On the heels of Tamiya’s new P-38J, I tackled this gem shortly thereafter. The Shturmovik is one I’ve always wanted to build and when the opportunity came along to do one, I jumped on it. The Il-2 was essentially an armored flying tank designed for ground attack that was hard to shoot down. I read that Stalin thought was “as important to the Red Army as air and bread”.
The Tamiya kit is beautifully engineered, even the decals were great (aftermarket options are hard to get). I went with the “White 7” 566 ShAP (Ground Attack Regiment) option from Leningrad in 1944. I added an Eduard Look dash, seatbelts, wheels and exhausts (came in a set). I tried to match the interior paint to the Eduard Look dash. This was accomplished with XF-76 Grey Green. It’s close. I substituted brass tubing for the wing cannons. Paint was AK Real Colors. Their Brown AMT 1 seems bit off to me, perhaps a bit on the grey side, but I’m no expert on Russian schemes. Perhaps it’s quite correct. Weathering was Ammo/Mig enamel washes and filters. Chipping was the hairspray technique, which I’m starting to get more comfortable with.
I loved this kit and it will not be my last. Now if Tamiya could give us a few Russian fighters…
Thats fantastic! Turned out great. I’ve always been a fan of this plane but never noticed how interesting that wing is. I recently purchased this kit look forward to building even more after your post. BTW is that a fuel tank behind the pilot seat? And did the rear gunner not have a seat?
This too is a kit I’ve been wanting to get my hands on for sometime, but they usually don’t come cheap. One day I will. You build is typical greatness and the chipping is taking that to the next level. Well done, Joe. Your work is always an inspiration.
Lawdog, that turned out great! That is different camo scheme and I really like it. What colors did you use? I still regret selling off my Accurate Minatures dual and single seat kits years ago. Did you ever see the recent movie “The Pilot”? This plane was featured in the movie.
The development of the Il-2 was pretty twisted… First it was designed as a two seater with an according armored tub. But it was to heavy and underpowered, so they shortened the tub and made it a single seater. Then the performance was OK. But then the units fielding those planes noticed, that a rear gunner would be extremely useful, so they added the rear gunner as a field modification - that was later made a production feature. So they saved a lot of weight by essentially putting the rear gunner on the outside of armor - look how he seats on the wrong side of the armored plate and mostly outside of the armored tub. The rear gunner uses a leather belt for a seat and has a “throw-away” .50 Berezin machine gun, but with a sophisticated reflex sight. While saving a lot of weight, the rear gunner still shifted the CG alot to the rear and that’s the reasons the wings were “folded” to the rear like this - the soviets called it “strielka” - the arrow. And yes, that’s a fuel tank behind the pilot - protected a lot better than the rear gunner…
lawdog - your Shtormovik turned out really nice! Thanks for sharing!
Fabulous LD! As always, your weathering is gorgeous. And I think your colors are spot on. Although I’m not an expert either, I spent some time investigating the Russian colors when I built my IL-2 last year and adjusted the MRP paint colors to be pretty close to yours. Isn’t that kit perfect? Congrats once again.
Thanks John. You’ll love this kit. Very easy build. Yes, that’s the fuel tank, at least one of them I believe. This version had a strap for the rear gunner. I believe later versions had an actual seat. I’m no Shturmo expert.
