Ilyushin IL62M Soviet Passenger Aircraft

It is quite a coincidence that after the IL-62M ended its days as a front line Soviet era jet airliner, two different companies came out with a kit within weeks of one another. This offering from ICM represents a much simpler model than the Zvezda kit which has positionable flaps and control surfaces, and at a slightly lower price. The detail on this ICM kit is also to a high standard with delicately recessed panel lines and the appropriate doubler plates and external fuel lines to the APU and engines, and a separate rudder. The ICM is the smaller of the two with its length being about 1.5MM shorter than the Zvezda, but it is still a very nice looking kit. When comparing the errors in the two, they share the same mistake in the rear window spacing, and you find that the leading edge dogtooth is not at the same span on the wing. Also, the size of the doubler plates on the wing and the external fuel lines are not the same size, the larger sizes being on the Zvezda kit. When it comes to aftermarket decal choices, all of them I have seen are sized for the Zvezda kit, so the choices are limited for the ICM kit to markings that do not use a window cheatline, but the kit is also available in another boxing for Interflug or East German Air Force. If the Zvezda kit had not been done, chances are this kit would get five stars and would be considered to be a very nice IL-62M model. Still, if the desire is to have a simpler kit without all the bells and whistles, this ICM kit will build into a very acceptable model of the IL-62M.