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I-16 Mosca, Spanish Republican Air Force, ready to fly!


exdraken

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Started something totally new for me, a prop plane!

First one :)

a small kit, Eduard's I-16 Weekend edition in Spanish Republican marking of the Spanish civil war 1936-1939

IMG_3886_2_zps52838c2a.jpg

as it is supposed to be build in a single weekend, construction was easy and straight forward, small and simple cockpit that will be nearly totally hidden in the fuslage, sorry no photos!

ready for painting:

IMG_3873_2_zps0d08bbba.jpg

IMG_3869_2_zpsb20db571.jpg

IMG_3871_2_zpsfd34fa65.jpg

hope you like it, I do a lot!, it is really small :)

Edited by exdraken
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It's a great kit - i've made a type 10 and have a 28 in the stash. Easy to forget that this is a 1/48 kit when you're working with it as it's the same length as a 1/72 Hurricane ! Still plenty of detail though.

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Just a few things about that kit: althoug it's a great kit, it has some details to be corrected. Anyway, it's a lovely kit....and a really improvement over the old Hobbycraft one.

-Cockpit floor: Actually, the I-16 didn't have a floor.

-You must make to round holes on top of the fuselage, just under the windscreen. Those holes provided some sunlight into the cokpit...The instrument panel didn't have its own lights, so the pilot needed some "external help"....

-Bean shaped hole into the wheel well. To see if the undercarriage was extended or not...

Best regards....

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  • 3 weeks later...

I hate to spil your fun, but I think that green looks way to vivid and bright (toxic) for a proper cammo effect.

It's not too late to tone it down.

Josip

I agree with you, I'm afraid that's not the correct shade of green, maybe a picture effect....

The Gunze Sangyo equivalent colour should be as folows:

-Upper fuselage Green: H303.

-Undersides blue: H323.

-Interior grey: H324.

i'm not very convinced about Gunze's ability to match those colours, I've always prefered good old Humbrol 114 and 115 enamels....

Anyway, those Moscas wich were built in Spain used different paints than those wich were sent from Russia, so let's open the can of worms....

Cheers....

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thanks!

maybe I was too focused on the boxart by Eduard, which shows quite a vivid green...

found some color photos, but they are all of recently painted aircraft... but all seem to be more olive than my outcome hmmmm

maybe some small repainting will be necessary

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Nice little Mosca ("Fly" in Spanish; nice to see the proper Spanish Republican nickname being used as opposed to the derisive Spanish Fascist "Rata" - rat)! I have to agree that the green is too bright; it should be more subdued.

Regards,

Jason

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Hi Artie,

thanks for your view an the little kit!

Do you happen to have some photos showing these holes?

Thanks!

Hi I did the same holes by using this photos from museum I-16

a_V1_Pxmn9_95dcdf683e124c424012c3d69dc5d

and from the Russian model forum

Resize_of.jpg

And dashboard holes

1351791840_004.jpg

Don't know if I want to do this on my I-16.....

Ivan

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Nice little Mosca ("Fly" in Spanish; nice to see the proper Spanish Republican nickname being used as opposed to the derisive Spanish Fascist "Rata" - rat)! I have to agree that the green is too bright; it should be more subdued.

Regards,

Jason

Actually, the word "Mosca" had nothing to do with the term "mosca" (fly in spanish.....).....

The planes were sent to Spain from Russia completely dismantled into huge wooden crates. The word MOCKBA in cirylic letters was writen on those crates, so the ground crews and mechanics who reassembled the planes began calling them Moscas....Phonetically speaking, MOCKBA sounds quite similar to MOSCA in spanish. Something likt the name CHIRRI (criquet in spanish) given to the Fiat CR 32......In italian, you spell CR as CHI ERRE, wich sounds CHIRRI in spanish, but has nothing to do with the term "cricket",

On the other hand, the nickname Rata (Rat) was given to the planes by the Nationalist bomber pilots who first faced them over the skies of Madrid. In the early days of the I-16 fighting service, they were painted in a weird and unpleasant shade of grey, possibly left unpainted in primer gray, called "mouse grey" by the spanish ground crews. The Polikarpovs used to fly at roof level over Madrid, and when they saw the nationalist bombers, attacked them from downwards in quick rounds and flew away, in the same way that sewer rats do....That, and the early colour of the planes, led to the "Rata" nickname........

IMHO, both nicknames are right....I couldn't say wich one is "proper" and wich one isen't so....

Cheers.....

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Hi all,

thanks a lot for your input!

I already repainted the green upper surface to a more olive one, photos will follow soon! :)

Thanks Ivan for your references, will try to do these holes although the kit is already painted....

Cheers,

Edited by exdraken
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Actually, the word "Mosca" had nothing to do with the term "mosca" (fly in spanish.....).....

The planes were sent to Spain from Russia completely dismantled into huge wooden crates. The word MOCKBA in cirylic letters was writen on those crates, so the ground crews and mechanics who reassembled the planes began calling them Moscas....Phonetically speaking, MOCKBA sounds quite similar to MOSCA in spanish. Something likt the name CHIRRI (criquet in spanish) given to the Fiat CR 32......In italian, you spell CR as CHI ERRE, wich sounds CHIRRI in spanish, but has nothing to do with the term "cricket",

On the other hand, the nickname Rata (Rat) was given to the planes by the Nationalist bomber pilots who first faced them over the skies of Madrid. In the early days of the I-16 fighting service, they were painted in a weird and unpleasant shade of grey, possibly left unpainted in primer gray, called "mouse grey" by the spanish ground crews. The Polikarpovs used to fly at roof level over Madrid, and when they saw the nationalist bombers, attacked them from downwards in quick rounds and flew away, in the same way that sewer rats do....That, and the early colour of the planes, led to the "Rata" nickname........

IMHO, both nicknames are right....I couldn't say wich one is "proper" and wich one isen't so....

Cheers.....

Not to be too pedantic, Artie, but it may have very well been a combination of the two - the word "MOCBA" (Moscow in Cyrillic), and the fact that as small aeroplanes, they were rather like little flies buzzing around, that led to the Spanish Republican nickname, "Mosca", or "Fly". I prefer this term, as in the Spanish Civil War this aeroplane was used primarily by the Spanish Republican Air Force, and that's what they called it. You don't see the Spitfire being called by whatever the Luftwaffe called them.

Regards,

Jason

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Not to be too pedantic, Artie, but it may have very well been a combination of the two - the word "MOCBA" (Moscow in Cyrillic), and the fact that as small aeroplanes, they were rather like little flies buzzing around, that led to the Spanish Republican nickname, "Mosca", or "Fly". I prefer this term, as in the Spanish Civil War this aeroplane was used primarily by the Spanish Republican Air Force, and that's what they called it. You don't see the Spitfire being called by whatever the Luftwaffe called them.

Regards,

Jason

Not pedantic at all, Jason......Surely the name was a combination of both terms, but it's generally agreed that the name was born from the cyrillic letters.....

The nationalist forces used less planes than the republicans just because they put onto service whatever they captured, and it wasn't until the capture of a factory at Alicante than they began building their own "Ratas".

Anyway, the nationalist pilots didn't like the Ratas at all...it was a very difficult plane to fly, and not better at all than the already in service BF109 or Heinkel He 112.

Those spanish built Ratas were slightly different than their russian cousins, and can be easlily built with some minor modifications from the Eduard kit.

Cheers...

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Thank you for the information, Artie! I use to be quite the Spanish Civil War aircraft kit collector (and I even built some of them!), but I've since become semi-permanently sidetracked onto the Eastern Front, especially Soviet aircraft. Someday I hope to get back to doing Spanish Civil War aeroplanes. There were such a tremendous variety, especially for the FARE - the Spanish Republican Air Force, and there were some interesting paint schemes.

Regards,

Jason

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You're right, Jason......The spanish civil war era planes still give us some obscure subjects to build.....Specially the Republican ones, wich combined an absolute absence of information with a weird mixture of planes from lots of countries...Of special interest is the way the Grumman G23 came to Spain.....Do you like "gangster's movies"????????

Cheers.....

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Not to be too pedantic, Artie, but it may have very well been a combination of the two - the word "MOCBA" (Moscow in Cyrillic), and the fact that as small aeroplanes, they were rather like little flies buzzing around, that led to the Spanish Republican nickname, "Mosca", or "Fly". I prefer this term, as in the Spanish Civil War this aeroplane was used primarily by the Spanish Republican Air Force, and that's what they called it. You don't see the Spitfire being called by whatever the Luftwaffe called them.

Regards,

Jason

Spot on Jason, I'm building an i-16 but I,m not building a 'Rata' or a Mosca' I'm building an 'Ishak' because mine is from the eastern front and as such I wouldn't call it a 'Siipiorava' (Finnish for flying squirrel).

That said it's the 1/72 revell from the 60's and so I might have the correct name but it is not a great representation of the type, but I'm ignoring that.

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Spot on Jason, I'm building an i-16 but I,m not building a 'Rata' or a Mosca' I'm building an 'Ishak' because mine is from the eastern front and as such I wouldn't call it a 'Siipiorava' (Finnish for flying squirrel).

That said it's the 1/72 revell from the 60's and so I might have the correct name but it is not a great representation of the type, but I'm ignoring that.

In the same way of thinking, we shouldn't call "Mustang" a P51 because that's the name the Britons gave to the plane, instead of the original North American designation for the fighter....?????

Cheers....

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