SPA Modeler

I have started on A models Polikarpov I-180 in 1/72 scale. One of those “looks nice in the box, few parts, how hard can it be” kits from Eastern Europe. It is not my first Amodel kit but this one is not as good as the I-207 and 5-1/5-2 that I have made. Those where mastered and molded by MasterX this one is from an unknown source. The tail is severely short shot.



The happy parts first. The cockpit is detailed enough for this tiny plane I used an I-16 as reference for the seatbelt.

Very nice work on that harness! The rest of the cockpit looks good too, but those little additions really boost the overall appearance.

The seatbelts look great!! I wish I could get them to look that nice with tape.

Such a tiny cockpit... with my eyes, there is no way I'm going back to 1/72! What are you going to do with that short-shot fuselage?

I have glued the fuselage together and filled the short short part with plastic. This is just the general shape. I will fill and smooth this with putty.





I also scribed the door on the left fuselage side. (Before glueing , it was already there in the first pictures but I forgot to mention it)

Nice cockpit work on a tiny bird. I hate short shots, but you seem to have a handle on this one. Well done.

Again Borg, what a fantastic subject!

Where do you pick all these planes from, definitely no main-stream builds here!

Looking good, rules!

- Kari

Tiny bird indeed. I've been thinking of picking up one in 1/32nd scale. Fugly bird but the more I look at it, the more I've grown fond of them.

Interesting selection Borg, and well done on fixing that short shot tail. I know most modelers would have just tossed the kit. I'm glad to see you pushing forward on this.

Brilliant work on that cockpit too. You rock man!

This is one of those builds that give short run a bad name. I filled gaps, compensated bad fit, rebuild short shot fuselage and in general weird a weird break down of the parts.

After using styrene, Tamiya putty and Mr Surfacer 500 I have this:









Next up is restoring panel lines. Since this was a mostly wooden plane there aren’t many.