Polikarpov I-16 Sprinter - Finished Pics Pg 4

[Tophe]

Wow! Nice till there.

[KiwiZac]

I do love a Poli, they're fantastic airshow machines. It should really move with the Hercules up front! Shame it won't have that lovely Harley-Davidson-style sound anymore...
https://youtu.be/g_6jZ0YbMz4

[jcf]

Gonna need a hella pile o' lead in the butt end to balance that Bristol lump. 

[Doug K]

Some progress on the GeeBeeski.
GeeBeeski WIP 11-11-18 by Fred Maillardet, on Flickr
Bare metal interior and formed plywood seat back to save weight.
Nose guns removed.
Paint pot for scale.

Geebeeski.... 🤣🤣

[zenrat]

Gonna need a hella pile o' lead in the butt end to balance that Bristol lump. 

Nah, removal of all guns will balance out the heavier engine and forward shift in CoG.   

[zenrat]

Attached the horizontal tails yesterday and the elevators and rudder today.  This is all engineered nicely with a separate tail cone which locks the elevators and rudder into place while still allowing them to be posed off centre.  A touch of filing was needed but once adjusted it all fitted very well.
Also stage 2 PSR on the underbelly and some cutting away of stock Polikarpov panels to allow fitting of the Bristol cowling.

[zenrat]

Some progress.
Geebeeski WIP 28-11-2018 by Fred Maillardet, on Flickr
Pink Tamiya primer in preparation for a coat of red.
Once the paint and decals are done i'll attach the engine and then will be able to see where to cut up the Beaufighter cowling to get it to fit.

[Weaver]

Nice one Fred! I'd almost be tempted to leave it in that pink paint - maybe say that it was painted red originally but when the racing series moved to the American leg, the Russian paint faded in the unaccustomed sunshine, causing much embarassment to Soviet officials...

The Russian 14 cylinder engine was the Shvestov ASh-82, first run in 1940. It was about 5 inches smaller in diameter than the Hercules. Compared to the 9-cylinder Wright-Cyclone-derived ASh-62 engine that preceded it, it had it's stroke reduced by nearly an inch, so you could claim that your racer's engine is an intermediate development with 14 cylinders but the the original Ash-62 stroke. The earliest 14-cyl engine was the cancelled ASh-80 but I can't find any info about it.

Have you got an 18 cylinder engine moulding that will fit in the Herc's cowl? If so, you could claim it to be a straight-forward 'Twin ASh-62' (which they tried): the ASh-62 is almost exactly the same diameter as a Hercules.

This thing really is tiny.  Perfect for a race plane.

Yes, this is the GeeBee principle: minimum aircraft/drag&weight after a big engine!

It's almost a radial engine pod with wings attached...

[zenrat]

I already have a pink Zero and a pink N1K1.  While i'm not adverse to any more pink aircraft this one is now red.
Polikarpov I-16 WIP 02-12-18 by Fred Maillardet, on Flickr
The paint arrived today.  It's Sugar which is a new make of "artists" paint JonCF found.  It's low smell, low VOC and made from sugar cane.  It's also significantly cheaper than the enamels I usually buy, even with postage added.  This is one mist coat and one wet coat of "strawberry" straight from the rattle can on top of Tamiya pink primer.  It covers very well quickly drying to a slightly rough feeling matt side of satin finish.  Should be OK after i've polished it with paper towel but will need gloss clear in order to take decals without silvering.
I'll be putting blue racing stripes on it (Russian international racing colours - red with blue stripes) so i'll find out how it holds up to masking tape.

[zenrat]

Geebeeski now has a blue racing stripe on the left wing and a blue rudder.

[zenrat]

Decalled.
Geebeeski WIP 081218 by Fred Maillardet, on Flickr
From a Linden Hill Su-25 "Global Rooks" sheet.  I was very impressed by the opacity of the white.

[dumaniac]

wow - now that is some great colour scheme

[NARSES2]

Does look neat 

[PR19_Kit]

All it needs now is an engine. 

[zenrat]

I attached the engine thisarvo.  Tomorrows job is to trim the Beaufighter cowlings to fit.