Από το full build πολύ πιο ψαγμένων μοντελιστών:
1. Fans of ideal dimensions and exact scales might want to make the fuselage some 2 mm shorter. The same action also ensures the tail wheel bay is in place. Another thing to correct are a bit short rear parts of each engine.
2. The main canopy glazing: its side windows are not shown correctly, there should be a frame of three windows not two, and this is easy to check on actually any Pe-2 picture. You might want to cut out the side windows from the main canopy and to replace them with pieces of transparent plastic and to show three windows according to photos and drawings. Or you can sand down the unwanted panels and to repolish the piece and to add the lines where necessary. What I did was replacing the canopy with a spare vacu cockpit I had from a MAVI vacform kit produced in Russia in early nineties. But even with that one, I had to cut out the windscreen windows and replace them with self-made transparencies to show the correct angle of the windscreen's leading edge. Folks this is vital: the shape and angles of canopy elements play a most important role in making your model look like the Pe-
3. The VUB-1 turret glazing: if you leave the one given in the kit you'll see it looks too low. Those who know how to press out canopies will not find it difficult to make a turret glazing mold and to press out a bit higher turret glazing. I took one from the Zlinek kit though it wanted to be repolished and to have its top side flattened to get an appropirate shape.
4. Louvres on the wing upper surface should actually be turned around, the way they originally sit would not ensure any air flow at all. I cut them out and imitated them by pieces of thin curved plastic sheet cemented together. One may wish just to rescibe the louvres as they are thick enough to make it look just right. The problem of wing radiators is not that simple. The way from the leading edge to the radiator was a tunnel and you have to think about the way to represent it. One suggestion might be to drill out appropriate tunnels in a piece of thick plastic, then to cut out big openings in the leading edges and to glue in the plastic pieces with tunnels. Afterwards the plastic has to be trimmed round the leading edged, sanded, filled and polished if and where necessary.
5. The biggest challenge is the shape of cowlings. Neither a recent book by Armada nor older references will offer good drawings of the Pe-2 cowlings and therefore I recommend watching the photos. Zvezda's cowlings are one-piece details and need to have their sharp angles of upper cowl panels rounded. Watch the photos carefully while you do it - the optical impression is the only criterion I could suggest. You will also have to round the cowl fairing on the wing behind the engine to match the shape of the engine cowling. Here is a couple of photos I made in the Polish Army Museum in Warsaw.
6. The oil cooler intakes need some special treatment. On the photos, you'll see the cowling's bottom line go up and the front opening is not like given on the piece in the kit. As the coolers themselves have to be added anyway I spent a lot of time rounding them and then added the cooler and the tunnel. Unfortunately, the drawing stuff will not help much again and you have to rely on photos.
7. Spinners and props. The spinners in the kit are more or less fine for early Pe-2 series with the M-105RA engine but no good for the ones we see on PF-engined aircraft. I made new spinners which are much more rounded and of slightly bigger diameter. You can try to use use spinners from any models of Yak fighters with M-105PF engines. Make sure you trim them to catch the smooth joining of spinner and cowling outlines. Zvezda gives six separate propellor blades done well to represent VISh-105SV with broader blades which was there starting from series 246. If you want to get exactly Series 205 and later configuration you have to make new props or get suitable replacements to represent VISh-61. For instance, props from LaGG-3 kits by Toko can be considered.
8. Cut out an opening for the ventral Berezin gun in the corresponding transparent part. Make sure you paint it over when you paint your model: a transparent hatch had been deleted by that time. You will have to add the ventral gun yourself as the kit does not contain it. I used the one given in the kit and picked an UB gun from the NeOmega resin set for the VUB-1 turret. The ShKAS gun has to be added to one of the small windows in the gunner's cockpit, and the barrel of another ShKAS gun has to be added to the left side of the nose.
9. Interior detail is so scarce that you have to reproduce that yourself practically anywhere and one might think Zvezda knew that NeOmega will come up with a resin set to make it look full of incredibly well done details. In the nose, I only added the ShKAS gun. In the pilot's cockpit, I added the gun sight and the belt from the ammo box to the Berezin gun. In the rear cockpit, I added the wires and equipment seen well through the side windows.
However, the area you have to work hard yourselves anyway are the wheel wells. There, you'll have to represent the cupola where a part of the well was rested when wheels were up, and the sidewall ribbing. Main gear construction will also require at least serious amendments - both to represent the complexity of struts and to give your model the right sit. I practically rebuilt the langing gear units from scratch and only used the main frame from the kit, the rest of frames and struts made from wires, heated sprue and plastic sheet.
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