Adrian's Airfix 1/72 PE-2 "Peshka" - FINISHED

[AdrianMF]

Hello All,

I rashly volunteered to do an Airfix PE-2 earlier on, and I realise that I have a busy work schedule for the next month, a road trip and 22 days to get this done!

Last night I picked up the box when I was finishing up doing some work at home, and the next thing I knew, I was experimenting with scribing panel lines on an underside wing half by following the rather large raised details. Here is the result after trimming off the raised detail and the the huge dive brake fairings:

I guess that means I've started!

This will have to be pretty much OOB apart from the scribing and the usual niggles with the cockpit. I also have a Zlinek PE-2 on the shelf'o'shame which I will be bringing in from time to time for reference purposes.

Tonight I will show the sprue shots and start it "properly".

Thanks for looking Comrades,

Adrian

Edited October 1, 2016 by AdrianMF

[CliffB]

It's great to see you working your magic on another Airfix 'classic' Adrian

Cliff

[adrianm2]

Wow, that`s a great improvement Adrian.

Look forward to see your progress.

Adrian

[AdrianMF]

Well, the devil doesn't wait for anyone (and he doesn't form an orderly queue either) so I got straight in this weekend!

A sprue shot! Sorry that I can't remember which places all the pieces came from. This is when they used to stamp the numbers directly onto the parts:

And here is the Zlinek PE-2 that I mentioned:

Incredible detail and a really comprehensive kit. But here's what killed it for me:

On the one hand, we have detail on the inside of the undercarriage doors and lettering on the tyres in 1/72, but on the other hand the trailing edges are short shot and there are many other horrible moulding flaws which more or less render the detailing moot. I now have a technique up my sleeve that could fix the trailing edges, but not for a long while yet. It's a good reference.

It is said that the Zlinek model is 1/75. It seems to hold up against the Airfix model in profile, although it's much slimmer in plan, due to the Airfix PE-2's erroneously broad oval fuselage:

I did think about sanding the Airfix fuselage down but sanity prevailed!

Back to Airfix. The cockpit:

Lovely! I did some detailing using the web and the Zlinek model as references:

The Airfix kit has "plug in" undercarriage (more of which anon) but I added a tail bulkhead and carved away the solid mounting plate:

The bomb aimers window lets you see the front gun and some rather weedy rudder pedals on sticks:

I missed a trick on the cockpit. The Airfix one has a coaming and the Zlinek one doesn't (Zlinek is right) so my instrument panel is rather out of whack. I will be painting the coaming black to hide it a bit before I put the canopy on. But it's more accurate than the original Airfix cockpit:

I polished up the outside of the canopy and it became a lot clearer, to the extent that I will not try to replace it. I think the way it works is that the inside of the canopy is a smooth bump on the mould, and so can be polished to a shine, whereas the outside is in a depression in the mould, where someone has had to tool in all the framing, so that's where all the bumps and scratches accumulate:

The observation windows were not salvaged. I heated some clear plastic and formed it around the fuselage to get the right curvature and then cut two windows to shape:

I thought it would be easier to use the smaller gun windows from the kit, suitably thinned down and with the flanges removed. They pinged off the tweezers three or four times, leading to carpet searches every time. I found a joystick while I was looking. Now where did that come from??

In the end I didn't use them, and added another piece of clear plastic sheet. The bottom pane will be filled in with a film of glue. Windows in:

There are the plug-in undercarriage units. They were much admired in reviews at the time, but I think I will pass. So I've started opening out the wheel wells:

I have finished scribing the upper wings and cut out the radiator exits so I can add card flaps.

It's been a good weekend for progress. I'm still not sure if I will get it done for the end of the GB, but I'm going to try!

Thanks for looking Comrades,

Adrian

Edited September 4, 2016 by AdrianMF

[Learstang]

Excellent work on the Peshka, Adrian! It certainly seems to resemble a Pe-2 rather more than Airfix's Il-2 resembles a Shturmovik (or any other aeroplane, real or imagined for that matter). If you could whip the Airfix 'Il-2' into shape, this should be easy by comparison. By comparison.

​​Za Rodinu! (For the Motherland!),

Jason

[AaCee26]

Hi Adrian!

Pe-2 is one of my favorite planes so it is nice to see your treatment for it!

I built one about 20 or so years ago just before the Zvezda kit was launched. What I remember from that is some details:

- horizontal tubes behind the oval window. It was only on the left side of the plane,

- I cut a hole for the dive brakes to the wing to get them looking thinner,

- trailing edge of the central wing was curved and not straight if I got it correct,

- cowlings needed also some work. In any case cooler intake needs detailing and for early variants modification. Same for the exhaust pipes.

My Zlinek is waiting for similar fate. Maybe used with the HobbyBoss kit.

Cheers,

AaCee

[AdrianMF]

Thanks Chaps!

AaCee - You make useful points.

• I may have a go at chopping off the horizontal tube on the right window, and hope that it doesn't knock the window out. The Zlinek instructions show clearly that it's only the left side - my mistake.
• I am going to either scratch build the dive brakes or sand down the kit ones.
• Looking at the wing plans, I see what you mean about the curve. That should be possible to sand in.
• The cowlings are a bit simplified, you are right. I planned to rebuild the exhausts and add the exit flap for the oil cooler, but I might also have a look at reshaping the oil cooler intakes.

I also noticed (after building it, as usual) that the gunner's seat not only folds to the side but it also hinges flat to the side when folded. This might be too late to fix, but I will take a look tonight.

Regards,

Adrian

[AdrianMF]

Hello All,

Ploughing on yesterday. AaCee's list was very helpful. The bar over the right observation window has been removed through the top hatch, without removing anything else. Phew!



I also folded up the gunner's seat. You can now get in through the hatch without banging your head:



And I did some work on the wings. The trailing edges have been reshaped to give a slight curve around the nacelles. I have also done some work (not shown) on opening up the oil cooler intakes below the engines, although I haven't finished adding trunking or the exit gate. I completely flattened the air brakes area and filled the mounting holes, and I will scribe in some panel lines when it's all dry. I used rolled up paper and PVA to create trunking for the main radiators and boxed in the exits to provide a base for the vanes. I've removed the outboard bomb carrier because the bombs were carried further inboard. And finally I boxed in the wheel wells prior to drilling some supports for the main wheels. I also found some very nice tubing that will work for the undercarriage, but that's for next time:



Thanks for looking,
Adrian

[AdrianMF]

Hello All,

I cut some brass tube to length, squashed the ends flat and bent at right angles and stuck them into the top of the wheel wells with a touch of superglue to provide legs. I scored the wheel well tops and added a layer of 5-minute Araldite for extra strength. I have some thinner tube that will slide into the ends and act as the oleo piston. I will make a plastic card frame to cover the tops of the legs to look like the mounting girder above the hinge point and I need to add the secondary struts and retraction mechanism.

I have also painted up the insides of my paper tubes and added some "radiators" made out of black-painted paper at the ends, so I can now seal up the wings.

Thanks for looking,

Adrian

[TheBaron]

Great structural detailing on that interior Adrian. Decadent of you having a reference kit for the Airfix one!

[AdrianMF]

Great structural detailing on that interior Adrian. Decadent of you having a reference kit for the Airfix one!

Hands up on that one. Mind you, it's not like I was planning to build the Airfix Thunderbolt and went out to buy the Tamiya one...

More progress at the weekend before I had to go to Amsterdam for the IBC show.

I finished off the undercarriage with a plastic card frame representing the undercarriage mounting in the bay (now hardly visible), the kit retraction/bracing arms extended down into the bay with some plastic rod, the kit wheels (a bit small - why do manufacturers do that?) and some more metal tube and wire temporarily slotted together for a photo. I will add a nubbin of plastic to represent the axle when it is all stuck together.

The exhausts are a bit blobby. They are meant to represent tubular exhausts. For my Yak-9 I stretched some tubing and bent it to shape, but I didn't have the time or inclination this time around so I've carved the kit items to shape.

And I've glued the major components together.

I've still got a tiny bit of scribing to do (underside hatches and inboard flaps). I may add some more surface detail (filler caps and inspection points). I've also written a list of things to do to finish, and I reckon I should just get it done before the deadline after I get back.

Thanks for looking,

Adrian

[CliffB]

Looking excellent so far Adrian . Enjoy your trip.

Cliff

[JimHead23]

You wouldn't recognise the old girl Adrian.

Really pleasing work, you have a real knack for breathing new life into these old kits.

Regards

Jim

[Learstang]

That looks like a proper Peshka, Adrian - excellent work! I look forward to the painting.

Regards,

Jason

[nimrod54]

Excellent job Adrian, cracking work to improve this kit. ​

[SleeperService]

As usual you have some clever ideas to get round the limitations of these older kits. Very nice work so far. I hope your trip goes well as I'm looking forward to seeing the finished article.

[TonyTiger66]

I just caught up with this Adrian. I built this one completely OOB 14 years ago; it made an attractive display model.

 

It didn't look anything like this, you've utterly transformed it! 

Really looking forward to the paint.

 

All best regards

Tony

 

[Sgt.Squarehead]

Likewise just caught up.....Outstanding work as always Adrian, really glad to have this build in the GB. 

 

Would I be correct in assuming that the Zlinek Pe-2 has been reboxed by Unimodel.....I've got the UM kit in the stash and it scares me, badly! 

[AdrianMF]

 

13 hours ago, TonyTiger66 said:

It didn't look anything like this, you've utterly transformed it! 

 

Thanks Tony! Sadly the one transformation I couldn't see a way to do was to make the fuselage less broad. It's a wide oval where it should be circular. RFI shots will have to be strictly profiles!

 

5 hours ago, Sgt.Squarehead said:

Would I be correct in assuming that the Zlinek Pe-2 has been reboxed by Unimodel.....I've got the UM kit in the stash and it scares me, badly! 

 

Sarge, having had a look at the sprues on http://www.model-making.eu/ (great resource - I must buy something from them one day...) it's a different tooling with different parts breakdown. It looks much less scary than the Zlinek kit!

 

Regards,

Adrian

[AdrianMF]

Hello again! Progress has not been stellar because I was away for a week (good distraction) and then down with what I hope was my annual case of man-flu (bad distraction). Back on the job now, starting with new dive brakes in a home made jig:

 

Seat belts are made from wine bottle foil and bits of 6A fuse wire. Wine bottle foil is expensive at over £5 a sheet, but disposing of the packaging is never a problem!

 

I sanded a strip of 20 thou card down to a triangular cross section and made the radiator exit valves. They were all push fit and it was a very fiddly but satisfying job:

 

The cowling oil cooler air intake was given an upper trunking liner made from sections of old Airfix He-111 cowling (finally found a use for them!) and the opening was carved and filled and sanded to look more like the real thing. I also added the oil cooler exit flaps from card:

 

I stuck with the kit transparencies for the windshield and canopy cover but plunge moulded a new turret, radio operator's hatch and landing light cover:

The windshield and canopy frames are far too wide compared to the original but I'm going to keep them at this stage.

 

And five minutes before the original build expiry deadline, assembly was complete except for tail wheel, aerial and turret vane. The wheels were push fitted in for the photo call:

 

So painting starts today and I should be good for the revised finish date.

 

Thanks for looking,

Adrian

[nimrod54]

Great job Adrian. I hope that the painting goes well, it would be nice to see this one make it.

[Stew Dapple]

Agreed, I'm looking forward to seeing the finished article too

 

Cheers,

 

Stew

[The Spadgent]

Ooh that IS looking nice.  excellent scratch building too.

 

John

[AdrianMF]

I've been making far too much progress! After looking at lots of photos to try and work out the colour scheme, I became convinced that the canopy framing, although nicely defined, is far too thick, more suitable for an IL-2 than the Peshka. So off the canopy came:

 

 

And I sanded off the paint and the canopy frames and then polished it back up to snuff with some fine polishing sticks, finishing off with toothbrush and toothpaste. Of course, the English dental treatment means that the canopy framing will now inevitably look like it's been stained by tea and not line up properly:

 

 

But for now it's looking a lot better, and the exercise gave me a chance to cut a larger hole in the turret for the gun. I had made the opening smaller than the kit part, but it seems the real thing had a gigantic opening too.

 

Thanks for looking,

Adrian

[Sgt.Squarehead]

Looking good Ade, you really have a very special way with these Airfix fossils mate!