Cheeky commies...Polikarpov R-1, 'Ilyich' Detachment, summer 1922...

[John Masters]

Well, having been given the green light by the Powers That Be, I feel a bit like Nikolai Polikarpov himself, building his 'DH9', not under license, completely stolen, reverse-engineered, etc...

 

So it's summer 1922...Stalin has just been named General Secretary of the Communist Party...Lenin is Chairman of the Council of the People's Commissars...Kalinin is Chairman of the Central Executive Committee of the Congress of Soviets...Trotsky declines to be Lenin's second-in-command (the beginning of the end for him)...the creation of the USSR is a mere 4-5 months away.  Here's what was flying about  in the skies...

 

 

Here's what I will build.

 

 

I like this profile.  It's got all the neat slogans, the red stars, and the Cyrillic number font...'White 5', before they used those designations.  And it's aluminum dope.  Easy paint job.

 

The sprue looks very nice.  Excellent detail, no flash.  No PE (thank the gods).  There will be drilling happening here, no doubt about that.  Lots of rigging.

 

 

Nice looking decal set.  Plenty of cool leftovers.

 

 

I'll get into it presently.  

 

--John

 

 

 

 

 

[CliffB]

On 6/18/2023 at 2:26 PM, John Masters said:

I like this profile.  It's got all the neat slogans, the red stars, and the Cyrillic number font...'White 5', before they used those designations.

 

I have to agree John.  It's a great scheme 

[John Masters]

22 minutes ago, CliffB said:

I have to agree John.  It's a great scheme 

Thanks Cliff.  Something a bit brighter than the usual Soviet green/blue livery.  I hope to start in today.

[Tim R-T-C]

I do love the slightly chunky stars on the decal sheet. A more achievable body standard before the perfect skinny stars of the later era.

[John Masters]

I started in on the R-1 last night after perusing the thread by @AdrianMF and his 'Silver Wings' build.  

 

I added the 2mm wedge first to correct the fuselage.  There is also a shorter wedge on the underside, btw.

 

 

Then I jumped right in and prepped the interior and interior pieces for assembly.

 

 

The floorboard is painted a mix of Deck Tan and an off-white yellow brown.  It's not wood.  I'm ok with that.

 

 

More anon...

 

--John

[81-er]

Nice start there, John

 

James

[John Masters]

On 6/21/2023 at 9:21 AM, Tim R-T-C said:

I do love the slightly chunky stars on the decal sheet.

Me too. I think they are the stars I am supposed to use.

 

7 hours ago, 81-er said:

Nice start there, John

Thank you James...

 

..and there is more as of an hour ago:

 

Innards look pretty good.  

 

 

While they are setting up I will drill some holes.  Best to get this part out of the way sooner rather than later.

Nice plastic.  Easily drillable.  I also added a couple of pieces of brass rod to the wing roots of the lower wings.  

This is SOP for these kits.

 

 

With the innards all ready, it's time to button it up.  Thin glue, clamps, etc...It will need a tiny bit of filler or plastic strips here and there and some smoothing out, but all in all there were no issues with this stage.  I will really let that glue set up over night.

 

 

--John

 

 

 

 

 

 

[81-er]

Those innerds do look good

 

James

[John Masters]

21 hours ago, 81-er said:

Those innerds do look good

Thank you James.  I'll get more of this worked on today sometime.

[John Masters]

A tiny bit of work last night.  Crucial though.

 

 

Much more today, I hope.

 

--John

 

[John Masters]

I had to add a bit of strip to make the stabilizer even-Steven.

 

 

--John

[John Masters]

Lower wings are on.  I'm very relieved I added the brass rod.  It made all the difference in security and solidity.

 

 

 

And I used a typically hi-tech method for insuring the proper angle of dihedral white the glue set up.  Once again, the brass rod allowed me to really bend and shape the angle-to-the-fuselage.  Other wise they would have just snapped off.

 

 

More today, I hope.

 

--John

 

 

[Brandy]

This is coming along very nicely. The interior moulded details look passable too so that saved some work.

Add to that an unusual colour scheme and this should be a little cracker!

 

Ian 

 

 

[John Masters]

On 7/4/2023 at 6:48 PM, Brandy said:

This is coming along very nicely. The interior moulded details look passable too so that saved some work.

Add to that an unusual colour scheme and this should be a little cracker!

 

Thank you Ian.  I hope to work a bit more this evening.

[John Masters]

Bit of an update...I gave the wooden bits some 'wooden-ish' primer.  And the metal bits some grey primer.

 

 

I have also attached all the small bits on the fuselage. I will build the scarf ring assemble separately.  I will add the exhausts, guns, etc...once the fuselage is fully painted and before the top wing goes on.  I can see a small spot that will need some PPP.

 

 

--John

[John Masters]

Since I had the primer out, I figured I'd take care of this one too.  This grey will make a nice undercoat for the aluminum dope.  I also gave the wooden pieces a second, lighter layer.  Tomorrow I will rub on some Vallejo Wood with an ear bud.  Once that is dry I will lightly brush on some clear yellow.  That's my wood process. It take s a few days.  I did the prop too but it didn't make the photoshoot!

 

The guns and metal bits got some gunmetal and I mixed some Gunmetal with Red Leather and gave the exhausts their special colour and tone.

 

 

All primed and ready for what's next!

 

 

--John

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Grandboof]

Something different . Nice choice of colours too. Great work so far 

martin H

[John Masters]

4 hours ago, Grandboof said:

Something different . Nice choice of colours too. Great work so far 

Thank you Martin.  PPP and maybe some paint tonight.

 

 

[John Masters]

I've been away from the bench for a bit.  I promise to resume ASAP!

[John Masters]

Silly me.  Two things....I should have painted the rudder red before attaching it.  Oh well.  And, I finally noticed that all the struts are aluminum dope too.  That simplifies things.  I am using Vallejo Duraluminum.  Like it.

 

 

--John

[81-er]

That's looking nice and smooth

 

James

[Marklo]

Looks really well John.

[John Masters]

On 7/21/2023 at 12:54 PM, 81-er said:

That's looking nice and smooth

Thank you James.

 

19 hours ago, Marklo said:

Looks really well John.

Thank you Marklo.

 

I masked the tail and hairy-brushed the red.  I was worried that the airbrush would have not covered the aluminum as well. 

 

 

Looks good to me!

 

 

More today.  I need to push on with some serious modelling.  

 

--John

[81-er]

That looks very good! 

 

James

[John Masters]

10 hours ago, 81-er said:

That looks very good! 

Many thanks.  I decided to add all the little bits on the fuselage before anything else...pretty much everything but the full scarf ring assembly.  Along with the bombs, that will come last after the rigging.

 

 

 

The underside has the big bomb rack.  Note the construction instructions...wee teeny bits of bent plastic rod required.

 

 

 I was all set to go into that dark place when I noticed this...

 

 

Many thanks to the gods of modelling.

 

 

Yellow bombs.

 

 

I think I might end up attaching most of the decals and sealing them with varnish next.  Then I can add the exhaust and oil stains before attaching the top wing, struts, etc...

 

--John