The Little World

Say what you like about Soviet bomber designers of the 1930’s, few could match them for the ability to hope.

Hope that their designs would be accepted, Hope that they would fly. Hope that they would not be imprisoned or liquidated.

This assembly of sheet metal and hubris seems to have made it through the process – even getting to the point where some could be sent to China to battle the Japanese. Not successfully, you understand, but hopefully…

The ICM kit is a product of the day – the moulding processes available in Ukraine during 1990’s being quite good and the designers as ambitious as their old Soviet counterparts.

And parts you get. The instruction sheet shows me that I’ll be cementing plastic formers inside the external sheets making up the wing much as a balsa wood builder might with a flying model. I am required to be 90º precise…

There are lots of interior parts before this time arrives, so I may be able to quiet the nerves somewhat. The kit is moulded for the 4-wheel main gear that the Soviets used – I see one old internet image of one of the later ships with gigantic single wheels. I like this, but the fuselage is quite different, so it is the 4-wheel this time.

At least the ICM factory have included the KMT air force suns on the decal sheet. I shall be sealing it well before attempting that stage but by then my nerves will be either steel or shot…