The Little World

Well, they would be with a model from Ukraine, wouldn’t they… Boom Boom.

The odd little slippers are not for feet – they are the over-wing gondolas that were apparently fitted to the Polikarpov U-2 to evacuate wounded Soviet soldiers. The instruction sheet shows a U-2 in winter camouflage with ski landing gear and these open structures fitted on each lower wing.

Read that again. Russia. Winter. Open biplane. Open gondolas. Wounded soldiers put in them for transport back to a hospital. If it makes any sense to you, write me.

The engine of the U-2 is a small gem. It’s up to 6 parts in this subassembly photo and 4 more will go on before it is bolted onto the front of the 1:72 model…presumably by someone who has not been drinking.

And the final sub-assembly – the seats. 5 parts per seat and that doesn’t include seat belts. They do indeed fit in the cockpit and attach to the floor and the cross-struts. At least someone in the ICM factory remains sober.