Polikarpov I-16 Type 24 ICM 1:48

[Der Lingener]

Hi all you folks out there!

Got it this morning from my always smiling postal clerk, opened the box, reviewed it here  and simply couldn´t resist starting the assembly (although I do have more than a lotof unfinished kits waiting to be rescued from the wall of shame).

So here we go ...

 

10:00 a.m: I opened the box, took some photos for the aforementioned review and then disaster was unstoppable: After looking at the parts, it was out with my Tamiya Precision Cutter and after about half an hour the cockpit was completed!
Such is the quality of this kit: Even a hamfisted ignorant wanna-be like me was able to glue the parts together without making too much a mess out of the kit:

The only glaring omission in the kit: NO harness whatsoever - not even decals to represent them!
So I used some Tamiya tape ... the next I-16 (oh, there´ll be plenty of ICM Polikarpovs!) will get Eduard harness and some Aires seats.

The fuselage halves are very spartan, to say at least ... just like the original thing. So I simply glued in what ICM provided: Two oxygen-bottles and a throttle quadrant and some levers and regulators - that´s it:

You do get three formers to be aligned with the fuselage halves - no big deal if you work with a steady hand and let time do it´s work.
In a very short time (and most of it spent painting the interior) both halves can be glued together:

 

You should NOT -repeat: NOT!- glue the tail together: You will have to insert the rudder first!
The benefit: The rudder will stay movable as will all the rudders on this kit!

 

May I give an advice to all those modellers wishing to super-detail the instrument panel?

Don´t!

Although it doesn´t really look convincing (a grey plastic panel combined with featureless "glass"plastic):

nothing of it will be ever see the light of day again ...

... once the upper fuselage panel is installed:

 

Going to town in terms of detailing a never to be seen again item is (at least to my eyes) time wasted!

 

The fuselage panel wasn´t exactly a perfect fit (and maybe due to my hamfistedness!) but nothing a quick treatment with some sanding sponges couldn´t take care of...

 

It was 1 p.m. and time for cooking - the kids are coming home from school and need to get some nutrition...

After the usual mess in the dining room it was "back to business", e.g. to my Polikarpov!

 

Assembling the power plant was done within minutes - another testimony of the kit´s quality:

 

What was following after this "walk in the park" was pure horror!

Fitting the individual exhaust pipes to the engine cylinders without a really positive locating pin and aligning them to suit the seperate side panels of the three-part cowling wasn´t very enjoyable!
And after this veeery frustrating exercise it nevertheless didn´t look right:

Like with their Polikarpov I-153 Chaika-kit the exhaust pipes are too tiny and are more to 1:72nd scale!

The next I-16 will get replacements - no doubt!

 

Shortly after tea I had the fuselage finished so far and it was time to "marry" fuselage and lower wing:

 

That´s it so far from my workbench. Tomorrow I will keep you updated while gluing the wings, tailplanes and landing gear! And hopefully in the afternoon it will be time for the first coat of paint to check for errors.

 

Wishing all of you a pleasant night

 

Michael

 

[Jure Miljevic]

Hello, Michael

Your build advances quite fast. I was going to ask about a colour scheme and markings but at a pace like yours, I am about to see the finished model in a day or two. Keep up the good work! Cheers

Jure

[Der Lingener]

Dear Jure,

colour scheme would "normally" be something out of the trodden pathes, e.g. German, Finish, Chinese etc.
But for this build I choose Boris Safonovs "white 11" which is one of the schemes ICM catered for.

 

Greetings to Slovenia

Michael

[Jaffajake]

Lightning fast build! I'm excited to see the paint go on! Ausgeseichnet!

[Jure Miljevic]

Hello, Michael

To me it seems that Safonov's I-16 is almost mandatory in every modeller's glass cabinet, so you might just as well build it now. Mental note taken about the engine cowling fit; one would not expect such a gap on a mainstream kit these days. Nevertheless, so far so good. Cheers

Jure

[Der Lingener]

Thanks for all the comments - it was indeed an extremely "lightning fast" build. The fastest I ever executed! Tomorrow is our mensual modelling club meeting and I am planning to bring the I-16 (at least primed and pre-shaded) to the attention of my fellow modelling mates.

So here we go with part II of "Doc Mikes faster-than-light"-Rata-quickbuild.

 

This morning after breakfast gluing the upper wing halves on was "l´ordre du jour" - as you can see, gaps on both sides:

If it was my inability to fit the parts together as they are supposed to be or wether it was a problem of the kit - nothing serious and definitely nothing a little stretched sprue and Tamiya Extra Thin couldn´t take care of:

After a light sanding to even the plastic (it´s easy to sand because the filler (aka stretched sprue) is Polystyrol as the surrounding area) a smear of Tamiya grey putty and some application of nail polish remover (with acetone!) to smoothen the putty without the need of sanding took care of the offending gaps:

 

10:30 o´clock - time for a break. A cup of coffee and the tailplane/elevators are next. As they are meant to be movable too, you first place the one-piece elevator into the lower parts of the tailplane and then glue the upper parts to the lower ones - thereby "trapping" the elevator itself. This whole sub-assembly must then be offered to the airplane.

Thankfully done without too much of a mess:

 

At 11:30 the progress of my speed-build was as shown:

 

Time to prepare meal for the hungry children. Today it will be Lasagne! So down to the supermarket and let the glue dry ...

 

2 p.m.: All saturated, Daddy happy that no one fled his Lasagne, back to the real life: Gluing the veery fragile looking landing gear!
Surprisingly the fragile parts do get really robust once glued together:

First I glued the main landing gear to the wing and afterwards glued the covers on their corresponding gears. This was to be sure everything looks like on the real thing. Glueing the covers to the gear-struts might have been easier, but I did not want to risk twisted gear covers.

THis whole procedure took nearly one hour (glueing, waiting for the joints to harden, using CA-glue as a security measure on all the joints, waiting for the CA-glue to harden and then glueing the gearcovers in situ) and after the said hour the model was basically ready for the paint shop:

 

Then it was "push Daddy out of the house and into the sun" and I had a very enjoyable walk (although veery cold too!) and after one hour I switched on my computer to do some preliminary work for next week´s Nuremberg Toy Fair.

 

Tomorrow maybe the primer and the pre-shading ...

 

Wishing you all a wonderful night

 

Michael

Edited January 25, 2017 by Der Lingener

[Col.]

Nice work Michael. Watching your progress is tempting me to treat myself to one of these.

[Martian]

Nice work on what looks to be a sweet looking kit.

 

Martian

[Crossofiron1971]

Nice work sir!

Good looking kit...

[John_W]

Lovely build.

I built the Eduard version, and all that lovely etch they supply for the cockpit just disappears when you close it up.

[Der Lingener]

Dear fellow modellers,

as my building progresses faster than expected, I thought another update would be perfect.
 

In the morning (after breakfast) I checked for any problematic zones on my "rata" and detected two slight traces of filler. Using my trusted nail polish remover and a cotton swap these were removed within seconds and the model was ready for the paintschop:

Note that I realized I forgot the canopy (there´s always something missing when I build whatever model - the last time I detailed a bang seat, painted it to a standard well beyond my normal abilities and glued the canopy on ... only to realize I forgot to include the bang seat! ) and glued it on in time!

 

As a primer I used some Vallejo silver I already had ready after spraying a Sikorsky H-34 in 87th scale silver:

This gave me the possibility to "play around" with the silver and try to replicate a worn colour - just for the exercise. The prop of course was panited solid silver and did get his back painted Tamiya Nato Black.

 

Then, since the Nato Black was at hand I preshaded my Polikarpov:

 

Then came the moment for the first real colourcoat - Soviet light blue aka Mr. Paint MRP-024 A II G.

I can only highly recommend these new colours from a Slovakian manufacturer: They are pre-thinned for airbrush-use and can be cleaned with normal Isopropanol alcohol! The only "disadvantage": They are so extremly thin that you need several coats to get a sufficient opacity! But for the preshaded model this really was an advantage, because you can perfectly adjust your spraying and stop whenever you think the model is ok.
Hopefully one might see what I mean in the following picture:.

The Nato Black preshading is only slightly visible.

 

So much for today - I can now take my I-16 to the aforementioned club-meeting!

 

Michael

[Mark]

Hi Michael, so how is this one coming along? I've just started one myself, so found your thread very inspiring!

[Azgaron]

Very nice work so far!

 

Håkan