P02: Polikarpov I-16 “Ishak”
Revolutionary in its design, the I-16 was the world’s first low-wing cantilever monoplane fighter with retractable landing gear to attain operational status and as such “introduced a new vogue in fighter design. Developed in the N.N. Polikarpov Design Bureau, the I-16 took her maiden flight on December 30, 1934. The “Type 24” modification with the M-63 engine and reinforced chassis was in production from 1939 to 1940. There were 934 of this diminutive fighter, nicknamed “Ishak” or “Ishachok” (“Donkey” or “Burro”) by Soviet pilots, produced. In the summer of 1941, I-16 fighters were the basis of Soviet fighter aviation. They participated in air battles all across the Soviet-German front. The I-16 fighters were used in combat until mid-1943.
Specs : Wingspan : 9 m. – Length : 6.1 m. – 1 M-63 engine, 900 hp. – Armament : 4 × 7.62 mm ShKAS machine guns in the wings. – Maximum speed : 462 km/h.
The finished model:
The kit:
The vision:
What is there not to like about the Polikarpov I-16? I’m not sure what it is about this dumpy little Soviet fighter plane, but I’ve long been drawn to it. I just didn’t have any excuse to build one… until I realized I didn’t really need an excuse.
When I stumbled across this tiny little Zvezda kit, I just had to buy it… and once I got a look inside the box, I simply had to build it.
The build:
You’d think this one would be easy. And, I guess, it was… even though it took me two tries to get it right (enough).
This little 1/144 Zvezda kit isn’t really meant for fine scale modelling. It’s actually a snap-tight kit that you’re supposed to put together in a flash and use for some kind of military table top strategy war game.
I don’t know anything about that, but what I do know is that, despite it’s humble intentions, this is a quality little kit with fine details. I’ve seen much much worse.
The big challenge was going to be how to get a tiny 4 mm DC motor inside the fuselage, but the rotund shape of the engine cowling made that relatively easy. In fact, the snap-tight engineering of the kit meant there was already some room in the right spot. I just had to coax it open a bit more by drilling it out and cutting it open. On the first crack at it, I was a little to forceful with my drilling. I was trying to be careful, but this is a pretty small kit after all, and I ended up accidentally glueing the fuselage slightly out of alignment.
It wasn’t a huge deal (certainly not a deal breaker), but when I snapped one of the motor wires, it was a real pain to fix. Unlike my A7M2 Reppu project (where the same thing happened), in this case neither the patient, nor the motor survived the ordeal. At least I got to see what the inside of one of those little motors looks like.
Luckily there wasn’t much trouble in getting another kit, and I was back in action almost before I knew it. The second time was easier, because I knew exactly where and now to drill. Nothing was out of alignment and in the end, it just worked better.
Nothing much to report on the painting, a bit of Tamiya XF-23 for that lovely Soviet blue bottom and some XF-27 (Black Green) for the reset. In what must be a airplane-building first though (at least for me) painting the cockpit (and the pilot) was the last step.
All in all, I’d say this was a pretty successful outing for my first Voir et Savoir Plus project. Feel free to leave me a comment and tell me what you think.
