GB-46 1:48 Il-2m3 - WW2 Eastern Front / Twin Engine A/C, Transports and Gliders

[T Bolt]

Nice choice Andy

 

[Crimea_River]

Thanks Glenn.

Well I made a small start today on this, my first Russian subject. I'm proceeding a little blindly here as I'm totally unused to the colours. I've settle on trying to emulate the A-14 grey colour for the cockpit despite the instructions and several other references saying it to be "grey-green" and others calling for a very light grey equating to Tamiya XF-19 which is lighter than RAF Medium Sea Grey. Massimo's website gives an equivalent of FS26187 for A-14 and Wojtek says it's FS36270 . What the hey!!! The two colours are shown here and they're pretty close:

Going though my array of Tamiay paints, there's no way XF-19 matches those and the closest is actually XF-82 RAF Ocean Grey (2) so that's what I shot here on the first few assembled cockpit parts.

I'll allow this to sink in and will give time for all those knowledgeable on this subject to voice their admiration or disgust as the case may be.

 

[Wurger]

PS. Actually, the A-14 colour is said to be "stalnoy" what means the steel tone.

 

[Crimea_River]

Thanks Wojtek. So the colour is ok I guess. Funny that the two FS swatches look very different on my phone than on my laptop which goes to show how 'useful' it is to discuss colours this way.

 

[Wurger]

 

[Airframes]

Good start Andy. I know b*gger all about Russian aircraft of the period, but are the rudder pedals supposed to be folded down like that ?

 

[Crimea_River]

That's how they are. What looks like a flat pedal is actually a space for resting the heel. It seems there is no pedal as we know it.

 

[Airframes]

Ah, utilitski, da ?

 

[Crimea_River]

Da tovarich! Nyet pedalski:

 

[nsmekanik]

Based on my pot of Akan A-14 I'd definitely go with the FS26187 , my problem with that as an interior color for everything is that most of the information is based on pre/post war rebuilds and artifacts, and I do believe that during the war many short cuts were taken, like a rivet in every second hole and mixing paints, to speed up production. The IL-2 was not unique to this and I think there are enough artifacts to support this. It should also be noted that the "Album Nabrosk" upon which much of now accepted colors are based is also a post war artifact, and, to date no documentation, as far as I'm aware of, generated during the war of any color standards has been found..............so to me it's like American "Apple Green" myth, sure, it did exist, but it wasn't used on everything everywhere all the time, and if you are not aware here is the damage done to a certain B-24 that was being refurbished in a certain museum based on that myth

Here's some "mood" pics to give more of a feel for things as they probably were, this If I recall correctly, was a post war refurbish, note the green bits.

Cheers Andy, looking forward to see what you do with this one.

 

[Crimea_River]

Thanks for all that Tim. Not sure what I'm going to do with it yet but I won't be adding anything other than seatbelts to the pit.

 

[Gnomey]

Good work so far Andy!

 

[Crimea_River]

I could have sworn I provided an update the other day but I must not have posted it. I remember everything I wrote down and the pictures I "posted" and they usually stay in the reply box until sent but now I see nothing. Very odd.

Anyway, here's some more. The cockpit has been assembled and some painting and a wash is done. Seatbelts, which appear to be very similar to the early British types, need to be added. The kit provides decals for this but I think that I'll scratch something up. I tried to find more info on the piping around the fuel tank but all I could find was a few reference pictures that give a limited view of the routing so I used my judgment. I need to spray a matte coat yet, hence the masking tape over the windows.

By the way, I was wrong about the rudder pedal straps being heel rests, They are indeed intended to go over the foot arch.

The instrument panel, a clear part, turned out OK. One has to paint the panel black with a brush, being careful not to get paint on the slightly recessed instrument faces. Then a decal is stuck on the back of the clear part to complete the look. I had a hard time lining everything up as you can see. When it was all done, I dry-brushed the raised details with silver. The black is actually Tamiya XF69 Nato Black.

I also worked on the wing center section. Fresh off the sprue, it looks like this:

The oil cooler fairing is moulded very thick so I thinned the walls quite a bit with a scalpel and file. The louvres (loosely mounted in the below pic to make my point) are also very thick and will be discarded and replaced with styrene card. Thinning the wall made the louvres too short anyway.

The back of the oil cooler housing also serves as the exit for the coolant radiator duct and the fit of the various parts that make up the ducting is quite good. All of the walls have been thinned here similar to the front.

And this time I'll be sure to hit the "Post Reply" button. Thanks for looking.

 

[fubar57]

Good stuff.

 

[Airframes]

Excellentskaya tovarich !

 

[Crimea_River]

Spasiba!

 

[Wurger]

 

[nsmekanik]

It's to bad those annoying German tourists didn't spend more time taking detailed color pics of all the artifacts they came across in their travels, best 2 pics I have that show the fuel line routing, which you can just make out here....

and here if you look closely..

 

[Wayne Little]

Nice start Andy....

 

[Crimea_River]

Thanks guys. Yes Tim I have several pics in a similar state and few that are a bit clearer. Also used some I took of Paul Allen's machine.