Tamiya 1/48 Il-2 Shturmovik

Tamiya 1/48 Il-2 Type 3 Shturmovik

Stock Number: 3500-61113

Price:  $79.98

We're expecting  the new Tamiya 1/48 Il-2 Shturmovik on Monday July 9.  In box and preview build reviews indicate that this kit is great.  Comparative reviews with the older Accurate Miniatures Il-2 released in 1997 have the Tamiya kit as more accurate and easier to build.  The Tamiya kit has a more accurate spinner profile and propeller plus more accurate wing and fuselage surface detail. There are also differences with the respective kits' main windscreens although both kits are thought to be accurate and merely different styles. Another nice feature included in the Tamiya kit is optional early and late style under wing rocket rails (AM kit includes only early rails).  The big difference in the kits is apparently the ease of build that the Tamiya kit has over the older Accurate Miniatures offering.

Tamiya Interior

The Tamiya kit represents the ultimate technically mature version of the Shturmovik which is designated Il-2 Type 3.  It was the most produced version of the aircraft with an estimated 17,000 built from a total of 36,000 plus of all versions.  It featured a boosted Mikulin AM-38F engine, factory installed rear gunners position, and 15 degree sweptback wing made of wood and later metal.  The increased sweep of the wing is to compensate for the increased rearward shift of the aircraft's center of gravity due to the gunners position.  Early two-seat Shturmoviks without the sweep where hard to handle.  With 36,000 plus produced, the Il-2 is the most produced combat aircraft ever and one of the most produced aircraft of all types.  Tamiya's kit represents its most typical metal wing form.

Kit landing gear

The kit offers three choices of markings.  The box art option is for an aircraft from the 6th GShAP (Guards Ground Attack Air Regiment).  It was flown by Captain I.F. Pavlov who was awarded the Gold Star Hero of the Soviet Union on two occasions.  Pavlov's rear gunner was G.I. Mamyrin.  The aircraft is a presentation aircraft paid for by the workers of Kustanai which was Pavlov's hometown.  It is depicted as it appeared in mid January 1945 while in action in East Prussia during the assault on Konigsburg.  The second option is for the Il-2 flown by the commander of the 227th ShAP (Ground Attack Air Regiment) Captain V.I. Mykhlik.  Mykhlik was also twice awarded the Gold Star Hero of the Soviet Union.  He had flown at Leningrad and then during the Belorussian campaign.  The inscriptions read "Avenge for Khristenko" and "For Leningrad".  The third choice in the kit is for an anonymous 16th VA (Air Army) Il-2 during the final campaign for Berlin in April 1945.  The aircraft is marked with a white 12 on the rear fuselage and upper left wing.  The vertical tail displays a white triangular leading edge and white dot on the rudder behind the red star.  The tail markings are probably unit markings but none is specifically attributed except to note that it is a unit from the 16th Air Army.  This final marking option is of interest because it is more representative of a typical late war Shturmovik.

Rear gunners position with Berizin UBT 12.7mm gun

Metal winged Il-2 Type 3 Shturmoviks were introduced to combat during June 1944 at the start of the Belorussian campaign better known as Operation Bagration.  By 1944 the Il-2, like the Soviet Air Force (VVS) had matured in capability.  It had overcome its early shortcomings such as lack of defensive armament (rear gunner), poor handling, and it was somewhat underpowered.  In the first two years of the war, Soviet pilots were poorly trained, and tactically insufficient in most respects compared to their German adversaries .  By the start of the Belorussian campaign Soviet aircraft performance was in the ball park with German types, and in some respects better than German.  Soviet air leadership had also developed more effective doctrine in all aspects of tactical air warfare including close air support.  Soviet aircraft outnumbered German according to some accounts by as much as six to one by 1944.  The Luftwaffe was no longer capable of maintaining air superiority over any sector where the Soviets wished to concentrate force.  The Il-2 Type 3 made up approximately 1/3 of the combat inventory of the VVS and was its premier close air support and tactical strike asset.

Il-2s were therefore, the Soviet's most effective tank killers.  Western post-war myth has the American supplied Bell P-39 Airacobra as a top VVS tank killer.  James Gebhardt who translated Dmitry Loza's Attack of the Airacobras:  Soviet Aces, American P-39s, & the Air War Against Germany  believes that the misconception of the Airacobra as tank killer stems from a mistranslation.  Gebhardt states that the Russian language phrase most often used to describe the role of  Soviet P-39 units is prikrytiye sukhoputnykh voysk or coverage of ground forces.  Soviet accounts from P-39 units note they were tasked with patrolling above a specific zone of the front and destroying bombers attempting to attack Soviet ground forces and hence, coverage of ground forces.  Western writers have assumed the phrase "coverage of ground forces" to mean close air support, which is incorrect.  Western sources unanimously note the effectiveness of the P-39s 37mm cannon against German armor.  This would undoubtedly be correct had Soviet Airacobra units been equipped with armor piercing ammunition, but they were not.  They typically were issued and fired 37mm high explosive rounds which were devastating against enemy aircraft.  Attack of the Airacobra author Loza notes that Soviet fighter units acted as Shturmoviks only in the closing months of the war when the Luftwaffe was no longer a regular threat.  He further states that FAB 100 bombs where used to attack armor not the 37mm cannon because Airacobra units were still primarily tasked with the air superiority role and issued high explosive ammunition.   We are therefore left to remember the Il-2 as the top allied tank killer on the Eastern Front.

With few exceptions, noteworthy pilots from the World War 2 Soviet Air Force are not well known in the west.  Below is a list of the top 10 tank killing Shturmovik pilots.

Aleksandr Nikolayevich Yefimov -- 198 ShAP, 62 ShAP -- 126 Tanks
Aleksandr Afanasyevich Bonder -- 59 GShAP -- 70 Tanks
Grigorij Ivanovich Kopayev -- 59 GShAP -- 70 Tanks
Viktor Maksimovich Golubev -- 258 ShAP, 59 GShAP -- 69 Tanks
Zakhar Solomonovich Kitalishvili -- 232 ShAP -- 69 Tanks
Vasilij Ivanovich Koslovskij -- 810 ShAP -- 68 Tanks
Anatolij Ivanovich Kadomtsev -- 688 ShAP -- 65 Tanks
Stepan Kharitonovich Markovtsev -- 208 ShAP -- 63 Tanks
Vasilij Fyodorovich Kolennikov -- 78 ShAP -- 56 Tanks
Arsentij Antonovich Malen -- 74 GShAP -- 53 Tanks

*V.I. Mykhlik noted above in the kit marking discussion was credited with the destruction of 50 tanks.