Su-2 scale 1/72 (ICM)

Su-2 scale 1/72 (ICM). The author of the review Andrey Aseev.

The first "cracker".

Historical information.

This review will be devoted to the light bomber-reconnaissance su-2 - the first production aircraft, created and modified under the leadership of P. O. Sukhoi at the famous plant number 135 (renamed from may 1940 in the Sukhoi design Bureau, created on the basis of KB-29 (pilot plant number 289) in Podlipki).

The aircraft was created in 1938. In the process has undergone many design changes, including the replacement of the engine. In the end, the introduction of su-2 aircraft with the m-88B engine into the army began in January 1941. on June 1, the manufacturers reported on 413 su-2s adopted by the military representatives. By the beginning of the war, out of 82 short-range bomber regiments of the red Army air force, eight had more or less mastered the su-2 and two more did not have time to get machines from the factories, but planned to soon begin the process of retraining. Located near the border 195 Sukhoi bombers (132 serviceable) were located South of the 55th parallel-approximately from the Vilnius-Vitebsk line to the Black sea. In other types of aviation (Navy air force, NKVD air units) su-2 aircraft were absent.

Aircraft layout

The crews especially noted such advantages of the su-2, as a spacious, comfortable, warm cabin in any cold, a good overview for single-engine aircraft from the pilot and Navigator. The ability to control the machine from the cockpit of the Navigator simplified the process of retraining the flight crew and proved to be an invaluable advantage in the case of injury or death of the pilot. Aircraft were widely used at the front in the first year of the war in the role of short-range bombers, scouts and attack aircraft. However, for the latter role, the su-2 was prepared poorly, and shelves "crackers" suffered heavy losses.

Serial production was discontinued on 22 January 1942, but the remaining aircraft continued to be used until January 1944, mainly in the role of scouts and spotters. They were very useful in the conditions of domination in the air of Soviet aviation.

Gradually replaced in many parts by Il-2 and PE-2. The last aircraft were delivered in January 1944 by the 650th BAP, which in 2 months completely switched to the PE-2.

The successor of the su-2 was the Il-2 attack aircraft, which was produced in mass quantities. It replaced the su-2 in many roles and was widely used in the vast majority of world war II operations.

Model.

ICM produces several modifications of the aircraft-su-2 and su-2R. here will be considered a set of su-2.

Sprues of excellent quality-there are good molds. The plastic is of good quality, which is typical for modern ICM models. There is almost no edge, only at the ends of some sharp parts. The stitching is small, internal, easy to remove when grinding, so it is recommended to use a good glue and exclude a large protrusion of glue in the docking areas. This is especially true on the wings. Unlike many of the models I assembled, in this docking assembled wings to the finished fuselage was generally without additional processing, as well as gluing the fuselage halves.

Assembly diagram

The main problem of Assembly is to insert the assembled engine into the hood. Thrust mount the hood to the engine don't quite match in length and collapse so they have to fit very precisely. Just loosely fits to the fuselage oil cooler, which is installed at the bottom behind the engine. Still there is the problem docking tail parts of fuselage. I glued it after installing the tail. It came in tight and not quite straight and fit snugly to the fuselage, so I had to file it and the fuselage. I would like to note the Assembly of the cabin. The Assembly is quite interesting, but the difficulty is how to install the dashboard. It is inserted into the finished fuselage, and the scheme does not specify how. So I had to file it from the bottom and start a little flush under the leading edge of the cabin cutout in the fuselage. The lantern also fits perfectly. The main thing - to properly install the dashboard, otherwise the front of the lamp will not fit snugly to the fuselage. I recommend to apply the lamp "on dry" when installing the dashboard, in order to avoid such problems. After Assembly, the filler is generally not used because of gaps after Assembly was observed. Overall impression of the build: 8 out of 10.

Color.

I painted acrylate-latex (water-soluble) paints AKAN. For painting most domestic surfaces been used a-14 a Grey/Steel (faded) (73040), for the upper parts of fuselage-4 BO (basic the main) a protective, dark green (73020), for the lower parts of-AMT-7 blue (73002). These colors were used on a real plane, and recommended for use by AKAN. You can simply use a set of paints AKAN No. 47305 "aviation of the USSR WWII 1941-1943" or a set of AKAN No. 47311 " aviation of the USSR - from the 1st world war to 1941.»

Coloring was made by a brush from a squirrel. Paint amazingly falls even on bare plastic without prior primer. Special attention should be paid to the uniform and fine distribution of paint on the painted surface, otherwise "swells" may form, which after drying (after 2 minutes) will be very difficult to eliminate. You can use the composition of AKAN for a slower drying of acrylic paints or use an airbrush. It is also recommended to cover the model with acrylic finish coating from AKAN to give the model a more natural color and scale.

Model after painting.

The ending follows....

Materials from the sites "sky corner", "Scalemodels" , "wing Palette"were used in the preparation of the article.