Tamiya 1/72 Sturmovik

[Doug Hughes]

I've recently started building this. It's my first Tamiya kit, and it's a gem - very well thought out and a delight to put together. On the photos you can see:

- My correction of the ejector slots - they're the wrong way round on one wing. I extended the front slot a bit, then filled the unwanted portion with plastic card

- All the many parts to be painted the interior grey colour - lined up and sprayed

- The bulkhead behind the pilot's seat: it's transparent plastic and you have to mask off the tiny windows before painting the whole thing grey

- Assembled fuselage, cockpit, and rear gun mounting. You install the entire cockpit assembly from the bottom after putting the fuselage together

- A couple of views of the cockpit, fuel tank, and rear gunner's position

I'm now putting the wings/fuselage together. The fuselage needed just a tiny amount of filler (Mr Surfacer is enough). The wing/fuselage joint looks a bit tricky, so I'll report back in due course.

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[Lee W]

Looking great so far Doug, think I might tag along if you don't mind?

Lee

 

[dubster72]

That's looking good Doug, I'll watch this one.

 

[monica]

very nice start Doug,looking good, :D

 

[andyrobs]

looking good Doug, great start mate

Cheers, Andrew

 

[The Migrant]

Nice early work so far, Doug. What marking options does Tamiya offer in the kit?

 

[flyjoe180]

Nice start Doug.

 

[Doug Hughes]

Hi Mike,

The markings provided are:

- 'White 1' of 6th Gv OShAP

- 'White 07' of 566th ShAP (the one with a picture of Leningrad on the side - I plan on building this one)

- 'White 12' of 16th VA

I have to admit to not knowing what all the things I've typed above mean - I just copied them out of the instructions! Some if not all the options feature on the great Soviet Warplanes site: http://mig3.sovietwarplanes.com/il-2/il2-camo/il-2m3/il2m3-camo.htm

Here's some more pictures:

- Wings and fuselage ready to join

- Canopy all masked (my first attempt at cutting my own tape for this, rather than using commercial masks. The Sturmovik is quite an easy one, as many of the panes are rectangular, and can just be measured and cut out rather than cut in situ)

- Wings and fuselage joined, after a lot of sanding as the joint was too tight, turning the dihedral into anhedral. Some filling will be required, but not too much

- The decal sheet, with instrument panel and seat straps already removed

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[James Q]

looking really good so far!

 

[noble]

This is looking good so far can't wait to see the paint work.

scott

 

[Doug Hughes]

I've finally got back to this after the distractions of holidays, grandchildren, returning to work, and running races. I did indeed need to fill a bit around the wing joint, and the first couple of pictures show the amount of filling needed. I then masked the wheel wells (with sections cut from foam earplugs, supplemented by Vallejo liquid mask to get right to the edges). I decided to attach the front two sections of the canopy at this stage, but the final one looked a bit tricky to mask around - it was easier to leave it off and mask the flatter surfaces that remained. A coat of primer showed I'd made a reasonable job of the rubbing down - just a bit of touching up was required with the wet and dry paper before giving it a final coat of primer, which is what you can see in the last photo.

I also settled on the paints I'm going to use:

AMT-7 Light Blue: Vallejo 71.008 RLM65

AMT-4 Green: Vallejo 71.092 Medium Olive

AMT-12 Dark Grey: Vallejo 71.097 Base Grey

AMT-1 Light Brown: 3 parts Vallejo 71.122 Desert Tan + 1 part 71.097 Base Grey

Lack of reliable information about the original colours, plus the likely effects of weathering, mean I don't have to be too picky about the exact shades!

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[papa 695]

Just seen this one Doug and some great work it's looking very good indeed

 

[flyjoe180]

Yep, looks good Doug, sounds like you have the colours under control.

 

[Airfix Modeller Freak]

Hi Mike,The markings provided are:

- 'White 1' of 6th Gv OShAP

- 'White 07' of 566th ShAP (the one with a picture of Leningrad on the side - I plan on building this one)

- 'White 12' of 16th VA

I have to admit to not knowing what all the things I've typed above mean - I just copied them out of the instructions! Some if not all the options feature on the great Soviet Warplanes site: http://mig3.sovietwarplanes.com/il-2/il2-camo/il-2m3/il2m3-camo.htm

Here's some more pictures:

- Wings and fuselage ready to join

- Canopy all masked (my first attempt at cutting my own tape for this, rather than using commercial masks. The Sturmovik is quite an easy one, as many of the panes are rectangular, and can just be measured and cut out rather than cut in situ)

- Wings and fuselage joined, after a lot of sanding as the joint was too tight, turning the dihedral into anhedral. Some filling will be required, but not too much

- The decal sheet, with instrument panel and seat straps already removed

Beware of those decals mate! Tamiya have a notorious reputation for their kits being fantastically good, but their decals ruining a perfectly good model. By the way, this looks very nice mate.

John

 

[dubster72]

Lovely smooth job on the filling & sanding Doug

 

[Polux]

Looking very good, excellent work so far

 

[Doug Hughes]

Thanks for the warning about the decals, John. I have a cunning plan for those, involving 1) trying out some of the spare ones in advance, and 2) praying. This may not be foolproof - I haven't seen any aftermarket ones to fall back on.

 

[0ne48thtel]

this is coming along nicely Doug.

 

[Doug Hughes]

Six weeks (!), yards of masking tape, and an entire packet of white tack later, I've finally finished the main colours. I do work slowly, but there's been a lot to do as well, with four colours to apply and lots of masking. As you'll see from the pictures, I pre-shaded it, sprayed the undersides light blue, then masked this with tape and white tack at the edges. I then built up the upper surface camouflage, masking each colour with tape and white tack. There was quite a lot of touching up to do, as I'm still learning about this white-tack worm business, and it's quite tricky to get it right when working into tight curves and corners.

If I had my time over again, I'd think about doing the upper surfaces first, then masking those off and doing the single lower surface colour. I know that breaks the 'light colours first' rule, and I might have to give it a few squirts of primer to ensure an even base to paint over, but spraying three upper colours to the edge of the blue using the white tack masking method is really tricky - you have to get the angle of the airbrush just right for every colour. I failed in this, and had to touch up the blue (with a bit of re-priming).

Half way through the painting, I told my wife I'd spent the last hour sticking white tack sausages all over the model, and she said, 'That reminds me, it's pizza for tea'.

Anyway - out with the Humbrol Clear next!

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[flyjoe180]

That's looking very good Doug. I'm a fan of the white/blue tack sausage masking now. I've also often thought about breaking the rule and applying the upper camouflage first, sometimes I think it would make the demarcation line along the fuselage sides looks a bit better (softer)..