New Kit News: 1/48 Ilyushin Il-28 Beagle from Bobcat
After the success of their first kit (1/48 scale Yakovlev Yak-28P Firebar), the second kit release from Bobcat of China is another interesting Cold War subject, the 1/48 Ilyushin Il-28 Beagle.
The Il-28 was Soviet Union's first mass-produced jet bomber, also licence-built in Czechoslovakia as Avia B-228 and CB-228 and in China as the Harbin H-5. Total production in the USSR was 6,316 aircraft. For a long time, it was the standard tactical bomber in the Soviet and Warsaw Pact forces, which makes it rather strange that we haven't yet seen a modern kit of this aircraft in 1/48. Good choice there by Bobcat.
The company has recently released the boxart for the kit, indicating that a release is imminent.
Here are also some recent shots of an assembled test-run kit.
Wau
Someone once gave me the ancient Airfix attempt at this aircraft , it was so bad I binned it and the box with the amazing Roy Cross artwork, I wish I'd kept the box front...
Great to see this will soon be available to us.
I'm curious to see how it will compare to my HPH version. (Beside being more than likely significantly less expensive!) I hope Bobcat continues giving us the lesser known (or even if known, less popular) Soviet iron! I already have the Firebar and Brewer and they are building nicely. (The nacelles are a bit fiddly though. Tricky but not terrible.) The Beagle box art is beautiful. Much, much better than the Yak's. I've never seen tip tanks on one though. Didn't know it was an option!
This looks like a great kit, and it should be fairly large in 1/48th. The top photo depicts a Beagle carrying torpedoes. I didn't know they were equipped to carry torpedoes. I wonder if the kit will have them?
It's about B-25 size. Not too big.
Hi y’all!
I was lucky enough to find a good deal on a HPH Il-28 some time ago. She is one exclusive, super-detailed resin kit with outstanding finesse – I am really looking forward to sink my fangs in her hide. But, HPH Il-28 IS expensive, has some serious casting blocks and construction challenges to police; and well… she's a hard-core resin job with gravitational field of her own. Let’s just say that she demands a healthy sum of vigor, commitment and skill.
I also have Bobcat’s Yak-28, which is quite a nice mainstream kit of this fascinating airplane. If one also considers the two Xuntong kits: Tu-2 and Il-4, who in my understanding all share the same origin, one can see a steady progression in quality. I would then expect the upcoming Il-28 to be the best of Bobcat / Xuntong boxes so far.
Can we compare any of these kits with something from the HPH universe? Yes we can!
For example, with the list of aftermarket improvements I acquired for Xuntong Tu-2 I could probably choke a hippo. Considering the amount of energy and stamina to build a high-level model out of all that makes me wish for a (hypothetical) HPH resin version of the Tu-2. It would be more streamlined and easier build certainly, if perhaps a tad more expensive, but ever so slightly. On the other hand, if I was looking for a low-hassle, twin-engine Soviet aircraft in 1:48 scale I would be sure to turn my face to the east and call those names mentioned above… as I already did anyway…
Cheers,
Aleks