It
was late winter of 1933/04. Nikolai Pollikarpov's vision of the future V.V.S.
main fighter was ready to take flight. It was the most advanced fighter in the
world at this time. The Central Design Bureau (TsKB, Tsentrahl'noye
konstrooktorskoye
byuro)
prototypes were to become the most innovative of Soviet designs of the 1930's.
Two prototypes were built to fully explore the handling of these new radical
looking aircraft. The maiden flight of the first TsKB-12 happened on the 30th of
December 1933 with Valeri F. Chkalov at the controls. It was powered by the
M-22, a Soviet-built version of the Bristol Jupiter VI, equipped with a two
bladed prop. The second prototype was built with an American Wright-Cyclone
SRG-1820-F2 and a Hamilton-Standard propeller and a N.A.C.A. designed cowling.
Flying for the first time during early January 1934 with V. Stepanchonok as the
test pilot. Both aircraft were fitted temporarily with fixed ski landing gear,
because of the winter conditions, completed their flight trials successfully by
April of 1934.
The
design was accepted for production as the I-16 and the "Ishachok"
(little donkey) went on to become the backbone of the Red Air Force. The
aircraft had it's baptism of fire with the Spanish and the Chinese as a soldier
of fortune. It later fought in every major theater of the Great Patriotic War:
South from the vast steppes of the Ukraine, north to the snow drift covered
forests of Finland and east to the deserts of Manchuria. Flying from all
the combat fronts of the great empire, I-16's fought till replaced with the next
generation of Soviet fighters. She will always be remembered as a stout defender
of the Motherland.
I
decided to model the second prototype of this significant aircraft, by using the
old Airmodels/WK Models solid resin kit as a starting point. I had started this
kit back in the late 1980's and put it away till I could get some decent
references. I just bought Red Star Vol. # 3, so it was time to bring the old kit
out.
First,
I detailed the cockpit using plastic rod, sheet, stretched sprue, H.O. train
fittings and the modified seat from Academy's F4U-4b. The only photo etched
parts I used were the seat belts for the seat. Not much of the cockpit can be
seen with the entry door up, so I kept the detailing light. Having a cowling
left over from a dash 4 Corsair conversion, I modified these parts using 1/72nd
plans that came from the French book, "Les avions de chasse Polkarpov".
I enlarged these to 1/48th and laid out to parts and marked the places to cut.
I then modified the fuselage, to accept the new N.A.C.A. cowling, by cutting off
the nose of the W/K model and sanded the fuselage till the old cowling taper was
removed. This was easily done with a large 10 inch bastard file to remove most
of the resin and finished with a small 6 inch smooth file. I fitted the cowling
to the fuselage and removed the material for the wing root recess with a
cordless Dremel tool set at slow speed so as not to melt the plastic.
Next
I filled in the wheel bays, using Micro Ballons with super glue and scribed in
the landing gear covers. In order to scratch build the ski landing gear, I
had a front and side profile photo of the aircraft with the skis attached, I
enlarged these photos till the fuselage matched the kit length. This then gave
me the proper dimensions of the landing skis, I made these using plastic airfoil
shaped struts and balsa stock for the ski bodies. The skis where sanded to
profile and sealed with several coats of primer. I added these to the model by
first drilling the attachment points and then drilling and pinning the landing
skis struts. These were then trial fitted to the model to make sure everything
lined up.
The
model was nearly ready for painting, but first I removed all the external detail
by sanding, in order to further detail by the wings and tail units by painting.
This included removing the ailerons. I began by masking off all the rib and
panel detail in negative with masking tape. Sprayed the model with light
coats of primer, till I had built up the detail to a level that was acceptable.
Next I added the aileron hinges using plastic rod, glued the ailerons and the
landing skis back on the wing using slow setting Gel Super Glue. I sprayed
the base color Tamiya gloss red using a Badger dual action airbrush. I waited
for a week to let the gloss red dry fully and then over coated with a light
dusting of satin floor varnish. I then applied washes to bring out the
panel lines and started final assembly of the model.
Started
final construction by rigging the landing skis using stretched sprue and H.O.
scale lifting eyes. I then added a Squadron canopy and Bare Metal foiled the
frame work. Scratched built the OP-1 optical gun sight and gun barrels using
plastic tubing, wire and plastic rod . Using one of the engines from Monogram's
JU-52, I modified the radial engine, crankcase grill cover and prop, to
represent the SRG-1820. I then used a cut down sewing needle to represent the
two pronged pitot tube.
The model was almost done. I added the scratched
built instrument venturi tube and the aircraft running lights using items from
CMK 1/72nd running light lenses. I then started polishing the aircraft to
highlight the different panel effects between metal, plywood
and fabric. I then made a base using a piece of teak wood, which resembles ice
covered asphalt, adding an old metal pilot figure and a modified Russian officer
figure from ICM to add interest. I finished up the base by adding a brass tag
with rub on letters and Russian parade decals. I hope you enjoy the model and
thanks for taking time to read the review. You can contact me at Emilio.Diaz@ispat.com.
if you have any questions or comments.
Emilio
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