1:32 IL-2 (single seater)

A ground-attack aircraft still without a gunner

The first production Ilyushin Il-2s flew in single-seat form and paid for it. Behind the pilot there was nobody to watch the rear hemisphere, and the losses of the summer of 1941 are among the heaviest any type recorded. On the other hand, the armored shell around the engine, the radiators and the cockpit withstood what another machine would not have taken. The windscreen had an armored pane several centimeters thick set into it, and that shows on a model too.

An inner mask changes how the cockpit looks from inside

The outer frames get sprayed by every builder. The inner face of the glazing is often skimped, because it seems that nobody will see it, but with the cockpit slid back it is the other way round. A clear part with no inner paint looks like a transparent shell and the depth of the frame disappears. The set therefore carries two films, one for each face, and it is precisely the inner one that does more work than you would expect.

• the clear parts are masked outside and inside
• a pair of stencils for the red stars
• decals are not stated here

When to apply the mask

The inner film has to be applied at the moment when the clear part is still loose in your hand. Once it is set into the fuselage, not even tweezers reach the frames from inside and all that is left is a brush and annoyance. The armored pane in front of the windscreen is worth distinguishing already during painting, because it had a frame of its own and a different shade from the surrounding metal, and the inner film keeps that difference even after assembly. Supplementary markings for a particular regiment have to be obtained separately, and a kit is not in the box.