1:48 IL-2M3

The ground-attack aircraft that was lost fastest

The single-seat Ilyushin was reckoned easy prey for fighters attacking from behind, and so a second cockpit with a gunner was built into the fuselage. The version designated M3 also received a wing with a cranked leading edge, which gave the machine back its longitudinal stability after the weight shifted to the rear. In its final form the Ilyushin was built in tens of thousands of examples and became the most numerous combat aircraft of the war.

Two cockpits, two worlds

At the front the pilot sits inside a shell of armor steel which forms the load-bearing part of the fuselage itself. Behind his back stands a transverse bulkhead and only beyond it is the gunner's station, covered by low glazing with a cut-out for the movable machine gun. Both places are under one continuous band of glazing, so they are seen through the same surface and the difference between them has to be made by the paint.

The inner side decides the depth

While the pilot's space is enclosed and dark, the gunner's is shallow and full of light. When the frames are sprayed from the outside only, the two spaces visually merge into one long glazed tube. A mask for the inner side makes it possible to define the bulkhead and the cut-out for the weapon, and the viewer then recognizes that these are two separate stations.

It also helps that Soviet interiors had a lighter tone than is usual on Western machines. The contrast against the dark fuselage spine is therefore great and every untreated surface inside gives itself away immediately. Working with the reverse film here therefore does not add an hour for the sake of a detail, but for the sake of the model not looking unfinished.

What the package holds

The glazing from both sides and a single insignia for spraying. This item has no decals and no model either.