DBMiller's U-2 / Po-2VS

DBMiller · Post by **DBMiller** » Mon Jul 01, 2019 1:52 pm

No one yet? Then allow me to be the first.
For this build I will be working on a biplane! No, really.
ICM's 1/48 scale U-2 / Po-2VS. I'll be posting more about this later on (I'm at work now slacking off) but for now here is the box art and a teaser.
NIGHT WITCHES!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Night_Witches

gaz45 · Post by **gaz45** » Tue Jul 02, 2019 10:21 pm

Nice choice there mate

digger303 · Post by **digger303** » Wed Jul 03, 2019 12:10 am

Can't beat a well done string bag

DBMiller · Post by **DBMiller** » Sat Jul 13, 2019 2:46 pm

"Night Witches were the female aviators of the 588th Night Bomber Regiment, that were attacking and bombing the enemies at night. With the plane engines turned to idle, the planes made a specific sound that made the enemies think of broomsticks gliding through the air. They called them “Nachthexen”."

The Kit:

Some funny swirling on these parts.

Not bad detail but who asked for these ejector marks?

jmurphy18 · Post by **jmurphy18** » Sat Jul 13, 2019 4:27 pm

very cool build on this..... Those are some rare ejector pin marks you have.

DBMiller · Post by **DBMiller** » Tue Jul 16, 2019 2:19 pm

(not my photos)

Night Witches death metal song. Really. Friggin awesome.

Washington Post Article
https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/ ... 28fddbd6d6
Amazon Prime series
https://www.amazon.com/Night-Witches-Sk ... B078TR46XK

Movie Trailer (very strange)

DBMiller · Post by **DBMiller** » Tue Jul 23, 2019 10:57 pm

Finally! A day that wasn't too hot and humid to work!
Only a start on the kit since I'm still working on my Summer SciFi build and don't want to loose my flow.

Look! Two parts glued together!

Look! Three small parts glued into the cockpit! Very small parts. And I didn't even shoot them off into the stratosphere removing them from the sprue!

This plastic is very soft and flexible! I'll have to be careful when glueing parts together.

Light gray paint in the cockpit area! Not much detail in the real plane but I have some decent references.

digger303 · Post by **digger303** » Wed Jul 24, 2019 1:08 am

Great thread.
I was just reading about the night witches recently. Amazing stuff.
They would move up to the front lines at night. Use any bit of cleared land for a runway. Fly up to 8 missions a night then move back to safety in the morning. There minimum flight speed was less than the stall speed of the German fighters and being so low to the ground it made them very hard to shoot down. When attacking they would climb up to 1000 ft idle the engine then dive. The Germans could not pinpoint where to shoot at and as they went over head all they could hear was the whistling of the wind in the rigging of that little plane. It couldn't carry many bombs, but it did fly many missions. Not bad for a training plane.
The airforce didn't want women in it's ranks as pilots so that they were given obsolete aircraft and the women made fools of them.
Amazing stuff.
Keep up the good work

DBMiller · Post by **DBMiller** » Wed Aug 07, 2019 5:31 pm

Slowly, slowly puttering on this. I doubt my abilities to pull off a bi-plane so I'm being careful. There is plenty of time to finish!

Wow, I really need a magnifier! I didn't realize how bad I painted these tan pouches!
I also worry about those wires. I'll never be able to paint them - they are as thin as a (fat) hair!

Control panels. Nothing to see here yet.

digger303 · Post by **digger303** » Fri Aug 09, 2019 12:24 am

DBMiller wrote: ↑Wed Aug 07, 2019 5:31 pm Slowly, slowly puttering on this. I doubt my abilities to pull off a bi-plane so I'm being careful. There is plenty of time to finish!

Wow, I really need a magnifier! I didn't realize how bad I painted these tan pouches!
I also worry about those wires. I'll never be able to paint them - they are as thin as a (fat) hair!

Control panels. Nothing to see here yet.

I was wondering about this build, glad I didn't miss anything. I'm sure you'll do well with it.

DBMiller · Post by **DBMiller** » Sun Aug 25, 2019 7:27 pm

Small update on the build.
Interior. I've since re painted the interior to clean up my awful shading. I'll try better next time.

I've been gluing in the bulkheads on one side and taping the fuselage to make sure they are aligned.

Wing work.
Starting on the cockpit floor.

The bombs are an optional feature. I plan on using them (it's a bomber after all) so the instructions show where to put holes for the racks. I used the tape mark them off.

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DBMiller · Post by **DBMiller** » Sun Sep 15, 2019 4:18 pm

Stopped building for a while. Work and weather got me down a bit.

Also, I suck at small parts.

Foot peddles in place. Seams on the underside are manageable. Once the wing is in place I should be able to clean them up.

Speaking of small parts. Here is one of the seats. Did I mention I suck at small parts?

Look at this diagram. Why doesn't it show the back of the seat? You know - where the part is supposed to be glued!

So, here it is in place. It's not until I took these photos that I saw just how badly I cleaned up the parts. They are hard to see in the cockpit but I may try a bit of clean up anyway.

DBMiller · Post by **DBMiller** » Sun Sep 22, 2019 2:05 pm

Seats in! Prime - paint - and attach the wing to the fuselage!

gaz45 · Post by **gaz45** » Mon Sep 30, 2019 1:42 pm

Looking good mate, sometimes it is good to take a little break

Quax · Post by **Quax** » Mon Sep 30, 2019 1:58 pm

man I'm with you all the way, the smaller the part the more I question why they didn't just mould the damn thing instead of making me try to remove spruegates from something a micron across

- I therefore think you have done an excellent job and shouldnt be too hard on yourself!

Paul

DBMiller · Post by **DBMiller** » Mon Sep 30, 2019 2:26 pm

Quax wrote: ↑Mon Sep 30, 2019 1:58 pm man I'm with you all the way, the smaller the part the more I question why they didn't just mould the damn thing instead of making me try to remove spruegates from something a micron across - I therefore think you have done an excellent job and shouldnt be too hard on yourself!

Paul

I have a great idea! Lets make the sprue gate LARGER than the part! Yea! That will work just fine!

jmurphy18 · Post by **jmurphy18** » Mon Sep 30, 2019 3:28 pm

great work DB. Those part are tiny

DBMiller · Post by **DBMiller** » Tue Oct 01, 2019 9:18 pm

Now that the wedding is over and the happy(ish) couple are on their honeymoon I can get on this bomber!
See: viewtopic.php?f=692&t=27696

Cockpit primed and painted! Just a little weathering to go in and I can attach the wing to the fuselage.

Engine underway.

DBMiller · Post by **DBMiller** » Sun Oct 27, 2019 5:57 pm

Took a long break on this one. I broke 2 of the 4 struts that attached to the tail and one of the wing skids. They are so thin and brittle! Also, the tail attaches to only 2 small points on the fuselage so it kept breaking off as well!
But, back to the bench!

The very thin and brittle parts!!!

Landing gear struts on. I didn't even break them.

Bomb racks. Can you guess what happened to some of these bomb bits? I actually found both of the dropped parts! And I didn't have any trouble gluing them onto the racks. The suck must be saving up for something really special.

Letting things set up a bit longer before I continue.

digger303 · Post by **digger303** » Mon Oct 28, 2019 10:01 am

Unfortunately ICM do have a plastic problem. It must be cheaper stuff because they can't be that oblivious not to know what people think of their kits and they haven't really tried to upgrade the plastic quality at all.
Good work in spite of that problem

Post by **Tomcat64** » Wed Nov 06, 2019 4:27 pm

Ok - I need to pay more attention - I was expecting to find one of those spindly looking US spy plane thingies in here...

Looks like this one has been putting up a fight while you were working on the nuptials!

What kind of sadist thought up those seats??

Keep at it and show them the error of their ways - It's not a plane I'd come across before so looking forward to seeing how it turns out.

DBMiller · Post by **DBMiller** » Wed Nov 06, 2019 11:23 pm

Bombs away! I can't work this small - how will I ever clean up these tiny things?

First set of struts in place despite breaking them in two. With any luck I aligned them correctly.

Second set in place and all primed. And aligned?

With the top wing primed.

Rigging.

I've downloaded dozens of photos of the real plane for reference because these "diagrams" are almost useless!

And the paint diagram side view is pretty bad too.

Post by **Twokidsnosleep** » Thu Nov 07, 2019 1:46 am

Very interesting build, I am late to the party here
Reading up on the history, some Night Witches had trouble with their steeds

TommyKillander · Post by **TommyKillander** » Thu Nov 07, 2019 9:07 am

Great work with all those small and fragile parts!

Keep up the good work!

Tommy

DBMiller · Post by **DBMiller** » Thu Nov 07, 2019 1:10 pm

Twokidsnosleep wrote: ↑Thu Nov 07, 2019 1:46 am Very interesting build, I am late to the party here
Reading up on the history, some Night Witches had trouble with their steeds

No wonder the Germans were scared of them.

gaz45 · Post by **gaz45** » Wed Nov 13, 2019 1:21 pm

Looking good there mate

DBMiller · Post by **DBMiller** » Sun Dec 01, 2019 5:51 pm

Getting over a nasty, two week long cold so no building for a while.

Here are some of the things I've gotten on with.

After the black primer I started on the gray. I sprayed it all over the ship for starters figuring that the other colors - especially the light blue underside - would show up better than over the black.

If the wing struts look out of shape to you it's because they are. I broke three removing them from the sprue. I will try to re-align them when I glue on the upper wing.

Next I started on the tan.

And that's it for now.

Kevthemodeller · Post by **Kevthemodeller** » Mon Dec 02, 2019 9:26 pm

What an interesting aircraft and linked to the Night Witches

I'm also somewhat late to the build, which is coming along very nicely

DBMiller · Post by **DBMiller** » Sun Dec 15, 2019 4:30 pm

Yes, I'm still plugging away. Very little chance of meeting the deadline - but I'm not too anxious about that.

Wing camo work.
Masking refs.:

I used these photos and a scan of the actual kit wing to create the masks. Oops! My printer was low on ink!

Needs more work but almost done. The whole rest of the plane to go. .

Post by **Tomcat64** » Wed Dec 18, 2019 8:56 am

Very nice work on the camo DBM - that top wing looks really tidy

Tat2bhoy · Post by **Tat2bhoy** » Wed Dec 18, 2019 7:06 pm

That’s gonna looks nice with the writing on the side

DBMiller · Post by **DBMiller** » Sun Dec 22, 2019 7:55 pm

Just a little touch up to go on the upper wing!

Masked. That flexible white Tamiya tape works great here!

Can someone tell me why I put on the struts BEFORE I painted the lower wing? No? You are all too kind.

On the other hand, so far so good with the first pass on the left side. I have to guess at the lower wing pattern because neither the kit instructions or those I found online show it.

Post by **Tomcat64** » Mon Dec 23, 2019 10:23 am

DBMiller wrote: ↑Sun Dec 22, 2019 7:55 pm ... I have to guess at the lower wing pattern because neither the kit instructions or those I found online show it.

More good progress on tidying up the paint DBM

Looks like the paint instructions you showed up earlier say the underside should be plain "C" whatever that might be - or am I reading that incorrectly?

DBMiller wrote: ↑Wed Nov 06, 2019 11:23 pm

DBMiller · Post by **DBMiller** » Mon Dec 23, 2019 1:37 pm

Tomcat64 wrote: ↑Mon Dec 23, 2019 10:23 am
DBMiller wrote: ↑Sun Dec 22, 2019 7:55 pm ... I have to guess at the lower wing pattern because neither the kit instructions or those I found online show it.
More good progress on tidying up the paint DBM

Looks like the paint instructions you showed up earlier say the underside should be plain "C" whatever that might be - or am I reading that incorrectly?
DBMiller wrote: ↑Wed Nov 06, 2019 11:23 pm

The underside is the blue color. It's the top of the lower wing that I have to guess at. I've just extended the markings from what is shown and made up a pattern.

Kevthemodeller · Post by **Kevthemodeller** » Mon Dec 23, 2019 10:23 pm

Great looking top wing cammo

Post by **Tomcat64** » Tue Dec 24, 2019 1:30 pm

DBMiller wrote: ↑Mon Dec 23, 2019 1:37 pm
Tomcat64 wrote: ↑Mon Dec 23, 2019 10:23 am
DBMiller wrote: ↑Sun Dec 22, 2019 7:55 pm ... I have to guess at the lower wing pattern because neither the kit instructions or those I found online show it.
More good progress on tidying up the paint DBM

Looks like the paint instructions you showed up earlier say the underside should be plain "C" whatever that might be - or am I reading that incorrectly?
DBMiller wrote: ↑Wed Nov 06, 2019 11:23 pm

The underside is the blue color. It's the top of the lower wing that I have to guess at. I've just extended the markings from what is shown and made up a pattern.

Ach sorry DBM, my bad - completely misunderstood what you were saying there (obviously!)

I think you've come up with the right solution to the real problem though

DBMiller · Post by **DBMiller** » Tue Dec 24, 2019 1:46 pm

[/quote]
Ach sorry DBM, my bad - completely misunderstood what you were saying there (obviously!)

I think you've come up with the right solution to the real problem though

[/quote]

I don't understand why they didn't put in better diagrams of the painting. How hard could that have been?

digger303 · Post by **digger303** » Tue Dec 24, 2019 11:04 pm

Nice progress not with standing the laxness of the instructions. Can't wait until you have the top wing on.

gaz45 · Post by **gaz45** » Mon Dec 30, 2019 11:22 am

Looking good there mate

DBMiller · Post by **DBMiller** » Tue Dec 31, 2019 6:08 pm

More work breaking off parts I should have never glued on in the first place - I mean more work painting camo.

My gray is way too dark. It should be more like the Badger primer gray you can see in some areas. But, I actually like it better with the green and tan. The rest is coming along pretty well. Just a few touch ups here and there plus the underside paint.

DBMiller · Post by **DBMiller** » Tue Dec 31, 2019 6:08 pm

gaz45 wrote: ↑Mon Dec 30, 2019 11:22 am Looking good there mate

Thank you!

DBMiller · Post by **DBMiller** » Thu Jan 09, 2020 12:20 am

As I figured I didn't finish in time. Same old same old.

Still working on it though. It should look pretty good when I'm done (minus the rigging) as long as I don't break any more parts.

Engine needs work. The exhaust pipes go on somewhere but the instructions aren't clear. I'll work it out.

Bomb racks painted.

Upper camo all done! Upper wing underside is done as well! I still have to mask off the upper side to paint the underside blue.

DBMiller · Post by **DBMiller** » Sun Jan 12, 2020 4:49 pm

Creeping along! All the paint is on and the first coat of gloss as well! After that is the landing gear, bombs, and a few detail parts.
Then I'll put on the decals then work on getting the (with its stupidly, extremely, ridiculously fragile struts) upper wing in place.

DBMiller · Post by **DBMiller** » Mon Jan 13, 2020 4:58 pm

These are most of the remaining parts - aside from the bombs and the bomb racks.

Here are two of the 4 parts to glue onto the engine in place. I had to tape the engine in place to align them.

DBMiller · Post by **DBMiller** » Sat Jan 18, 2020 2:13 pm

So, only one more little bit (exhausts, I think) to attach to the engine cylinders and it's ready for more paint.

AAC · Post by **AAC** » Sat Jan 18, 2020 11:32 pm

Lovely work, you're doing a fantastic job

DBMiller · Post by **DBMiller** » Mon Jan 20, 2020 12:37 am

AAC wrote: ↑Sat Jan 18, 2020 11:32 pm Lovely work, you're doing a fantastic job

Thank you!

DBMiller · Post by **DBMiller** » Mon Jan 20, 2020 12:39 am

Just a quickie tonight!

The star should be a bit higher up for the text to fit just right but this still looks pretty good.

DBMiller · Post by **DBMiller** » Thu Jan 30, 2020 5:17 pm

Yes, I still intend to finish this even though it is a tough one.
I've come to the part I've been dreading since I saw how fragile the wing struts are. I had to work out a way to get them to stay at close to the right angle on the upper wing so I could set it onto the lower wing. I also had to do it while the glue was still soft enough to allow for some tweaking.
This is what I came up with.

I used a compass to get the distance between the mounting points close enough to work.

I secured the plane with paper taped down to some board so it wouldn't move around too much and cause me to crush this mess like the mess that it is.

I still have a strut fragment to attach when the rest sets up more.
This looks so bad up close you can't believe it!

digger303 · Post by **digger303** » Sun Feb 02, 2020 11:48 am

Do you mean the kit quality is a problem ?