Sovietwarplanes

I have been blessed with a 1/48 Accurate Miniatures Il-2 with skis, the single seater version. In anticipation of building the kit, I have been reading the documentation on this site about the Il-2. Does anyone know which "variant" of the Il-2 this kit best represents?

From photographs, it appears that most ski-equipped Il-2's were metal-winged, with 23mm cannons, and wooden rear fuselages.  The AM kit has the metal fuselage, which is incorrect, so that will need to be sanded down or filled in to be more accurate.  Otherwise it's a nice kit, although the spinner is a bit too-rounded.

Regards,

Jason

Jon

you did not say you wish to build it with skis, as the kit does contain the wheeled undercarriage as well.

If you fancied something different, with some detail checking you could build it as a very early IL-2, which had metal fuselages, and all green upper surfaces
http://mig3.sovietwarplanes.com/il-2/il2-camo/il-2early1941/il2-early1941.htm

or with some minor modification and scartchbuilding, one of the single seaters converted to take a rear gunner.
http://mig3.sovietwarplanes.com/il-2/il2-camo/converted2seaters/transition.htm

Both of which don't seem to be modelled often?  If you could make up or mask the bort numbers you have a very interesting model.

Plenty of idea on the Il-2 pages - http://mig3.sovietwarplanes.com/il-2/il-2.htm

Just a suggestion or two.

Hope of interest

T

Thanks for that information, Troy and Jason!

Troy, I like the idea of doing one of the early models. I doubt I'd try to tackle a conversion to the converted single seaters with the rear gunner. I'm horrible at conversions. :) But doing an early model in the pre-war/early war colors might be cool.

Maybe this one? The bort shouldn't be too difficult to mask.

(http://mig3.sovietwarplanes.com/il-2/il2-camo/il-2early1941/early-green-wood-2/il2-sp-fl-amv-3view-allgreen2.jpg)

Jon

as always, Jason is your man on this.
The plane you show has a wooden rear fuselage, I mentioned an early one as some had the metal rear fuselage. 
some of the planes further down the page are like this
eg
(http://mig3.sovietwarplanes.com/il-2/il2-camo/red5-2.jpg)

But you need to check the small details.  There is a list. I'd have a look but need to go and do some grass cutting... and I'm sure jason will pitch in when he read this.
I do think the early ones look quite striking in single colour uppersurfaces.

cheers
Troy

Replacement spinner and propeller are produced by Vector and Komplekt Zip.

Hi Jon, hi all,
early Il-2s of 1941 are an interesting job. But take into account the conversion of the wing, with the armament to move, the pair of balance weights under the ailerons, the landing lights on both the wings and on slightly different positions, the metal skinned ailerons and minor  (and unclear) differences in panelling.
Besides, if you want to modify the wing, it could be easier and more interesting to preserve the panelling on the rear fuselage to make a metal one.
Early Il-2s had a reduced armor on their canopy, please check if the thickness of the struts of the kit don't show any step if you reduce the painted parts.
Note that Il-2s had a thin lip over the spinner-nose junction, I don't know if the kit has this detail. This lip was omitted on early Il-2s, as visible on the drawing.
Regards
Massimo

Massimo, the AM kit has the lip in front, both in 1/48th scale, and in 1/72nd scale (the version released by Academy).  Right now I'm trying to backdate the Academy 1/72nd scale kit so I can do a metal-fuselaged version.  It already has the metal ailerons, the early style wingroot access panels, and the Bf-109-type aileron balances, but I'm having to redo the armament, I've cut in the landing light on the starboard wing, and I have an early-style canopy (vacuform from Rob Taurus, I believe) that doesn't have the extra armour.  And I'll need to remove the lip at the front of the cowling.

Regards,

Jason

Hi Jason,
so,  have the AM and Academy kits the early ailerons and balances from the box, but with later armament and landing light configuration? Have I understood well?
Regards
Massimo

That is correct, Massimo.

Regards,

Jason

Hi Jason,
and is the extra armour of the canopy so thick to require the replacement of the canopy?
Regards
Massimo

It's fairly thick; it would be best to replace the canopy if possible, but I don't know of anybody who makes an early-style single-seater canopy in 1/48th scale.  In that case, you might be stuck with sanding it down, then gradually restoring the clearness.  The aft section also needs to be sanded down.  The part that was metal on even the early single-seater is moulded as part of the fuselage, and has two lines instead of the correct single line on the starboard side, and the sliding canopy portion has one central frame in front of the armoured top, instead of the correct two frames.

Regards,

Jason