I-153 WWII China Guomindang Air Force- ICM

This is a newer ICM kit that was released with new decals to depict an aircraft fighting for the Chinese Nationalist Air Force in the 1930s.

The build starts with the cockpit and a very nice cockpit it is. However, most of it will be very hard to see, even if you posed the side doors opened. You build the seat and instrument panel, throttles, etc. onto a framing which gets mounted onto the bottom of the fuselage. The side has nice details and should be wood, so I used Tamiya base coat followed by some oil paint. The various bottles add some splash of color in there. I finished off with some wiring and Eduard steel seat belts. While it was fun to add, most of these can’t be seen too well once its closed up.

The rest of the kit was put together very easily, the biplane structs was easy to align and strong. Rigging was done with Galaxy brand elastic line, which catches well with a drop of CA glue. I find this brand to be superior to Ez Line, as they maintain a rounded appearance where as Ezline has a flat profile. Which may actually fit with some WW1 biplanes. Some metallic paint was applied to the lines with a Vallejo metallic paint pen.

These Russian planes have a metallic band around the engine shroud, instead of using paint, I tried a new technique of using a Mylar film metallic tape. I cut them down to size with a hobby knife and were fairly easy to apply. Nothing looks like metal like metal. This is the roll I got from Amazon and probably have enough to last me a long long time. Cheap enough at about $10 USD.

After applying the fairly simple decals and paint scheme, some weathering with powders, and touching up the paint where the rigging was attached, the plane was finished. Great little kit.