The Little World

My brother-in-law, actually. We have Christmas lunch at his house most years. Not a prolific model builder, but he has completed some from-the-plan models of ships and boats. He’s more of a full-size builder of houses and cars.

But back to the Bob. This model of the Ilyushin 4 was part of the Father’s Day bonanza I scored from Hobbytech in Myaree. They get in batches of 1:72 from various makers and this time the shelf was stocked with Mister Craft kits. All at advantageous prices, I might add. We’re looking at $ 30 on the outside of the box here – and inside we are looking at a repackaged Zvezda kit.

Like the Petlyakov 2 that was recently completed, this kit still has the Zvezda plates attached to the sprue trees. It may have Russian decals as well – I can’t tell. The instructions are new-made by the Polish firm that’s selling the kit, and they are actually amongst the best for eastern Europe – far better than their Czech competitors. The kits may be a borrow, but the bargain is there.

And it is a bargain. The sprue trees show a certain amount of flash and burr – I do not expect better – but it is all manageable. The level of detail is at least as good as Matchbox and possibly nearing Italeri standard. The plastic is very slightly soft – about like old Airfix consistency. The clear parts are well done…though I am always daunted by a clear nose or canopy that comes in two parts. In the case of this Ilyushin the painting of the nose should cover a multitude of sins.

The real surprise on looking at the instructions is the way Zvezda have decided to mould the wing and engine parts – this is the first ten-part basic wing assembly I’ve seen and it means that there will have to be some very careful alignment to get all the components aiming in the same direction. Also some pretty solid cementing between the interfaces. No super-thin glue here…

The decals look fine, though I am always leery of long propaganda lines of Cyrillic script flowing along the side of a fuselage. I may well choose a different scheme than that of the box. The kit provides a complete torpedo layout including air reservoir but makes no provision for it in the instructions – Google has pictures of the real things in WWII.

There is also a preserved Il-4 at Monino in fresh colours that looks attractive. No communist slogan down the side…