Amodel 1/72 Ilyushin Il-40 Kit First Look

by Michael Benolkin

First Look

The Ilyushin OKB (Experimental Design Bureau) was responsible for the successful German tank killer, the Il-2 Shturmovik. During the Great Patriotic War (World War II), the Il-2 wreaked havoc on the mighty Wehrmacht and helped to push the German forces back into Germany. Building on the success of the Il-2 and also addressing some of its faults from combat experience, the improved Shturmovik was put into production as the Il-10. This aircraft remained in production to support the North Korean forces during the Korean War. This combat variant for Korean operations was produced as the Il-10M.

As the Il-10M was going into production, the Ilyushin OKB started work on a jet-powered replacement to their piston-powered attack aircraft. This new design retained the pilot and rear gunner arrangement of the two-seat Il-2 while incorporating a pair of turbojet engines. The resulting design became the Il-40 (NATO Codename Brawny) and in every aspect of flight test, the design was excellent - all save one. When the nose-mounted guns fired, the gun gas was ingested by the turbine engines resulting in a flame-out - not a good thing when you're staffing close to the ground.

The Ilyushin team struggled with the problem and as similar problems were experienced with the MiG and Sukhoi jet fighter designs, Ilyushin produced a revised prototype as the Il-40P which moved the nose-mounted guns behind the nosewheel and moved the twin intakes up to the nose (just like the MiG and Sukhoi fighters). This prototype passed its acceptance testing and was ordered into production, but before five aircraft could be produced, the Soviet Air Force cancelled its close air support requirement in favor of tactical nuclear weapons.

Here is an interesting subject hot off the shelf from Amodel - the 1/72 Il-40 Brawny. Amodel has produced both prototypes, this kit being the initial prototype that passed all of its testing except for the gunfire. I still remember the photo sequence of the Edwards A-10A that flamed out both engines after a gun run that resulted in the test pilot using the Escapac seat (before the ACES II had been introduced to the HAWG).

The Amodel kit is molded in light gray styrene and presented on six parts trees, plus a single tree of clear parts. The layout of the quite simple - build up the main fuselage with the rear turbine faces inside the upper and lower fuselage halves and add the pilot and rear gunner's seats to the cockpit deck atop the main fuselage.

Next is the nose halves which mount to the front of the twin intakes and their compressor faces. Build up the vertical stabilizer and both wings.

The interesting part is the upper fuselage halves which enclose the cockpit and mount atop the main fuselage subassembly. With this structure mounted atop the main fuselage, the wings, nose and tail all come together, leaving the landing gear, wing fences, and small details to round out the project.

Given that this was a prototype aircraft, painting is simple - bare metal with some generic red stars.

This is a beautifully done kit of this cold war attacker and you won't find anything looking like this on your scale flightline.

This kit is recommended for experienced modelers.

My sincere thanks to HobbyTerra for this review sample!