John Thompson
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« Reply #15 on: September 27, 2010, 02:24:34 PM » |
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You?re right John,I had the ICM I-15bis released many years ago,I?ve made a search for reviews of the kit and it looks like many things were changed in the recent editions of the I-15bis,undoubtely the seat was one of them as it?s a lot more accurate.Hope to see more progress photos of your Chaika,greetings.
Martin
I'm glad you mentioned that - it has always puzzled me why ICM made new moulds for the I-15bis (the old kit was then reboxed by Encore) - it was certainly not a bad or (as far as I know) terribly inaccurate kit. So, if they could go to that much trouble to issue a new I-15bis to replace the not-bad old one, why can't they produce an I-153!? John
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John Thompson
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« Reply #17 on: September 27, 2010, 04:58:42 PM » |
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Thanks, Martin - I don't remember ever seeing that article before! Very interesting! John
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learstang
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« Reply #18 on: September 27, 2010, 06:01:14 PM » |
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Thank you Martin and John for the information, and I agree wholeheartedly with you John - ICM, we need an I-153! Massimo, I now (finally) have my Amodel I-153 and it looks similar to the Heller kit, but it is definitely not just a knockoff of the Heller kit. Although perhaps based to a certain extent on the Heller kit (or some of the same drawings), the parts breakdown is somewhat different, with Amodel having just two sprues as opposed to the Heller kit's three. The Heller moulding is finer, not surprising since we're talking about an old Amodel kit. On the Amodel kit the upper wing is one piece, and the lower wings are one piece with boxed in wheel wells, whereas the Heller kit has two pieces for the upper wing and three pieces for the lower wing. The cowling is in three parts, instead of just two, as in the Heller kit. The cockpit is about the same. The one big difference dimension-wise is the fuselage - EP got this one right in that the Amodel fuselage is much shorter than the Heller kit's. I'm not a rivet counter, but the difference is quite noticeable and must be corrected, using the surgery performed by John as an example. It now looks like I may have purchased the Heller kit in vain, as an ICM I-15 kit looks to be a much better candidate for kit-bashing with the Amodel kit to produce a reasonably accurate Chaika. Not to keep playing the same tune, but if only ICM made a Chaika...
Regards,
Jason
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« Last Edit: September 27, 2010, 06:03:56 PM by learstang »
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"I'll sleep when I'm dead."
- Warren William Zevon
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Massimo Tessitori
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« Reply #19 on: September 28, 2010, 12:32:43 PM » |
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I've built the old version of I-15bis some years ago. If I remember well, there were two types of seat for I-15bis, unarmoured and armoured. Massimo
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learstang
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« Reply #20 on: September 28, 2010, 05:34:41 PM » |
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I've built the old version of I-15bis some years ago. If I remember well, there were two types of seat for I-15bis, unarmoured and armoured. Massimo
Considering that the I-15bis saw quite a bit of action during the GPW, it's certainly possible that the unarmoured seats were replaced by armoured seats, perhaps even from wrecked planes, just as some GPW I-15bis had tailwheels taken from I-153's. Regards, Jason
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"I'll sleep when I'm dead."
- Warren William Zevon
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John Thompson
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« Reply #21 on: October 18, 2010, 04:48:58 PM » |
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I'll let you know about the Quickboost cowling if/when I get it.
Regards,
Jason
Hi Jason! Did you ever receive the Quickboost I-153 cowling? If so, how does it look? Is the front of the cowling corrected, or is it just a copy of the Heller cowling, with exhaust stacks added? Thank you! John
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learstang
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« Reply #22 on: October 18, 2010, 05:45:34 PM » |
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Yes, John, I did finally receive the Quickboost cowling. It's in resin, and nicely moulded, with delicate exhausts, a new large exhaust for the port side, and a new intake for the top of the cowling. Unfortunately, it doesn't have a new faceplate for the front, just a hole where you put the Heller/Amodel/Smer kit's faceplate. Whether it's worth it or not, I haven't decided. I'll know when I finally get started on my "improved" I-153 as I now have all the parts for it; the Amodel kit for the lower wing and front fuselage, the Quickboost cowling, the Heller kit for the rear fuselage and some other parts, and the ICM I-15 kit for the upper wing and stabilisers. No telling when I can get to it as I'm now building a couple of Il-2 kits for an article and a book that are taking all my modelling time. Nonetheless I'll post here when I actually start doing something on the kit(s).
Regards,
Jason
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"I'll sleep when I'm dead."
- Warren William Zevon
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Walker
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« Reply #23 on: November 15, 2010, 05:01:54 PM » |
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Great start, John! I will watch with interest!
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John Thompson
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« Reply #24 on: November 17, 2010, 03:28:42 AM » |
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Great start, John! I will watch with interest!
Thank you for your kind words, Musa! I haven't done any work on this for the past two or three weeks because of other things, but here are some images which I made this evening to show some progress: Modified ICM I-16 cowling face; an unmodified one is on the right for comparison: ICM I-15 upper wing modified with 3mm spacer; this corrects the width of the centre section and span for the I-153, and also helps to match the Heller I-153 fuselage width: This image shows how the Heller forward fuselage was modified to allow the ICM I-15 wing to be mounted; an unmodified fuselage is on the right for comparison: The Heller wheel wells after closing them in and adding some detail; when this is finished, I'll cut off the wings and replace them with the ones from the ICM I-15: When I get more done, I'll post more images of this complicated project! John
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learstang
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« Reply #25 on: November 17, 2010, 06:29:20 AM » |
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Looking good, John! By the time I get to my FrankenChaika, you should be well along with yours, even finished. It'll be nice to have somebody else's build to use as a template.
Regards,
Jason
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"I'll sleep when I'm dead."
- Warren William Zevon
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Massimo Tessitori
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« Reply #26 on: November 17, 2010, 10:21:21 AM » |
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Hi John, your work is very interesting. Have you checked the fit of the lower wing to fuselage after closing the bays?. I had some problems with this on my model. Massimo
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John Thompson
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« Reply #27 on: November 17, 2010, 03:22:42 PM » |
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Looking good, John! By the time I get to my FrankenChaika, you should be well along with yours, even finished. It'll be nice to have somebody else's build to use as a template.
Regards,
Jason
Hi Jason! Don't count on it! Right now I'm working on a non-VVS kit (shame on me!), although the more we talk about the I-153, the more I want to get back to it, I suppose! Hi John, your work is very interesting. Have you checked the fit of the lower wing to fuselage after closing the bays?. I had some problems with this on my model. Massimo Hi Massimo! Yes, I've been checking the fit of these parts very carefully. You're right - there's not much room to make this modification. In some places I have sanded the plastic very, very thin, and the wheel wells are not very deep on the outer part of them where they have to fit inside the tapered outer part of the wing roots. John
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John Thompson
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« Reply #29 on: November 18, 2010, 07:48:05 PM » |
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Oh good - now I'll have to start all over again! Actually, they appear to be slightly "crooked", at least a little bit - see this image: But thank you for the comment! There will be enough other things wrong with this model that I'll forgive myself for a mistake on the underside. This is a good place for me to make another plea for Mr Muchichko to start working on those 1/72 I-153 masters for ICM as soon as possible! John
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