The plane:
The kit was given a coat of Humbrol's Satin-Cote some seventeen years after painting and decaling, so well done Aviation USK with that decal printing. Tough little sheets they were. The original wheels were painted and glued to the kit, while a new propeller was scrounged from the spare box, which resembles better the original type. The windscreen came from ICM and the rockets and its rails are from unknown origin. There's no accord so as to what colour the bort number and fin top were, but the combination of blue and red looks nice to me.
Since I wanted to give a try to Hataka's AII Aluminum and AIIz green, the cowling's retaining steel rings, rocket rails and bodies were painted with the former and warheads with the later. Even by hand the medium and colour quality of these polish produced paints is excellent and encourage everyone to give them a try and ordder them at Hataka Hobby Paints.
The final touches were given with some light dusting and oiling taking advantage of Mig Gimenez' Aviation Set for Oil, Rust, and Soot.
And it was done. Took me a teenager's and a grown man's life to complete, but now it seats among its soviet brethren, squatty, rocket armed and hopelessly tied to one of the darkest moments of history, looking ready to show its tiny teeth and challenge the fact it belonged to a by-gone era.
Until our next installment, take care and good luck,
The Modeling Underdog.
Intended as a replacement for its forerunner, the I-15; the I-15bis brought some very differentiating changes to the basic airframe. While retaining the M-25 engine and PV-1 machine guns, it sported a straight wing and revised cowling in an effort to improve further its speed, manouverability and all-round vision. Things didn't turn out that way. Very much maligned after its poorer handling characteristics and not so great top speed, it provided a very much needed fighter-bomber and assault plane on the first year of the Great Patriotic War. Fitted with FAB bombs or RS rockets, it was an easy way out at a moment where Il-2s were needed everywhere and fell short-stocked in Assault Regiments. The ensuing onslaught forced to muster the ever dwindling numbers of I-15bis from unit to unit, the battered aircraft falling to the brutal nature of assault missions, AAA and enemy aircraft. One such unit was the 65 ShAP (later renumbered as the 17 GvShAP) in Leningrad, which kept every Polikarpov fighter flying combat missions over the Karelian Front it could gather together to stop the Axis from advancing any further for the remainder of 1941 and early 1942, before receiving Hurricanes and the Guards distinction.
The kit: Aviation USK Polikarpov I-15bis, 1/72nd.
This kit came to me as a swap some twenty years ago. It was crude by any standards but the plastic was nice to work with. And though Aviation Usk has parted ways with this world, its decals were superb. Before the ICM kit was available, this little critter was the only game in town. The kit was built some seventeen years ago and then got its place on the Shelf of Doom, minus its wheels, tailskid and propeller. It was last March that I got enough wind so as to finish it, following an ICM Yak-9 for which I had received the Hataka set of soviet colours 1937-1943. More on this later.
The basic colours were Humbrol H145 Light Grey for the interior and, according to the knowledge of that time, H-114/115 for the camouflage, receiving its decals at the time of build. Thanks to the work of recent years, now we know better. But the kit grew on me so it was left to be finished. Which is no small thing in these days of half-built kits and Shelf Queens.
The kit was given a coat of Humbrol's Satin-Cote some seventeen years after painting and decaling, so well done Aviation USK with that decal printing. Tough little sheets they were. The original wheels were painted and glued to the kit, while a new propeller was scrounged from the spare box, which resembles better the original type. The windscreen came from ICM and the rockets and its rails are from unknown origin. There's no accord so as to what colour the bort number and fin top were, but the combination of blue and red looks nice to me.
Since I wanted to give a try to Hataka's AII Aluminum and AIIz green, the cowling's retaining steel rings, rocket rails and bodies were painted with the former and warheads with the later. Even by hand the medium and colour quality of these polish produced paints is excellent and encourage everyone to give them a try and ordder them at Hataka Hobby Paints.
The final touches were given with some light dusting and oiling taking advantage of Mig Gimenez' Aviation Set for Oil, Rust, and Soot.
And it was done. Took me a teenager's and a grown man's life to complete, but now it seats among its soviet brethren, squatty, rocket armed and hopelessly tied to one of the darkest moments of history, looking ready to show its tiny teeth and challenge the fact it belonged to a by-gone era.
Until our next installment, take care and good luck,
The Modeling Underdog.
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