“Guards on duty” 1/72 ICM, Scratchbuild

This little diorama was inspired by a documental photo of I-16s on duty. It was taken on February, 1942. This is “Red 21” of 4-th Guard Fighter Regiment (4 ГвИАП) of Baltic Fleet flown by Gennady Tsokolaev.

This Regiment fought in the sky of Baltic Sea and City of Leningrad. During the war Gennady Tsokolaev shouted down 26 enemy planes, most of them he scored flown I-16. He took part in sinking of 10 ships and attacks on nearly 100 ground targets. In July 1942 he received Gold Star of the Hero of Soviet Union.

The model was build from ICM kit. This is definitely the best I-16 kit in 1/72 nowadays. It is far better and accurate then, for example, Hasegawa. This kit has only very minor flaws in shape of wing, which can be easily corrected. It fits well without putty. Detailing is accurate and delicate.

Tsokolaev’s “Red 21” had unusual chassis, so I had to made it from scratch. Also, little round windows were made in cockpit, and launchers for RS-82 rockets were made under the wing.

The model was painted with Humbrol enamels.

The stand was made from plastic and acrylic putty for wood.

Figurines were self-sculptured.

“In waiting for a counter-attack” 1/72 UM, Scratchbuild

This was my first diorama so I was very pleased that this work won first place at “T-34: A Life-Long Way” contest at Rumodelism.com website.

The history of tank unit named after Dimitry Donskoi began in 1943, when Russian Orthodox Church gathered about 8 millions rubles which were spent on building 40 T-34 tanks in Chelyabinsk. Among them were 19 tanks of brand new modification armed with 85-mm D-5T gun. Those tanks were given to 38-th Separate Tank Regiment. In a few days Regiment received “Dimitry Donskoi” name and were put in battle for liberation of Ukraine (Umano-Botoshan Operation, winter-spring 1944) as one of the  units of 2-nd Ukrainian Front.

This was joined massive attack of 1-st, 2-nd and 3-rd Ukrainian Fronts headed by Zhukov, Konev and Malinovsky marshals. This was a kind of Blitzkrieg, but this time performed by Soviets. In a week armies of 2-nd Ukrainian Front  liberated Uman city and forced South Bug river on a 100-km shore. It is important to mention that the enemy was very strong. Among German units were elite SS divisions.

For the “Dimitry Donskoi” Regiment it was a hard month. It took part in liberation of cities Balta and Kotovsk, forced Dniester River and faced many fights. The Regiment destroyed 38 German tanks, 17 half-tracks, 40 guns and about 1400 enemy troops. But loses were heavy too. After a month of battles only four out of 40 tanks stayed in line. Regiment became Guard and received new name “Dniestrovsky”. Lately it was equipped with new heavy tanks.

The T-34-85 tank is made from UM kit with little modernization. It was painted with the use of documental photographs of “Dimitry Donskoi” tanks. Figurines were self-sculptured and building was made from scratch.