in which case I would have just had to glue in the guns. This, however, would have wasted the detail that Hobby Boss provide such as the entire guns, the ammo boxes, and the ammo belts.

 

In addition to building the interior structure, I'm also going to have to move the 23mm ammo boxes, which will be easy - they should be directly under the access covers, as I presumed. I may cut out the access cover under the 7.62mm gun, perhaps on the port wing, or perhaps on the starboard wing, or both. I'm still not sure about the placement of the internal chutes for the spent casings - this will require still further research.

 

Regards,

 

Jason

 

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Here's the cockpit. As always I apologise for the somewhat fuzzy character of the photographs - I assure you that the cockpit is quite crisp and clear in person. I still need to add a few fiddly bits, do a little paint touchup on the rudder pedals, and make up the rather complicated booster pump on the front starboard side of the floor (in addition to adding the fuel tank behind the pilot, of course), but overall I'm pleased with it and I think the colours are pretty good. I based the colours on a b/w 1943 IL-2 flight instruction film. Since the film is in b/w, I had to make some intelligent guesses, but I think I guessed pretty well. Not only did I watch and rewatch the film, but I made about 20 stills (screen prints actually) from the film, which have helped me in the parts placement and colours of the cockpit, and will help very much in making the pieces that are missing from the kit interior, such as the primer pump, the gun recharger levers on the starboard side of the cockpit, and the manual retraction gear handle on the starboard side of the cockpit. If you'd like to see any of the pictures, please let me know. James, I am interested in the problem you noticed about the wing root - please advise.

 

Regards,

 

Jason

 

P.S. Does anyone have any spare cockpit panel decals? There are a few gauges on the port console that I'd like to use decals on, instead of painting them. I would think any 1/32nd scale panel, or even a 1/48th scale panel would suffice. Thank you in advance for any help you can provide!

 

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Coming along nicely. Just a warning. If your taking off the intake be aware the wing no longer blends in with the wing root. Will have to do some extra work.

 

James

 

Thank you, James! About the wing root, would you illustrate what you mean with a photograph, because I'm not really sure what the problem is. Do you mean that sanding down the fairing on the upper surface makes the juncture there a little off?

 

Regards,

 

Jason

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Thank you, James! About the wing root, would you illustrate what you mean with a photograph, because I'm not really sure what the problem is. Do you mean that sanding down the fairing on the upper surface makes the juncture there a little off?

 

Regards,

 

Jason

 

I'll try and take pics shortly. But yes the leading edge of the wing is now about 2mm short of the leading edge of the wing root. It would probably be easier to do this with the center wing attached to the fuse. I will have to build it up.

JAmes

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