Post a Comment On: Fawcett Avenue Conscripts

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(that's a Winnipeg inside joke)

Anyway, if you've been following the blog (and let's face it, who hasn't?) you'll have seen my latest foray into sci-fi with Pig Iron's excellent Kolony Militia http://wpggamegeeks.blogspot.com/2009/01/pig-iron-project.html. I decided to do mine in a future-Soviet theme which I think fit the miniatures perfectly. Originally the plan was to do Pig Iron infantry to match up with Rackham vehicles for AT-43 but as these things often do, it's spiralled a bit out of control... So far I have 22 Pig Iron models finished, plus their supporting SU-300 http://wpggamegeeks.blogspot.com/2008/12/sci-fi-assault-gun-conversion.html as well as a BTR-60 carrier and what I call the T340-32-2, a 1/43 T34 model that's been hacked around with twin 32mm cannons in the turret and a hull-mounted laser cannon (!). It's on the table in the basement about to be primed.
So with some vehicles done, and a few more (10) Kolony Militia on the way from Brandon at Rattlehead Games, it occurred to me that a neat project for the interim would be a ground-attack aircraft ("flyer" in sci-fi parlance). I wanted something that suited the future-retro theme of the force, plus had a Soviet flavour, if possible. It had to be compact, mean looking, and able to be loaded down with an unfeasible array of weaponry.
Enter the Polikarpov I-16 "Rata" in 1/48 scale...
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I-16 from Hobbycraft... note the "Warning" on box cover from Pete. When I bought it, we checked the parts and they were complete. However he warned me that "we don't guarantee that a Hobbycraft kit won't be crap..." thanks Pete ;-)

I always have liked the look of this aircraft. It has the look of the pre-war GeeBee racer, all nose with the cockpit crammed up against the tail. I wanted something that looked like it was basically all-engine, and the I-16 fills the bill nicely. However, piston engines and propeller drive would hardly fit the futuristic theme of the rest of the force, so some conversion was in order...
I happened to have a few brass plumbing bits left over from doing the conversion on the SU-300. I had bought a few different pieces to try out for the main gun of the vehicle. They were cheap so I figured I might as well buy a few rather than have to go back to Rona later. One of the pieces looked like it would make a nifty jet engine. I hacked into the fuselage to make room for it, and started cutting up the front end to make a giant intake where the piston engine and propeller live.
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Point of no return...
Of course, where I positioned the engine happened to foul the floor of the cockpit ever so slightly. I was able to modify the latter with a few (dozen) swipes of a half-round file and it fit nicely.
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Half-round file comes in handy!

I continued with assembly of the rest of the plane after that. A surplus GW Imperial Guard autocannon fit underneath the nose, HS-129 style, while the rocket pods from a Whirlwind launcher were cut apart and positioned under the wings on pylon-mountings.
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Please ignore the superglue residue that's everywhere... arrgh

I also found some bits in the bits box to detail the new jet engine.
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Who doesn't love "bits"... sorry "bitZ"

There was a bit of an issue caused by my ham-handed hackery on the fuselage to fit the new jet engine. I cut some strips of card to hide the worst of it and greenstuff and more detail bits would be applied to conceal the rest... I hope!
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Superglue residue... now with added bloodstains!

I would have preferred a closed cockpit model but the one available at my local hobby shop was an open cockpit variant. So rather than screw around with more plasticard and greenstuff I decided to add a pilot. Fortunately I had purchased a pack of Copplestone's "Pilots" from his Back of Beyond range. The pack included a few half-figures so one of these was decapitated and slotted into the cockpit.
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Ouch!

(Don't worry, he'll have a head swapped on from the Pig Iron standard bearer. This model had an odd head that I thought never really suited an infantry model, but which I think looks great on a pilot)
The last thing to do was to detail the front intake. I had another brass plumbing bit to use bit it was kind of plain and stuck out from the nose quite a bit; I wasn't sure of the aesthetic (not that this would have bothered the Future Commies, but whatever...)
I hit the Home Depot this afternoon and found a suitable bit there, again in the plumbing section... it's called a "flare nut" and I think it makes a relatively convincing jet intake...
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Flare nuts ahoy! Of course no description of the project would be complete without mentioning the assistance I got along the way... Gillespie was a big help in keeping the model box from going anywhere ;-)
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Looks comfy, eh?
Seriously, I gotta say a big thank you to Conscript Greg B for the GW Imperial Guard sprues I've used on these sci-fi conversion projects, they are a real life-saver! Anyway, here are some pics of the finished model:
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I'll add the clear windshield after painting.
Some statistics on the project:Cost of materials: kit $15 (secondhand from Sparetime Hobbies), flare nut $2.19, other brass bit $2?Time investment: maybe 6 hours? (I bought the model yesterday afternoon and finished the project before supper tonight)Injuries incurred: cut thumb from new Xacto blade (I literally poured my blood into this model; that's the red stuff you see in some of the photos)Stuff I screwed up: as usual, lots of cyano-acrylate glue residue and smears. I've been using thin dollar-store glue and it runs everywhere. Thankfully primer and paint covers that up pretty well.Thanks for reading this, and if there's interest, I'll post an entry on painting the beast!