THE KIT
Until the release of Fly Models’
Ilyushin Il-10 there was only one
contender, the Kopro kit from the
1980s. The new mouldings from
Fly reflect the latest technology,
having finely recessed consistent
panel lines and good detail both
inside and out. Due to its short-run
nature, however, some of the parts
need adjustment to make them fit.
At the time of writing, the
kit has been released in three
different boxings, “Soviet Service”,
“Korean War”, and “Post-War”.
My review sample was the Soviet
Service (72035) version, which
contains markings for four Soviet
Air Force aircraft from 1945 to- There are two sprues of
plastic, one clear sprue, and a
resin block containing various
small parts, such as antennas,
landing gear arms, and exhaust
stacks. These are beautifully cast,
but must be treated carefully (I
broke one of the exhausts and the
loop antenna as I was removing
them from the casting block!).
All clear parts are transparent
and without distortions, as they
should be (even so, I dipped them
in Alclad Gloss for some additional
protection and that extra shine).
The light brown plastic runners
have sprue gates extending
onto the mating surfaces of
parts, while some of the smaller
parts suffer from mould seams,
which need to be scraped away
with a sharp scalpel blade.
There have been a few comments
regarding the kit’s accuracy on
various online forums. It
seems that the nose is
undersized in vertical
dimensions, and both top
and lower engine cowlingshould be more convex. The
windscreen sits slightly too high,
and the placement of the exhausts is
not correct either. These issues are
difficult to address as they require
delicate plastic surgery, so I went
ahead without modifications. You
may judge by looking at my build
whether or not these corrections
are really necessary – to my
eyes, it still looks like an Il-10.CONSTRUCTION
The cockpit consists of 14 parts,
including pedals, side
consoles, defencegun, and ammunition boxes for
the rear gunner. Decals for the
instrument panel and consoles
are also provided. I added photo-
etch seatbelts from the spares box
and sprayed the interior Gunze
H307 Grey, picking out details
by hand using Vallejo acrylics.
Once the fuselage halves were
closed, I added the lower wing
section, carefully positioning it
on a scale ruler to get everything
lined up straight. The lower wing
has separate resin air intakes,
one on each side. These are quite
fragile, but have to be inserted
at this stage, along with the
radiator grill on the centre wing.
I did a test run with the upper
wing halves, and this revealed
further problems. When positioned
to fit the wing tip, they did not line
up with the wheel bay bumps, and
were too wide on the fuselage-
to-wing joint. I addressed thisWWW.SAMPUBLICATIONS.COM • APRIL 2018 • 27
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