Polikarpov I-16 type 27

Several I-16s were captured by the Finnish Air Force during the 1939-1940 Winter War. The model depicts the only one of those that was repaired and returned to flying condition. It was used for comparative test flying and to evaluate an experimental camouflage pattern in 1941. Five more 1-16s were captured during the 1941-1944 Continuation War, and again only one of those was refurbished.

Construction Notes

Generally, this is a very nice kit (better than Hasegawa and certainly better than the old Revell kit); it is a bit "over-engineered" and I had some trouble getting all the parts to fit properly (nothing that a little surgery and some putty wouldn't fix, though). Shape and measurements are clearly better than in Hasegawa's kit.

To properly fit inside the cowling, the crankcase of the engine needs to be shortened a bit; it will not show anyway. I don't understand how the propeller shaft that came with the kit is even supposed to fit. I left the left side cowling panel open. In real aircraft, these panels had a "piano hinge" but I could not find a single photograph of any I-16 with the panel hinged open, mechanics apparently always took the panel completely off; I glued the panel onto the wing for "realism". I cut the propeller shaft off, drilled a hole, and built a new shaft from plastic rod (I even cut up small wedges at the end to represent the coupling of the Hucks-style starter).

Cockpit detail is quite sufficient given how little can be seen through the opening. I cut open the little hatch on the left side and made the opened part from 5 thou plastic sheet. I took the windscreen from the Hasegawa kit since that looks better. I drilled holes in the wings for guns and for the Pitot tube, and made those from plastic rod (painted before installing which was done after the plane was airbrushed). Skis were scratch-built starting from the resin skis that came with the Omega kit of the IVL Kurki. The result is much better than the poor skis that come with the Hasegawa kit.

Initial fuselage assembly.

Wings masked for filling the seams. Parts did not all fit that well.

Scratch-building the skis.

Airframe complete and ready for primer.

Painting and Markings

For my choice of color scheme, there were two choices of decals:

1. InScale72 sheet AC013 ("LaGG-3 & I-15bis in Finnish Air Force service") has serial numbers printed in two colors (green and black) but the whole sheet had bad alignment issues (at least in my copy) between green and black as well as between white and blue in the swastikas.
2. PH Decals' sheet of miscellaneous Finnish aircraft had serial numbers printed in black only, with green parts as "holes" on larger black surface. These were really good, so obviously I used them in this model.

Swastikas came from GalDecal. Finishing touches with Future floorwax and Testors Dullcote (diluted 2 parts lacquer 1 part paint thinner, sprayed with 18-20 psi pressure). The model was painted with Model Master acrylics and enamels.

Light gray primer sprayed.

The primer also served as the eventual underside color.

Light gray masked, ready for the olive green.

This was an experimental camouflage with the underside color "spilling" over.

Masked for black. Note the decals for the tail numbers.

Camouflage ready minus some minor patching.

References Used

There is a lot of reference material available for the I-16, I will not list it all here. Generally, [1-3] proved invaluable. Information about "VH-21" in particular can be found in [4-6].

1. Polikarpov's I-16 Fighter - Its Forerunners and Progeny (Gordon & Dexter); Red Star 3; Midland Publishing 2001
2. Polikarpov Fighters in action Pt.2 (Stapfer); Aircraft in Action 162; Squadron/Signal Publications 1996
3. Fighting Polikarpov (Abanshin); Eagles of the East 2; Aviation International 1994
4. Suomen Ilmailuhistoriallinen Lehti 3/2005
5. Venäläiset hävittäjät (Keskinen et al); Suomen Ilmavoimien historia 7; Tietoteos 1977
6. Le Polikarpov I-16 (Cony et al); Collections Profils Avions 4; Éditions Lela Presse 2001