I-16 and I-185 construction

Katya Hodgson
Cockpits of both Polikarpovs done.

The I-185 had some really lovely decals for the console, and I was even able to paint the reflector sight! ^-^

Katya Hodgson
The cockpits are now fitted inside the fuselages. You can clearly see the Polikarpov design lineage between the two aircraft!

Katya Hodgson
Wings and tail fitted! Also fitted the wing ShVAKs and pitot for the I-16, and nose cowling for the I-185.

John Thomas
Very nice start

Katya Hodgson
Thanks very much John! I have been really enjoying it as the kits fit together very well. 🙂

Katya Hodgson
Building is now completely finished on the I-185, and all done but the landing gear on the I-16. Next step is too go around and fill all the little gaps and things. Hoping that goes well.

Katya Hodgson
Filler is applied to the I-16, once it's dry i'll remove the masking tape and sand it all down.

Peter Hardy
Bit of work in that Katya! I'll pull up a chair if you don't mind!

Katya Hodgson
Sure Peter, happy to have you aboard. ^-^
Just finished doing the filler, sanded it down best I could and here it is. Should be ready for priming now.

Katya Hodgson
Project is on pause until I can get more primer.

Katya Hodgson
First attempt at masking a canopy with Tamiya tape. Will continue to work on the I-185, and prime that in black.

Katya Hodgson
Filler applied to the I-185. Just waiting for it to dry so I can remove masking tape and clean it up.

Katya Hodgson
Filling completed and all sanded down, model ready for priming.

Katya Hodgson
The I-185 is now fully primed and ready for painting!

Katya Hodgson
Some more progress on the 1/48 I-16, I fully primed the top side, and have been working on getting the landing gear on before I prime the bottom. It's surprisingly complicated, but I have managed to get one side done so far. I'll be fitting the wheels after priming and painting of the aircraft.

Katya Hodgson
Landing gear assembly completed, and underside primed.

Should be able to move on to painting them both tomorrow. Hopefully I can make the air brush work.

Martin Oostrom
Good progress Katya!

Burkhard D
Looks good from here! 🙂

Katya Hodgson
Thank you both! Hopefully painting goes ok!

Augie
Fingers crossed.

Roberto Rocat
Nice work 👍

Katya Hodgson
Thanks again! I'll have to be careful, as the landing gear is quite fragile. And I think i'll have to enlarge the holes in the gear wheels in order to get them on safely.

Katya Hodgson
Topside painting done! Surprisingly enough the enamel paint worked better than the acrylic I used for the J8M, and was actually easier to clean up! I used Humbrol number 80 "Grass Green" as a stand in for Soviet green. 🙂

Katya Hodgson
The underside is now painted, although it's worth nothing I made an absolute mess of it, and I still absolutely hate the air brush.

Katya Hodgson
Going back to brush painting. This has been a thoroughly miserable experience.

Katya Hodgson
Salvageable

Augie
Thats good that its salvageable.

gorby
It isn't easy getting used to an airbrush and other than a little over-spray, it looks good to me. I made much bigger messes when I was starting out and I still make the occasional screw-up. The more you use it the more you will start to enjoy using it.
But at the end of the day, this is supposed to be about enjoyment, so if you prefer using a brush, don't worry about it. Put your airbrush aside, you may decide to try it again at a later date.

Augie
As gorbygould says, its about what your comfortable with. I use brush still and can likely match airbrush for quality.. its just about finding what suits you