polikarpov po2

[yak face]

here is the 1/72 kp kit of the polikarpov po2, a surprisingly good kit,VERY delicate moulding.I didnt use the kit decal options,instead i wanted to do it as one of the machines of the 588 NBAP all women fighter group ,who carried out nuisance bombing raids on the german camps on the eastern front.This po2 was piloted by nataliya luminova with yakaterina pilenkova as gunner.The german troops christened these women the "nachthexen"-night witches-and the luftwaffe even offered rewards for any pilot shooting one down.Luckily this was very rare as the speed differential between the po2 and me 109 or fw 190 was too great(the stall speed of the german fighters was higher than the max speed of the po2!)The skill and courage of these soviet women is unbelievable,google nachthexen and read for yourself its fascinating stuff. by the way this is my first biplane (maybe the last-bloody rigging!!)and i did the wires with bait elastic and replaced the exhausts with stretched cotton bud stem,which i also used for the ring sight on the gun. Cheers tony:beer:

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[Guest]

Hi Tony,

Nice work, a nice unusual subject. I love the history behind it too. Always nice to have a bit of background on model subjects where it is available.

Who'd have thought the ME 109's or FW 190's would be outfoxed by old stringbag kites !!

Regards....Mark.

[yak face]

thanks mark,glad you like it.Seeing how fragile the model was to make ,made me realise how frail and vulnerable these planes must have been,all the more incredible they were used for such a dangerous job.it really is a fascinating story. cheers tonylane:

[stona]

Very nice job Tony. Biplane rigging has always terrified me!

Steve

[yak face]

me too ,steve,this is the first one ive done,and i had to go and choose one where all the control cables are on the outside!!!honestly though it wasnt as bad as i thought it would be.By the way i got some acrylic rod,like you recommended, and finally got my meteor finished after 2 years! . tony:grinball1: