Beyond The Sprues
Modelling => Completed GBs => Group and Themed Builds => Swords to Plowshares GB => Topic started by: MAT on June 08, 2024, 08:45:36 PM
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The prototype Polikarpov I-16 took first time to the air 30. december 1933 under the designation TsKB-12. Right from the start it was demonstrating the ability to reach high speeds, and quit soon someone got the idea, that it could be turned into a courrier plane.
At that time Vozhd Stalin were getting increasely suspicious to almost anyone around him - in fact to la arge part of the russian population. After the Holodomor in 1933, when 3.5 - 5 millions ukrainians died of starvation, other groups in SSSR were soon to feel Stalins terror.
So there was a need for a fast plane to bring the orders of Stalin, the Politburo and OGPU (later NKVD) to all cornes of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. Orders that would send hords of people to distant prison camps, kill them or make them fall out of windows - sounds familiar?
The Polikarpov Design Bureau came up with Po-4, which were an slightly enlarged version of the I-16, with larger wings to hold more fuel and a longer fuselage with a two-seat, closed cockpitt. The first flight of the Po-4 was in april 1936, and a production run of 50 planes was almost immediately initiated.
My build will be based on the old (and awfull) Revell Poliparpov I-16 kit, of which I happens to have some in my stash.
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I vaguely remember building this kit as a kid. Deceptively simple but not fun. It should look good with longer wings.
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To get a longer range, the Po-4 needed bigger wings to hold the increased amount of fuel. They will be made up of parts of the Revell kits wing and some wings from the old Airfix Bf 109G-6, which I found on my scrapyard.
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Very nice, MAT! I really like how you have scalloped those Bf 109 wings to match the I-16's chord :smiley:
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To get an idea of what the Po-4 will look like, I have arranged a line up of the I-16, the engine - which come from an old FROG Fokker D.XXI - and the canopy, which used to be part of the old Airfix Bf 110D. The rest of the Bf 110D kit were converted to a Fairey P. 4/34 of Marinens Flyvevæsen.
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The rest of the Bf 110D kit were converted to a Fairey P. 4/34 of Marinens Flyvevæsen.
is that from an old Airfix Magazine conversion ? If so, I did the same to make my first Fulmar when I was big into FAA models.
I do like where you are going with this.
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The rest of the Bf 110D kit were converted to a Fairey P. 4/34 of Marinens Flyvevæsen.
is that from an old Airfix Magazine conversion ? If so, I did the same to make my first Fulmar when I was big into FAA models.
You're right. Its the old Airfix Magazine conversion. The Fairey P. 4/34 were offered as a light bomber to RAF. But the RAF preferred the bigger Battle and Fleet Air Arm got a modified version as the Fulmar. But the danish naval air arm - Marinens Flyvevæsen - found it usefull as a long range patrol plane, a light bomber and a heavy fighter plane. A production license was acquired and the production started at the Orlogsværftet (naval ship yard). But 9. april 1940 Germany attacked Denmark. The production of the P. 4/34 (which in danish service would have got the designation L.M. 1 - Landbased Monoplane 1) had just begun, and was instantly stopped. The Merlin engines were stolen by the germans for who knows what purpose. So my model is a what-if, showing the P. 4/34 as it would have looked like, if it been service in 1941.
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The fuselage is getting into shape and is testfitted to the wings
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The fuselage is almost done
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The cockpitt have been filled with "stuff"
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The canopy glued on
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And now the Po-4 have got wings. Ahead is some work with card and PSR.
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:smiley: :smiley: :smiley:
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Nice work on the canopy/cockpit/fairing area. It really changes the look of the plane.
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It does indeed! Serious chop and PSR work, MAT :smiley:
BTW, love your Fairey P. 4/34 build :-*
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really good build going on
:smiley:
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The PSR have been initiated and some tailplanes added. The tailplanes used to be on af P-36, but I think, that they don't look completely misplaced on the Po-4
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Paintjob done and homemade decals added. I think I will make it before I have to go to Copenhagen, and celebrate my eldest daughters 40 years birthday.
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It's hard to credit that this started life as one of these!
(https://photos.smugmug.com/Eduard-148-Polikarpov-I-16-Type-24/i-xWRsZnZ/0/KNCdzdkjSMvDpXCpFBXqZCqvMJmqtWDTWFWdnz5Jd/X3/IMG_2371-X3.jpg) (https://photos.smugmug.com/Eduard-148-Polikarpov-I-16-Type-24/i-G3FqC4f/0/KMS9mJZmcZsgFqd6HDVwR2sSZVXQ9LktMtv3nHk45/X3/IMG_2373-X3.jpg)
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That is a beautiful result! You really captured the look of many mind 30s Russian airplanes. I agree with Guy; hard to believe that it started out as an I-16. It looks almost like a smaller predecessor of the Su-2.
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Nice work MAT, like the paint job.
Amazing how the parts came together on this one :smiley: :smiley: :smiley:
Mog
>^-.-^<
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:smiley:
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Finished!!!!
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Nice work MAT! That looks so 'right' :smiley:
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Excellent result, MAT! :smiley: 8)
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Thanks for your kind comments. It really turned out much better, than I have imagined, when the work on this awful Revell kit started. But as Albert Einstein said: "Logic will get you from A to Z; imagination will get you everywhere".
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Ha ha ! like that ;) :smiley: :smiley: :smiley: :smiley:
Mog
>^-.-^<
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Thanks for your kind comments. It really turned out much better, than I have imagined, when the work on this awful Revell kit started. But as Albert Einstein said: "Logic will get you from A to Z; imagination will get you everywhere".
Nice work on that "awful Revell kit" it turned out quite nice with the modifications you have made to the original model. Glad to see you succeed where others have failed.