Vector 1/32 Polikarpov I-16 Detail Set #1 (Engine Bay & Armament) By Aleksandar Šekularac

Russian company Vector continues to spoil us with quality products. After bringing to life two excellent full resin kits in 1/48 scale, La-5 and La-5F, Sergey turns his attention to the Azur/Special Hobby’s big I-16 kit and adorns it with a most impressive Full Engine Bay and Armament set.

There are already some resin / photo-etched sets for the 1/32 I-16s on the market, most notably the Contact Resine detail sets, but this Vector’s offering simply plays in another league. It builds on previously released 1/32 Shvetsov M-25 radial engine, and adds all the cowling components, firewall with structural detail, engine accessories, and gun bays with two beautiful ShKAS machine guns, and corresponding blast tubes.

I have already reviewed excellent M-25 engine from Vector, so now I will concentrate on the additional parts that come in this set.

Cowling consists of 5 elements, and they are all beautifully moulded in greyish resin with super-thin walls and all the appropriate detail in place. These parts represent the cowling components of a real airplane exactly, so any combination of open or closed panels will look authentic. One thing is certain though: the more cowling elements you leave closed on a model, the more guilt you’ll feel for obscuring the beautiful detail of the power-plant and the armament. Oh, the tyranny of choice.

Some time ago I remember an in-depth talk, alas without conclusion, about the actual geometry of the ski-recess panels on the bottom engine cowling of the I-16, type 17 and onwards. The main question was if these recesses had the front part open to the engine cavity (vented), or not (blocked). Vector supplies the bottom cowling segment with “vented” ski-recesses, and I applaud to that. If one feels that these recesses should be blocked, one can simply leave in place the original panel from the Special Hobby kit, which shows them blocked, but Vector set provides ideal alternative for those of us who believe otherwise.

As a small digression, and this is my personal opinion, there’s a sound aerodynamic reason for these ski-recesses to have been vented. The flow of air through all radial engines is necessary for the proper cooling, and this air has to escape somewhere. On the top fuselage side of an I-16 this flow is facilitated through a circumferential gap that exists between the trailing edge of the cowling and the fuselage body, as well as wide clearances of the four upper exhaust ports. On the bottom side however the cowling is flush with the under-body. Note also that type-17 and higher aircraft had tandem exhaust pipes through the two lowest exhaust ports, which leaves very little room for the air to escape. If the ski recesses were also closed, the lower cylinders would run the risk of overheating. Additionally, vented ski recesses may have had benefits for the overall lift of the airplane, as they channelled the air-current to the under-body, adding to the pressure differential. Similar (but reversed) aerodynamic trick is used on racing cars where air-stream from the under-body is channelled upwards and over the car, in this case producing greater down-force at high speeds.

Resin exhaust pipes are all well made and numbered from 1 to 9. There is a scheme in the instructions showing where each pipe goes. This said, alignment of the exhaust pipes, especially with cowling panels in place won’t be a simple task, and the modeller would be well advise to do a lot of dry fitting and sequence planning for best results. Exhaust holes at the end of the pipes are represented a bit shallow for this scale, so I’d advise to make these deeper with a steadfast help of a hand-drill.

There are two things strangely missing from this set. Firstly the longitudinal elements of the engine mount are not there. These are the cylindrical beams that should fix the whole engine assembly to the firewall. The mounting ring is present but none of the mounting beams. Some careful measuring will be necessary to produce these out of cylindrical plastic, or metal stock. Beware; the whole geometry of the nose section may depend on proper alignment of these beams.

Another missing element is the front cooling shutter-ring. This ring rotates behind the front cowling, opening and closing the cooling slots. Most modellers choosing Vector’s set will probably opt to show the front louvers open (and the ring hidden behind the front cowling), but the big scale of the model, and open engine side panels may make this ring, or the lack of it, apparent to the careful observer.

The front cowling in the set is made as type-10/17. This is most appropriate, as the Azur/Special Hobby kit represents exactly this version. One could also convert it to any of the later or earlier cowling variants by changing the arrangement of small air intakes. Arguably, the most difficult one to make, yet the most common between the variants, the “T” inlet, is given on Vector cowling.

Conclusion

I would say that Vector is becoming Cutting Edge of the East. Quality of the castings, finesse and research of these kits are all outstanding.

I-16 Engine Bay set in particular is a comprehensive upgrade to the 1/32 kit. It will require some plastic surgery, as well as lot of fitting, but it will result in a stunning model that can stand alone, or be a centerpiece of a diorama.

As the title of this review subtly suggests, further upgrades for 1/32 I-16 kit, mainly cockpit and landing gear are in development at Vector. Personally, I wish I had these already in my hands, although the fact that I don’t may help me finish some already started kits before jumping on this one...

This I-16 set can be purchased online from Neomega web-store for £29.95, or if you prefer US dollars, at BUFFIE's BEST for $48.50.

I would like to send my big thanks to Sergey and Vector Company for providing this set.