BarryW
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Apr 17, 2025
- Messages
- 263
I have a lot to say about this one.
I have been a big fan of ICM 1/32 aircraft in the past and had high expectations of this one but, I was disappointed.
Don't get me wrong, it's a decent kit and I recommend it to anyone who wants this tidy little Soviet fighter on the shelf. However, I quickly realised that as I built it, it felt much more like a Special Hobby kit than what I have come to expect from ICM. It does have location pins, but very tiny ones rather like the SH Aircobra has. There is a lack of strong clear location points generally but it's mostly not a problem, except for one thing, the undercarriage legs. The connections are very weak and I suspect won't last 10 minutes.
I decided to finish this with wheels up to avoid this issue. This did give me a few problems, my first wheels up since I was a child! The wheel bay covers were not a good fit for one thing and I have to do a fair bit of filling and sanding to get an acceptable fit. Next, no pilot and, at this stage in the game I was all closed up firmly and no chance of fitting a pilot. However, I am no good at painting pilots anyway and a pilot would obscure the cockpit detail and, besides, it's the aircraft I want to display. I could have left the cockpit open based on that reasoning but I decided it would look better closed.
For a stand I got one from Flory Models and excellent they are too. It meant drilling out a rather large hole in the bottom to fit the stand and no issues doing as such.
However, I had masked off the canopy and permanently fitted it into position. So when I removed the masking I found material stuck inside the canopy from my drilling.
Anyway, here are the pictures,
Just don't look too closely at the canopy, it's embarrassing…. If I do another wheels up I won't make that mistake again.
If you are wondering about the flag in the background it's the Falkland Islands. My son is a regular visitor there and to Antarctica. I went there myself a couple of years ago, I love the place, best fish and chips ever at the Victory pun in Stanley.
I have been a big fan of ICM 1/32 aircraft in the past and had high expectations of this one but, I was disappointed.
Don't get me wrong, it's a decent kit and I recommend it to anyone who wants this tidy little Soviet fighter on the shelf. However, I quickly realised that as I built it, it felt much more like a Special Hobby kit than what I have come to expect from ICM. It does have location pins, but very tiny ones rather like the SH Aircobra has. There is a lack of strong clear location points generally but it's mostly not a problem, except for one thing, the undercarriage legs. The connections are very weak and I suspect won't last 10 minutes.
I decided to finish this with wheels up to avoid this issue. This did give me a few problems, my first wheels up since I was a child! The wheel bay covers were not a good fit for one thing and I have to do a fair bit of filling and sanding to get an acceptable fit. Next, no pilot and, at this stage in the game I was all closed up firmly and no chance of fitting a pilot. However, I am no good at painting pilots anyway and a pilot would obscure the cockpit detail and, besides, it's the aircraft I want to display. I could have left the cockpit open based on that reasoning but I decided it would look better closed.
For a stand I got one from Flory Models and excellent they are too. It meant drilling out a rather large hole in the bottom to fit the stand and no issues doing as such.
However, I had masked off the canopy and permanently fitted it into position. So when I removed the masking I found material stuck inside the canopy from my drilling.
Anyway, here are the pictures,
Just don't look too closely at the canopy, it's embarrassing…. If I do another wheels up I won't make that mistake again.
If you are wondering about the flag in the background it's the Falkland Islands. My son is a regular visitor there and to Antarctica. I went there myself a couple of years ago, I love the place, best fish and chips ever at the Victory pun in Stanley.
