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1/72 VEB Plasticard Ilyushin Il-4


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Dear fellow Britmodellers,

after more than two months abroads, I'm happy to report back from my workbench.

Here's a piece of "Classic Plastic" I had started at the end of last year - the 1/72 Ilyushin Il-4 Long Range Bomber.

The original moulds of this kit were produced in the mid-1980s by East German company VEB Plasticard.

The same kit has been available in re-boxings by Revell, Master Modell and ADP.

It's a kit of typical 1980s standard, with raised panel lines and some rather chunky details.

I did replace the main defense guns with metal items from Mini World.

I was intending to fit a metal gun in the nose as well, but the opening of the clear part was much too wide, so I fell back on the kit's plastic part.

I also replaced the plastic handrail on the left fuselage side with a piece of wire.

 

I received two boxings of this model kit from an IMPS member at a swap-meet;

some of the small parts had broken off the sprues and were missing.

However, I was able to complete one model from the parts I found in the box.

 

As the kit's decals were very old and thick, almost like stickers, I used an aftermarket set from AML ('Il-4 Over The Reich').

Depicted is an aircraft from the 3rd Long Range Bomber Regiment, operating in winter 1944/1945.

Sadly, the decals were beyond their lifespan.

The bigger items (the patriotic slogan and the red stars for the fin) broke into a puzzle of pieces when slid off the backing paper.

I did my best to cobble them together, using some free-hand touch-ups with Red paint on the stars.

The decals also left ugly glue-marks around them, but being fragile as they were, I did not dare to wipe over with a cloth, as I usually do.

So, the build ended up a bit messy and won't win any competitions, for sure.

Still, it's a nice addition to my line-up of Soviet WWII aircraft.

 

Maybe someday a manufacturer will provide us with new moulds of the Il-4?

A new Pe-2 and Tu-2 would also be most welcome!

 

The model was painted with Gunze/Mr.Hobby acrylics (H72 Brown, H303 Green, H85 Black Gray) using Haarder & Steenbeck Evolution airbrush.

 

Thanks for your interest in this topic.

All photographs by Wolfgang Rabel of IGM Cars & Bikes - thank you!

With kind regards from Vienna,

Roman

 


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Edited by Roman Schilhart
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Hi Roman,

 

I did a double take when I saw the dreadful two words 'Veb-Plasticard'. It conjured the vision of guard towers and people risking their life to take bits and pieces of plastic to the West!!!! OK, slight exaggeration, but I once was given a veb-plasticard kit and even knowing where it had come from, dare I say I was not impressed.

With hindsight, I was not ready to do it justice, and looking at what you have achieved, I know I am right.

Your model  build is sheer brilliance. Quite incredible really considering the original plastic!

 

Congrats

JR

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That is very nice, Roman. It is great to see; 1/72, a more unusual type, a more unusual operator (well, certain more than RAF or US ;) )  and a more unusual colour scheme. Having said all that, I am still building 1950s/60s US jets! ;)

 

Martin

 

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Great job Roman. Like it a lot. This is a kit that is also on my to-do-list. Still remember when a schoolmate had the Revell rebox of this kit and I was very impressed with the huge bomb that came with it. Have you by any chance checked out the recent reifra reboxes of the Plasticart kits?

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Hi Roman!!!!

 

I have been looking for other different model but found a nice  surprise as this type of kits are very difficult to today standarsd to end so wonderful as I have seen. I like the way you have finished the kit with these nice colours and the versio you have used looks nice.  you said the decals gave you trouble but even tough this happened, the items in question look good there and look wonderful. The ovearll appearence of the buildf, for me, superb!!!

 

I have been looking for this kit from time to time and have not found it, but as a consolation price bought a cheap An 24 in 1/100 and found a Mi 10 without box and with some  parts missing as I like also the helos...Maybe one day can have this one and the Tu 2 Bat, a Pe 2, and a SB 2 Katiuska  to make a nice build up of Russian aircraft, that if my job will be at least 30-40% of yours, will be more than happy.

 

Cheers and thank you very much for sharing this nice build!!!

 

Luis Alfonso 

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On 26.3.2017 at 5:56 PM, Cheezburger said:

Great job Roman. Like it a lot. This is a kit that is also on my to-do-list. Still remember when a schoolmate had the Revell rebox of this kit and I was very impressed with the huge bomb that came with it. Have you by any chance checked out the recent reifra reboxes of the Plasticart kits?

 

Thanks for your kind comments!

I have never seen any current re-boxings of this kit, the last one was Revell's offering in the 1990s.

 

 

20 hours ago, Reini78 said:

nice work! :thumbsup:

my dad´s gonna do the 1/48 Xuntong version this year

 

The Xutong kit will turn into a much better replica, for sure!

Looking forward to see your dad's build!

 

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