Two polish aerobatic TS-11 Iskras

1
December 7, 2022
As the planes should be shown in flight, pilots were needed. Unfortunately no Poles could be found, so I opted for two modern Germans and will polish them. As they would not fit into the trainers ejection seats, some sanding and squeezing in a hot water tub was necessary.
I hope that the positioning of the arms allow a good grip of the control stick.
2
December 7, 2022
As usual everything starts with the cockpit. The Deluxe kit contains two planes and two PE frets per plane that allow you to further detail the planes down to the subatomic level.
Basic assembly and painting of the cockpit tub is done.
3
December 7, 2022
As there is a gap between the pilots instrument panel and the fire wall, I added hoses to the rear of the instruments and guided them through the fire wall.
4
December 7, 2022
I call the detail painting ready.
5
December 8, 2022
Pilots prepared with black primer and white lights.
6
December 8, 2022
Basic painting done. Not quite happy with the hue of the flight suit. But it will have to stay like that.
7
December 8, 2022
Them wings: for my project they pose four "problems":
- the lower part of the wing is too thick and had to be sanded down (which was annoying)
- a strong seamline at the airintake which I filled with glue gue
- a blunt end of the wheel well cover which has to be sanded to match the nicely fashioned trailing edge of the wings
...
8
December 8, 2022
...
- and finally the wheel well doors which are designed to be mounted in open position only. To attatch them in closed position some modifications of the doors themselfs were necessary together with some shims to prevent them to dislocate into the wells and finally the closure of some prevailling gaps with styrene.
9
December 8, 2022
Here my best result out of four. Some gaps are still to be filled.
10
December 8, 2022
The second PE fret encompasses parts for further exterior detailling. Among them details for the wheel wells which I obviously did not need, the airbrakes, which I did not use and finally a replacement for the boundary layer fences which really add nicely to the appearance.
11
December 8, 2022
So far only the bases of the boundary layer fences are added, the fences themselves will follow when the wings are attatched and ready for paint.
12
December 9, 2022
I closed the fuselage. After sanding down the diameter of the front firewall and the disc attatched to the exhaust part I did not encounter any fit issues anymore. I only should have put in the pilots first as it was close to impossible to squeeze it in afterwards
13
December 9, 2022
The halfs came together well and there was little to no gap which needed treatment.
14
December 9, 2022
Minor imperfections could be treated with diluted Mr. Surfacer 500. The dent where the 30mm- gun should have been mounted was filled with sprue gue, as were a few small casting imperfections
15
December 11, 2022
Dry fitting shows a good fit of front window and canopy.
16
February 10, 2023
Now the air intakes look much better.
17
February 10, 2023
One set of wings to go. Then I can finally mount them.
18
March 6, 2023
Finally the wings are on. After the effort to get the air intakes right, I spilled glue over one wing. Flushing it away with water immediately, letting it dry for a couple of days and then sanding prevented disaster and loss of detail.
19
March 6, 2023
Mounting the wing required quite a bit of dryfitting, sanding and scribing.
20
March 6, 2023
Now I think the main hurdles of the build should have been passed. Finishing the cockpits with the pilots is next.
21
October 6, 2023
Cockpits done. Pilots squeezed in, their hands wrapped around the control sticks. One or two details to be fixed that got lost during the vigorous handling to press the pilots into service.
22
October 24, 2024
The front wheel well doors didn't align nicely and left a hole. This I covered with styrene and Mr. Surfacer 500. The later was used to fill an access panel line for the gun which the arobatic machines didn't have.
23
October 24, 2024
The engravings are Airfix style. At the small access panels I filled them partly with Mr. Surfacer 500. Some more casting imperfections found during sanding were adressed the same way.
24
October 28, 2024
One done. Cockpit losses restored and temporarily closed. Some more scraping and dryfitting will be needed there later on.
Sink marks and unwanted engravings filled and sanded.
25
October 28, 2024
Same on the belly.
26
October 24, 2024
Same on the undersides. The engravings at the wing tips were covered too
27
October 24, 2024
Waiting for Mr. Surfacer to cure.
28
October 24, 2024
To do list.
29
October 28, 2024
A considerable gap at the lower part of the rudder was closed with plastic card and sanded to shape. A missing hole at the tail skid was drilled.
30
October 28, 2024
The trailing edges were restored with superglue and plastic card where impaired by sanding the intake boxes into a sharp end
31
October 30, 2024
So far I haven't noticed that the military version of the Iskra features two humps on the TOP of the forward fuselage while the aerobatic version has them located at the Lower forward fuselage. As drag an' drop unfortunately didn't work here I had to look for another solution...
32
October 30, 2024
Once upon a time I bought this template from Hauler/Brengun. So now was the time to use it. After a few dozens attempts of melting and casting I achieved a success rate close to 50%. Now the challenge will be to separate it without destroying it.
33
October 30, 2024
Fronts done. Hump relication, closing, filling, sanding and rescribing of the wheel well, adding the hinges of the wheel well doors and inserting a hollow needle at the tip as pitot tube (not to be seen here).
34
October 31, 2024
Strapping the pilots inn proves to be quite fumbly. Well, a start is made.
35
November 1, 2024
Finally both pilots are strapped in. Time to tackle the canopies.

Michael Kohl
Took them out of the shelf another time. Quite a bit of sanding had to be done. Particular the inner rear area of the wing where the box of the intakes tapers towards the trailing edge of the wing is much to thick in the kit. A bit of elbow grease was required there.
A fresh comparison with a machine in flight revealed some more issues I adressed. So, some more filling and sanding. Now I gotta wait till my trusted Mr. Hobby primer sets properly.

24 October, 11:27

DerMattes
Looks great so far 👍

24 October, 11:37

Raphael Bernecole
Very Nice : following ! 😉

24 October, 11:44

Łukasz Gliński
Good to see you back with this duo

24 October, 12:06

Michael Kohl
Welcome (back) mates.

24 October, 16:58

Mr D
Cockpit's are really good 👌👍👍

24 October, 17:27

Alec K
Taking a very, very belated seat. Great project, had a few chuckles reading your captions 😄

24 October, 17:38

Mr D
At least all the preflight checks will be done with German pilots 🤣 just keep them away from Starfighter be ok 😁.
Looking good nice fun project... Cockpit is great,
I use "Nail liner brushes" for cockpit n detail work... there used in beauty parlours for Painting pictures on nails.... There quite cheap and much more accurate than most fine paint brushes out there. 6 or 7mm best.
Good luck with next steps 😃👍

24 October, 20:26

Michael Kohl
Hi Mr D and Alec K. Welcome.
@Alec: I deliberately take loooong brakes with this project so thay even the slowest out there can catch up 😉
@Mr D: I will look out for them nail liner brusher and see if they might serve my needs. I have tons of brushes but 90% of my hand painting is done with Winsor & Newton No. 7 Size 2. Hurts when you buy them, but they are of an incredible quality.

28 October, 17:19

Michael Kohl
The main filling and sanding job done on one of the birds. A handful of details will be added before the final prepaint sanding. The canopy needs some work too. The frame of it is too coarse and will be sanded (almost) flush. Apart from that are there fit issues at the windshield that need to be addressed.

28 October, 17:24

Nicolas
Missed this one, following.

1 November, 18:43

Michael Kohl
Welcome. 🙂

2 November, 19:00

Zoltan Grotz
Top Job👍👍👍

2 November, 19:44

bughunter
Regarding your template in picture 32: some bigger PE sets from Eduard has such drops of different sizes on the frames. Here an example of six sizes left and right:
[img1]
Great work as usual 👍

2 November, 20:52

Michael Kohl
Thanks Zoltan.
Danke Frank for the hint. I realised those templates before but haven't used them yet.
By the way: how do I add a picture to a comment? I tried before but it didn't work. Must be doing something wrong.

2 November, 21:17

Łukasz Gliński
You need to paste the image link, but it doesn't always work
[img1]

2 November, 21:51

Michael Kohl
Ah. I wanted to add an image from my harddrive. How does that work?

2 November, 22:36

Spanjaard
you need to upload the picture somewhere (share images website, scalemare album....), and then copy and paste link to that location in your post. you can not of course use a link to your local file

2 November, 22:39

Michael Kohl
Ah, ok. Got that. Thanks for the hint.

15 November, 12:31

Łukasz Gliński
I have created special folder for that in here and I disabled the comments for it, so it doesn't pop up in the news feed every time I upload something.
The thing is I forgot how to repeat that process 😄
Other stuff | Album by Woody
[img1]