Eduard 1:48 - Polikarpov I-16

[shortCummins]

I'm building Eduard's 1:48 profilePACK Polikarpov I-16



all of the sprues come in one plastic bag, it would be better if they were in separate bags


the fuselage comes on two sprues


the wings


undercarriage and exhausts


engine cowling, rear stabilisers, cockpit, propellor, spinner and wheels


only two parts on the clear sprue, canopy and gunsight


I've read that the decals are by cartograph, however the paper states only the Eduard name


Being a ProfiPACK version it contains PE, part of which is pre-painted, IP and seat-belts, and also a set of wheel and canopy masks.



the instruction manual is 12 pages of colour A5


sprue map


instructions




four paint schemes



first impressions is that this looks a good little kit, the landing gear looks "interesting" so some care will have to be taken with that but overall it has a nice blend of PE and moulded detail, I'm looking forward to starting this in the New Year

I'll be back soon with some history on the I-16

rgds
John(shortCummins)

[patrickroos]

Had my eyes on this kit for a long time now, looking forward to see how it goes together.
Looks very nice!
Good luck with the build!

[Nige201980]

I've seen this kit about and it looks intresting looking forward to seeing it come together best of luck with the build.

[shortCummins]

I've seen this kit about and it looks intresting looking forward to seeing it come together best of luck with the build.

thanks Nige

first impressions of the kit are its really nice, the moulded detail is mainly crisp, very little flash and we all know the quality of Eduard PE

now I have to decide which scheme?

rgds
John(shortCummins)

[shortCummins]

while we're waiting for the New Year here's some history on the aircraft copied from the Eduard instructions and Wikipedia…

The Polikarpov I-16 was a Soviet fighter aircraft of revolutionary design; it was the world's first low-wing cantilever monoplane fighter with retractable landing gear to have attained operational status and as such "introduced a new vogue in fighter design." The I-16 was introduced in the mid-1930s and formed the backbone of the Soviet Air Force at the beginning of World War II. The diminutive fighter, nicknamed "Ishak" or "Ishachok" ("Donkey" or "Burro") by Soviet pilots, prominently featured in the Second Sino-Japanese War, the Battle of Khalkhin Gol and the Spanish Civil War – where it was called the Rata ("Rat") by the Nationalists or Mosca ("Fly") by the Republicans. The Finnish nickname was Siipiorava ("Flying Squirrel").

One of the most popular and best known Russian aircraft ever built was born in 1933. On the last day of that year, on December 31, the famous Soviet aviator Valerij Tchalov conducted the maiden flight of the new CKB-12 prototype. The CKB-12 was a very modern and revolutionary design at the time. The installed powerplant was a Shvetsov M-22 engine (a license built Bristol Jupiter) rated at 480 hp, instead of the anticipated Shvetsov M-25 engine giving 750 hp. That was a Soviet license built Wright R-1820 Cyclone. Although the new aircraft was a bit underpowered, Tchalov was amazed with its flight capabilities and especially its sensitivity of control. The second prototype was outfitted with an imported original Wright Cyclone engine, and the aircraft performance greatly improved. After necessary development and improvements, serial production was ordered at Zavod 39 in Moscow and at Zavod 21 in Gorki under the VVS (Soviet Air Force) designation I-16. These aircraft were equipped with the M-22 engine, because the new M-25 powerplant was not yet available, and no weapons were installed. Maximum speed of these first I-16s was 362 km/h at sea level and 346 km/h at 3000 m. Fifty aircraft were manufactured at Zavod 39, known as I-16 without any additional suffix designation. Zavod 21 produced the first batch of I-16, though with some difficulties, because three other aircraft types were on their production lines. For this reason, Zavod 21´s I-16 were suffixed as "Type 4". In late summer, 1934, the first aircraft reached VVS units.

Reception of the new aircraft was cool, to put it gently. The flight characteristics were very different from the operational biplanes then in service; control was overly sensitive, and the landing speed too high with a lack of frontal view due to the wide nose. The lack of landing flaps, compensated for by the downward deflection of the ailerons acting as flaps on landing, didn´t made the landing any easier. Accident rates soared to unacceptable levels, and reached the point where units couldn´t achieve operational status. At this time, five NII VVS (Air force research institute) pilots, Kokkinaki, Suprun, Preman, Evseev and Shevchenko, made a tour of air force bases. With their red painted I-16, they demonstrated the aircraft´s performance and potential. In late Spring, 1935, M-25 engine was finally available in sufficient quantities. The new engine received a new Watter type cowling, giving the I-16 its characteristic shape. The flight characteristics were unchanged, but the performance significantly improved.

The maximum speed was now 390 km/h at sea level, and 445 km/h at 3 000m. The aircraft was now armed with two 7,62 mm ShKAS machine guns mounted in the wings. By January 1936, the Type 5 replaced the Type 4 on the production lines at Zavod 21. Still a fresh newcomer on the fighter scene, the I-16 Type 5 soon got the chance to show their stuff in a real fight. During the Spanish Civil War, the I-16 built its great warrior reputation. Until 1938, the Type 5 remained as the main version, marginally updated to the Type 6, but it is not certain if this was an official designation. Besides Spain, the Type 5 saw combat over China, where these aircraft were sent along with Soviet crews. By 1937, initial troubles were forgotten, but new critics were found. Therefore, the new and improved Type 10 was introduced, instigating some significant changes. First, the new M-25V 750 hp engine was installed. The wing was re-designed to include landing flaps.

Two 7,62 mm ShKAS machine guns were added on top of the engine, with two corresponding fairings on the engine cowling. The cockpit was improved, and the canopy was completely redesigned, with an all-glass single piece windscreen ahead of a now open cockpit. Maximum speed was 390 km/h at sea level and 438 km/h at 3200 m. The Type 10´s production started at Gorki in March, 1938. The Type 10 reached Spain as well as China, and fought against the Japanese over Chalkin-Gol and Chasan Lake. They saw action in the Winter War against the Finns, and also fought in Poland in the Autumn of 1939. In June, 1941, when the USSR was attacked by Germany and the Great Patriotic began, the I-16 Type 10 remained, along with other I-16 versions, the main weapon of VVS fighter units. In total some 9450 I-16s of all versions were produced, most of them, to the tune of 8495, by Zavod 21 at Gorki. Type 10 was followed by improved versions, Type 17, 24 and 29.

The first I-16s, the Types 5 and 6, appeared in Spanish skies in November 1936. Republican government bought 422 I-16s from Soviet Union, but only about 293 aircraft was delivered to the Spanish hands due to the various issues. The I-16s experienced their baptism of fire on the 13 November 1936, when 12 I-16s (Type 5 and Type 6) intercepted a Nationalist bombing raid on Madrid. The I-16s immediately began dominating the enemy He 51s, Arado Ar 68 and Fiat CR.32 biplanes until the arrival of the Messerschmitt Bf 109.

Combat experience showed the I-16´s weaknesses also; several aircraft were lost after structural failure of the wings, machine gun bullets could sometimes penetrate the armoured backrest and fuel tanks protection. The Mediterranean climate required more efficient oil radiators. The dust shortened the life of the engines. The inadequate light armament of only two 7.62 mm (0.30 in) machine guns (three ones in the Type 6 case) insufficient in combat with modern bombers led to the arrival of the four-gun Type 10. The total number of I-16s delivered to Spain in 1936-1938 amounted to 276. By the war end on 1 April 1939 the total of 187 Ratas was lost in Spain: 112 in the aerial combat, one shot down by anti-aircraft fire, 11 destroyed on the ground, one force-landed and 62 lost in accidents.

After the Nationalist's victory 22 captured Ratas were assigned to Grupo 28. Their number had increased to 52 later. The first 22 captured I-16s acted as Grupo 1W, then the designation of group changed to Grupo 28 de Caza (Fighter Group). The group was based at air station, San-Juan on the island of Majorca. By the autumn of 1940 all the I-16s had been transferred to Sevilla where they joined Grupo 26. In 1945 the Spanish Air Force introduced the new system of designation. Ratas then received a code C.8 instead of 1W. The national insignia - Red / Yellow cocardes were added to the sides of the fuselage. At about this time, Grupo 26 was renamed to Grupo 22. In the early 1950's, the surviving I-16s were used at a fighter school in Morón. On August 15th, 1953, Miguel Entrena flew the last serviceable I-16 for the last time and terminated the interesting career of the "Rata" in the Spanish sky.

General characteristics
Crew: One
Length: 6.13 m (20 ft 1 in)
Wingspan: 9 m (29 ft 6 in)
Height: 3.25 m (10 ft 8 in)
Wing area: 14.5 m² (156.1 ft²)
Empty weight: 1,490 kg (3,285 lb)
Loaded weight: 1,941 kg (4,279 lb)
Max. takeoff weight: 2,095 kg (4,619 lb)
Powerplant: 1 × Shvetsov M-63 supercharged air-cooled radial engine, 820 kW (1,100 hp) driving a two-blade propeller

Performance
Maximum speed: 525 km/h (283 kn, 326 mph) at 3,000 m (9,845 ft)
Range: 700 km (378 nmi, 435 mi (with drop tanks))
Service ceiling: 9,700 m (31,825 ft)
Rate of climb: 14.7 m/s (2,900 ft/min)
Wing loading: 134 kg/m² (27 lb/ft²)
Power/mass: 346 W/kg (0.21 hp/lb)
Time to altitude: 5.8 minutes to 5,000 m (16,405 ft)

Armament
2 × fixed forward-firing 7.62 mm (0.30 in) ShKAS machine guns in upper cowling
2 × fixed forward-firing 20 mm (0.79 in) ShVAK cannons in the wings
6 × unguided RS-82 rockets or up to 500 kg (1,102 lb) of bombs

until next time
rgds
John(shortCummins)

[TomasGould]

I'm also going to build this kit in this GB, and I have the same problem as you with which scheme I will do lol

[shortCummins]

I'm also going to build this kit in this GB, and I have the same problem as you with which scheme I will do lol

ha ha Tomas, just to add a some more into the mix I found these so I really don't know what to choose



I'll probably end up using some "artistic licence" and take bits from one or more

good luck with your build

rgds
John(shortCummins)

[TomasGould]

Hahahaha lol

Thanx John and good luck with yours too

[shortCummins]

So the first thing to decide was should I use the PE cockpit door, if I was going to use it then I'd have to cut out the moulded version.


Before I started cutting I thought I'd bend the PE and see what it looked like. The problem as far as I could see was going to be the double fold at the top of the door however that wasn't too much of an issue, the hinged part turned out to be really fragile and fell-off


…so that made my mind up for me!

Then I moved on to the PE leavers…



… and then the seat and foot controls


fixing the seat is a bit hit and miss, there's no fixing point for the "seat" so I balanced it against the seat back and dropped a couple of drops of extra-thin on the floor and join between the seat and seat back, I'm not convinced it'll stay in place.

The last thing I did was to spray some undercoat, I'll let it cure overnight and finish up the cockpit tomorrow
until next time
as always, any suggestions or comments will be gratefully received.
rgds
John(shortCummins)

[shortCummins]

time for some paint, here's what I plan to use…

Alkan USSR WWII set

Alkan and a couple of Model Air

a few Tamiya paints...

…and a MrColor iron


for first up was the interior, Model Air 71.045 (US light grey) with Tamiya XF-71 (interior green) for the controls and Alkan red for the handles


the opposite side had Alkan red and yellow for the handles


the cockpit floor and seat were painted Tamiya XF-71, "leather bits" Tamiya XF-64 (red brown)


the IP is photo etch


next I'll weather the interior
until next time
as always, any suggestions or comments will be gratefully received.
rgds
John(shortCummins)

[shortCummins]

So today I've finished the cockpit, nailed the two halves of the fuselage together and added the wings.

cockpit weatherd and dry brushed…




I dried some Ultimate "dark dirt" and used the clay(?) residue as a pigment to imitate dried mud, my reasoning is that these aircraft would have been flown out of "grass" airfields and the pilot's boots would have gotten the cockpit floor muddy.
Also added were the PE seat-belts…



I also added some of the "mud" to the lower part of the cockpit side walls…



Next I fitted the IP and seat, joystick and rudder pedal assembly.
This was an "interesting" exercise as there are no location markers and the manual is a little vague, still I think its gone OK.
The exhausts have no guides as to where they should fit, eye-balling and best guess are whats called for, the instructions really aren't too much help either


The only place that I can glue the seat assembly is where it touches the fuselage side at the front and where the back of the seat meets the top of the fuselage, "best guess"

As you can see from these photo's not much of the cockpit is visible, the IP is totally hidden.
The wings have also been fitted, your required to use your judgement once again…



There's a little gap at the back of the wing assembly , I'll try to fill it with superglue, failing that some squadron putty


I guess I might have been a little over-critical of the lack of guidance as to where to fit things as overall its not a bad fit, the kit could have some/better location guides but all-in-all its not too bad and common sense should see you right?

Rear and horizontal stabilisers need to be fitted and then preparation for the camo, that means I'll have to decide on a scheme

until next time
as always, any suggestions or comments will be gratefully received.
rgds
John(shortCummins)

[heel]

Very nice John and the mud is a great touch.

[TomasGould]

Looks great John!!
Me myself are waiting for paint I've ordered

[shortCummins]

Very nice John and the mud is a great touch.

Looks great John!!
Me myself are waiting for paint I've ordered

thanks guys, its going together far quicker than I expected, its a nice little kit

rgds
John(shortCummins)

[shortCummins]

So I've decided what scheme to use however first I need to put down some primer



I needed to do this a couple of times as the first time showed some seam-lines that needed attention, I've used mig surface primer

I know pre-shading has fallen out of fashion lately, but I still think it can do the job. On the underside I first used a thinned brown, but this didn't show enough so I swapped over to black.



The scheme I've chosen is this


if you look look at the aircraft in the distance, its the same number and slogan as the one above


I'm going to use the number and slogan(s) supplied with the kit but with the red engine cover and yellow tip to the vertical stabiliser

Alkan AMT - 2 blue for the underside


I first sprayed white as a base for the yellow fin


masking to protect the blue from overspray


next I masked for the red and yellow


red and yellow sprayed and masks removed



next will be the green and then panel shading
until next time
as always, any suggestions or comments will be gratefully received.
rgds
John(shortCummins)

[Smiffy]

Looking really good so far John.

[peppie]

The red looks very good with the preshading

[JudgeDredd]

If there was a prize for the first finished, it would definitely be between you and Paul at the moment!

Nice work.

[shortCummins]

Looking really good so far John.

thanks Smiffy

The red looks very good with the preshading

the red really adds something and I'm pleased with the way its come out

If there was a prize for the first finished, it would definitely be between you and Paul at the moment!

Nice work.

ha ha, normally I'm really slow however I've got some time off (I'm waiting to move house) so happy days I can spend some time modelling

rgds
John(shortCummins)

[shortCummins]

just a quick update, I've painted the main camo colour, Alkan 4BO Protective Dark-Green…






with Alkan AMT - 7 Blue on the underside…


really happy with how the red and green look, even better than I imagined
I've got to say these paints are very, very good, if you've not tried them do, you won't be disappointed

next up is some panel fading, chipping/scratches and weathering
until next time
as always, any suggestions or comments will be gratefully received.
rgds
John(shortCummins)

[TommyKillander]

Awesome!

It looks amazing


Tommy

[planemaker]

Very nice and clean work, John. I like the fading of the colour.

[ThomasBrown]

Awesome stuff. Love the I-16.

[shortCummins]

Awesome!

It looks amazing


Tommy

thanks Tommy

Very nice and clean work, John. I like the fading of the colour.

I'll be adding to the fading and then I'll start on chipping

Awesome stuff. Love the I-16.

Thanks Thomas, its a really small aircraft, at some point I'll show it next to either a Spitfire or Mustang, perhaps both?

thanks for the encouragement lads

[shortCummins]

I managed to get a couple of hours this afternoon, first up was to mask for the back of the exhaust deflectors and spray flat black (Tamiya).


mask removed


after that I spent some time adding shades of green to try and break-up the monotone colour. I mixed Alkan 4BO with some yellow to highlight certain areas, then I added AMT-4 (Dark Green) to darken other parts…


you may have noticed that I've masked the yellow fin, I plan to try and highlight the control surfaces, I'm in two minds about this so this evening I'll have a practice on some spare plastic as see how it turns out.

Anyhow I'll be adding some chips/scratches before applying the decals and starting the weathering proper (Ultimate washes etc)
until next time
as always, any suggestions or comments will be gratefully received.
rgds
John(shortCummins)

[TomasGould]

Wow!! What an amazing word!!!

[martin57]

great kit , looking good, well done to you.

[shortCummins]

Wow!! What an amazing word!!!

thanks Tomas
I hope you enjoy your build as much as I've enjoyed mine

great kit , looking good, well done to you.

thanks Martin
have followed most of your builds that means a lot

rgds
John(shortCummins)

[shortCummins]

Engine "test" fitted and chipping started




engine nailed in place



decals added…




I really like the big slogans written on the side of this aircraft

The Eduard decals were really easy to use, very thin and behaved themselves conforming to the aircraft with ease

So I've gloss varnished the decals and next I'll apply the Ultimate wash(s)
until next time
as always, any suggestions or comments will be gratefully received.
rgds
John(shortCummins)

[Sturm]

Looking good so far!
I should really try these Eduard kits.

[shortCummins]

Looking good so far!
I should really try these Eduard kits.

thanks Sturm
the model builds quite nicely however some of the kit is over-complicated, the landing gear as an example, with little or no location markers, those that are there are totally inadequate. This is not a kit for a beginner, I class myself as a beginner having only come back to the hobby just over a year ago, having said that it was cheap and is an interesting aircraft.

rgds
John(shortCummins)

[shortCummins]

Today has been mainly weathering, first was Ultimate dark dirt (old version)


… I always think twice before doing this

Ultimate dried and cleaned

I cleaned the wash in the direction of the airflow, you can see that quite clearly here


close-ups




Then I started the landing gear


as you can see from the instructions there are 10 pieces per landing strut!


quite why its so complicated is beyond me and the placement of most of the parts is "best guess"

So when I've finished the landing gear I'll add the canopy, propellor and a few other bits and pieces and than she'll be done

until next time
as always, any suggestions or comments will be gratefully received.
rgds
John(shortCummins)

[P51dplt]

Looks great! Very nicely done.

[shortCummins]

Looks great! Very nicely done.

thanks

[shortCummins]

I've finished the landing gear , added the missing bits'n'pieces and finished the weathering, here's the completed landing gear



The I-16 was a small aircraft, here's a comparison I've photo'd it next to a P-51D Mustang



you can see the final reveal photos here…
http://www.intscalemodeller.com/viewtop ... 51&t=16114

as always, any suggestions or comments will be gratefully received.
rgds
John(shortCummins)

[TomasGould]

Wow!!! Amazing work!!! I'm still building My cockpit lol

[JudgeDredd]

Excellent work...and finished before I've even started mine!

[gaz45]

Very nice work there mate