The Little World

Part-fit stage is looking good.

The cockpit has proved wonderful – in Czech terms that means it has a ledge to sit in and fits onto the lendge without hack-sawing anything. The fuselage closes…almost…The wings are in register and they have decided shapes to fit onto the fuselage. And the tail surfaces are such a close fit as to eliminate the need for pinning. I may be on a winner here.

The amount of filling on the fuselage is minimal – I keep some sheets of Evergreen thin plastic card for these purposes. If you slot it into gaps with a thin cement you can get an immensely strong joint that sands well. A tiny gap at the nose wil disappear in 5 minutes work.

The Soviet bombs are intriguing. I’ll opt for the 8 bomblets on the outer wing panels plus the two smaller bombs you see in the heading image – like footballs with tails.

The long-tail bombs are the ones that interest me – they were possibly purpose-built or could have been conversions from artillery shells. It’s the long tails that look odd. I don’t think the IL-2 bombers attacked the Germans from high altitudes or with precision sights like the Norden. They were probably bouncing these things down on bridges or armour from 200 ft. or less. So why the long fins? To get some stability before impact?

I need to speak to an old Soviet pilot.