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Red Bird (1/72 Academy IL-2 single-seater)


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On 31/07/2018 at 05:52, Procopius said:

It looks quite good "in the box"

It looks marvellous! If you want to know what a bad Il2 looks like, have a peek at the Airfix one...

 

Looking forward to the build and hoping for no disasters, stupendous or otherwise!

 

Regards,

Adrian

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PC, that rod, which operates the elevators, should be the interior colour (A-14 Steel Grey). The fuel tank is correct in black, with bare metal restraining straps. If you really want to get fancy, the cap on the fuel tank should be yellow (the Soviets colour-coded their systems, and yellow was for petrol/gasoline or 'benzine' in Russian). The small line that goes to the cap should also be yellow. You are correct that the interior could be painted in different colours - I've seen blue, silver paint, greyish-green,  and natural metal, amongst others, but I just get lazy and paint it all grey.

 

Regards,

 

Jason

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8 hours ago, Learstang said:

The fuel tank is correct in black, with bare metal restraining straps. If you really want to get fancy, the cap on the fuel tank should be yellow (the Soviets colour-coded their systems, and yellow was for petrol/gasoline or 'benzine' in Russian). The small line that goes to the cap should also be yellow.

Excellent, exactly the sort of thing I needed to know. I'll dig out some yellow paint.

 

15 hours ago, The Spadgent said:

Could you not fit the exhausts afterwards or is the fit not that way inclined? 

 

Their little mounting pegs need to go into tiny holes inside the fuselage, and they form a rest for a diabolically complicated intake scoop.

 

17 hours ago, AdrianMF said:

Looking forward to the build and hoping for no disasters, stupendous or otherwise!

 

I'm quite tired today, having been hoofing it about our Annual Meeting at work (and reading not one, but two doom-and-gloom articles about the future of my employer, a large professional association, one in our own goddamn journal -- and here I reiterate, I am willing, eager, even, to relocate to the UK, should anyone know of somewhere that needs a social media manager), but I painted the fuel tank with Alclad black primer prefatory to the silver and the yellow and so forth, and glued together the three part intake scoop, which I think I got right. 

 

Some test-fitting seems to suggest everything will go together well when the time comes -- I guess we'll find out for sure together.

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For what it's worth, PC, before I glued on the exhausts, before gluing the fuselage together on my two-seater example, I pre-painted the area around the exhausts the camouflage colour, which in this case was black. That way, I can just mask that area with the pre-painted exhausts (painted before I glued them in - amazing I remembered to do that) and paint the rest of the aircraft when the time comes (no, I still haven't finished the model - it's all built and ready to be primed, but once again my steadfast laziness has placed itself firmly in front of the model, and adamantly refuses to let me get to it so I can finish it).

 

Regards,

 

Jason

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I must admit to my own despicable counter-revolutionary tendencies in that I do not have an 'Eel dvah' in my collection either.
I will therefore be following this build most intently as PC's heroic exploits will undoubtedly spur me into an inferior crusade of my own to teach the fascist robbers of happiness a few sharp lessons!

Ura! Za Rodina!

 

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29 minutes ago, Gazontipede said:

I must admit to my own despicable counter-revolutionary tendencies in that I do not have an 'Eel dvah' in my collection either.
I will therefore be following this build most intently as PC's heroic exploits will undoubtedly spur me into an inferior crusade of my own to teach the fascist robbers of happiness a few sharp lessons!

Ura! Za Rodina!

 

- Any need for a hand ?

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As I recall from my build, that scoop went together without too much fuss, PC, despite its rather formidable appearance, although I may be remembering things through rose-coloured glasses. Probably not, though, as I seldom see anything through rose-coloured glasses, cynical old sod that I am (as if to prove this, I'm listening to the Sex Pistols whilst I write this - they're actually rather quaint).

 

Regards,

 

Jason

Edited by Learstang
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8 hours ago, Gazontipede said:

I see the wing bays appear to be moulded shut on the kit. Does it provide a selection of disposable ordnance to tart the little monster up with?

At least RS-82s, surely?

Yes, large things and some teeny tiny ones, too.

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On three days leave from work after spending a week photographing and tweeting about the Deputy Attorney General of the United States, a former Attorney General of the USA, the mayor of Chicago, a few federal court judges and law school deans and other assorted minor lights in the American firmament. All of this in the midst of Lollapalooza, wherein 100,000 scantily clad and largely intoxicated teens and twentysomethings descended upon Chicago to hear various assorted big and small names in the music world, sucking up every form of transport in the city into a gaping maw and ensuring that after working a 14-hour day on Saturday, my normal one-hour trainride became a three-hour look into  Boccacio's Decameron by way of Dante's Inferno, with the unwelcome addition of Bacardi being vomited regularly as if by ornamental fountains. I'm also pretty sure two of Tomorrow's Leaders had sex a few seats behind me, but I didn't dare turn my head. Rough week! I also ran into one of my counterparts who works for a smaller association and who it turns out makes 10% more, which was terrific for my morale. 

 

I'm off now, though, for three hopefully productive days. 

 

I did the fuel tank and added it to the kit:

 

43198645324_c6ac7c65c1_h.jpg20180807_204236 by Edward IX, on Flickr

 

And used a prismacolor pencil and a very thinned bit of black acrylic paint to tart up the cockpit a bit.

 

43868333992_f79b094859_h.jpg20180807_204528 by Edward IX, on Flickr

 

It's not going to win any awards, not even from my mom (who criticized her two daughters into eating disorders in any case), but I think it's an improvement.

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15 minutes ago, Procopius said:

became a three-hour look into  Boccacio's Decameron by way of Dante's Inferno, with the unwelcome addition of Bacardi being vomited regularly as if by ornamental fountains.

As someone that has attended a Lollapalooza ... That is probably the best flippin description of it that i have ever read. 

 

Dennis

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On 7/31/2018 at 2:59 PM, Procopius said:

Indeed they are, and they do. I plumped for the one with the most patriotic slogan on the side, because if we've learned nothing else this century, it's that the biggest talkers are also the biggest doers. 

I have learned the opposite! 

 

I bought this kit a while back when I was on a IL-2 kick and it is still unbuilt, will be interesting to see how it goes. 

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I appreciate that was probably quite a hellish week for you mate but it did make good reading for me. thanks :D 

 

That cockpit is looking really nice. Got any spare seatbelts for it? I'm pretty sure you could use an RAF Sutton harness and no-one but perhaps @Learstang would notice the difference...

 

11 minutes ago, Morlock said:

I have learned the opposite! 

 

You know we British say that the Americans don't get sarcasm? Some of them do, and his comment was an example of it :) 

 

Cheers,

 

Stew

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40 minutes ago, Stew Dapple said:

You know we British say that the Americans don't get sarcasm? Some of them do, and his comment was an example of it :) 

 

 

43201140344_ba8ae91181_h.jpg20180807_235338 by Edward IX, on Flickr

 

This kit abruptly transformed from a pleasant diversion into one of those builds where I'm glad I have no interest in the aircraft, because I don't want to ever build one of these again. I'm tired of blaming my "clumsiness" or whatever. I've been building models for a long time, and I've built a lot of bad ones, some even to a fairly acceptable standard. I know when I'm not enjoying myself and why.

 

First off, you have to put in the damn tail wheel before you close the fuselage. This should be punishable by death, no trial needed, in any civilized nation in the world. It's already broken off twice.

 

Secondly, the IP decals are all individual dials. In 1/72. Nope. Not necessary, not needed, not wanted. Also, the IP doesn't fit super well into the fuselage, and the instructions direct you to put it in after you put in a little sticky-out doohicky which I can only assume is a rest for the pilot's cigarillo. Naturally, the IP is dangerously close to this and I think you see where this is going. Not helping is that you really need to force it in. 

 

To assemble the fuselage, you put the two sides together, add the IP, and then put the floor with the cockpit up into this. However, the elevator rod is longer than the aperture, so you have to g-i-i-i-i-i-i-ngerly feed that it, then cram everything else straight up, and the tolerances are quite tight. Then the upper wings halves go on over this, and then the lower wing halves. There are a lot of points where everything meets, and the potential for steps is rife. For some reason, there's a huge gap on one side of mine:

 

43201140304_2d3ad7ef5c_h.jpg20180807_235341 by Edward IX, on Flickr

 

Everything is in its mounting peg. This is one of those kits where everything fits fine when you dry fit it and goes to pieces on the in-earnest try.

 

Whatever. I'll soldier on and get this done, but it's looking to be a joyless slog. I see a lot of sanding and filling in my future.

 

 

 

 

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Jeebus, what was going on with that video clip? Gave me the same feeling as I got on a shopping trip to Poundland in Southend :frantic:

 

Well if nothing else at least the model is coming together, going to need a bit of filler there for sure, but you know... regarding the exhausts and tailwheels I completely agree with you, there should be no need in a civilised world for such items to be added prior to... well, prior to the main painting being completed really, but if it is indeed the old Accurate Miniatures kit then it would have been designed in the dark ages of.., what, the late 90's or early 00's? The past is another country mate :) 

 

Anyway it's looking good from here,

 

Cheers,

 

Stew

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2 minutes ago, Stew Dapple said:

Jeebus, what was going on with that video clip? Gave me the same feeling as I got on a shopping trip to Poundland in Southend :frantic:

Have you never seen They Live? Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat?!? Certainly the best film wrestler "Rowdy" Roddy Piper appeared in (though I have a certain fondness for Hell Comes To Frogtown), and a great John  Carpenter film from the last decade in which he directed good movies. 

 

 

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4 hours ago, Stew Dapple said:

You know we British say that the Americans don't get sarcasm? Some of them do, and his comment was an example of it :) 

 

Cheers,

 

Stew

 

I factored in the possibility of sarcasm but wasn't sure hard to tell without tone of voice/facial expressions sometimes . I'm not a Yank either :-)

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8 hours ago, Morlock said:

 

I factored in the possibility of sarcasm but wasn't sure hard to tell without tone of voice/facial expressions sometimes . I'm not a Yank either 🙂

I am, though. I blame my parents.

 

In any case, today I've been listening to Bloc Party and working on the IL-2. I feel so free!

 

It's mostly a filler party today:

 

43929475981_29d6936f47_h.jpg20180808_105351 by Edward IX, on Flickr

 

42120898090_f6f5da99cb_h.jpg20180808_105349 by Edward IX, on Flickr

 

42120895300_52ddb470c0_h.jpg20180808_105846 by Edward IX, on Flickr

 

28992493557_6701e9850d_h.jpg20180808_105849 by Edward IX, on Flickr

 

42120891750_2fb967c6a0_h.jpg20180808_110727 by Edward IX, on Flickr

 

42120891530_f441d7aba6_h.jpg20180808_105851 by Edward IX, on Flickr

 

Another dumb engineering choice spotted! Why, I ask you:

 

28992488197_11bf53b48d_h.jpg20180808_111912 by Edward IX, on Flickr

 

 

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1 hour ago, Procopius said:

Another dumb engineering choice spotted! Why, I ask you:

  

 28992488197_11bf53b48d_h.jpg

Is that a gun or a Pitot. If its a gun i would cut a hollow piece of brass/aluminum tubing to match the length. If its a pitot i would cut a piece of brass rod/wire to the proper length. Then i would install after paint and decals were done ? 

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48 minutes ago, Corsairfoxfouruncle said:

Is that a gun or a Pitot. If its a gun i would cut a hollow piece of brass/aluminum tubing to match the length. If its a pitot i would cut a piece of brass rod/wire to the proper length. Then i would install after paint and decals were done ? 

I believe it's a gun, and that's exactly what I'm gonna do. 

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Okay! After some more work -- and much, much sanding and filing -- I added the rear glasshouse, masked it, and sprayed the interior colour:

 

43904774892_7833f8bb32_h.jpg20180809_150450 by Edward IX, on Flickr

 

The tailwheel broke off for the Nth time, so I've secured it elsewhere for the time being:

 

29015119577_6d92a38066_h.jpg20180809_150453 by Edward IX, on Flickr

 

The nose to wing root join on the underside was particularly poor for me and required sanding down with metal rasps.

 

43234348174_4e10ee79ce_h.jpg20180809_150506 by Edward IX, on Flickr

 

Finally, I said to hell with it, and primed it with Alclad grey primer. I figured masking the exhausts was a lost cause and will just have to figure out how to repaint them best in the fullness of time. The primer also revealed several areas in need of further attention, so there's that, too.

 

43234348134_ee353bdee5_h.jpg20180809_153832 by Edward IX, on Flickr

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How have I missed this thread? Hopefully room for another to squeeze in at the back of the room??!!

 

A fascinating aircraft type and one much admired by a few enthusiasts. I see that another single seater has been recovered recently.

http://warbirdsnews.com/warbirds-news/ilyushin-il-2-sturmovik-raised-from-a-russian-lake.html

 

19 hours ago, Procopius said:

The nose to wing root join on the underside was particularly poor for me and required sanding down with metal rasps.

At least they are consistent. I built their FW-190 and the fit in that area was diabolically poor.

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