[Fertig] GPM, Nr. 264, Il-2m3 "Stormovik", 1:33

Hi all,
after several years i decided to get back to cardmodels and after several easy builds just to refresh the technique i started this nice model from GPM. I didn't intend to make a construction report at first, so some shots are missing (and some more will be missing most definitely :)), but what the...
My skill is quite low compared to some people on this forum (hi to Bernie and his vehicle obsession :)), so feel free to put your comments and hints here.

fuselage - front part of plane in construction:

fuselage covering - as you can see, the parts were on different pages, so the colour differs a bit

getting to the up-to-date state... partly assembled cockpit and pilot seat:

some tiny bits - exhaust pipes and rear machinegun:

so this is approximately where i'm with the build now. i probably won't do much more during the weekend, but i'll try to complete the cockpit with attached rear gunner compartment. i'll keep you updated
the building was without any major problems so far. the air inlet cover didn't fit for about 1.5 mm in the front of fuselage (just behind the propeler), but it was maybe just my fault. putting the cockpit frame on its place was a bit tricky, since the inner gray part above the instrument panel didn't fit the outer "plate" in shape, but it won't be visible when finished.

thanks everyone for your nice words, i'm starting to regret i didn't do more details - remember the cokcpit is HUGE, about 3,5x3 cm (i'm not joking, it would be quite easy to make some more add-ons, but i didn't have enough photos to do it - mainly because i was too lazy to search :))

most of cockpit gizmos done, seat on place, rear partition glued - so cockpit almost done, now i'm moving to the tail part of fuselage.

well i'll add a hint - as you can see on the cockpit photos, the horizontal rib on the right side is not straight - i had to bend it a bit. it's because the instrument panel is glued wrong - it's twisted a bit so the hole for the rib is too high. If you build this model sometime, be really careful when putting the cockpit part on its place - it's hard to notice you're doing it wrong and when you realize it, it's too late to repair it... as always

today i woke up really early... so some more progress.

um, and by the way... since this is most probably my last post today, i'd like to wish you happy new year 2k6.

hi all,
time to go on with the report...

the most boring shot first - the exhaustion pipes, this time all of them.

the rear part of the fuselage - this part of model was really well done by authors, everything including the decals fits perfectly.

the tail section, uncomplete yet - i'll connect it to the fuselage later today or maybe tomorrow. you can notice that the wind-leading edge on the tips of horizontal stabilizers is not touched up yet - i did it on Monday. The colour on the flaps differs again, parts were on different sheets.

whoops, finally i'm realizing how big this plane is...

and now for some wheelworks - the tail wheel... i created a drawing in AutoCAD (as if i don't work in it whole day ), printed, glued on a 0,4 mm carton, cut out, glued together, sand-papered it using an electric drill, painted, ground again because i saw all the flaws under the paint, painted, ground again and finally painted again... the shots can explain it better than i can i guess

now i'm working on the front wheels - in fact, i'm writing this report while i'm waiting for the glue "coating" to dry. i believe this is an important part when grinding the wheels (oh noes, it sounds like from a skateboard movie ), so i took some shots. the glue "coating" prevents the paper from delaminating.

Hi Kartonists,
it's about time to update this report a bit. i was quite busy over last days, so the progress is not big, but i decided to publish it here anyway. the shots were taken yesterday in a bit of hurry, so i have to admit some of them really _should_ have better quality, but i will continue with build instead of taking them again.

so let's go. first - the tail wheel and first of total four rockets - the rocket is painted just to see the flaws, i will do a final paint when i have all of them finished.

next will be two shots of finished gunners compartment. to be honest, this place would easily rank to the "Top ten places I would hate to be at" in real plane in wwii - the gunner didn't have seat, just a belt to sit on and four handles, he had almost no protection, just some armor plates added in/onto the fuselage, plus the machinegun had only 150 shots. i've read some statistics according which a pilot had a chance about 8:1 to survive a combat flight, and some more statistics which said that there was almost seven gunners killed for one KIA pilot.

well back to the model:

after completing the gunner compartment and glueing the stabilizers onto the rear part of fuselage, i finally glued all the fuselage parts together. it's about 32 cm long now (no references, sexual or not ).
i'm sorry for extremely bad lighting on second image.

the frame for the wings is quite similar on all models i guess. one more thing to add although - this part was a brainteaser to me, because i didn't find any system like "all parts will point their face side away from the fuselage or upside", so i spent a lot of time rotating the parts and frying my brain - not to mention that the lines for where to glue other parts were printed in the same linetype for the front and back side of the part.

the card used to reinforce the ribs was from a package from some of my xmas gifts - a t-shirt i believe (if it wasn't the t-shirt, it would have to be the socks, which i find a bit improbable :))

and finally, yesterday i started to cover the wing framework. here you can see the "inner" part of the wing - i decided to make the flaps open. the inside of flaps is quite simplyfied, but i guess it's OK because it will be visible only through a few milimeters wide slot.

Zaphod, Mindaugas

you guys are too fast for me
thanks for your kind words. after I finish the model, I'll take some shots and red-circle some of my faults, so you can see it's not perfect at all...

from what I can tell (I have two unbuilt Halinski models here and two other from GPM, plus I've seen some more), both publishers publish fine quality models. Halinskis models have more parts - which is not necesarilly an advantage, i can't imagine how it's possible to build some of that 1x1 mm sized and twice folded parts - and quite nice weathering printed on them - the weathering on Bf 110G2 is a real masterpiece. GPM seems to offer some freedom on how complex model do you want to build, which sounds good to me too. There's only one thing I don't like a little bit - some kits from GPM (you can see it on some scans on this forum) has printed highlights on the parts to enchance higher/lower areas, edges and so on, and I think it's a bit overdone on some models.

hi all,

thanks for support, it's really very motivating.

now, when the wings await to be done, i'm building everything else because i'm a bit scared of this crucial phase - oh well, seriously, i'm not - it won't be the first model i wrecked by doing the wings geometry wrong...
well, seriously now, second try - i didn't have enough free time in one piece to dare to build these large sections during today and yesterday, so i was working on armament and other accesories. I glued all four rockets (no need to show photos, they all look about the same due to some miracle ), prepared the caps for front wheels (i still have to add some "screws" and paint it) and built one more cockpit equipment - the rockets & bombs release controller with the cocking levers. in the original kit, this controller was simplified too much, so i decided to add some detail. the colours of painted and printed surfaces look different on the shot (probably because of the flash), but there's no such difference visible in normal lighting.

uhm, looking at the photo i've realized the rocket controller ("PO" on the lefr) is glued lower than the other
i didn't notice before.
.
.
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repaired, lucky me - it wasn't glued properly

Quote

Originally posted by fuchsjos
A question: In some pictures it looks, as if you engraved the plate joints and rivets emphasized. Is this true or is it only the outstanding print.
If it is true, how do you doing it?
Josef

Hi Josef,
you're right, on most parts (except for wings, where it would take probably half a year to do it :)) i tried to do the rivets and joints between the sheets plastical. sometimes it was hard to tell if they should rise above the surface or they should be embedded down into it, so i probably did some mistakes, but who cares.

the way how do i do it is quite simple - i use a pinhead to push it through the paper. for the raised rivets, i get their position on the side without print using a round toothpick and a sheet of carbon paper - you have to put the carbon paper below the model part (so that it has its "active" side up) and slightly push on each rivet with the toothpick. this gives you small points on the back side of paper, so you know where to push. there's a little problem with parts which should be reinforced with thicker card, because it's impossible to push through that thick paper. you have to do it either before you reinforce it (and you'll probably find out that the rivets disappear as the glue dries) or make the rivets embedded into the part (lower than the surrounding surface) which is "wrong" in terms of historical/technical accuracy, but looks quite good anyway.

if anyone has an idea about how to solve this little problem, please share it. the rivets in 1/33 are a bit too small to make them from paper/wire as is usual on vehicles in 1/24 scale, so i don't know. maybe a little drops of glue would do the trick, but it would require some fine painting.

that sounds like a great idea, bernie, thank you for hint.

i'll try it as soon as i get to the wheel wells, where i'll need some more rivets - so i'll give you some feedback approximately about the year 2500 (plus minus some centuries) :).

well, one can see you have "some" experience in cardmodel building...

Hi kartonists,
a little update is here. so first the overview shot of current progress and the terrible mess on my table (see below) and some talking.