Ilyushin IL-2 Shturmovik Attack

This is a well done kit of the famous IL-2. The kit is very straightforward with the assembly and a masking stencil is provided for the canopy which is appreciated. There are no flaws with this and it is a build that I look forward to building. This kit is a great challenge for a more experienced model builder.

Great Kit. hardly any flash... all fit together quite nicely. Nice detail all around. worth the price asked for on this one.

Pros: -Generally good fit minus a few areas (see cons) -Comes with canopy masks! -High level of detail in terms of wing accessories; bombs, rockets, cannons, air filter(?), speedometer(?) -Very cool decals (I used decals from both possible planes, they were too good to pass up) -Cockpit is well-detailed and is fairly visible when completed -If you intend to build it with the wheels up as though it is flying, it is pretty easy to do and looks nice. Cons: -Bad fit where the wings meet the fuselage (this can be fixed with putty, I'm just scared of it still.) -Bad fit on the top of the fuselage, again putty can fix it. -I found the detail to be quite lacking in terms of panel lines. The wings were okay but the rear of the fuselage from the gunners seat to the tail has ABSOLUTELY no detail. I added rivets to the model but without it I think it would lack realism. -Some model kits include scale drawings of the camouflage pattern, this one does not. -This last one is likely my fault, but OH MY GOD the bombs on the bottom were such a pain to install. They have a complicated harness(?) system and I was impatient and wanted to finish early so they fell off often. Overall I would definitely recommend this kit but perhaps it's too much for a first-time builder. I am very pleased with my final result, although my wash made the kit too dark so I decided to go with a more heavily weathered plane than I usually do. That is not a reflection on the kit itself, more of my learning. For what it's worth, I would probably do a pin wash with this model as the camo colors are pretty dark and after my wash they all sort of blended together.