Alexeyev I-211 A-Model 1/72

[John R]

Few people have heard of this a/c which flew for a brief period in the autumn of 1947 powered by Lyulka TR1 turbojets during which it never reached its design speed due to the poor performance of its engines. After suffering a collapsed u/c it was rebuilt and re-engined with the Russian equivalent of the Nene and designated as I-215. It met its requirements and flew well but was eclipsed by the Mig 15.

This kit is a vast improvement on previous A-model kits and goes together without much trouble apart from a few notable items.

The gun pack section under the nose does not fit at all well but can easily be corrected with filler.

There is a major anomaly with the main u/c and doors as the doors are too long to fit to the side of the leg although they match the size of the wheel bay.

Despite packing the nose with as much lead as I could get in it turned out to be a tail sitter. This was ‘rectified’ by pouring ‘Liquid Lead’ into the front of the nacelles followed by a squirt of CA to keep it still. Fitting some lead behind the cockpit during assembly is needed.

The decals are thin and break up easily.

There is no indication of how much dihedral there is on the tail surfaces.

Less notable items.

The trailing edges of the wings and fin are rather thick and should be thinned before assembly. I also found that the these surfaces had a slightly convex underside that prevented the edges from joining and some scraping was required to achieve a flat underside. I probably should have done some more scraping to achieve a thinner t/e on the wings but was worried about the affect on the nacelles.

It is a good idea to assemble the nacelles to check for fitting before assembling the wings.

The intakes are not as round as they should be.

The wing section does not match the stub on the fuselage to which they are attached. If one thins the wings to get a sharp t/e then the fit would be better.

Colour. The kit recommends Humbrol light grey. I didn’t have any so I used Xtracrylix Light Gull Grey instead an the grounds that I had some and probably nobody knows the correct shade anyway.

John Rieley December 2013

[Kuro Nezumi]

A very good effort!

One of the more obscure Soviet straight wing jets.

[Blue Monday]

It's a pity the Mig-15 won out over this design, cause I know which one is the prettiest aircraft by far! A very nice model of a rare aeroplane.

BM.

[sean]

As BM says it is a rather pretty looking aircraft, and your rendition is very nice as well, good to see something

different being built

Sean

[Mike DeTorrice]

Beautifully done ! A really interesting Russian fighter prototype and wonderfully rendered in scale here.

Mike

[stevej60]

Great build and finish,a very rare and unusual sight.

[Tomjw]

It is a nice looking aircraft, well constructed. Its always nice to see something a bit different. Thanks for sharing.

Tom.

[John_W]

Looks like a Meteor on steroids. Nice build.

[John R]

Looks like a Meteor on steroids. Nice build.

It might look like it but when you consider that the engines produced less than 3000lb thrust each the reality was somewhat different. Even the later version which had the Russian equivalent of Derwents wasn't fast enough.

Here it is with a Meteor for comparison

John

[general melchett]

Lovely job John ! It's great that Amodel keep turning out these little gems and as you say the quality just keeps improving...who else other than the more expensive resin Johnnies would produce these in 1/72nd...

I always thought it looked similar to a Meteor too.................until I saw your two models together, the meatbox looks positively graceful !!

Melchie.....the myopic

[Bordfunker]

Never heard of that one before but a very interesting build.

Karl

[CarLos]

Great build and excellent review, John. Thanks for it.

Carlos

[Kevin Callahan]

If a Meteor mated with a Russian tractor. Nicely done. Just picked up one of these myself and it will move into the queue when I get some other stuff cleared out. 

[invidia]

Looks great, built the cannon armed one last year. Nice kit just needs a little care.  great build of a unusual subject.

[Ryan Hothersall]

Very nice. 

 

Good pointers to to watch out for when I get around to building mine. 

[Killingholme]

Looks like someone tried to describe a Meteor down the phone (or on a cold park bench in Gorkiy park perhaps...)

 

Cheers for posting. Out of interest what's your preferred paint choice for the Russian grey of the period?

 

Will

[John R]

1 hour ago, Killingholme said:

Cheers for posting. Out of interest what's your preferred paint choice for the Russian grey of the period?

 

I was going to say that I couldn't offer anything more than this from the original post.

On 20/12/2013 at 0:50 PM, John R said:

Colour. The kit recommends Humbrol light grey. I didn’t have any so I used Xtracrylix Light Gull Grey instead an the grounds that I had some and probably nobody knows the correct shade anyway.

 

However...Some time ago I built a Prop&Jet La 150 and the paint colour given was blue-grey. Musa Zakoreev who produced the La 150 said use FS36463 which is Light Gull Gray. Not having any at the time I looked on the internet (forget where) and it said to use 3 parts Humbrol H34 (matt white) to 2 parts H126 (Satin Mid Grey). I didn't have any H34 so I used H22 (gloss white) instead. I used roughly 1:1 as I didn't want it to get too light. I hope you followed all that! The result is here

http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/234918202-lavochkin-la-150-propjet-172-resin/

There is a Vallejo blue -gray (46) and also a Vallejo fs 36463 (154)

I don't know if this has helped. Maybe you ought to start a thread asking for people's opinions. At Telford I met an interesting Russian who seemed to know a lot. I will try to find out if he can add anything to this but don't hold your breath!

John

PS. To other potential builders I believe Prop&Jet issued some bits to correct issues with the Amodel version.