Author Topic: Alexeyev I-211, 1948  (Read 6887 times)

Offline Frank3k

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Alexeyev I-211, 1948
« on: September 07, 2015, 08:33:16 AM »
This is the Amodel Alexeyev I-211 in 1/72 scale:


I've built a few Amodel kits in my day, and they all have one constant: they are a pain to build, with poor fit and other issues. This one (despite being a fairly recent issue) is no exception. I love their subjects, though, so I'm stuck buying and building them.

I started with the cockpit and used some left over Eduard PE (which is excellent) for the Mig-15. The fit here was excellent and I was lulled into a sense that maybe this kit would be an exception to the Amodel rule (ignore the sanding dust):







The canopy is not very clear, but it has nice, prominent framing that makes it easy to mask. After a bath in Future (which helped with the transparency issue) I masked the canopy with Tamiya tape and gave it another coat of Future to seal it.
I always paint the bottom edge of the canopy with black paint, since it cuts down on the internal reflection from the edge of the plastic and makes the canopy look more realistic. Here's the partially painted canopy bottom to illustrate the issue:


The canopy in the black-edged areas seems thinner. Here's the bottom view:



Next were the wings. Since Amodel has several versions of this aircraft (with at least two engine types) the wings are split into 6 parts, not including the engine intakes and exhausts. The fit is fairly poor overall and the wings are butt joints with no locating marks or pins. I added some brass pins, but found that the wing root was thicker than the attachment point, despite considerable sanding. I ended up adding s trip to the underside of the fuselage wing root:



The wings took up most of the time spent on this kit, so I made only a half-assed attempt to make the intakes circular. It's a design feature! Here it is, mostly assembled:



Painting was a minor disaster, in that the usually well behaved Createx aluminum base paint reacted poorly with the Vallejo gray primer. I'm assuming it was the Vallejo that caused the problem.
I removed everything back to the bare plastic then painted it with Model Master Metalizer and Rub N' Buff aluminum.

Luckily, I'd read about the this kit being a strong tail sitter, so I packed the nose and nacelles with plenty of weight. It barely sits on its nose gear:



I painted the clear nose with Russian Green primer.


The droptanks are from a Hobbyboss Mig-15 kit. The main gear doors are from the Mig-15 PE set (trimmed to fit) and the nose gear doors are thin plastic cut to shape. The kit doesn't provide a main gear door (or opening) for the main gear in the fuselage (seen prominently on the boxtop) so I made no attempt to open them. The gun barrels are brass tubing:


People who've built this kit before have complained about the decals breaking up on the sheet, so I coated the sheet in Future and let it dry (it acts as a decal film) before applying the decals to the model. I still managed to destroy one of the decals for the tail fin, so I had to use red stars from my decal stash. I didn't bother with the stenciling on the decal sheet.



Not my best work...

The back story is that Russia did not declare war on Japan in 1945, deciding instead to use its forces to push the Allies out of Berlin and Germany in a sort of "warm" war, with minor skirmishes and hostile standoffs.

Meanwhile in China, this left Mongolia relatively unprotected and the Chinese Communists with a thin supply line from Russia.

The Allies, however, were appalled at abysmal quality and professionalism of the Nationalist Army conscripts who still managed to loose battles against the weakened Chinese Communist Army. Rather than quickly repatriating the well trained Japanese troops, the Allies gave them the option of repatriation or regaining their honor by fighting against the Communist Chinese. By 1947, The New Japanese Army controlled most of Mongolia and the Communist Chinese advance in China was at a standstill. The Russians decided to seize air superiority over Mongolia; low hanging fruit since the Japanese and the Allies were using existing Japanese and Allied aircraft still in theater. While the I-211 was no match for the more agile P-80, Meteor, Vampire and Me-262s that it encountered over Europe, it fared well against the older piston engines over China and Mongolia.

Thanks for looking!

Offline Steve Blazo

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Re: Alexeyev I-211, 1948
« Reply #1 on: September 07, 2015, 10:32:18 AM »
Very nice build, the metal finish is sweet.  :D :D
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Offline Volkodav

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Re: Alexeyev I-211, 1948
« Reply #2 on: September 07, 2015, 11:13:18 AM »
Very nice, I remember seeing this aircraft in a magazine back in the 80s along with a reference that it was rejected primarily for political reasons, i.e. Yakovlev getting in Stalin ear about dangerous outdated designs based on old German tech and not modern like his own work.  At the time I thought it had actually quite an elegant profile and looked more modern than the contemporary Yaks.

Offline Tophe

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Re: Alexeyev I-211, 1948
« Reply #3 on: September 07, 2015, 12:42:38 PM »
Not my best work...
Thanks for looking!
Maybe not "best" of your collection, but very good... Congratulations. ;)

Re: Alexeyev I-211, 1948
« Reply #4 on: September 08, 2015, 04:04:42 AM »
Really nice!

Offline Frank3k

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Re: Alexeyev I-211, 1948
« Reply #5 on: September 08, 2015, 04:48:42 AM »
Thanks guys!
 Some other builds, on Britmodeler:

JohnR's version, in gray (with a Meteor for comparison!): http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/234952022-alexeyev-i-211-a-model-172/

coronado's build of the I-216 (wanted this one, but it was out of stock): http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/234958603-alexeyev-i-216-amodel-172nd-scale/

Offline taiidantomcat

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Re: Alexeyev I-211, 1948
« Reply #6 on: September 08, 2015, 09:17:51 AM »
Nice job!!
"They know you can do anything, So the question is, what don't you do?"

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Offline ed s

  • An outstanding, creative builder.
Re: Alexeyev I-211, 1948
« Reply #7 on: September 08, 2015, 10:26:57 AM »
Having built some AModel kits myself, I can appreciate the effort you put into this.  Nicely done.

Ed

Offline Buzzbomb

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Re: Alexeyev I-211, 1948
« Reply #8 on: September 08, 2015, 07:58:19 PM »
Very neat, it came along really well

Offline GTX_Admin

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Re: Alexeyev I-211, 1948
« Reply #9 on: September 09, 2015, 04:11:58 AM »
 :)
All hail the God of Frustration!!!

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But you can make the Bastard work for it.

Offline Dr. YoKai

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Re: Alexeyev I-211, 1948
« Reply #10 on: September 13, 2015, 01:29:59 AM »
I remember seeing these when they came out, and coveted the I-216 myself...Good looking build and backstory, Frank. I'll have to remember the tip about underpainting the canopy.

Offline Brian da Basher

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Re: Alexeyev I-211, 1948
« Reply #11 on: October 01, 2015, 05:19:42 AM »
That's some killer detailing, Frank! The NMF, especially on the burner cans, is superb!

Brian da Basher