Il-40 in Afghanistan FINISHED!

[thesolitarycyclist]

here it is in the flesh

http://www.aviastar.org/air/russia/il-40.php

and a later version on the same theme

http://www.flankers-site.co.uk/modl_il-102.html

[PYF42]

here it is in the flesh

http://www.aviastar.org/air/russia/il-40.php

and a later version on the same theme

http://www.flankers-site.co.uk/modl_il-102.html

Thanks
It really have a incredible look !
Regards
Fred

[frank2056]

You know, it just isn't an AModel kit without at least one major, shockingly bad fit "issue". This kit is no exception.

First, the nice stuff:

Fixed the exhausts by using the original exhaust cones in some Gundam detailing bits"



I also placed a thin sheet of styrene in the scalloped area next to the exhausts. The gap/step was just going to be too time consuming to sand and putty out.

OK, now for the bad. The canopies are too big!

If there are small children or animals present, or if you're the sensitive type who is easily shocked by poorly fitting plastic you may want to skip the next two pictures.

I sanded off the flash and placed them flush in their locations. The gaps and steps are real.

Rear canopy:



Front canopy:



You're looking at the canopies jutting up and to the sides by almost 1mm! I guess I could fix this by splitting the fuselage apart and bending the plastic between the two cockpits until they matched the canopy frames. Unfortunately, there are three bulkheads inside that provide much of the stiffness to the fuselage. Another option is to saw a slot into the canopies and squeeze them together until the match the width of the fuselage and trim the coaming until they match the height. A third option would be to make a vacuform copy of the interior of the canopy (the copy will then be smaller than the original) and use tamiya tape to mask off the windows. Lots of fun any way you look at it.

Oh, and the tail is too marrow compared to the triangular forward edge that's part of the fuselage. At least that can be sanded down to fit.

[Jschmus]

Jeez, that's a scary bad fit.  I guess the canopies are too specific to the aircraft to try sourcing them from a different kit?

[comrade harps]

The Il-40 was real enough, but somewhat bizarre that it should have been seriously marketing in the 1990s when it was a rejected 1950s design (for being somewhat outdated).

AModel kits do tend to get ugly, don't they?  All the best with it.

[frank2056]

Jeez, that's a scary bad fit.  I guess the canopies are too specific to the aircraft to try sourcing them from a different kit?

It's it's the Il-40 canopies, or time for some serious mods to the cockpit area.

I ended up splitting the forward fuselage. I'll spread the canopy areas to match the width and trim the canopy and coaming areas to match the height. The opening for the canopies have enough flash that the actual position is "fuzzy". I'll post pics later with my solution.

The Il-40 was real enough, but somewhat bizarre that it should have been seriously marketing in the 1990s when it was a rejected 1950s design (for being somewhat outdated).

AModel kits do tend to get ugly, don't they?

The Il-102 looks very very close to the Il-40 "early". For it's primary purpose, it doesn't seem that outdated. You need a big brute of a plane to move a lot of dirt and the Il-10/Il-40 was a huge airplane with quite a bomb/weapons load. If the Su-25 hadn't been put into service, the Il-102 would have made a good contender.

I'd really like to find an Amodel kit that isn't somewhere between a scratchbuild and a vacuform in terms of effort.

[frank2056]

I tried making a slot in the rear canopy to squeeze it to fit, but that plastic is too brittle; I gave up and filled the slot with superglue. I noticed that the gap required is almost exactly the width of a credit card, so I pulled out my trusty old stash of expired credit cards ant a strip to fit:



In place. I also added a strip in the gap at the far right (in front of the forward cockpit opening):



After some trimming, the forward canopy with is OK (the canopy is skewed - it was resting on a sliver of plastic):



Rear canopy. The filled in slot is in a non-glass area:



After taking these pictures, I sanded the spacer flat and smooth and filled in voids with CA. The canopies fit reasonably well now.

If you enjoy sanding (and lots of it) this is the perfect kit for you!

[redstar72]

frank2056
The Il-40 canopy was really wider than the fuselage! It was necessary because the canopy opened by sliding backwards. You can see its wideness here:

[frank2056]

Thanks for that picture, redstar72. Too late to go back now! The window pane detail on the canopies looks a bit off as well. And the small spine extension on the tail is smaller on the original as well! So I guess Amodel is off the hook (somewhat) and I'm ending up with an even more wiffed Il-40 than I had expected.

[rickshaw]

Be careful about the spine.  I think the picture posted by Frank is of an earlier version whereas the picture posted on the aviastar site (linked to earlier) obviously has a small fillet in front of the stabiliser.

[frank2056]

Be careful about the spine.  I think the picture posted by Frank is of an earlier version whereas the picture posted on the aviastar site (linked to earlier) obviously has a small fillet in front of the stabiliser.

No, Redstar's is correct. The "other" picture is just a heavily retouched photograph of the same aircraft. I guess I should have looked at the boxtop artwork as well - both canopies look a bit oversized (although not as much as in the kit plastic) and the fillet/spine in front of the vert. stab. looks indeed narrower.

Both "features" look horrible in the plastic though. The fin in particular. I smoothed mine out and it's getting some additions as well.

[Pablo1965]

Nice proyect.

[frank2056]

I can't believe it's been this long since I updated this project. Ironically, OBL was still alive when I started it...

Most of the paint is on - I still need to add some small bits, then it's off for a coat of matte paint and some weathering.



I added two flare & chaff dispensers under the engines and a TV/FLIR pod to the port side, but they're not visible in the pictures. Visible are a couple of bumps under the tail for the rear warning radar/UR and an another yet unidentified fairing over the cockpit area.


This is a big model! And very heavy. Even though the area between the two intakes is packed solid with modeling clay and lead shotgun pellets, it's still tail heavy. I've never had a styrene model so heavy that it collapsed its landing gear - this may be the first. Luckily, there's still plenty of room to pack more weight in the intakes, which will be mostly invisible since you need a flashlight to see the engine fronts.

I still need to add the rocket pods, and this little gem on the centerline:


The KAB-1000L, a prototype 1000kg laser guided bomb. I made it by mating a large bomb from the Revell Ar.555 kit with a modified laser seeker/guidance nose from a Hasegawa US bomb set.

[sideshowbob9]

Great work! 

[tanktastic43]

Looking good.
A bit of a 'handsome brute'!
Well done. 

tt43.