Jump to content

Airfix Il-28 Beagle


Recommended Posts

I'll be having a go at the old Airfix kit.

 

4 Il-28 Beagles were sold to Finland in 1960 by the good old Soviet Union, a bomber and 3 Recce versions. I'll be building the sole bomber variant. These aircraft soldiered on in Finnish Air Force service until 1981.

 

My kit.

51829654611_9e80eec471_b.jpg

 

 I have some Hi-Decal Line decals for it.

51828699842_cbf0305868_b.jpg

 

The previous owner had started to modify the wheel wells on it, the only work done to it. I'll just need to figure out how to mount the gear with the new wells.

51828699812_be2bda5539_b.jpg

 

  • Like 21
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Wow! That's a forgotten about kit. Wasn't bad for the time and the only one I know of in 1/72nd. I must go through my old Airfix catalogues and relive some other forgotten kits. Looking forwards to seeing this done.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, modelling minion said:

An excellent choice Ray, the Il-28 is a great aircraft.

There have been 2 other kits in 1/72, one by Bilek/Italeri and another by Trumpeter. we even have 2 in 1/48 now.

Didn't VEB-Plasticart do one, or was that some od scale like 1/100th?  I can (just) remember a comparison build of that and the Airfix kit in the now long-gone PAM Magazine.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

Hello Ray!

 

Good luck with this old babe! It would look very nice especially in the livery with blue nacelle fronts.

 

I built one propably early 1990s before the Bilek or Trumpeter were available. And what a putty queen it was! Especially poor were the long seams beside the nacelles as well as ailerons and moving parts in tail. Shapewise there are quite much to be said. I did re-shape front parts of the nacelles . they were too angular and lower sind didn't curve upwards as it should be, Also canopy needed some fitling. IIRC it is too high so I made one horizontla and one slightly rearward tilted cut to the fixed rear part and filed some material away from the clear part bottom to fit them again together to get a better profile.

 

I thought this as worst kit I hae built until I started the Broplan Valmet Vihuri...

 

Cheers from Hel.....,,

 

AaCee

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks for the tips @AaCee26!

 

I have glued the nacelles together and see what you mean, The previous owner of the kit also did some reshaping of the intake parts. I will use them as they are. I will take a look at the clear parts and see what I can do there.

 

Looks like I will have to find some reference pictures of this livery you mention. I'll be getting on with this one again shortly after I sort out some HS-125 engines

  • Like 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Holy blast from the past comrade Ray!

 

Will be interesting to see this one come together. I have the old Bilek kit myself (Italeri re-pop) which looks about the same vintage

 

Dasvedanya tovarich!!

  • Thanks 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 2/3/2022 at 10:34 AM, Romeo Alpha Yankee said:

Looks like I will have to find some reference pictures of this livery you mention.

Hi Ray,

 

Looks like almost everyone have been making profiles of this aircraft with "01" in nose from black&white photos expecting thenacelles being day-glo orange as they were in NH-2 and NH-3. Same with the Hi-Decals? Only Mushroom in their "Finnish Jet Colours" has got them blue in their profile but they have a colour photo beside it for proof.

12 hours ago, Pappy said:

I have the old Bilek kit myself (Italeri re-pop) which looks about the same vintage

Bilek, later Italeri, is 20 or so years younger than Airfix. Fit is said to be about the same level than Airfix, it has been told... Probably the best early generation Il-28 was Tamiya 1/100 and the Chinese 1/48 is nowadays king of the hill. In 1/72 I would likely start from Trumpeter and cross-kit it with Bilek. A state-of-the-art-and-accuracy Il-28/Il-28R/T is sorely missing!

 

BTW Finnish pet-name for it was "Nikita" coming from the registration letters "NH" meaning a Soviet Tug (NeuvostoHinaaja) but also the initials of the Towaritch Krutchov (Hrutsev in Finnish translitteration).

 

Za vaše zdorovje,

 

AaCee

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...

Well I finally got motivated to do something on this after decaling issues on other builds sucked my mojo away.

 

The seats were plain jane so I decided to scratch replacements when I could not find one of them. That being said I did find the missing one and after realising they were a tad under-sized I modified the kit seats instead.

51979213545_096b62f782_b.jpg

 

The cockpit also got some detail to fill the void, it is by no means accurate and was just meant to busy it up.

51978726928_3d62265623_b.jpg

Wow the picture shows up a lot of glue I could not see, must tidy that up

 

The nose wheel bay was boxed in and some details added

51979213435_615e9fa6a7_b.jpg

 

The main gear wells also got some attention.

51978931884_a7124607fa_b.jpg

 

And it all manages to go together as well!

51977644682_fd7eaa9d09_b.jpg

51978653821_08b357d714_b.jpg

51978726698_a3f118a5a8_b.jpg

 

 

 

  • Like 8
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...
  • 3 weeks later...
  • 2 weeks later...

I finally got motivated to get this one done, masking and painting commenced.

52074705064_2738f65cfc_b.jpg

52074959620_d4ae1771c9_b.jpg

 

 

And then I noticed a few spots I had not filled and sanded quite right, so some rubbing and filling done.

52073433362_f3ca1d0c36_b.jpg

 

I also ran out of SMS Aluminium paint so off to the LHS to restock once the next round of sanding is done.

 

  • Like 4
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...