Eduard/Accurate Miniatures Il-2M Sturmovik

[Pielstick]

I'm hoping someone here has built this beastie before and can give me the benefit of their experience.

Here's where I'm at right now:

As you can see the fuselage halves are joined with the cockpit installed as well as the lower centre wing section. The question is what is the best way to proceed with the wings? Should I join the upper and lower wing halves and then join them to the fuselage? Or is is better to join the upper wing half to the fuselage and then join the lower wing half? Also is it better to attach the engine cowling before or after the wings?

Cheers,

Nick

[dylan the rabbit]

I just followed the kit instructions.

There's a wip thread in the work in progresses section (sorry, can't link it as I'm on my phone).

Nick

Edited January 20, 2011 by dylan the rabbit

[Troy Smith]

I'm hoping someone here has built this beastie before and can give me the benefit of their experience.

Here's where I'm at right now:

As you can see the fuselage halves are joined with the cockpit installed as well as the lower centre wing section. The question is what is the best way to proceed with the wings? Should I join the upper and lower wing halves and then join them to the fuselage? Or is is better to join the upper wing half to the fuselage and then join the lower wing half? Also is it better to attach the engine cowling before or after the wings?

Cheers,

Nick

Hi Nick

see http://modelingmadness.com/reviews/allies/ussr/mil2m3.htm

Build by Tom Cleaver

The next day I began the assembly of the sub-assemblies, and discovered that following the instructions was not as painless as expected. The cockpit assembly, glued the night before to the lower center wing section as instructed, fits tightly: get everything in position and don't be afraid to give a little push - it will click into position. Still following instructions, glue the engine cowling subassembly to the main fuselage. Now the wings...

At this point, if you have glued the upper and lower outer wings together per the instructions, you will experience major difficulty with the tight fit. No matter how hard I tried, I could not get the left wing to fit into position without leaving a 1/32" gap in the attachment area of the wing fillet. The right wing was also hard to get into position, but it did go without the gap. Putty and a file solved the problem, but it shouldn't be required.

My solution is: before the fuselage halves are glued together, set in the upper wing to its mating position and glue it there. Let it dry overnight with the rest of the subassemblies. Then snap in the cockpit and mate the lower center wing section to the inner upper wings and glue them together. Attach the cowling and fit it onto the section of upper wing that touches it. This will aid alignment of the cowling to the fuselage. Finally, attach the lower outer wing sections. It will fit like a dream (I tried this with a kit a friend bought).

another build

http://modelingmadness.com/reviews/allies/ussr/choyil2.htm

also look on Hypersclale

If you are interested in VVS,

here are plans of IL2 camo. http://mig3.sovietwarplanes.com/il10/camoww2/camoww2.htm (I know it says IL-10, but the patterns are for the IL2)

there is much misinformation on the IL 2. There is NO Green/Brown scheme.

I can't remember what info is in the Eduard kit, and it's elsewhere at the moment.

Either black AMT-6 and green AMT-4 over blue AMT-7(early) or the 3 colour

This template of 1943 shows Il-2s in a three-shades camouflage:

* Light greyish-brown AMT-1 (or equivalent oil paint A-21 for all metal planes)

* Green AMT-4 (or equivalent oil paint A-24m for all metal planes)

* Dark grey AMT-12 (or equivalent oil paint A-32m)

with undersurfaces

* Blue AMT-7 (or equivalent oil paint A-28m for all metal planes)

to give an idea of colours

for info on the colours

http://mig3.sovietwarplanes.com/colors/colors.html

has humbrol matches.

this sites forum is very good.

Don't believe the VVS site info, the general Russian consensus is that Pilawskii wrong. (and it's his site)

see http://www.arcforums.com/forums/air/index....id=1833034& 28 page of info and discussion on this...

HTH

T

[Pielstick]

Thanks for the info gents

Thanks especially for the link to Tom Cleaver's findings about fitting the wings. I tried a dry fit and noticed fitting the upper/lower wing halves to the fuselage might be problematic - hence my original question. I'll fit the upper wing parts first and then the lower wing.

As for colour schemes, I do get the impression WW2 VVS Il-2 camo schemes is almost a big a can of worms as the great "RAF Sky" debate

The Eduard kit has 4 schemes. Two are the green/black upper camo, one is a winter camo, and the last one is a three colour scheme of green/brown/grey. Eduard have the brown as a mid brown shade, something like Gunze RAF Dark Earth. If the profiles Troy posted above are correct then Eduard's interpretation of the brown is way off. I was going to do the three colour camo, but to be honest I don't like the look of it with the creamy light brown colour. I might just go for the early war green/black scheme.

Cheers gents

[Pielstick]

A bit of low viscosity CA and some accelerator....

Glued the cowling on as well and got a nasty gap between it and the lower wing half at the wing root. I'll leave it all overnight to set, and then I'll glue the lower wings on tomorrow, as well as the horizontal tail surfaces and undercarriage nacelles.

Getting there!

Cheers gents

[Pielstick]

Ok next question now: Does anyone know which panel lines have to be filled on the wings to depict a wooden winged machine? Would it be correct to full the lines between the plates and leave the access panels?

Cheers,

Nick

[spitfire]

Have a look here for info on metal wings (page 3) http://forum.largescaleplanes.com/index.ph...30878&st=30

Or here http://vvs.hobbyvista.com/Modeling/Ilyushi.../Dual/index.php

Cheers

Den

Edited January 23, 2011 by spitfire

[Pielstick]

Thanks Den that was very useful stuff. I've just gone now and filled the panel lines on the outer wing sections with Mr Surfacer 500, leaving the engraved detail for the inspection covers intact.

Now the next question is one of colours. I've been messing around the last few days with various colours and here's what I've come up with:

(apologies but photobucket doesn't seem to want to work for me today so I'm using another image host).

Now as far as the AMT-7 undersides go I've made a home brew of Tamiya X-2 + X-4 + XF-53 which I think looks ok. Just for comparison I tried some XF-23 which is far too grey I think.

For the grey part of the camo which I believe is AMT-12 I've tried XF-53, XF-24 and XF-82. I think maybe XF-24 is a touch too dark, perhaps XF-82 is a better choice?

For the green (AMT-4) I tried Vallejo Model Air Olive Drab, XF-67, XF-13, and a home brew of XF-5 and XF-1. I wrote off the Olive Drab immediately. I think XF-13 is too dark, I'm leaning towards using the XF-5 + XF-1 home brew.

Now the tricky one.... "AMT-1 Light Brown". Eduard's instructions call out Gunze H72 for this which I think is far too rich a shade of brown. I tried Tamiya XF-52 and whilst it's better it's still not right. I then tried yet another home brew of XF-2 + XF-64 + XF-52 + XF-53 - I've tried to get something approximating the AMT-1 shown in the colour profiles above. I've also read in a couple of places that Revell's #87 is a good match for AMT-1, so I went down to Model Zone yesterday and got a pot of Aqua Colour #87.

Now, from various links provided by Troy I see the subject of WW2 VVS colours is an absolute minefield. The thread on ARC talks about a book produced in Russia in 1948 showing colour chips... ostensibly this *should* be the most accurate and reliable source as to the real colours. Indeed it would appear that Revell #87 is a *very* close match for the AMT-1 chip in the book. However, further reading reveals that AMT-1 apparently changed during the course of the war from a light brown to a darker brown. The colour chips in the 1948 book would therefore show the late version of AMT-1, correct? So the question is, if I am modelling an aircraft from the summer of 1943 what version of AMT-1 should I go for? The lighter version or the darker version?

Cheers,

Nick

Edited January 23, 2011 by Pielstick

[spitfire]

Soviet era colours are a real minefield, so in the end I decided to paint what I thought looked right, otherwise you will be there forever.

Cheers

Den

[Calum]

Just went with the instructions oterwise like Den said you'd never paint it.

There are some pictures of my build on my web site (link in my sig)

Edited January 23, 2011 by Calum

[Pielstick]

Cheers Calum, that's a nice Il-2 you've built there. I'm actually quite enjoying this kit, I might see if I can track down the original AM kits for the early and late Sturmoviks - which one did Italeri rebox?

I've just finished sanding down the Mr Surfacer 500 so I now have wooden outer wings. I've still got to attach the landing gear nacelles and it looks like they will require some filling and fairing in. I've also got to do some rescribing, mask and attach the canopies and it'll be ready for a coat of primer. I've settled on using my home brew AMT-7, AMT-4 and AMT-1, and XF-24 for the AMT-12.

Now thinking ahead to the stores... Eduard would have me paint the bombs and rockets an aluminium colour. Is this correct?

Cheers,

Nick