First of the many - Hobbyboss 1/32 Il-2 Shturmovik - Completed!

[Hurricaneflyer]

Sevastopol, 1942

 

It was morning over the Crimean peninsula when Aleksey woke from his rest, not from a call to fly as was usual but rather by the movement of a vehicle outside his barracks. He rose and clothed himself in haste, not expecting the Regiment Commander to arrive unannounced. He burst open the door only to find not his superior, but an Army Commissar followed by a number of cameramen. Slightly startled by the exit, the political officer introduced himself as the NKVD Propaganda Manager for the region, and that he would like to include a segment on Aleksey's unit in the next film, requesting permission from the deputy commander. Aleksey agreed to this, and while there were no combat missions being flown that day, a segment was filmed with himself and the commissar explaining the details of his own Il-2. Nearing the end of the film, Aleksey looked into the camera and smiled; the camera clicked as the cameraman extracted the tape from it. The NKVD commissar thanked Aleksey and his unit for the opportunity and left in their truck, putting the film together back at their headquarters, only to find that the segment filmed earlier that day could not fit - much of it had to be cut away, leaving snippets of Aleksey walking around the aircraft, pointing out certain features...

 

And ending on his smiling face.

 

 

Right, with that little (possibly fictional) backstory over, here is the sum effort of three and a half months of work: My Hobbyboss 1/32 Il-2 (1942) done in the colours of aircraft no.30 of PShAP 18, Sevastopol, U.S.S.R as shown by this reconstructed three-view from Sovietwarplanes pages by Massimo Tessitori: https://massimotessitori.altervista.org/sovietwarplanes/pages/il-2/il2-camo/il2-1942/il-2model1942.htm

 

This is the aircraft that is shown in the background of the film that Aleksey Antonovich Gubriy, Hero of the Soviet Union, appears in sometime during 1942. I happened upon the scheme whilst browsing the website (https://massimotessitori.altervista.org/sovietwarplanes/pages/index.html) for information regarding Soviet Camouflage, and this stuck out to me as 1. It had an interesting backstory, which I have *ahem* amplified, and 2. It sat right in between being too generic and far, FAR too difficult for me to handle.

 

The kit itself, while nicely detailed, has a rather jarring accuracy flaw in that it depicts the aircraft as being all-metal, something that can only be applied to the earliest production aircraft, the vast majority having a wooden rear fuselage and most sporting wooden wings, such as the example shown above. Take away this discrepancy, and the kit is wonderful; excellent fit, vast payload options and an engine more detailed than some in 1/24 scale. This was in some ways a testbed for me, as this is the first model I have used AK products on, their WWII Soviet Aircraft paint-set and their 'masking putty'. The paint was good, bar a few bottles that had gotten damaged and had coagulated a bit, and the putty worked well, though misunderstanding the limit of it's coverage meant that the paint did build up near the edges. This model also suffers from a continuous issue I have had with Tamiya Flat Clear, where it gains a 'frosty' appearance upon being applied. I made my best effort at polishing it down to an acceptable level, however I am still at a loss on how to cure the issue. Apart from that, the focal point of the model was the opportunity to use clear pieces for the cowling to display the engine, and while it took extra effort to mask and to fit, I am more than pleased with the result.

 

Now, with the unnecessarily long foreword out of the way, enjoy the images of the finished product!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As a final word of note, I apologise to all those who were following or were interested in the in-progress thread I had for the build of this kit - during the early part of this year I found myself suddenly over-encumbered with work and unable to take and prepare photographs for posting, and the events of Cyclone Gabrielle did little to ease that. In fact, I completed this kit back in March, but the ensuing chaos has meant I have only found time now to post it here.

 

Sincerely, Hurricaneflyer

[GiampieroSilvestri]

Beautiful Ilyushin Il-2!

 

Saluti

 

Giampiero

[Kiwikitbasher]

Very nicely done and quite eye-catching.

[Mattlow]

Very nice Il2

 

Like the camo.

 

If I were a pedant, I'd say that they weren't filming onto tape in 1942.... They were filming onto, well... film..

 

Matt