1/200th isn’t really my scale, but on getting it home and opening the box I was pleasantly surprised so decided to do a quick inbox.
The aircraft
If you hadn’t already guessed, the Lisunov Li-2 was a licence built version of the DC-3. The Douglas Aircraft Company awarding the licence in 1936. It was quite a loose licence as there were 1,293 changes from the original DC-3 drawn up by Boris Pavlovich Lisunov and Vladimir Mikhailovich Myasishchev. The major differences being totally different shuttered engines (for use in extreme low temperatures), repositioning of the cargo doors, shorter wing span and a dorsal turret on some models. Their use on the Eastern Front was as a transport, bomber, partisan supply and air ambulance. In the same way as the DC-3, the Li-2 continued to be used well after the war in the USSR (where it took the NATO codename ‘Cab’). They were also used in Eastern Europe, China and Vietnam, some remaining in service well into the 1980’s. But unlike the DC-3, there is only one airworthy Li-2 left, a Hungarian aircraft HA-LIX.
The model
The Zvezda model is produced as a snap-together for use with their wargaming system The Art of Tactics ( see http://www.art-of-tactic.com; ) and unusual being 1/200th scale, as the other fighter and attack aircraft are in 1/144th.
The model consists of three main sprues, two of dark green plastic and the other transparent.
One has the fuselage halves, with the dorsal gun and gunner moulded on, engines, tailplane and props, which seem very delicate and will need care removing from the sprue. The undercarriage is moulded with both extended and retracted options
The second green sprue has the one piece mainplane and engine pods:
There is a pleasing amound of engraved detail on both, especially for 1/200th scale.
The transparency sprue has two glazed parts. Zvezda have found an interesting solution to applying the cockpit and window glazing by using an internal ‘sprue backbone’ installed in one piece. I just hope it’s the right width! There is also a small turret glazing.
There's a nice two piece stand in black plastic to display the model with an in flight configuration:
There is also a well printed decal sheet:
There’s a one piece instruction sheet, which isn’t really necessary as it is so simple:
There are also a couple of cards if you want to use it as part of their wargames system:
Minor gripe
But the wargames side of the kit does produce a couple of small problems for those who want to paint it up as a nice little model. Firstly it doesn’t show where the decals go, and secondly, other than the box art, there’s no paint scheme show. Not a huge problem for anyone with an Internet connection and a little Google savvy, but I would have been happier if they had used the back of the box to a proper scheme rather than just 3 views of the unpainted, unmarked plastic kit:
But all this for a mere £2.99, I can’t really grumble can I?
