Anyone fancies Russian stubby biplanes? - Polikarpov I-15: Special Hobby 1/72

[Torbjorn]

In all honesty I bought this kit to optimise the transport costs for my kid's Christmas present - and this one happened to be on sale: Special Hobby 1/72 Polikarpov I-15, 'Red army'. I had never heard of this plane before, but I found it strangely attractive with its gull wings and short fuselage. The only thing that appears full size is the engine.

 

A summary of the history of the airplane can be found for example [url=https://www.militaryfactory.com/aircraft/detail.asp?aircraft_id=631] HERE[/Url]. In 1928 Polikarpov was assigned to develop the I-6 biplane within 2 years. For the heinous crime of not the making the apparently literal deadline, Polikarpov was sentenced to death. Before the sentence was carried out however, it was reduced to a decade of hard labour and he was assigned to work on the I-5 project. After its successful completion, Polikarpov was pardoned and handed the I-15 project, which was developed from the I-5. Production started in 1934 and a total of 671 were built, more than a third license-built in Republican Spain. The airplane saw service in the Spanish Civil War, the Sino-Japanese war and in Khalkin Gol, as well as in the Second World War (if one chooses not the count the previously mentioned conflicts as part of that). Further development led to the I-15bis and I-153, of which about 6000 were produced and saw service in the early war. As for Polikarpov himself, upon returning from ordered trip to Germany in 1939, found his design bureau couped and emptied and his career as designer was over.

 

Here is the scalemates entry on the model - I have no picture of the box: https://www.scalemates.com/kits/112449-special-hobby-sh72085-polikarpov-i-15-red-army

Scalemates has it released in "200x" with unknown pedigree, but after opening the contents I suspect the tooling is older than that and is inherited from who knows where (edit: or maybe just shortrun kit - I mean it feels seems either old or unrefined, elaboration later). For about 6 British pounds I'm more than happy though.

 

The kit contains two bags of resin parts for cockpit interiors, skis and engine. Apart from the skis, two more sets of landing gears are included (with and without wheel covers - forgot the technical term). PE details for the cockpit and telescope sight are included. As the kit name suggests, decals for 3 different Soviet airforce planes are included, plus decals for the prototype and an acetate sheet for the instrument board. One rather sprue containing fuselage, winds and odds and ends make up the rest of the plane.

 

 

 

Edited December 31, 2017 by Torbjorn

[John Masters]

I love this aircraft and some of it for sentimental reason.  It was my father's favourite aircraft and was flown by a character in one of his novels.  His love of modelling and aircraft was passed to me.  

Happy building on this one!

[Torbjorn]

I've grown to like it as well, it certainly has charm. May I ask what novel is that?

 

I have almost finished the cockpit before starting this, and will try to post an update on that shortly. Enjoying it so far. 

[John Masters]

He was an extraordinary writer.  This is one of many...its not a series and his work is considered to be literary fiction.

 

https://www.amazon.com/Home-Exile-Hilary-Masters/dp/1877946737/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8

 

--John

[Torbjorn]

Looks interesting! I've been toying with the idea of making a Republican version of the aircraft, having always been intrigued by the volunteers and all that.

 

I have finished the cockpit, but not closed the fuselage. Made a few mistakes here I'd like to share. The kit provides a floor, instrument panel, column stick and chair out of resin, but no side-wall details whatsoever. I added some structure and details from drawings and images I found on the net, but discovered afterwards that there are some inaccuracies... the vertical dividers should obviously be on the same place as the panel lines on the outside (doh!) and the compressed air bottle should be on the other side. None of this matters much, since the bottle will be hidden entirely by the chair (doh! #2, cancelling the first) and the side walls will barely be seen through the tiny opening anyway. 

 

The thing I regret is not thinning the fuselage pieces. I did this near the opening to simulate the thin sheet but should have done so everywhere, since the cockpit becomes too cramped with all the added gadgetry. It is possible to close the fuselage at least, but the thickness will probably be seen through the two square windows on each side.

 

Here are some images. The back end of the four guns are molded as part of the floor piece and the instrument board piece. The instrument panel itself is an acetate sheet covered with PE.

 

Resin floor and instrument panel. The bottom of the floor shouldn't be there.

 

Adding interest, half of it erroneously (ok, some, and it won't be visible so I left it).

 

 

Finished bottom and instrument panel. The black is "background": chair and brackets holding it should go on top.

 

The sides:

 

Current status. I'm putting off joining the halves together in case there are some other things to do which is easier now. The chair received a lot of sanding and drilling of holes.

 

 

 

Urrg, it looks so much better to the naked eye that I get all demotivated from photographing and start contemplating trying 1/48 next time. These kind of details are really difficult to make realistic in this scale - all the over-paint is over-obvious. 

 

 

 

I also finally started looking on the other pieces, which I probably should have started with. Discovered that the upper wings don't fit very well. They are molded in one piece which attaches on top of the fuselage, just in front of the cockpit. Also, the kit part is almost flat, meaning both winds are almost 90° to the vertical, while they should have a pronounced angle. The fit issue will require me to order some good putty, and to find images of the air intake which is what the little stub in front is supposed to be, to figure out how that is actually supposed to look. This image shows after some serious abrasive action:

 

 

The angle issue was fixed with the high-tech solution shown below which was turned upside down and dipped into hot water. 

 

 

 

Ta-daaa:

 

 

Another issue is the engine cowling: it's 10%-15% too small in diameter and shaped badly. Trying to shape some plastic to its outside to form a base for a new cowling only resulted in the destruction of the kit-part - but at least I have the path determined!

 

Edited January 30, 2018 by Torbjorn

[Torbjorn]

A small update. This is slow going, having very little time for extravagant hobbies.

 

Before glueing the fuselage together, some surgery around the back end was performed. As shown for example by this wiki image: image, the strut is connected to the rudder with two springs (that, without knowing more than the pics show, appear to centre the rudder if there is force on the strut. A new scratchbuilt strut  was made, since I found the kit version too thick and blobby. I also prepared for the line controlling he rudder, coming out of the fuselage just above the bracket holding the supporting struts for the tailplane. The rest of that assembly will be added at a later stage. 

 

The left shows the original, the right after cutting out plastic that shouldn't be there:

 

New strut, and linkage for the rudder coming out of the fuselage. The springs connecting the rudder and strut are so far only wires  - I might try to emulate the coils with PVA blobs.

 

 

After this the fuselage was forced together (it didn't go voluntarily, and there is much sanding and filling to be done). If you look carefully there's a plane somewhere among these clamps:

 

 

 

 

Jumping to the front end, it appears that the good people on the engine factory were distracted when aligning the cylinders. Look at he two in the first quadrant!

 

As I wasn't happy with the engine to start with (a bit small, the one-piece moulding makes adding stuff difficult etc), this was the final motivation I needed and ordered a replacement from Russia. IF the cylinders end up like above at least I will have only myself to blame: