Please don't compare model photos with real world photos, this is in 95% wrong due to the perspective reasons. Taking a picture 15 meters away from a aircraft is not the same as a picture of a model 20 cm away.


Compare molds with blue prints and drawing for correct dimensions

Hi Gaston

What was it I said about discussing the Storch in another thread?...

While I agree with the others about the dangers of comparing shots the way you do, ironically, even though the first photo is so over enlarged as to be of limited value, the last shot of the model sits rather well over it...

All the best

Rowan

It's a fact that they did measure the real things. If they managed to do an exact 1:48 replica of the IL-2 is another story...

Jean-Luc

Yes that's it. Making a 1/1 aircraft is far different than making a plastic model....as well as pics are quite different from plan views!

cheers

I've decided I don't care what is right or wrong with this kit. so much so that after reading Brett Green's view of the test shots I've taken the punt and pre-ordered the kit from HJL. Even after customs and handling it should hopefully work out to a little cheaper than the retail will be here in the UK.

Don"t think so: This other picture agrees fairly well with the previous picture of the real thing, despite the very different angle... As long as it is not a picture of the model that is...






Not to mention the near-complete kit absence of the "inverted peak" of the belly, which is just pathetic.

Come on guys (and gals)! This kit is absolute garbage accuracy-wise from the very first glance... Many, many 1:48th Tamiya have the same lifeless quality, usually centering around the canopy for some reason (here way too thick frames on the Stork). The He-162 and Zeroes were pretty good, as were the J1N1s, but none of these come close to the dead-on appearance of many recent 1:48th Hasegawas since the J2M3 "Jack" of 1997, barring the overly deep-tailed and stocky-nosed Hasegawa Ki-45, but very little else in 15 years... Hasegawa has (mostly) moved on from this crap a long time ago, but now they have moved out of the scale altogether...

Hasegawa apparently rarely goes to museum to measure actual aircrafts, and given how those of Tamiya often turn out, maybe it is just as well...

I don"t think ANY 1:48th model by Tamiya has ever approached the inherent quality of the Hasegawa F1M "Pete", or their superb C6N "Saiun", aircrafts for which there is no real airframe to measure: The one surviving C6N being in pieces in storage... None of the Tamiyas 1:48th kits are better than a Hasegawa Typhoon, J2M "Jack" or their new line of FW-190As. Tamiya"s own FW-190s being particularly pathetic in comparison (20% overwide AND overshort windscreens etc...)...

Tamiya does very good models in 1:32, but in 1:48th they have never been anything to exactly go silly over: Their best in 1:48th, as far as outlines go, are the F4U Corsairs and the Ki-46 "Dinah", both older than 14 years: If I was them, I would go over to Hasegawa and ask them how they (used to) do things in 1:48th...

That Tamiya is doing the Il-2 is nothing reassuring, especially given those uninspiring pictures compared to a presumably near-identical 15 year old kit... But if you want to rave about an unseen kit, please indulge yourselves...

Gaston

As opposed to ranting over an unseen kit ?

[quote]


Hi Gaston

Hang on, wasn't it you who started the thread in the first place with an uncharacteristically enthusiastic report on the kit without having actually having laid hands on it!? You even qualified your slight doubt over the canopy by saying it could be a false impression because it's unpainted in the photos.

All the best

Rowan

Tamiya have bought in Russia a set of factory drawings of the Il-2 not so long ago, so I presume, that it should be decent kit. BTW, I wouldn't use Il-2 that stands on the monuments, as most of them are bad replicas, or badly restored ones.

Sergey.

Hi Sergey

That's encouraging news. I see what you mean about the Il-2 memorials - a couple of those shown in the Crowood Aviation book are really quite extraordinary.

All the best

Rowan

Nah, I'm with Rowan on this, you started this thread raving about the new IL-2 based on a few poor photos and now you're slagging it off based on different photos?

Thats a complete 180 which is bizarre even for you!

And still you haven't seen the thing 'in the flesh' as it were.

Do you wonder sometimes why so many people ignore your 'critiques' and go ahead and buy the kits anyway?

My about-face came from the fact I had two reasonably close-angle pictures to look at, and then THAT in turn reminded me Tamiya gave us the Stork...:




Besides, isn't it just striking how much better the AM kit's canopy looks?



It really dominates that fuselage top, just like the real thing, where the Tamiya looks really tiny and perched...

Still, it could be an effect of it being unpainted (and those deep shadows too): After all, these cellphone photos DID prove deceptive enough for me to think it was a straight wing... But angles over long distances are not the same thing as a compact stocky object near the center of the lens: The canopy here looks downright scary, too scary to ignore until more photos are in...

I think Brett Green's preview article could have provided more useful photos... If the built ups look the exactly the same as the Accurate Miniatures kit (which minus prop and spinner they SHOULD), then I will be one surprised modeller...

Gaston

P.S. As for my influence, everyone seems to agree now about the Spit Mk XIIs you know...

G.

Hi again

OK, we've had the Zero, He-162, Do-335, J1N1, P-47, Me 262, Swordfish and of course the Fi-156 all in a thread supposedly about the Il-2 (and I'm sure I've missed some victims somewhere)... not bad, even for Gaston! Let's not fall for the obvious bait and get distracted by the Spit again.

We'll only have about a month to wait before we can all buy the new Tamiya Sturmovik, so it's probably high time to lock this burnt-out thread ready for the debate to reopen when we can form our own opinions of it based on actual plastic.

All the best

Rowan