The Little World

And it may be a Ukrainian ratte at that.

The kit has just been started – the cockpit tray completed and some preliminary wing work to box in the wheel wells – and already I am suspicious that this kit has Eastern European origins. Or at least Middle Europe. Middler than Germany, at any rate. In short, I think Revell have gotten some eastern moulds to make this one. The clues came with the fixture points for the smaller parts – mere bumps or depressions impressed in the styrene. Critical areas of fit that seem to depend on butt or edge joints with no re-enforcement or locating ledge. A cockpit that is just slightly too wide for the fuselage halves. ( with consequent hacking and trimming. )

Nevertheless, it has started reasonably well. There are some locating pins, albeit of a minuscule size. The fuselage fits together, though it would not stand much squeezing before it went pear-shaped. The wings close completely.

I am less sanguine about the way the fuselage had to be hacked apart to accomodate the observer and gunner. It is a kit that shares basic shape with several other variants and you are left to score and snap your way to the current version. Crude, Karel, crude.

That’s an unused part – the seats for a civilian airline version. Doesn’t hold much in the way of paying passengers, does it?

Addendum: Yup. Turned over several of the sprues and found the ICM logo.  Scalemates confirms it.