Reflections
I-16
was the last operational fighter from one of the most successful Russian design
bureaus of the golden age of aviation. Often misunderstood in the west, and
derided by names such as “Rat”, or “The Fly”, this small plane was truly
a revolution in aircraft design. When it entered service in 1934, it was
world’s most advanced fighter aircraft. It marked the shift of seasons in
aerial combat tactics, from tight-turning dogfights, to high-powered maneuvers
in vertical plane.
Introduction
of I-16 to service was nothing but controversial. Series of accidents due to
inexperience of the pilots, very sensitive controls, poor visibility compared to
open cockpit biplanes, landing gear that one needed to manually lower before
landing, and high approach speeds, plagued its first year in service. Some
pilots simply refused to fly it. Test pilot team involved in the development
program had to organize a series of demonstration aerobatic flights at different
airfields, to show a true potential of this new aircraft to the units. Only
after this tour de force perception started to change, and with time I-16 turned
from most hated to most loved piece of equipment.
From
Spain, over the Far East, and back to Mother Russia, this aircraft spent most of
its days with warm gun-barrels. It evolved through series of variants, all of
which strangely did not change an overall appearance of agility and ruggedness
of this little plane. At the end of its career it looked pretty much the same as
at the beginning, with few scoops and hatches added.
True
test of will came with Barbarossa, and commencement of the Great Patriotic
War. I-16 was most numerous frontline fighter in Russian service at that
time. No more capable to match the speed of newest Messerschmitts, I-16
had only its superior maneuverability to its advantage. Ironically,
velocity fighter was no longer fast enough. Yet, I-16 fought on. Early
confrontations produced some high scoring I-16 pilots. This was also the
time of epic battles in most dire conditions, with aviators running out of
ammunition, and ramming their machines into enemies in desperation.
Despite great difficulties I-16 continued to fly in many roles, and only
in the last year of the conflict faded out of the airfields. Its service
spans across ten years. Same ten years in which aviation made its journey
from string-bags to jets. An amazing fact. |
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Type-5
First
series (although small) of I-16 to see production was called Type-4. This
was due to the simple fact that Zavod-21 (factory) was already producing
three other aircraft types of different design. In consequence, later
variants of I-16 simply continued with the numbering system.
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Type-4
was quickly superseded by much improved Type-5. It incorporated a major
redesign of engine cowling, which will define a characteristic look of
this fighter for the rest of its life, with front cooling louvers, radial
exhaust pipes coming out on the circumference of the cowling, and a silver
clamp-band around it. It maintained the original enclosed forward-sliding
canopy and a telescopic gun-sight, as well the full span ailerons. Type-5
stayed in production for several years with further modifications made in
1938. |
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Particular
aircraft that I wanted to model was “White 1”, belonging to 33
IAP Regimental Commander Pavel Petrov, photographed during 1940. Big red
spearhead painted on top of the fuselage
exemplifies
really
well the influence
of art deco in “Soviet glory period”. Profile of this aircraft appears on
the excellent “Modeling the Aircraft of VVS” website of Matt Bittner and
Erik Pilawskii (http://vvs.hobbyvista.com/index.php).
Painstaking research done by Erik Pilawskii, sublimated on this site and in his
new book, “Soviet Air Force
Fighter Colours 1941-1945”, made a quantum leap in understanding many facets
of this subject, and I can highly recommend both for anyone interested.
The Works
What
really made this project possible is the series of aftermarket sets produced by
Airwaves, aimed at correcting generic I-16 Hobbycraft / Academy kit in 1:48
scale. So far, Airwaves came out with: Type-5, Type-10, Type-29, and Cockpit
Detail sets. I incorporated two of this sets to make an accurate model of
Petrov’s aircraft.
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1. Wings & Fuselage
Usually,
the work would start in the cockpit, but my mailman arrived with the Type-5
conversion first, so I started to hack on the airframe. Hobbycraft kit doesn’t
really represent any particular variant of this aircraft. It is rather a medley
of details from different I-16’s in one box. To make an accurate early Type-5,
one would have to make a serious scratch-building effort, or use this Airwaves
set.
The
set is cast in vanilla-colored bubble-free resin that can be cut, and sanded
just like styrene plastic. It includes the outer section of the wings, with
ailerons, and the whole engine cowling with the spinner. This means that all the
major components of the kit will have to yield to the cutter.
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Fuselage
needs to part with the cowling. All that remains from the wings are inner panels
on the upper side, and a central bottom section including the landing gear bays.
Cuts need to be well planed, but are not hard to make. I marked all the parts in
question, and made the initial cuts little bit outside of the marks, to leave
some room for mistakes.
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Final
dimensions were achieved with sand paper. If everything is done properly, resin
parts fit very well, and bring a glimpse of a familiar shape.
Once
the main operation with resin was over, I continued to modify the exterior of
the airframe. Type-5 had access door for the pilot only on the port side of the
fuselage. It also did not have a radio. Starboard side door, and the radio hatch
on the same side of the fuselage had to be deleted. I-16 had its instrument
panel buried quite a far way under the front deck of the cockpit.
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To allow for
some light to come in, two circular cutouts were present through the top of the
fuselage, just in front of the instrument panel. On Type-5 aircraft these two
holes were covered with glazing, as they were “in the open wind”, when the
canopy was closed. I first drilled out a pair of holes in the fuselage, used
cylindrical cuts form a clear sprue to superglue in these holes, and then sand,
and polish them flush with the fuselage surface. The result is very convincing.
I also created rails for the sliding canopy from lengths of Evergreen
rectangular plastic strips, and added leather padding on the front edge of the
cockpit opening, made from electric wire insulation.
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Some
surface paneling detail was made of brass sheet, cut to shape and then glued on,
instead of just having the 2D panel lines, this was done for the oil tank filler
cap on top of the cowling, the cowling band, wing outer section fastener, and
some other miscellaneous panels. Rows of rivets were added on the cowling, and
inner wing panels.
2. The Tail
I
wanted to depict a typical droop of elevators, present on literarily all
pictures of I-16s at rest. I also wanted to reposition the ruder slightly. As I
was working on cutting these surfaces and repositioning them, I realized that
rib detail of the tail surfaces is lame, when compared to the rest of airframe
that was now very accurate.
At this point
I was still feeling fresh into the project, and having quite a reserve for
stretching, so I decided to rebuild this detail completely, using a trick I
learned from Aleksej, of Gremlin Models. First part was to sand smooth all the
tail surfaces. Next step was a time consuming one, and included masking off
accurate ribbing detail in negative using strips of Tamiya masking tape.
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After
this was done, I sprayed some neutral gray color in thick layers, so that when I
removed the masks it produced nice 3D rib effect, similar to the one present on
the wing and ailerons. One more layer of gray over the whole tail served to
smooth all the edges.
3. Nine Cylinders on Two Wheels
Hobbycraft
kit includes M-25 engine which is decent enough, considering that it will be
hidden in good part under the front cowling. The problem was that I used mine
for I-153 built two years ago. So I used “Engines & Things “ Shvetsov
unit that is a slight improvement over the kit part, but can be made into a
really nice looking radial engine with some scrap plastic and copper wire.
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I
also used excellent vac-form acetate canopy from Falcon, because one in the kit
was a bit on the absurd side.
Main
landing gear needed some attention as well. I detailed wheels with some rivets
along the rim, and rebuilt the covers completely, with structure made out of
Evergreen stock, thin wire, syringe tubing and such. I used available photos to
work from, and ended up with something that can pass closer inspection.
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I
also opened up a trapezoidal window in the back wall of the right wheel well,
and covered it with acetate sheet. This opening offered quite limited view to
the pilot, of what was below him in critical moments of landing.
4. Cockpit
Just
when I started to despair, mailman arrived again. This time a cockpit set was
packed in a box, and not a minute to early. Airwaves cockpit is once again done
mostly in light tan resin, but there are also small bits in white metal. This
set is beyond comparison with whatever was originally in the box. I will let
images speak for themselves.
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At
this point two fuselage halves were already glued together, which meant
that I would have to install the cockpit through the bottom opening of the
wing area. But this didn’t seem to be very hard; after all, people build
ships in bottles don’t they? As a matter of fact, design of the set made
this task really easy. I first inserted main fuselage frame behind the
pilot’s seat into the fuselage cavity, and fixed it there with CA
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This
helped to align side panels that also wrap under the partial floor
element, which also anchors on mentioned fuselage frame. After a bit of
adjusting everything seemed to fit well, so I painted all the separate
bits, applying some washes and dry-brushing to make it all come alive.
Interiors of I-16 were commonly painted with undersurface color of the
time (if not left unpainted), this being rather bright shade called AII
Blue. I mixed this myself, trying to follow the hints given by guru Erik. |
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Few
bits that came in white metal form are: telescopic gun-sight, nitrogen and
oxygen bottles, ruder pedals, control stick, flare pistol, as well as
small levers for different controls left and right (I replaced these with
spares from photo-etched bin, for more “to the scale” appearance). I
turned both bottles, and the gun-sight using my Dremel as the lathe, with
sand-paper pressed against their surface, to clean them up and improve
cylindricity. The gun sight needed some more work to bring to the
standard. I made forward “spider-leg” supports from the copper wire,
and the oval canopy seal from the brass sheet, cut and bent to shape.
After touch of black paint it looked nice and proper.
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The
only slight let down of the cockpit set is the instrument panel. There are
three of these, mind you, for different I-16 types, but they all have
blank instrument faces. Now, after all is assembled it won’t make a big
difference, but it would be nice if an acetate sheet for instrument faces
was included. Well, I would be dammed to leave it like it is, so I went to
make my own instrument mask. I drilled through holes for all of the
instruments with drill bits of the proper diameter. Then, I laid the piece
with its back down on the sheet of sand paper, and sanded off most of its
thickness. After this, I scanned this part (face down) to get a computer
image of the instrument placement. Using the magnified image, I created
simple instrument faces in a program for manipulating bitmaps,
“MS-Paint”. After this is finished, I printed the scaled version of
this mask on a glossy photo paper. When the print dried, I applied a cote
of “Future”, for that reflective glass look. Now, all that is left is
to paste that mask on the back of pre-painted resin panel, just like with
photo-etched/acetate combination. Voila, home made instrument panel! This
process may sound complicated but its actually very easy to do (if one has
a computer). |
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Assemble
everything, sand, polish, prime, sand, and polish again...
Paint & Markings
Erik,
a compassionate soul that he is, offered help even when decals were
concerned, and printed two tail stars with white no. 1 on them. In the
mean time I managed to find appropriately sized number 1 in my
spare-decals pile, and after all decided to spray paint the stars
(unappreciative bastard that I am), mainly to be able to color match with
the red spearhead. So, everything on the model except the white number 1
on the ruder is masked and airbrushed. Red flash on the vertical tail
should actually be a slightly darker shade, but on most of my photos, this
in unnoticeable.
Otherwise,
shades for AII Blue (bottom) and AII Green (top) were mixed at home, and
after first application tweaked slightly to come back second time, and add
some depth at places. |
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I
read somewhere about a technique of achieving chipped paint by applying
wet salt over pre-painted silver surface, and then airbrushing main color.
Dry salt can be easily removed to expose chipped bits. It sounded crazy
enough to try, so the propeller and the canopy frame were done in this
way. Later, I would use the same technique for discoloration of rusty oil
drum. I am pretty happy about the whole affair.
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The Base
Idea
to build a base came after finding several photos of I-16 with its tail propped,
so that the fuselage is leveled. I liked the looks of it, and thought that a
rusty fuel drum as a tail prop, and a pair of wheel chocks may add right amount
of character.
The
fuel drum was made from brass sheet, rolled around a pen, with copper wire for
the drum rings. I also added some small dings to its surface. The drum has a pin
in the bottom, with which it can be secured in two different places on the base
(where I drilled the holes). Now I am able to display the model propped on the
oil drum, or resting on the ground, with the drum standing next to it.
Wheel
chocks were made like little boxes of plastic, with half rings in the front made
from copper wire. Again, shape corresponds to the one seen on photos. I roughly
sanded them, painted them black, and then weathered them with browns.
The
biggest challenge was the grass, as I never did this before. I bought two bags
of “railroad grass” of different color, one fine, one course. In retrospect,
I would get only the fine one next time, as only that really looks good in 1:48
scale. I also discovered that hairspray is much better bonding agent for grass
then recommended white glue. Just don’t let my wife know... Once fixed to the
base, I dry-brushed different shades over the grass to achieve more natural
look. Not bad for the first time...
In The End
This
particular I-16 early Type-5 turned out to be much, much more than a
simple, and quick build. It rather became a proof that you can condense a
lot of attention and detail in a very small volume, while keeping most of
it appreciable, and visible!
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Airwaves
accessories hold same essential importance to this Hobbycraft kit, as plastic
surgery holds to Hollywood film industry. And I will venture to say that using
the first-mentioned combination produces much more authentic and satisfying
result, than ... well the second mentioned case.
I would
like to thank Erik Pilawskii for all of his knowledge and help, and
endless patience in answering my questions. In the same manner, I am
really grateful to Pete Vill, who firstly mastered these sets, and then
spared one copy for my mailman. He also continues to build my expectations
for English beer, and I just hope that it will live up to it. Finally,
kudos to Airwaves for tackling subjects that so many others like to
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After
all that has been written, I ran out of words to put here, and “Happy
Modeling” is becoming such a cliché... so ‘till the next time,
Don’t
misbehave...
Aleksandar
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