Category: Soviet aircraft
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MiG 17 – Part One – I Buy By Price
And I buy cheap. My trip to the hobby shop was for paint – of course I detoured into the kit aisle, and of course I looked over all the 1:72 offerings there. The shop is one that I rarely get to, so it may contain things not seen before. This was so, but while…
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Petlyakov Pe-2 – Part Four – Yet Another Soviet Triumph
Pardon me if I start to sound a little cynical – I’ve been reading Soviet accounts of their air force in the Great Patriotic War. In various articles I’ve been told that three separate Soviet aircraft were the most produced planes of all time and won the war. The articles originate from within what was…
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Petlyakov – Pe-2 – Part Three – Plugging Up the Holes
I had no idea when I was building model kits as a youngster that there would be a need to plug up cockpits, bomb bays, wheel wells, and every blessed hole in a fuselage. That was well before spray paint cans and any thought of an airbrush. Plain old manual brushes were the go –…
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Petlyakov Pe-2 – Part One – Father’s Day Last Year
Make no mistake about it. When a gift-giving date approaches I do not hesitate to go down to the hobby shop and either reserve a kit or buy one outright. Then the gift-givers can go and pay for it or refund me. Charity begins at home and I know where I live. The Pe-2 is a Mister…
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Your Cabin Is Ready, Mr. Lincolnski
I am a sucker for good ideas, and I occasionally have them. Not for long, because when I recognise one I immediately change it for a mistake. Not in this case, However… I am building two more diorama trays for the library exhibit – the first two of RCAF WET DOG seem to have worked…
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The Next Big Thing
Is the next small thing. Right now people who went to the recent WASMEX show are planning their next build. The serious have already cut styrene off sprue trees. The real hard core are applying undercoat… Part of it will be inspiration – people have seen lovely models on display and want to emulate the…
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Polikarpov I-16 – Part Four – Stalin’s Falcons
Well, they had to be different from the Adlers of the Germans and the Bald Eagles of the Americans. And these fighters were tiny things – so it was either going to be Falcons or Tits. And you can play with tits as much as you wish… Actually, I think the Falcon name was attached…
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Polikarpov I-16 – Part Three – Sandwich Size
The primer stage emphasises just how small this fighter is. And how much effort was put into streamlining it in an art-deco fashion. The side panels fit very well, the horizontal tail plane locks the fuselage halves together, and the tailpiece smooths the rear. I’ve followed the practice of temporarily sealing the landing gear covers…
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Polikarpov I-16 – Part Two – The Donk
If someone is so kind as to prepare an entire aero engine for me, I should be very ungrateful not to take notice of their effort. This is the philosophy that compelled me to construct a tiny, hidden component for the I-16. It has worked out beautifully, and I am loathe to close it in…
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Polikarpov I-16 – Part One – What Animal Is That?
Is it a mule, a fly, or an ant? All three nicknames have been used for this small Soviet fighter plane from the 1930’s. It was a somewhat revolutionary craft at a turning point in aviation that went from biplanes to monoplanes. One might have expected the Soviets to follow their standard Russian pattern of…
The Little World 