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Description
Ilyushin Il-28, NATO codenamed "Beagle"*, was the first jet bomber in the Soviet arsenal. Designed in Ilyushin bureau, it was powered by the same Klimov RD-45 that thrusted the MiG-15 into the skies over Korea.

Siergyei Ilyushin proposed the idea to Stalin in the late 40., saying that Soviet Union needs a jet bomber that could reach America (at this time the Soviet rocket technology wasn't very advanced, this changed after releasing Sergyei Korolov from GULag).

Il-28 had rather orthodox design: unswept wings, jet engines placed in the nacells, tail gunner's place, glass nose for bomber. It was a mix of fading era of WWII bombers and oncoming Jet Age. Surprisingly this beast needed only crew of three: pilot, bomber and back gunner. Because of the hull's construction, the gunner could not enter the pilot and bomber bay during flight. They had a radio communication, but you can imagine the poor gunner, spending hours in his tiny compartement, with his seat made basicaly of metal arm and disc. The flight over the Pacific to America would be the most depressing experience in his life.

The plane was ment to be used for nuclear strikes, but despite Stalin's and Ilyushin's expectations, it never achieved range long enough to attack United States. Soon later the mission of delivering nuclear warheads over Uncle Sam's homeland was handled to ICBM (intercontinental ballistic missiles), while the bombers were sent to Eastern Europe's countries and soviet republics, to deal a devastating, nuclear blow to Western Europe in case of World War III. These were also given to Polish Air Forces, altough Polish pilots never obtained a nuclear weapon that could be dropped from them. They were to be sent from Soviet Union and then delivered over West. When Poland had its own nuclear bases built, they were already to be delivered by missiles and fighter-bombers like Su-20 and Su-22**.

Il-28 became a father of all future Russia's bombers, not only jet ones (like Tu-160 "Backfire"), but also the propeller ones (Tu-95, very succesful plane). It remains in service of some countries, but currently it's too slow and big to fight against for example NATO or America planes (it's very visible on the radar screen). It has a good 23 mm cannons in front and back, and can also carry rockets for self-defense, but it has no means of fighting against side, upper and bottom attacks.

America created very similar B-45 Tornado, powered by four engines, but it wasn't very succesful and was retired in 1959.

* NATO codenames begin with letter that in American aviation define the aircraft's kind. I.e. fighters begin with "F-" (MiG-15 - Faggot, Yak-38 - Forger etc.), bombers with "B-", cargo with "C-" (like this fatal Tu-154 - "Careless") etc.
** Poland also worked to build its own thermonuclear weapon, using a laser as a mean of detonating the fuel, but with no succes. The best laser at the time had only 1 kJ of power, while Soviets tested 20 kJ and Americans - 100 kJ lasers with no effect. Currently we know that igniting a thermonuclear reaction requires a 100.000 kJ laser. Also the Polish scientist, Sylwester Kaliski, was killed in arranged traffic accident after the USSR lerned that Poland tries to build an H-bomb.

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This was to be Italeri's 1:87 BR50 steam locomotive, but turned out it was sold the day before. So out of curiosity I looked at Trumpeter's An-2 and noticed this same company's Il-28 bomber. I also wanted this model, so I bought it almsot immediately. Almost - because it was raining outside and the unneccesarly big box didn't fit in my backpack.

This model is huge for 1:72, 30 cm wingspan, 23 cm hull's length. It's, however, easy to paint - all silver for most of the hull. The figures are aviable, but I decided to leave them for other projects. There are decals for Soviet, Polish and Chinese Air Force and several armament variants: 8 small bombs, 4 medium bombs and one big bomb. Judging from it's shape and size (it occupies most of the bomb bay), it's a nuclear bomb of some sort. I'm not an expert in the shapes of nuclear bombs, but judging from the description ("[first] small enough to be carried by Il-28") it may be RDS-4 Tatiana.

Because I had to use lead balls and superglue for balast (the tail was pulling the whole plane down) the glass parts became matt due to the reaction with fumes. But that's not a big shame, the cabin's detail are rather uninteresting.

As for the paintjob, I hope that the brushmarks are visible. I wanted to give it this crude look, to make it look like... well, Soviet plane. They always had some issues with paintjobs. Either it was slaughering off or became pale after sun exposure.

Model: Trumpeter
Paints: Pactra plus Humbrol Metalizer on hull and metal parts
Scale: 1/72

Description
Ilyushin Il-28, NATO codenamed "Beagle"*, was the first jet bomber in the Soviet arsenal. Designed in Ilyushin bureau, it was powered by the same Klimov RD-45 that thrusted the MiG-15 into the skies over Korea.

Siergyei Ilyushin proposed the idea to Stalin in the late 40., saying that Soviet Union needs a jet bomber that could reach America (at this time the Soviet rocket technology wasn't very advanced, this changed after releasing Sergyei Korolov from GULag).

Il-28 had rather orthodox design: unswept wings, jet engines placed in the nacells, tail gunner's place, glass nose for bomber. It was a mix of fading era of WWII bombers and oncoming Jet Age. Surprisingly this beast needed only crew of three: pilot, bomber and back gunner. Because of the hull's construction, the gunner could not enter the pilot and bomber bay during flight. They had a radio communication, but you can imagine the poor gunner, spending hours in his tiny compartement, with his seat made basicaly of metal arm and disc. The flight over the Pacific to America would be the most depressing experience in his life.

The plane was ment to be used for nuclear strikes, but despite Stalin's and Ilyushin's expectations, it never achieved range long enough to attack United States. Soon later the mission of delivering nuclear warheads over Uncle Sam's homeland was handled to ICBM (intercontinental ballistic missiles), while the bombers were sent to Eastern Europe's countries and soviet republics, to deal a devastating, nuclear blow to Western Europe in case of World War III. These were also given to Polish Air Forces, altough Polish pilots never obtained a nuclear weapon that could be dropped from them. They were to be sent from Soviet Union and then delivered over West. When Poland had its own nuclear bases built, they were already to be delivered by missiles and fighter-bombers like Su-20 and Su-22**.

Il-28 became a father of all future Russia's bombers, not only jet ones (like Tu-160 "Backfire"), but also the propeller ones (Tu-95, very succesful plane). It remains in service of some countries, but currently it's too slow and big to fight against for example NATO or America planes (it's very visible on the radar screen). It has a good 23 mm cannons in front and back, and can also carry rockets for self-defense, but it has no means of fighting against side, upper and bottom attacks.

America created very similar B-45 Tornado, powered by four engines, but it wasn't very succesful and was retired in 1959.

* NATO codenames begin with letter that in American aviation define the aircraft's kind. I.e. fighters begin with "F-" (MiG-15 - Faggot, Yak-38 - Forger etc.), bombers with "B-", cargo with "C-" (like this fatal Tu-154 - "Careless") etc.
** Poland also worked to build its own thermonuclear weapon, using a laser as a mean of detonating the fuel, but with no succes. The best laser at the time had only 1 kJ of power, while Soviets tested 20 kJ and Americans - 100 kJ lasers with no effect. Currently we know that igniting a thermonuclear reaction requires a 100.000 kJ laser. Also the Polish scientist, Sylwester Kaliski, was killed in arranged traffic accident after the USSR lerned that Poland tries to build an H-bomb.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++
This was to be Italeri's 1:87 BR50 steam locomotive, but turned out it was sold the day before. So out of curiosity I looked at Trumpeter's An-2 and noticed this same company's Il-28 bomber. I also wanted this model, so I bought it almsot immediately. Almost - because it was raining outside and the unneccesarly big box didn't fit in my backpack.

This model is huge for 1:72, 30 cm wingspan, 23 cm hull's length. It's, however, easy to paint - all silver for most of the hull. The figures are aviable, but I decided to leave them for other projects. There are decals for Soviet, Polish and Chinese Air Force and several armament variants: 8 small bombs, 4 medium bombs and one big bomb. Judging from it's shape and size (it occupies most of the bomb bay), it's a nuclear bomb of some sort. I'm not an expert in the shapes of nuclear bombs, but judging from the description ("[first] small enough to be carried by Il-28") it may be RDS-4 Tatiana.

Because I had to use lead balls and superglue for balast (the tail was pulling the whole plane down) the glass parts became matt due to the reaction with fumes. But that's not a big shame, the cabin's detail are rather uninteresting.

As for the paintjob, I hope that the brushmarks are visible. I wanted to give it this crude look, to make it look like... well, Soviet plane. They always had some issues with paintjobs. Either it was slaughering off or became pale after sun exposure.

Model: Trumpeter
Paints: Pactra plus Humbrol Metalizer on hull and metal parts
Scale: 1/72