When Rodents and Pests and Pack Animals Ruled the Skies – the world-shaking Polikarpov I-16 by Eduard

By Ned Barnett - Copyright 2008

IPMS Life Member 5544

It’s hard to imagine that the “prehistoric” Soviet Union created – barely 15 years after its own birth – the world’s best fighter aircraft, and arguably the first “modern” fighter. It had double the armament of the typical biplane, it had retractable landing gear, a single cantilever wing and – in some versions, though this was disliked by pilots because of the low quality of the clear panels, a fully-enclosed cockpit. When you think of Russian winters, you have to realize how bad these canopies must have been in order for the pilots to ask to have them removed.

Soviet Russia wasted no time in mass-producing the I-16 in a bewildering variety of types and sub-types – 30 or more, though some were produced in small numbers – and it wasn’t long before they gained their baptism of fire in the skies over Spain. There, they were called the Mosca (Fly) or Rata (Rat) – while others referred to it as “the little donkey.” Hardly the kind of names to inspire respect among allies or fear among enemies, but when they debuted over Spain, they were quite literally the best operational fighter aircraft in the world. They held an ascendancy over all comers until Germany rushed prototype versions of the Messerschmitt Bf-109 into combat – prematurely, but they had to do something to replace their bullseye-sporting Heinkel 51 biplane “targets.” The I-16 out-gunned the earliest Messerschmitts, but because these new birds were a fully generation more modern, it wasn’t long before the I-16s had to look for easier targets than the Luftwaffe’s Messerschmitt-escorted bomber flights.

The I-16 had a new lease on its combat life in the skies over the Siberian-Chinese border, in a “skirmish” with the Japanese – a skirmish that was far larger in scope than the much more widely-known Spanish Civil War. Here again, the Polikarpovs “cleaned up,” proving more than a match for the Japanese Army’s biplane and fixed-gear monoplane fighters, even when flown by the best pilots in Japanese service. This war earned future Marshall Zukov his spurs, and proved the swan-song of the Polikarpov as a first-class front-line fighter. By the time of the Winter War with Finland in 1940, the I-16 was showing its age – and against the mature Messerschmitt Bf-109 E and F model fighters, it was painfully outclassed. Nonetheless, the rugged I-16 soldiered on in a bewildering variety of combat roles until 1943 – and in the hands of skilled combat pilots, it still proved an ace-maker, even against the vaunted Luftwaffe Experten. Check out Osprey’s “Aces” series to see just how effective this obsolete plane could be in the hands of skilled and motivated defenders of the Soviet Rodina – the sacred Motherland.

While it remained in combat three years longer than “reality” should have allowed, in its day the Polikarpov I-16 was the class of the world – and Eduard decided to honor this with their first “Royal Class” kit, a three-kits-in-one package that includes everything else you need to build great-looking Rats and Flies and little Donkeys. This includes colored PE, paint masks, decals for an even dozen different fighters (I prefer the black-and-green camouflaged fighters myself, but they’re all good looking). Bonuses include a replica of a Red Army medal, an original (and complete) CD-ROM game – IL-2 – and a 1/16^th Scale pilot figure, which is also sold separately as Lt. Colonel Boris F. Safonov, the Soviet Navy Northern Fleet fighter ace and one of the best-known Soviet fliers. This kit (which, as I said, is also sold separately) includes two sprues of exceptionally well-rendered plastic, plus a small PE set to better show belts and straps that seemed to cover the Soviet pilot’s flight kit.

This is one hell of a deal – collectors will love the fact that there were only 1,000 numbered kits made, and builders will want to add a flight of brightly-colored Polikarpovs to their collection of 1/48^th scale fighters. This plane made history 70 years ago – this kit is making history all over again. If you like the I-16 a lot, this is the kit for you.

Transition This – a Biplane Fighter Still Serving in 1944

By Ned Barnett - Copyright 2008

Those who’ve read my aircraft reviews (both of you) know that I like to focus on what I call “transition-era” aircraft – those that bridge the gap between an older and a newer generation (generally the first of its kind, or the last of its kind). The transition-era P-36/P-40 is a first-generation “modern” fighter, with an enclosed cockpit, a single cantilever wing and retractable landing gear. However, this review is about one at the other end of the scale – a fixed-gear biplane fighter that served operationally as late as 1944, long after far more powerful fighters had come on the scene. Despite its rampant obsolescence, in the right hands (and against the right enemy) this plane, the Avia B.534, could still function on the Eastern Front battlefield.

The Avia was a fixed-gear, single-bay biplane – but it had an enclosed cockpit and more armament than was common for biplane fighters – in this, it bridged the gap between eras as one of the last of the biplane fighters (and perhaps THE last one to see combat use, when it served on both sides during the Slovak uprising of August-November, 1944 – that bravely futile effort for the nationalistic Slovaks to throw off the Nazi shackles and join the fight on the Allied side. During that fight, one Avia scored the last combat air-to-air victory for a biplane, shooting down a Hungarian transport aircraft. Not bad for a plane that was designed in 1934 and in widespread squadron service in 1937 – a lifetime in terms of air combat capabilities.

Eduard, the Czech-based model manufacturer, put its heart and soul into this kit – not surprising, as the Avia B-534 is to the Czechs what the Spitfire and Hurricane were to the British – the definitive home-grown fighter aircraft of the war. Eduard manufactures a superb kit – it’s no secret that I’m a big fan – but this one is better than most, and that’s saying a lot. Subtle details, such as pre-drilled holes for the rigging (a godsend to those of us who often shy away from biplanes because of the rigging hassles) abound. The kit has three plastic sprues in one bag, a clear sprue in another, colored PE, masks and the typically superb Eduard decals, offering three 1937-version fighters and one from the 1944 Slovak uprising. This is an attractive, sleek and colorful aircraft – it will dress up any 1/48^th scale collection of WW-II fighters – and the kit itself is a dream to build. If you’re the kind of modeler who couldn’t wait to build the 1/48^th Gladiator a few years ago, you’ll want to scarf this one up and build at least one. I’m planning on building two – the ragged, rugged Slovak one is a sentimental “must” but the colorful and pristine prewar fighters are show-stoppers for sure.

Do You Like Irony? … The Bird Nobody Wanted Became the Best Operational Piston-Engined Fighter the Luftwaffe Used in WW-II - Eduard Kits Great!

By Ned Barnett

Copyright 2008

In the late 1930s – and on into the early 1940s – leaders of the Luftwaffe felt that their world-beating Messerschmitt Bf-109 was all the fighter they’d need to win World War II. A match for the vaunted Spitfire and markedly better than every other fighter then in operation, the Bf-109 had the speed, strength and hitting power to knock down anything it came up against. It’s only real drawback was range, but that only mattered during the six weeks of the Battle of Britain – once it was over, range again faded from view as a priority. Back-up fighter? Who needs it?

On this crucible of complacency, a number of promising designs were shelved. The Do-335, for instance, could have been operational before Normandy, and – as the best piston-engined fighter of the war – it would have put the 8^th Air Force in a world of hurt. This fate almost befell the Focke Wulf 190 – it wasn’t “needed” to win Hitler’s lightning war, and was very nearly shelved, especially during the early days when excessive cooling problems made the design seem of dubious value.

Fortunately for the Luftwaffe, and unfortunately for just about everybody else, the Focke Wulf was put into production, and saw squadron service beginning (very slowly beginning) in late 1941 on the Channel Front. Even while chewing over teething problems, this remarkable fighter “put the skeer” in the then-ascendant Supermarine Spitfires, prompting the rush production of the Spitfire V and IX in an attempt to catch up. It was a race the Spitfire would never quite win – every time a better Spitfire came along, a better Focke Wulf wasn’t far behind. If it wasn’t for even better American-built fighters, which started appearing in earnest two years after the Focke Wulf made its debut, the race for fighter excellence in the West would have gone neck-and-neck to the bitter end of the war.

The Focke Wulf was good, but it had its limitations. Its strengths were an ultimately reliable BMW radial engine (though it too had its teething problems), a remarkable ability to mount weapons and carry more of them underwing (something almost impossible for the Messerschmitt, and then only with serious performance penalties – and of course, dogfighting performance. Until the advent of the inline engine-powered Fw-190 D late in the war, the Focke Wulf was not at its best above 20,000 feet, a drawback that became apparent when high altitude American escort fighters began shepherding the 8^th Air Force’s heavy bomber fleets to Germany and back. However, it could hold its own for most of the war – in the right hands, the Fw-190 A-model fighters were always a threat – and in later A and F models, it was also a remarkably competent and rugged ground attack fighter, eventually replacing the Stuka, especially on the Eastern Front.

What’s not widely known is that the Focke Wulf had one other attribute – its “smallest aircraft that can be built around a powerful radio” design concept inspired the creation of the F8F Bearcat fleet defense fighter, which would have made short work of Kamikazes if the war had lasted into 1946. Some contend that it also inspired the Hawker Sea Fury, but that is one herkin’ big airplane, and I can’t see anything of the Focke Wulf in its sleek-but-oversized lines.

In short, it was a remarkable fighter; and because it was built in large numbers – 20,000, roughly the equivalent of USAAF P-47 Thunderbolt production – it was able to seriously augment the 33,000 Messerschmitts that remained the primary front-line fighter in the Luftwaffe arsenal right up to the end of the war. They were a good pair – two of the smallest fighters that could be built around powerful engines – but the Focke Wulf wasn’t so small that it couldn’t lift amazing ordnance loads when the mission called for iron rain.

There have been a lot of Focke Wulf kits built. One of my first modeling articles (for an IPMS chapter publication, in about 1975) involved a head-to-head review of 1/72^nd Fw-190 kits, and as I recall there were at least a half-dozen different kits involved in that review. Since then, the Focke Wulf has been well-represented in all popular scales, from 1/144^th to 1/32^nd – but there has always been a need for the “ultimate” Focke Wulf in my favorite scale, 1/48^th. Until now.

If someone can kit a better Fw-190 than Eduard, I’ll tip my hat to them – but I expect to keep it on my head for a long, long time. This is, for all its several minor faults (including a challenging build in some areas because of the extensive number of parts used to represent the engine and its plumbing, or the landing gear or cockpit), it is superb. Any Focke Wulf fanatic who doesn’t fall in love with Eduard’s kits has set his standards way too high. However, in case you want more, Eduard has also created a “Big Ed” after-market set for their Focke Wulfs – with more PE than used in your average battleship, plus superb masks and other assorted goodies. Superdetailers need look no further. These Big Ed sets are a guilty pleasure for detail junkies – I can’t recommend them strongly enough.

Eduard has issued three different Focke Wulfs. Pride of place goes to the Fw-190 A-8/R2 Royal Class kit, which includes two full 1/48^th scale kits, along with two sets of PE, two sets of masks, decals for nine different aircraft … plus a replica Knight’s Cross and a piece (small, but really there) of an actual Fw-190. This is the ultimate radial-engined Fw-190 kit – a collectors item in a box for those who collect, and the damnedest set of put-together parts for the serious builder. Highly recommended!

Eduard has also released two stand-alone Focke Wulf kits: the Fw-190 A-5 and the Fw-190 A-8. These are all in 1/48^th scale, and all absolutely fabulous, especially if you love lots of tiny, intricate and exquisitely-molded parts.

These three kits are all basically the same – Eduard has captured the nuanced differences between the A-5, the A-8 and the A-8/R2 – but those merely differentiate a great core model. If you are a Focke Wulf fanatic, and you haven’t yet checked one of these kits out, shame on you. Get your (ahem) in gear down to your local hobby shop or your local Internet Squadron Shop and get one, or several (easy to do with the Royal kit) and start building. You won’t be disappointed.