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 1/16th 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 1/48th 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.
