Polikarpov R5 - WWII Soviet Night Bomber

Here is the completion of the Polikarpov R5. It might seem out of place for a WWII GB, but Russia threw everything it had against Germany including old biplanes. They saw service as reconnaisance and nuisance aircraft. The nuisance aircraft staged a psychological war against German troops on the Eastern Front. They would drop small fragmentation bombs over German camps every 10 - 15 minutes, keeping soldiers awake and on edge throughout the night. The R5 and the PO-2 were very effective at this, being undetectable by radar and having a top speed lower than the stall speeds of the FW190 and Me109.

The APEX kit is very spartan in its molding detail and parts and so a bit of scratchbuilding was done to make it look better. There's definitely nothing like professionally supplied details.  Scratchbuilt pieces include bombs and bomb racks, generator, vacuum venturi, control cable attachment arms, fuel lines, pilot sight tube, gauges and windscreens.



















Thanks for looking in and commenting,

Mike

Turned out nice.

Great job on a basic kit

Very cool plane. I really like the figures. Not sure how much help the pistol would be in a dog fight but it looks good.

Igor has a tendency to have a few vodkas between missions - and it was his 8th mission that night. LOL

Looking good Mike.

8th mission, good one.

Great job Mike and I see nothing wrong with the rigging!!

Zbuckster wrote:  8th mission, good one.

I read that the record for these night bombers was held by one of the female 'Night Witches' with 15 missions in a single night.

I love it. Reminds me of an old James Coburn movie "What Did You Do in the War Daddy?" Somehow I don't think Igor remembered much.