The Little World

This Il-2 is the gift of a club-mate; John. It has been sitting in the stash long enough – the idea has sprouted. This is to be a winter Sturmovik. I shall risk the hazards of the Czech decals and try to put the complete Soviet slogans on the side when it is finished.

I’ve got an Il-2 in the collection in the Uszhitmi Museum, but it is a built-up commercial model in summer colours. Nice, but it tells me nothing about the actual plane. Building the kit will fill in the details.

I’m also lucky in that there is a book in the SMCWA library written by a Soviet flier of the period who operated the Il-2 over many fronts. It’s actually well-written – not too much propaganda and a great deal of anecdotal material from the chap’s actual experiences.

The kit itself is Smêr and shows it- there is a good deal of flash and burring. All the parts appear to be moulded well once you cut through the excess to them. The clear sprue tree is superb.

I will let you know how the cockpit fits when I get there but I note that the instructions caution the builder to dry-fit the engine cowling before any cementation so even the Czechs aren’t that sanguine about it all. The interior is listed as a light grey – not into the Russian peacock blues.

There have been a few builds recently that have not gotten full documentation – laziness, perhaps, or just the desire to build for my own pleasure rather than publication. I daresay the results will be seen in larger dioramas. This Soviet bomber represents a return to the reports. I find there are far more of them than can be seen in any one year, but at least it makes the scheduling for the weblog column easier.

Note for steady readers:

At some stage of he game i am going to run out of picture space for the Little World and have to shift the publication to a paid site. This will be an occasion when I combine all three weblog columns I write into one. But don’t worry – I’ll still push out one per day in each category – it will mean that you have access to something else with your morning toast and coffee.