G'day all,
I have made a small start on mine as well.
I recall reading a review that criticised the way that Tamiya made the rear gunner compartment out of left and right halves, leaving a join to be eliminated on the floor. So, I glued these parts together, along with the rear armour to see how they fit together.
I can't see a problem. The floor is moulded as a very shallow V which, given the angular rear vertical armour, could be realistic.
Sorry, no pics yet.
Otherwise, I've been doing a bit of research over at https://massimotessitori.altervista.org/sovietwarplanes/pages/il-2/il2-camo/il-2m3/il2m3-camo.htm
It seems that the Tamiya kit best represents an Il-2M3 from Zavod (factory) no.18 with the metal wing and short tail wheel fairing.
So, the only aircraft from the supplied decals that is from Zavod 18 is the scheme that Spiros built.
I've decided to do this scheme, largely because of the blue fuselage band and spinner: https://massimotessitori.altervista.org/sovietwarplanes/pages/il-2/il2-camo/il-2m3/il2m3-bp-fl-am-3view-whitetail2yefimov.jpg
While I'm building the Tamiya kit, I'll also build the Zvezda kit.
The kit offers four schemes:
- White 10 is an early build aircraft. While the kit offers different parts for this aircraft, the kit still does not conform to the configuration in the above reference, mainly around the wing armament configuration and two landing lights.
- White 6 is a late build aircraft and can be built out of the box. This one has an interesting winter white wash over part of the airframe. It also may have exchanged the internal gun sight for an external post and ring sight.
- White 25 is a late build aircraft and can be built out of the box. The profile in the reference has some new, darker green paint on the rear fuselage and tail that would look good.
- White 5 is a late build aircraft and can be built out of the box. It should have a white tip to the vertical tail.
I haven't decided which scheme to build this one as.
3 attached images. Click to enlarge.
