Okay, there really isn’t any particular reason for showing this one. It’s obviously an OOB AcMin single-seat Sturmovik. Wheels from True Details resin. Cannon barrels are ultra-fine steel tubing and the exhaust stacks drilled out. A little detailing here and there in the office. Colors are MM and the camo is Polly Scale acrylic WW II Russian colors.
But, I offer it because my man Bud/Wibhi took a nice photo of it.
The reason I hestitated to show this one is because it just looks just like every other Il-2 I’ve seen built OOB. But, like the other builds I’ve shown this week, it was stress-free, just relaxing modeling. Now, the new Flying Tank I’m planning, from an AcMin kit sent me by my good friend Mikey, is the one-holer on skis, and I have that great Eduard PE set for it so I can open up the underwing bays and wall them in, play with the whitewash finish and just generally go crazy. But for now, this is my Soviet representative here.
TOM
Great job! I’m oh so very close to completing the AM IL2 on skis, not as nice as yours, but I’ll post pics when it’s done anyway, I’ll need your advice! Nice work!
Looks good Tom!!! Great actually! I never have been drawn to that kit but seeing it built might help me reconcile myself to get one… And it’s Acc Mini so it has to be good!!!
Thanks to all.
And, Tom, I was never tempted to do one either, but I wanted an AcMin kit, any AcMin kit, because it was when they were on the verge of going under. And this was the only one this little shop had. I sat on it for years before building it last year because the subject didn’t interest me. And I’m glad I did wait, because as I said, it was very relaxing and satisfying after having just built a Hasegawa P-47 on commission, with custom markings (meaning not that I have any talent in the visual arts, but that I had to do a week’s worth of masking for multiple overlay painting, and working with an artist to mark it properly), all in all a stressful build. One look at what was in the box of this Il-10 and I thought, yup, this’ll relax me.
A warning to anyone building this one, though: In the course of constructing and painting this kit, which, of course, fits immaculately and the instructions are about my favorite part of all AM kits because I like them wordy (big surprise that, all who know me) and precise. Well, in spite of the building steps being fully logical, I managed to break off the exposed framework at the front of the wheel wells, on which the gear attaches, managed to snap that pretty rugged part off both sides no fewer than a dozen times. The join where I repaired and reinforced it so many times with more and more CA…well, I just don’t look under that part of the model, and the camera, as any journalist knows, DOES lie.
TOM
Nice job, Tom ! They’re great kits, aren’t they?
There’s an easy solution for the landing gear. Before you glue the gear’s “nacelle” to the lower wing, dryfit the main gear leg and arms into position on the lower wing. Apply tiny drops of CA at the points they touch each other. When the CA is dry, remove the sub-assembly from the wing. You now have the proper angles set, and they just drop into place.
Thanks again all. I hope to give something fresh off the table next week, if the rigging wire doesn’t keep breaking on this Nieuport. (I kept hearing about some kind of stainless .05" wire on the WWI modeling site, but I forgot the brand. I wonder where you get it?)
Any, Bill, you’ve humbled me yet again. That’s just incredible. I could sit here all night and type questions about that build. But I won’t bore you with more than this one: How in the world did you make that seat look like that? It is either stamped metal, or you sure made that plastic seat pan look exactly like the real thing, deeply stamped aluminum. And if it’s brass, how did you stamp it?
Everybody should hit that link for a quick, visual modeling workshop from somebody who really knows what he’s doing.
TOM
Tom - I built the kit over a year ago, so my memory is a little hazy (don’t they say that memory is the second thing to go, or is it something else?). My wash is a mix of the base color (Humbrol Bronze Green) with black, and it was drybrushed with a mix of the bronze green & titanium white oil paint. There are also touches of MM steel drybrushing, and earth-tone pastels. I usually thin the sides of kit seats, and I might have done it to that one. Too many builds ago to remember for sure !
