Polikarpov I-16, Type 17

[Out2gtcha]

Wow, great work Michael! I've heard nothing but great things about this series of kits.

Really, good things about most all the latest ICM kits. This reinforces my opinion!

[Dpgsbody55]

12 hours ago, Out2gtcha said:

Wow, great work Michael! I've heard nothing but great things about this series of kits.

Really, good things about most all the latest ICM kits. This reinforces my opinion!

 

Yes, I'd definitely agree with that.  The fit and finish of the parts is excellent, and surface detail looks exactly like the real thing, and not over done.  Assembly is straight forward and detail is good.  I'll have to add a few more to my stash, including the Gladiator, and I'm looking forward to their next release.

 

 

Cheers,

Michael

[Dpgsbody55]

The last week has been spent pfilling and pflatting, and thankfully there aren't any major gaps on this kit.  It's mostly a case of covering joints as the real thing was mostly sheets of resin impregnated ply.  The worst joint was at the rear of the wing, where it joints the fuselage, and it's not as bad as the pictures might suggest.

 

 

The tail joins were treated entirely with Mr Surfacer 500 and needed very little clean up.  The wing bottom joint to the rear fuselage needed a little Tamiay filler, which was filed to shape then finished with more Mr Surfacer and sanded.

 

The topside needed very little work, but the fuselage sides needed a little Mr Surfacer as there are slight sink marks on the outer surfaces corresponding with the ribs molded inside the cockpit.

 

 

Last night and tonight I've painted the basic colours.  The paint is still drying in both pictures.

 

 

 

Tomorrow I'll do a little more painting, then it's on to varnish, decals, and more varnish.  That's it for the moment.  Hope you're all well.

 

 

Cheers,

Michael

Edited April 27, 2020 by Dpgsbody55

[Azgaron]

Very nice work so far!

 

Håkan

 

[Dpgsbody55]

The last week has been spent airbrushing and decaling, and a little building. 

 

As the machine I'm modeling was used in the first war against Finland in the winter of 1939, I've added a little winter camo to my plane.  Winter or snow camo's were usually done at unit level, so the differences are vast.  Here's mine, the details of which I found online while doing a little research on early I-16's in winter camouflage.  It's sprayed thin in places, as would have been the case on the real thing.

 

 

Next, applying gloss varnish and adding decals, of which there are very few on this model - national insignias, unit number and one stencil telling ground crew where to lift the tail.

 

 

After matt varnish and the removal of the cockpit masking.

 

 

I call the next pic "engine change" .  The undercarriage l has been added, together with the fairings over parts of the undercarriage bay and the oil tank at the rear of the engine bay.  Earlier on in the build, I made the ski assembly, then the two leg and door assemblies, then painted them when I did the bottom of the model.  This saves mucking about with multiple paint sessions for the one colour.  I've tidied up the cockpit where there were small over spray marks, and added the gun sight and windscreen.  You may just be able to make out a ring sight at the end of the reflector sight.  Lastly, I'm preparing to add the engine.  Some paint has been removed for the top cowl and I've been test fitting the engine, to test for clearance against the propeller retainer.  It's a tight fit, so I've drilled the engine mounting holes dealer which has done the trick.  Of course, to check this, I've built up the front cowl, with the cowl vents and propeller.

 

 

The next stage will be to add the engine and front cowl together with the prop.  I'm presently thinking I might make the side cowls detachable.  This means I'll have to add spark plug wires to the rear plugs in each cylinder, and the model doesn't really lend itself to add on ignition systems, so I'll have a think about that.  Although the engine is mostly built, I have yet to add the exhausts as these need to line up with the holes in the cowl.  Each cylinder has it's own exhaust pipe ( there's no collector or manifold), so I think I'll add the bottom four pipes immediately before gluing the engine into place, the glue the front and top cowl to the model, the add the remaining exhausts.  It's a bit of a fiddle, especially as three exhaust ports in the cowl each take two pipes and they all need to line up.  Then the fuselage guns will go in followed by the cowl and prop assembly.  After that, it's final assembly, detailing and it's a wrapski , if you'll excuse my non-existent Russian.

 

 

Cheers,

Michael

[Out2gtcha]

Excellent! That really is starting to come together now

[Dpgsbody55]

The engine is now in place.  As I mentioned in a previous post, I had to deepen the engine mount holes on the bulkhead to alleviate a bind on the propeller that would have been present once the front cowl was added.  I've also added ignition wires for the rear spark plugs only as the front plug wires aren't visible, and the engine doesn't really lend itself to a fully realistic ignition set up anyway.

 

 

 

The wires were made with scrap electrical copper wire.  Next the guns were added, before adding the front cowl.  The tape is there to protect the paint when I glue the front cowl on.

 

 

 

And without all the tape, but with the exhausts.  The bottom four pipes were glued in place before the engine went in, then the last five added once the glue had dried on the front cowl.  I don't mind admitting that the pipe that goes onto the top cylinder had me holding my breath as I glued it in place.  I side the side cowls to help align the pipes properly.  The door has also been glued - no attempt at a hinge this time.

 

 

Now it's on to the finishing details.  Before I added the undercarriage or engine, I managed to get a length of wire into and, out of, the holes in the centre of the wheel well bays.  Once the undercarriage was together and set, I made two eye ends from  0.3mm wire to go onto the centre of the skis to attach some EZ line.  Net, I've glued some EZ Line to the wire and pulled it through the model, and attached it to the eyes.

 

 

 

Lastly, I attached the wing guns, pitot and venturi, then a little weathering and it's done.

 

 

 

 

 

I also "scratched" the skis.  My understanding is that the Type 17 was the first to have a factory designed set of skis for service on snow bound fields, and the skis themselves were steel.  So I've scratched them with a fairly heavy dry brush of steel silver grey to get that worn look.

 

 

I've also made the side engine cowls removable on both sides, as you may have guessed, but not the top cowl as I felt this needed to be glued to add strength to the attachment of the front cowl, which is made up of eight pieces in total, including the prop, so It's quite heavy.

 

 

 

 

 

So that's it for what has turned out to be my third model for this group build.  It's been a pleasure to build and I'm looking forward to my next ICM kit, which may well be the Gladiator, whenever I buy one.  I've also surprised myself in that for me, turning out three models in less than six months is very prolific.  I normally struggle to build three models in one year.

 

I've no idea what I'm going to build next.  I may take pity on that Trumpy P-47 languishing on my shelf of doom.  I like P-47's, especially the Razorback model which is my favourite WW2 American fighter.  Then there's the WNW stuff in my stash - I have four and never built one.  Or the Airfix Hellcat.  Or a Tamya Spitfire....  You get the picture .

 

I'll post a few more pics in the next thread.

 

 

Cheers,

Michael

 

[Dpgsbody55]

As promised/threatened (strike out whichever you feel does not apply ), here's a few more pics of my I-16.  My model represents a Type 17 from the Winter War, which was a short and botched conflict initiated by Stalin when he attempted to invade Finland.  It started on 30th November 1939 and was all done by 13th March 1940, although the results were mixed.  Although the Russian forces were beaten, Finland still ceded a sizable amount of territory to Russia during the peace treaty.

 

The Type 17 was the last equipped with the Shvetsov M-25 750hp radial and 2 position bracket propeller.  The Type 18, the next model in line, was equipped with an M-62 radial of 830hp with two speed supercharger and constant speed prop.  It certainly needed it, as the Type 17 had become too heavy for the earlier engine, thanks to extra equipment and the addition of two wing mounted cannon.

 

 

 

 

 

 

On it's display shelf.  I used the decal from the kit as a label for the display.

 

 

With it's comrades.

 

 

I've had great fun building these three kits for this group build -  the Mig 3 was a 2016 build.  All the kits, including the KH P-39Q which is undeserving of any poor reputation in my opinion, have been a pleasure to build, and none have been built OOB.  In  fact, I can't remember the last time a kit without some aftermarket, as I think this adds so much to each kit.

 

So now on to the next build.  Geez, I'll have to make a decision - life can be SO hard at times... 

 

 

Cheers,

Michael

[LSP_Kevin]

Excellent work, Michael! You, sir, are a machine!

 

Kev

[LSP_Ray]

You ARE a machine! Beautiful models, Michael!

[BradG]

Great work as always mate.

[Dpgsbody55]

On 5/9/2020 at 7:59 AM, LSP_Kevin said:

Excellent work, Michael! You, sir, are a machine!

 

Kev

 

On 5/9/2020 at 9:11 AM, LSP_Ray said:

You ARE a machine! Beautiful models, Michael!

 

Thanks very much!!  I want to keep the momentum going at the moment, so I've taken the Trumpy P-47 off my shelf of doom and I'm fiddling about with that.  The engine's got me stumped, so if I get that sorted, I'll start an article in the Works in Progress forum.  If not, it's back onto the SOD for that kit and on with something else. 

 

I'm also looking forward to see some more builds getting completed in this group build.  Thanks to some recent releases, this GB has held a lot of interest for me as some of the subjects are something different.  It would be great if we could organise an Italian Front GB, but there's not enough Italian planes done in injected mold format to attempt such a thing right now.  One day, perhaps???

 

 

Cheers,

Michael

Edited May 10, 2020 by Dpgsbody55

[Alain Gadbois]

I love your I-16! The white camo on the tail and skis make it very distinctive!

 

Alain

 

I have a MiG-3 that I hoped I could build for the GB, but I don't have time to start it!

[Dennis7423]

Great build of a great kit! Well done!

 

- Dennis S.

  Thornton, CO USA

[Dpgsbody55]

On 5/11/2020 at 12:58 AM, Alain Gadbois said:

I love your I-16! The white camo on the tail and skis make it very distinctive!

 

Alain

 

I have a MiG-3 that I hoped I could build for the GB, but I don't have time to start it!

 

Thank you.  I hope you do the Mig-3 in the WIP forum.  I'd love to see it.  I assume it's the Trumpy kit; if so, it's easily the best of their kits I've ever built.  I tweaked the cockpit in mine, which wasn't difficult to do and worth the effort, too.

 

 

Cheers,

Michael