stevehnz Posted October 15 Posted October 15 I'm hoping this little job will be as simple as it appears, Yeah right. I'll be using some LF decals for the Finnish scheme & somewhere along the way, attempting some rigging, though I greatly doubt if I'll try to recreate the double flying wires the box art shows. The colour info on this appears a lot better than for the Provost. I'll likely not be doing too much on this & the Provost build till I get at least one of my current builds out of the way. Steve. 16
PattheCat Posted October 15 Posted October 15 Never looked at a I-15 build. Taking a seat. I'll do my best to spill no popcorn nor leave beer stains. 1
stevehnz Posted October 15 Author Posted October 15 3 hours ago, PattheCat said: Never looked at a I-15 build. Taking a seat. I'll do my best to spill no popcorn nor leave beer stains. I'll alert the ushers. Steve. 1
Andwil Posted October 15 Posted October 15 Watching how this goes together with interest as I have one in the stash. I built the ICM I-16 a few years ago and could not get the wonderfully detailed engine to fit in the cowling, so I left it out as it would have been invisible anyway! AW 1
stevehnz Posted October 17 Author Posted October 17 On 10/15/2024 at 8:51 PM, stevehnz said: I'll likely not be doing too much on this & the Provost build till I get at least one of my current builds out of the way. Ok, so I lied. I couldn't resist a fiddle with this after @Andwil's comment about the cowl on the I-16. I'm happy to report that the cowl on this, all 4 pieces of it, has no trouble accommodating the engine. That's the good news. The prop shaft, which has three diameters, was too long. The shaft is retained by a thicker section in the middle which is trapped between the crankcase at the rear & the reduction case at the front, so I chopped about 1.5mm out of it & all seems to be OK there now. After that I looked at the cockpit & looked & looked & still struggled to see how it all fitted. I eventually found some info on the Inch High Guy's blog & a good walkaround of a preserved one which demystified things rather. It still looks as though it is going to require a few of my dwindling supply of mini skyhooks to keep it all in place & like AW said above, the engine will be invisible behind a pierced plate & most of the cockpit will be likewise invisible, but being a perverse sort of git I'll likely build it all in, 'cause I'll know it's there. Reading the IHG blog, I reckon I might be in for some strut building too. Steve. 5
stevehnz Posted October 17 Author Posted October 17 4 minutes ago, Andwil said: All in all it sounds like a lot of fun! AW Something like that. Steve.
PeterB Posted October 18 Posted October 18 I too did the ICM I-16 a few years ago and thought that the engine/cowl was perhaps a little over detailed/complicated, but got there in the end, though clearer instructions would have helped. Whilst it is of course good that modern kits often have rather more detail than old ones, sometimes the designers cross the boundary between what is buildable by the average modeller and something that is real hard work. Pete 1
stevehnz Posted October 21 Author Posted October 21 Other than some seat belts, this is ready to seal up now. Most of what I've done will be invisible but I'll know its there. The instructions for the cockpit had me puzzling, it seemed I was supposed to place the guns on the floor rather than the instrument panel, till I saw a photo of a stripped one on @Massimo Tessitori's page (about 1/2 way down & suddenly realised that the small round openings in the face of the engine baffles were for the lower pair of machine guns. I've set them a bit higher than the floor, more in line with the opens as I saw it. The ciggy lighter is to give an idea of how tiny this thing is. Bending & gluing 18 push rod tubes wasn't the funnest thing I've done for a while, initially they stuck straight out of the side of the front engine housing. Steve. 17
Pedro52 Posted October 21 Posted October 21 @stevehnz, mind if I pull up a chair and follow along, got one on the bench But will be giving the rigging lines a miss. Was wondering where the guns went 👍. 1
stevehnz Posted October 21 Author Posted October 21 1 hour ago, Pedro52 said: Was wondering where the guns went 👍. I'm not saying that is where they went exactly but pretty close to it. That photo on Massimo's page was a game breaker in figuring them out. The two pieces that fit the inner fuselage contours at the front of the side framing got cut back on their inner sides level with the framing once they were in place & set & the guns simply glued to them in about the right height +/-. The framing didn't allow enough width at the back for the seat till I used a peg to squeeze it against the inner fuselage sides & glued them in place, then the seat/floor assemble fit ok. The small pegs on the side of the floor piece actually fit over the side frames nicely after that, both sides too. The walk around I linked to a couple of posts higher shows that the head rest was not attached to the seat & so I cut it away & will glue it into the upper fairing separately. Pretty much everything fits once you get the sides set up right using the front pieces. I don't agree with the Inchhighguy saying to throw those front pieces away but what he says about the side frames must clear the cockpit doors is pretty much right. What I've done might leave them slightly too high but not by much. Rigging? Hmmmm, I'm still out on that, depends on how much hassle I have with the main interwing struts. Steve. 4
stevehnz Posted October 25 Author Posted October 25 As of tonight the fuselage is joined up, cockpit detail being painted, a seat belt of sorts in place & I'm sick of looking at it. Should be able to attach the engine & try to make the bottom wing fit over the weekend. Excuse the Provost cockpit in the front, I'm trying to economise on Flickr photos. Steve. 17
stevehnz Posted October 25 Author Posted October 25 Thanks Pat, it is a funny little thing, I reckon a squadron of these in the air would have looked like a swarm of bumble bees. Steve. 1 3
PeterB Posted October 27 Posted October 27 Quite an interesting family of planes - !-15, I-15Bis and I-153 - I have always fancied building at least one but never have. Pete 1
stevehnz Posted November 3 Author Posted November 3 10 minutes ago, stevej60 said: Coming along nicely Steve. Thanks Steve. It'd go quicker if I hadn't watched so much TV today, but her indoors is away for the weekend & I can watch what I want or had recorded on the TV without having to compete with soaps & real estate programmes. Never let a chance go by eh? Maybe fortunate in a way as this evening, while mulling over an issue with it, I found the answer in Nick Millman's Aviation of Japan blog, featuring a build by our very own @Old Man with some excellent tips in there. Ever so useful, as I'm looking to start putting the wings together. The bottom ones are already in place so I'll have to modify Jame's method a little. Steve. 3
JOCKNEY Posted Friday at 11:07 PM Posted Friday at 11:07 PM Hi Have you had a chance to make any more progress on this one ? Cheers Pat
stevehnz Posted Saturday at 04:32 AM Author Posted Saturday at 04:32 AM 10 hours ago, JOCKNEY said: Hi Have you had a chance to make any more progress on this one ? Cheers Pat Slowly slowly catchee monkee with this one Pat, but like the Provost, with the others out of the way, there should be some before long. Steve. 1
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