1:72 Polikarpov I-5

ICM #72053

Rather unusual subject in even more uncommon version buld from not-so-great ICM kit. Enjoy.

An ordinary airplane

Name three pre-WW2 Russian fighters. Did you mention I-5? Probably not. Well, it's understandable- it's not even one of Polikarpov's most famous birds. Designed in 1930 wasn't a revolution, and when war came it was long obsolete. However, in time of need even the old I-5s were brought back and fought, often as an assault aircrafts. The aged biplanes of course never got an outstanding results though.

The reality of 1:72

So, bearing that in mind, there is no surprise that there is not really a choice when you want to build a miniature of I-5 in 1:72 scale. ICM from Ukraine is the only game in town.

Several years ago it released two version of this biplane: standard with M-22 engine, and “early” (basically prototypes and pre-production batch machines) with Jupiter. Both share some common elements and were praised as “nice little kits” in every internet review I found.

The problem is, that they aren't. Probably the long production run had some impact on quality of the moulds, but I doubt (judging by the sprues' pictures) that the first series were considerably better. Yes- the parts have very fine surface details, but that is in my opinion one of the disadvantages. It's done to subtly. Some lines tend to vanish completely, other probably won't withstand the coat of paint. The rest certainly won't be easy to enhance with common modelling techniques (e.g., wash).

But that's not the worst part. It's the moulding quality which made a lot of the surface details pointless. It's basically a mediocre short-run kit when you closely examine the sprues. Lots of cleaning, sanding and dry-fitting will be required. Also, some kind of putty. You can imagine, how will that impact those fine, subtle details.

So not some nice kit when you look closely, and even worse when you start to work on it. That being said, I of course decided to build it anyway.

The build

Short build story was published in 2015 April issue of "Model Aircraft" from SAM Publications.

An unusual I-5

In 1933, one of the Russian factories involved in production of I-5 developed a new, slightly improved version of Polikarpov's design. It was hoped to be a new production standard. Prototype machine was prepared and tested, but didn't meet the expectations. Project was discarded, but some of the improvements was introduced to production anyway. Miniature of this unfortunate test aircraft you can see on photos below.

Comments

Anonymous (25 June 2015 at 15:04):

You did an a fantastic job out of ICM's kit, especially considering the kit flaws. However, I can confirm that ICM I-5 kits from earlier batches have indeed crisper surface details (especially kits injected in the same dark green plastic as ICM's TB-3). Those are the ones to look for, but this might be difficult. Later kits are moulded in a light grey plastic (also less brittle than the dark green variant of early) less suited to the (too) fine detail.
Best,

Z.

trl (26 June 2015 at 00:33):

Thanks for the additional info. I'm glad you like my work. Cheers.

Anonymous (26 June 2015 at 03:03):

You are welcome. I actually thought about using the ICM kit to build the same development prototype as you. I have a couple of photos and a very good drawing (from Mikhail Maslov's large article on the I-5 published in the last issue of "Kriylya" magazine) of the very same machine, but I never went beyond the idea, so kudos to you. There were several intermediate, "product improved" one-off prototypes in the I-5 development history, including at least one with a NACA cowling which can provide good ideas for original models.
Cheers,

Z.

trl (27 June 2015 at 00:52):

In that case- sorry for stealing your idea. I've tried to build this I-5 in usual silver livery with red accents, but the kit decals disintegrated in water. So I've changed the plan, stripped the paint and reworked the kit a bit. Pure coincidence, not malice.

;)

Anonymous (19 August 2015 at 09:49):

I think you have made an excellent model of the I-5.

However, having build it myself, I cannot really understand you low opinion of the kit. My boxing (in white plastic) was fine. And I found the fit of the kit very good, with little filler needed. Flash was witing acceptable limits, just a quick scrape with a scalpel. I had a quick an easy build. I liked it so much I bought antoher one and an I-15....

trl (21 August 2015 at 02:15):

I'm glad you like it.

As for the ICM kit- maybe I was just unlucky, as the sprues quality varies during the production and I bought mine not so long ago, but I heard opinions similar to mine from fellow modellers, so at least I'm not alone. Don't get me wrong- I have plenty of worse kits in stash (old Amodels for example), and I-5 was no near to horrible, but certainly not a trouble-free build. However I'm glad that you had better experience.

That being said, I have bunch of other ICM kits waiting to be build (I-15 too).