**** DONE: 1/48 Polikarpov I-16 Type 10 - Winter War / Eastern War WWII

[N4521U]

I agree, nice start.

 

[ozhawk40]

Neat work so far John

 

[JKim]

The cockpit detail is a mixture of incredibly fine (instrument panel) and spartan (cockpit sidewalls) but in the end, I guess it all goes unseen. Since the sidewall paneling is not very sharp, I pre-shaded them in black before spraying them a light blue. I used a mixture of molded and photo-etched for the add-ons. Knob ends were beefed up using tiny drops of Elmer Glue and painted various primary colors. As a final touch, I gave the sidewalls a light pastel wash of brown.

From what I've read and seen, I know that the Polikarpov I-16 lacks a solid cockpit floor. I think if I were to try and detail the office a little more, I'd cut out kit cockpit floor but instead, I took a shortcut and simply used a two-tone paint job of light blue on the outside. The interior shots of preserved I-16's seemed to indicate light blue cockpit walls and interior green major components so hopefully that will give the illusion of the lack of a floor. The two-piece seat is pretty plain but looks complete with the addition of the PE seatbelts. The rudder pedals have two PE parts on each side, of which I lost one (a stirrup). I also had a hard time getting the belts to "sit" leaving a bunch of shiny CA glue residue all over the seat. So after it was all assembled, I shot the whole assembly with a light coat of flat to get rid of the shiny spots.

There are some fine (and I mean FINE) detail pieces that need to be added to the instrument panel in order to complete it. These little levers are absolutely tiny. Thank goodness for the magnifying glass or I would have never ever gotten them in place. The IP was finished off with some Elmers Glue knobs and a little detail painting.

The fuselage halves are glued together and the seams are given a preliminary sanding. Minor imperfections are filled with Mr. Surfacer 1000.

I've elected to leave the exhaust stacks off at this point. I am going to check the fit of the cowl to see if I can paint the aircraft without gluing the cowl in place. That way I can put the exhaust pipes in last and not have to mask them.

 

[Crimea_River]

Good work so far John.

 

[Wurger]

 

[JKim]

The cockpit assembly drops into the fuselage from below. There are no pins or slots to offer any sort of positive seating... it just kind of falls into place. The angle of the seat back is important but it's hard to dial it in during pre-assembly due to the inexactness of the fit of the cockpit into the fuselage. I put a bit of Testor's glue on the top edge of the seat back, dropped the cockpit in and secured the contact points (front corners of the cockpit floor and the fuselage sidewalls) with Tamiya liquid cement. Similar deal with the instrument panel.

Here is the view from the top. As you can see, visibility into the cockpit is VERY limited. You can't even see the instrument panel at all. The seatbelts stand out nicely though!

 

[JKim]

Thanks for all of the encouragement guys! I think the majority of this build will be focused on the exterior painting. I'm looking forward to getting the wings and tail surfaces into place!

 

[Wurger]

Well done.

 

[Crimea_River]

Sad that a lot of the nice details are hidden but great work nonetheless.

 

[Jeff Hunt]

Two thumbs up.

Jeff

 

[destrozas]

I arrive a little late and I'm sorry, in my view a few months ago to hangars senia Museum Battle of the Ebro, there are an I-16-10 known here by the "6 double" the domino that been in the tail, I made some pictures for details to mine I have done 1/32 you could have served you placed a photo so you can see.

 

[JKim]

Thanks for the great cockpit photos, Destrozas! I saw the ones in Fubar's post too... great references but my cockpit's already buried into the fuselage!

Rolling along now... this is going to be a quick build! With fuselage halves together, I contemplated how to attach the wings while minimizing the gaps. In the meantime, I prepared the landing gear and the numerous doors with paint and a light wash. White balance difficulties with my point-n-shoot cam gives the impression that they are green but they are actually bluish-grey, the same color as the cockpit walls.

Pre-fitting the wings led me to go with the standard construction order of wing attachment. The top wing halves were attached to the bottom wing and then the assembly was attached to the fuselage. It didn't fit as nicely as I hoped. I wanted to the leave the wing attachment joint as a panel line but due to the ill fit, I filled it in using Mr. White Putty finished off with Mr. Surfacer 1000. The back wing edge to the bottom fuselage joint proved to be more problematic. Due to a gap, the bottom back edge of the wing assembly didn't bond with the fuselage. This meant that the joint wasn't stable and the intial putty work cracked. I had fused the rest of the wing assembly pretty securely so there was nothing I could think of doing except trying to force a weld joint using liquid glue. It helped a little but I'm not convinced that a crack won't form there at some point in time. All that thinking and pre-planning and I still couldn't save myself this grief! Geo... if you read this, I suggest that you make sure that you get a good bond here!

The cowling was snapped on sans engine, the cockpit opening sealed with Tamiya tape and the landing gear openings stuffed with Silly Putty. I wanted to check the putty work so I primed the entire plane with Mr. Surfacer 1000 heavily thinned with Tamiya lacquer thinner.

The shape of the pudgy Polikarpov is finally revealed! After some finishing surface work, I will preshade and begin the camo painting!

 

[Crimea_River]

Looking good John. A gap like you have at the bottom wing to fuselage joint is better filled with plastic card or a piece of stretched sprue and then sanded.

 

[Wurger]

Nicely done.

 

[parsifal]

Great work. I really like the Eduard Kits, and i disagree that they are "over-=engineered". My issue with Eduard is their price, as a rule. In my part of the world they tend to be pricey.

 

[Wildcat]

Looking real good John

 

[JKim]

Looking good John. A gap like you have at the bottom wing to fuselage joint is better filled with plastic card or a piece of stretched sprue and then sanded.

Yes. There are definitely things that I need to add to my repertoire and utilizing plastic card is one of them. Thanks for the tip!

Great work. I really like the Eduard Kits, and i disagree that they are "over-=engineered". My issue with Eduard is their price, as a rule. In my part of the world they tend to be pricey.

Thank you! I'm obviously not that intimate with Eduard since this is my first Eduard kit but I am enjoying this one. I will definitely consider Eduard kits in the future. I really like the Profipack feature of included PE and masks,

 

[JKim]

Preshading...

Bottom of aircraft painted in light blue...

Top painted in green...

I did a little post shading but will do most of it after the gloss and decals are applied...

The front cowling remains unattached until I install the exhaust pipes...

 

[Wurger]

Looking very nice. But the pre-shading of the outer parts of wing and elevators seems to be illogical methinks.

 

[JKim]

Looking very nice. But the pre-shading of the outer parts of wing and elevators seems to be illogical methinks.

Illogical in what way? I'm using preshading to highlight the panel lines. The I-16 doesn't have panel lines on most of the fuselage and inner wings because of wood construction. So most of the wing paneling is on the outer parts of the wing.