Yet another Russian plane for me to build, courtesy of a friend who has given me a stash of quite dodgy, but still buildable, kits of various mostly Russian planes.
The model number of the Sturmovik is “IL-2”, the “IL” standing for Ilyushin, the factory/outfit who designed and made them. As all the box writing is in Russian I don’t know who makes the kit, but I do know it’s 1/48 scale.
Typical of all these old Russian kits I have built (Yak 3, Yak 6 and Polikarpov R5) they are very basic, with no interior detail, and usually no decals, either. There’s lots to clean up with the castings, but they’re basically OK.
A lack of decals isn’t a problem, as decal sets are easy enough to find on eBay, and I have plenty of stuff left over from earlier Russian builds. But Russian warplanes aren’t big on decals anyway. Just a couple of Soviet stars here and there, a number or two and that’s all you need.
The instructions are ultra-basic, on the back of the box.
Being so basic, it will be a relatively quick build. This is the end of the first day’s fun. A bit of putty is need here, there and a few other spots, but nothing too ill-fitting to repair. And that’s also typical of these Russian kits. The castings have lots of rubbish on them that needs to be sanded off, but the basics of the wings and fuselage usually fit together pretty well.
Here’s my usual “reference” page of photos to help me with the build.
The Sturmovik was an important military plane. For one thing the Russians built 40,000 of them. They were ground attack aircraft and tank killers, and though they were relatively slow things, they were rugged and were used tactically in great numbers. Sure, the German aircraft opposing them had superior air-combat abilities and so they shot lots of them down, but there were never enough German planes to take on the vast hordes of Sturmoviks being used, and so great numbers of Sturmoviks being flown made life a misery for German infantrymen and tank commanders. Stalin considered Sturmoviks to be as important to Russian soldiers on the ground as food and water.
And nowadays, despite 40,000 of the things being built back in WWII, there’s only a handful in flying trim in 2015. That seems a shame for such a war-winning aircraft, so I am happy to do my little bit and build a model of one.
