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Sevastopol, 1942 It was morning over the Crimean peninsula when Aleksey woke from his rest, not from a call to fly as was usual but rather by the movement of a vehicle outside his barracks. He rose and clothed himself in haste, not expecting the Regiment Commander to arrive unannounced. He burst open the door only to find not his superior, but an Army Commissar followed by a number of cameramen. Slightly startled by the exit, the political officer introduced himself as the NKVD Propaganda Manager for the region, and that he would like to include a segment on Aleksey's unit in the next film, requesting permission from the deputy commander. Aleksey agreed to this, and while there were no combat missions being flown that day, a segment was filmed with himself and the commissar explaining the details of his own Il-2. Nearing the end of the film, Aleksey looked into the camera and smiled; the camera clicked as the cameraman extracted the tape from it. The NKVD commissar thanked Aleksey and his unit for the opportunity and left in their truck, putting the film together back at their headquarters, only to find that the segment filmed earlier that day could not fit - much of it had to be cut away, leaving snippets of Aleksey walking around the aircraft, pointing out certain features... And ending on his smiling face. Right, with that little (possibly fictional) backstory over, here is the sum effort of three and a half months of work: My Hobbyboss 1/32 Il-2 (1942) done in the colours of aircraft no.30 of PShAP 18, Sevastopol, U.S.S.R as shown by this reconstructed three-view from Sovietwarplanes pages by Massimo Tessitori: https://massimotessitori.altervista.org/sovietwarplanes/pages/il-2/il2-camo/il2-1942/il-2model1942.htm This is the aircraft that is shown in the background of the film that Aleksey Antonovich Gubriy, Hero of the Soviet Union, appears in sometime during 1942. I happened upon the scheme whilst browsing the website (https://massimotessitori.altervista.org/sovietwarplanes/pages/index.html) for information regarding Soviet Camouflage, and this stuck out to me as 1. It had an interesting backstory, which I have *ahem* amplified, and 2. It sat right in between being too generic and far, FAR too difficult for me to handle. The kit itself, while nicely detailed, has a rather jarring accuracy flaw in that it depicts the aircraft as being all-metal, something that can only be applied to the earliest production aircraft, the vast majority having a wooden rear fuselage and most sporting wooden wings, such as the example shown above. Take away this discrepancy, and the kit is wonderful; excellent fit, vast payload options and an engine more detailed than some in 1/24 scale. This was in some ways a testbed for me, as this is the first model I have used AK products on, their WWII Soviet Aircraft paint-set and their 'masking putty'. The paint was good, bar a few bottles that had gotten damaged and had coagulated a bit, and the putty worked well, though misunderstanding the limit of it's coverage meant that the paint did build up near the edges. This model also suffers from a continuous issue I have had with Tamiya Flat Clear, where it gains a 'frosty' appearance upon being applied. I made my best effort at polishing it down to an acceptable level, however I am still at a loss on how to cure the issue. Apart from that, the focal point of the model was the opportunity to use clear pieces for the cowling to display the engine, and while it took extra effort to mask and to fit, I am more than pleased with the result. Now, with the unnecessarily long foreword out of the way, enjoy the images of the finished product! As a final word of note, I apologise to all those who were following or were interested in the in-progress thread I had for the build of this kit - during the early part of this year I found myself suddenly over-encumbered with work and unable to take and prepare photographs for posting, and the events of Cyclone Gabrielle did little to ease that. In fact, I completed this kit back in March, but the ensuing chaos has meant I have only found time now to post it here. Sincerely, Hurricaneflyer

Alright, first of all, I will need to have a small rant: this Aircraft's nickname is a nightmare. I sent a solid hour or two looking for a proper 'official' spelling for use in the title, only to find that the closest there is (as it is used by the Videogame) is Sturmovik, which doesn't make sense considering the original Russian pronunciation, where 'ш' is pronounced as a "Sh" sound, but even more baffling is 'Stormovik' as there is no 'o' sound anywhere NEAR the first letters, and even though the theoretically correct 'Shturmovik' does indeed get used, it is primarily in more vintage works, where the more recently-printed copies of the same book have changed the spelling to that of the first variety! Due to this, I may as well use the original Cyrillic штурмовик, for at the very least it is undeniably accurate and true to the original with minimal fuss! …Okay, pet peeve rant over. I should probably now get to the subject itself: Hobbyboss's single-seat wheel-equipped Il-2. This is undeniably a great kit, as quite a few much more knowledgeable modelers have made clear, although that does not rectify a rather prominent issue: It cannot fit on my workbench! The solution, as obvious as it is, was to build everything separately, stashing the rest of the sprue back in the box where they would not bother me, and so I started with... The engine. Yes, I know that it is common courtesy to build the Cockpit first (at least so I think), however as I am studying resources and walkarounds to get the area as accurate as I can get in terms of colours, I elected to build the Mikulin AM-38 powerplant first, seeing as it should be relatively simple, right...? Well, the construction could be worse, however seeing as there are 4 different paints needed for the engine I had to assemble parts that shared certain colours and leave others on the sprue before priming them, a spit in the face to my traditional practice of smothering the engine in Tamiya Gunmetal and calling it complete! Here the parts were given their first coat of paint, chrome silver (the only shade I have at the moment) on the smaller pieces and a strange mixture of 'Dark Grey' and 'Neutral Grey' on the larger ones. Yes, I know I am supposed to use 'Dark Ghost Compass Grey' (which does not really match up with photographs of real AM-38s in any case), however seeing as I did not have the appropirate shade I just mixed' and matched'. It came out alright, but it was at this point I ran out of lacquer thinner (needed for one of the paints) and daylight, which meant I had to pause the painting, at least for now. And that is all the work I have for today. Don't worry about the relative lack of progress, as I will make an attempt to expand the build everyday, majorly if possible. I have tried to resize the photographs to be more compact (thank you very much @stevehnz) but if it has failed horribly please let me know. As an addition to this, if there is anything I could do to improve build or my methods I would be more than happy to see any tips or such, as this my first attempt at this sort of activity. In any case, that is all for now. Sincerely, Hurricaneflyer

Trumpeter is to release a 1/48th Ilyushin Il-2 Sturmovik kit - ref. 05832 Source: https://tieba.baidu.com/p/8249037080 V.P.

Zvezda is to release in 2020 a 1/48th Ilyushin IL-2 Shturmovik kit. Source: https://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/235061306-zvezda-2020/ V.P.

Hi all, My finished il-2 here: This is my second wing-ed thing and really learned a lot. I made some major mistakes on it, like breaking the prop off ...twice. I'll have to practice getting the join between the two halves of the fuselage to not have that massive seem running down the middle. In future I'll putty and sand. Got a small blob of super glue on the top of the fuselage when attaching the antenna. Didn't realise their was a speciality type of modelling masking tape to use for masking so used good ole normal masking tape, which allowed the paint to bleed through underneath and then became quite rough around the tail area. I hand painted the canopy (because of my above mistake with the masking tape and was awaiting the Tamiya tape to arrive and very impatient to get it done.) The dials are hand painted as I thought the kit would come with some sort of decals/cockpit decals/detail. Also the kit didn't come with figures and I couldn't find any soviet ones in 1/72-both gunner and pilot are US but I figured better with someone flying the plane than it being the mary celeste of the sky! See my finished diorama which features this bird: HERE Thanks for viewing. All feedback welcome! Paul

I know I've already mentioned this fact in a few (or more) posts I've made on this forum (amongst others), but I'm currently finishing up an extensive guide to modelling the Il-2. This book features photographs from WWII (The Great Patriotic War, or GPW, to the Soviets/Russians), drawings especially commissioned for the book, and reviews of all the kits and accessories currently available for the Shturmovik (at least those I know about, of course). In addition, I have a detailed build on the Hobby Boss wheeled single-seater 1/32nd scale kit, and a fairly extensive review of the 1/48th scale Tamiya Il-2 kit. I also have some walk-around photographs of currently extant Shturmoviks, both restored and unrestored. At present my plans are to release it initially as an ebook, available through Lulu.com. This is the cheapest and easiest route for me, as I've basically already paid for everything I need in order to publish the book. However, if there is sufficient interest in an actual, hold it in your hands book, I will explore that option also. Frankly, I like to have an actual book to look at; however, one of the advantages of the ebook form is that I can add new reviews to it when new Il-2 items are released. I'd be more than happy to have it available in both formats, but I need to know if I'm going to make any money off a full-blown book. The "real" book would cost more than the ebook, and I'm thinking $15USD (9.35 GBP or 11.61 Euros) would be reasonable for the book; the ebook would cost less, but I'm not sure how much less. Of course the more I can sell, the cheaper I can sell it at. Any comments and questions are welcome! Best Regards, Jason Moore

Ark Models is to release a new tool (?) 1/72nd Ilyushin Il-2 Shturmovik kit - ref. 72047 Source: https://www.scalemates.com/kits/ark-models-72047-il-2--1343594 Box art VP

Hi All - here's my recently finished Il-2 - built with the newish Tamiya kit - Kit was very nice and went together very easily. Painted with Tamiya acrylics for the most part, weathering with AK and Mig washes along with oils and pigments. Built pretty much OOB and used the kit decals - replaced the guns and pilot tube with needles and used mig rigging for the antennae. Also added an eduard PE seatbeat to the pilot seat and Brassen resin wheels. It was a very enjoyable build and really enjoyed using oil paints to weather the airframe - I seem to have turned a corner with this technique so I'm looking forward to doing more of this. You can check out the WIP thread here: Thanks for watching Cheers John

Dear fellow Britmodellers, here's the new KP Ilyushin Il-2M, a re-box of the Smer kit with new parts added. Painted with Gunze/Mr.Hobby acrylics. Photographs by Wolfgang Rabel. Hope you like my result, best greetings from Vienna! Roman

New in May 2019 by Kovozávody Prostějov (KP) - ref. KPM0136 - Ilyushin Il-2 “Interim Guners Station" Source: https://www.kovozavody.cz/en/produkt/iljusin-il-2-interim-guners-station/ - ref. KPM0137 - Ilyushin Il-2M "Black Death" Source: https://www.kovozavody.cz/en/produkt/iljusin-il-2m-black-dead/ V.P.

My last finished model. I did not like my finish. I mistakenly used Mr Surfacer 500 instead of 1200. I used a mixture of Tamiya paints. Cheers!

"In this battle mercy or considerations of international law is false. They are a danger to our own safety and to the rapid pacification of the conquered territories." -- Richtlinien für die Behandlung politischer Kommissare [Guidelines for the Treatment of Political Commissars], issued on 6 June 1941 by OKW Children cried in the hospital. At the gates A truck as big as a train car opened its black mouth. As they shoved him into the jaws of the death van[...] The enemy mob was merciless and black. But the nation heard this child's cry. And the Red Army soldiers heard the cry in battle: They marched forth vowing to avenge the children's lives. -- Vladimir Ivanovich Ladiagin and Stepan Petrovich Shchipachev, "Volodia Zuzuev", c. September 1943. Volodia Zuzuev was one of the thousands killed in Krasnodar by Einsatzgruppe D between 1942 and 1943. "You have let down our country and our Red Army. You have the nerve not to manufacture IL-2s until now. Our Red Army now needs IL-2 aircraft like the air it breathes, like the bread it eats. Shenkman produces one IL-2 a day and Tretyakov builds one or two MiG-3s daily. It is a mockery of our country and the Red Army. I ask you not to try the government's patience, and demand that you manufacture more ILs. This is my final warning." -- Iosif Stalin, telegram to State Aviation Factory 18 managers at Voronezh, December 1941 For my next build, I'll be doing Academy's 1/72 Il-2 Shturmovik single-seater. 20180730_230214 by Edward IX, on Flickr I was only vaguely aware that any Il-2s were built as single-seaters, and know frankly almost nothing about them, but had fortuitously picked up a copy of Learstang's book on the IL-2 when Amazon was selling it in the twenty dollar range (a space where many of my impulse buys take place), and it has a lot of information aimed square at the modeller. So how did I end up with an IL-2? Well, it was a birthday gift from my coworker, who's Russian, as in she's from Perm, near the Urals, and married an American she met while she was attending graduate school in the USA, which is how she ended up here. Anyway, I received it on March 15 for my birthday and she's been nagging me about it ever since. Normally it can be years before I get to something in the stash, but I figured I might as well try and get this one out of the way so I can get back to the serious business of building Spitfires, lest our sun explode. I welcome any advice you all have throughout the build, for I am but a naif. Right off the bat, my ignorance killed me, because I thought the single-seater all-metal IL-2 was the sporty coupe model in the late-war period, but no! It is in fact the earliest and least covered in glory of all of the IL-2 versions available in kit form. Unfortunately I bought a set of late-war Soviet ground attack aircraft paints from Akan, so I just now had to order the different colours used on all-metal aircraft early on, A-18 Blue and A-19 Green (and they won't ship until next week, as the Linden Hill Imports guy is on holiday), which I'll need to do this bird: 20180730_230404 by Edward IX, on Flickr Mercifully it's only two colours, and I have the interior colour (a sort of wan grey) in the set I bought. So I think we can make a start of it, once I figure out what thinner Akan lacquers take.

I build not only modern jet fighters but also WW2 aircraft. This is the 1/72 scale flying tank from Academy. More at: https://www.facebook.com/myanmarairmodeller/

Just to show that I'm not just someone who prattles on endlessly about aeroplanes and models, but someone who actually, occasionally completes models, for your pleasure are some piccies of an Il-2 Shturmovik I had made for a magazine article a few years back (sadly, the article was never published). This is, as the title would suggest, the single-seater version of the Il-2 Shturmovik as realised by Hobby Boss in 1/32nd scale. The kit itself is very nicely moulded, with no flash, and has nice engraved detail. There were some errors that had to be corrected, mainly amongst them the metal rear fuselage, which was rare with the single-seaters (and unknown for the GPW two-seaters). To fix this I sanded down the fuselage until the panel lines and rivets disappeared. Alternately, you could fill in the engraved detail on the rear fuselage with putty, then sand it down. The shape and dimensions all appear to be dead-on, and with a little work, this can be made into a fine representation of the Il-2. At the time I was making this model, Eduard had just come out with their interior and exterior sets, so most of the additions to the interior were scratchbuilt. The basic engine is provided, and is accurate, but without many of the accessories and pipes and wiring, which had to be scratchbuilt. I go into more detail about this kit in my soon-to-be published book (due to be released in January, hopefully), so I'll just post the pictures and let them do the talking. A picture is worth a thousand words, etc. Enjoy! Best Regards, Jason P.S. The name of the book is "Il-2 Shturmovik: Red Avenger". Look for it in all fine (and not so fine) bookstores and outlets! Sure to be a classic!

Back by popular demand, it's my modelling output for the year just past! Hot upon the heels of my prodigious 2014 modellistic endeavours (2 finished models!), I followed up that triumph by doubling, yes, you read that right, DOUBLING my output! I present for your dubious enjoyment piccies of no less than 4 models I finished in the last year! I'd like to say that I made up in quality what I lacked in quantity in my 2015 production, but my solicitor advises me not to break deceptive advertising laws, so I can't say that. However I will say that the following photographs contain a surprise - a NON-SOVIET model! And a Spitfire to boot! All right, enough of the hyperbole, down to business. In order of completion, first up was the inevitable Lavochkin fighter, in this case the La-5F by AML. Reading some reviews of this kit some reviewers made this kit out to be almost unbuildable. Just to show that you can't believe everything you read, even on the Internet, the kit wasn't very hard to build, with no more than the usual bit of fettling seemingly inevitable to all short-run kits. At any rate I'm pleased with the results, and it's the first time I've done the Soviet two-grey fighter scheme used from late 1943 to the end of the war. I rather like the scheme. Next up was the very nice Airfix Spitfire F.22. An easy build, and an easier scheme - all silver. The kit went together easily, and the decals worked out quite nicely. I only very lightly weathered the aircraft, with just a bit of exhaust stains as these aircraft were kept in good condition I'm led to believe. Thirdly was yet another Lavochkin fighter, the LaGG-3 Series 3 from Roden (nee Toko). Although this kit also took a bit of fettling, a result of Roden fitting all the bits and bobs to do every version of the LaGG-3 into one moulding, I'm fairly pleased with the results. If you look closely, you will see that like the La-5F, it has a cat on the tail, a white one in this case, whilst the La-5F features a black cat with a white outline. This is not mere coincidence as both aircraft belonged to Soviet GPW ace Leonid Akimovich Galchenko. The cats must have proved reasonably lucky, as Tovarish Galchenko ended up the war in one piece, with 24 victories to his credit. He was interesting in being one of the few advocates of the LaGG-3. Last but certainly not least, is the inevitable Il-2 (have I ever told you that I'd written a book about the Il-2 - yes? Well I have.). In this case it's a Shturmovik in a rather striking partial winter camouflage. The kit itself is the Eastern Express reboxing of the very good Dakoplast kit of the single-seater Il-2 with the wooden-covered outer wings. The scheme is particularly unusual in that most of the rear fuselage, including the underside, is finished in black. Why this was done is unclear from the record, but I've seen a photograph of one other Il-2 where this was done. At any rate, below are the models in all their questionable glory. As usual all (favourable) comments are welcome, and unfavourable comments will be treated with the derision and verbal abuse they deserve in the order they are received. Enjoy! Best Regards, Jason

A few months a ago I placed an order with Hannants, and they sent me this little gem by mistake. At first I was a little cranky but they soon fixed up their error and I got a free model. I called it a little gem and it is. I don't know how accurate it is and I don't care, it is something I wouldn't buy but a very interesting aircraft. The boxing is really good everything is protected in plastic bags and foam covers. The pitot tube only lasted a couple of hours before it broke off, though. I was careful with it. The detail looks good and the kit goes together quickly. As you can see there are thousands of intricate parts. I have the interior ready for paint, but no idea what colours to use, mainly because Hobby Boss haven't put that info on their instruction sheet. Here are some pictures of the boxing. I have to go shopping for some paint tomorrow. Pictures will follow when I sort out how to take my WIP pictures. Some info on colours would be useful if anybody can help. My other builds are coming along nicely, but having 2 broken ribs I have become a little depressed and I thought something that won't need a lot of filler like the Stuka I am building will boost moral. mmmmm... Thanks for looking.

Okay the bad news first; despite the rather lurid title, I only completed two models this year, an Il-2 Shturmovik and an La-5, both in the gentleman's scale of 1/72nd. Now the good news - this doubles my output from last year! The Il-2 arrow (swept-winged variant) was from the Toko kit, with wooden wings represented by labouriously sanding down the wings to rid it of the engraved panel lines. The La-5 was built strictly out of the box, and the kit is a repop of the old, but quite nice Cooperativa kit. I'm not too happy with the exhaust stains on the La-5, but I was in a hurry to get if "officially" finished for 2014. The lack of weathering is deliberate - looking at photographs, the La-5 was usually kept in pretty good nick. I may well revisit the exhausts and the near lack of exhaust stains on my Il-2. The Il-2's engine, the Mikulin AM-38 was not a particularly oily or greasy engine, but it did put out quite a bit of exhaust. At any rate here they are, in all their mediocre glory! As usual I apologise for the poor quality of the photography, assembly, decaling, weathering, etc. Best Regards, Jason You may wonder why I have so many photographs for such so-so models, but I happen to go by what the Vozhd ("Boss" - Stalin) is reputed to have said - "Quantity has a quality all its own.".

Afternoon all. Quick catch up - as an irregular poster, I'm sure you're all dying to know what I've been up to since my last thread . Well: Got 2nd hand display cabinet from computer shop in Oxford. It cost £100 but it was almost perfect. Shelves 30cm high by 35cm deep, so I have added home-made 'half-shelves' 15cm high and 20cm deep, almost doubling the capacity. The 1/24 Mossie just about sits on top. To fill it up, I've since built Dragon Ju88, Airfix Hurricane and Stuka, Tamiya Mustang, Corsair, T-34 and Sherman Firefly and an Academy P-38 Lightning, all 1/48. Mrs Card kindly got me Tamiya's IL-2 for my birthday in July, and it's my next project. I really want to do it justice, within my limited skillset, as well as trying out a few new things. So whilst it will largely be an OOB of the one on the box, I've got Eduards PE set for it as my first attempt at these details. There is a really good site detailing this particular aircraft which is unfortunately bookmarked on my tablet, not my PC, so I can't find it right now. Should also point out I'm starting a new job Monday, so this build will take a while and will probably be weekends-only as I really want to take time & care with it. Anyway, piccies: Box All parts Decals, including canopy masks. Eduard PE bits After thinking how the ~@/*_~+#'+ am I going to fold them, did some research, got these (sorry it's blurred - getting a little excited): The Hold 'n' Fold (holding the razor blade for safe keeping). I have found absolutely buckets of resources and pictures online - however, my first dilemma has already arisen. What colour should the cockpit interior be? Tamiya give XF-22 RLM Grey. This doesn't match the PE painted parts. Resources suggest ALG (cockpit green) was painted over wood and aluminium, then overpainted with AL14 (effectively steel grey). The PE parts look pale blue. Here's a couple of shots of XF-22 (RLM Grey) and XF-23 (Light Blue) on a snippet of sprue next to the PE part (again apologies for exposure - colours show reasonably clearly): It seems to fall somewhere between the two, so a mix may do the trick. Or should I be trying to match to the PE at all and just go with RLM Grey. Personally, I think that would leave the 'pit too dark. Here's a real one: Thoughts appreciated, though as I say, it may take me a while to come back. Cheers Si M...

Good day! Let me present you my next model. Certainly, Tamiya's model is wonderful, but etched set from Eduard must be using too. As usually, I was riveted the model, made pre- and post shading. Used Tamiya colour set, some copper wires and tubes and navigation lights set from Elf. Exhaust pipes and tires also from Eduard. This aircraft fought in the 566th Ground Attack Air Regiment of 277th Attack Air Division Frontal Aviation Armed Forces of the USSR. The model shows it as looked in the battles on the Leningrad front in the summer of 1944, when it was flown by the squadron commander Lieutenant VI Myhlik. Inscriptions on the fuselage - "For the Leningrad" and "Revenge for Khristenko." Khristenko was a pilot Squadron and died in early 1944. V.I.Myhlik, twice Hero of the Soviet Union ended the war with the rank of Captain and continued his service in the Soviet Army.

This kit is a down-scaled version of their fine 1/48th scale kit of the arrow, and like that kit it is an excellent kit, with little to no flash, superb moulding, and engraved panel lines (and the correct wooden rear fuselage). A test fit shows that the parts fit well, although as seemingly with all Shturmovik kits, you’ll need to be careful with the wing-fuselage joint to get a proper fit. As with the 1/48th scale Tamiya arrow, the link ejector opening on the port wing will need to be redone. These ejector openings are in front of the long, narrow shell casing openings, on the undersides of the wings. Instead of being mirror images of each other, they should both be pointing towards the port wingtip (see illustration below). My real disappointment with this kit is the lack of sidewall detail for the pilot’s cockpit (the Dakoplast [and its rebrandings] and Eduard arrow kits feature more detail, as do the 1/72nd scale Academy kits). Admittedly, the port side has the nicely-done console to cover up much of the sidewall, but on the starboard side you only have the ordnance-release boxes, and none of the levers that characterised this part of the cockpit. No doubt someone like Eduard are busy correcting this lack. By comparison, the gunner’s cockpit features separate sidewalls that have some very nice detail, including a moulded-on oxygen(?) tank. Like the 1/48th scale kit, it features a choice of cannon fairings (rectangular or streamlined – which means you can “borrow” one set to put on the Hobby Boss kit), but only the streamlined rocket rails (unlike the larger kit, which features a choice of the early-style rocket rails and the later streamlined rails). The bombs are well-done (two FAB-50’s, and two FAB-250’s), as are the rockets (four RS-132’s). The decals look well-done, and the painting instructions actually appear to be accurate, a rarity for any Shturmovik kit. This is clearly the best Shturmovik kit in 1/72nd scale to date, and is highly recommended. Best Regards, Jason

The below is a review of the Academy straight-winged two-seater 1/72nd scale kit recently released. This modified excerpt is from my book on modelling the Il-2: "This kit is the Accurate Miniatures kit that was never released under the Accurate Miniatures name in 1/72nd scale. In terms of construction and detail it is basically a downsized version of a 1/48th scale Accurate Miniatures kit, in this case the never-released straight-winged two-seater. The spinner is too round and best replaced by a Toko or Eduard spinner (hopefully Vector may release a replacement spinner as they did for the 1/48th scale Accurate Miniature kits). The decals included in the kit look good and are well-registered. It also has the best cockpit detail of any 1/72nd scale Il-2 I’ve yet seen, even without any etched or resin detail and better than Tamiya’s 1/72nd scale offering of the arrow, and the surface detail is excellent, with nicely-engraved panel lines (although the Tamiya’s kit are better). Like the Accurate Miniatures’ kits, it has the correct configuration for the underwing link ejection chute openings, unlike the Tamiya kit, which has the mirror-image openings found in most Il-2 kits. A strange error in this kit is that the outer wing panels, although obviously for the straight-winged version, feature the flaps for the arrow (these were at a different angle than for the straight-winged Shturmoviks)! These should be filled in and rescribed. Something unusual that I’ve noticed about the Academy Il-2 kits is the way they treat the panel lines on the stabilisers. Instead of a flat surface, with inscribed lines, they are moulded as if there were overlapping plates, as on a boat. On the real Il-2, there wasn’t this “clinker-type” construction to the stabilisers; they were smoothly butt-joined, with lines between the panels. I have a built up single-seater, and this feature isn’t that noticeable, but you might want to fill in the low areas on the stabilisers and rescribe the panel lines once you have a flat surface, for a more realistic appearance. Interestingly, on the painting and decal instruction sheet the paint scheme for “White 24” (which appears on the box), and indeed all the aircraft represented by the decals appear to have been taken from the work of Massimo Tessitori on his website, sovietwarplanes.com (Mr. Tessitori has done the drawings for my soon-to-be published book on modelling the Il-2). Highly recommended, with only the Tamiya arrow being a better kit in 1/72nd scale, and certainly the best 1/72nd scale kit of the straight-winged two-seater." Best Regards, Jason

Hi all, Not sure if this has already been reported, but I spotted this tidbit on the 72nd scale aircraft forum. Tamiya are scaling down their 1/48 Il-2 to 1/72: http://www.hlj.com/product/TAM60781 Academy are finally releasing a two seater: http://www.academy.co.kr/eng/6q/frmBoardView.asp?pMenuId=BOARD00012&pCode=5351 The Tamiya kit's an "arrow" wing and the Academy one is a straight wing so at least both of them aren't duplicating the other entirely! Mike.