Classic Resin Airframes 1/48 IK-3
By Chris Banyai-Riepl
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Although we commonly envision the U.S., U.K., Germany, Japan, France and Italy as the only major producers of aircraft in World War II, other countries tried their hands at building home-grown fighters. Most of these have faded into obscurity, swamped by the greater numbers of planes from allied nations’ factories or by enemy air forces. This was the fate of Yugoslavia’s Rogozarski IK-3. Ljubormir Ilic, Costa Sivcev and Slobodan Zrnic started design work on the IK-3 in 1936, and the plane made its first flight in May 1938. For the Yugoslavian aircraft industry, it was a great stride forward—a cantilever low-wing monoplane of mixed construction, it was powered by a license-built Hispano-Suiza 12Ycrs 960 horsepower engine and could reach 327 mph, making it the hottest plane developed to that point in the Balkans. It was well-armed, too, packing a 20mm cannon and two 7.62mm machine guns. When the initial 12 IK-3s entered service, the Yugoslav pilots This successful introduction led to a second order for 65 planes, but the German invasion on April 6, 1941 halted production. The IK-3 performed well in combat, downing 11 enemy aircraft before they themselves were overcome by the German onslaught. The last IK-3s were destroyed by their own crews at the emergency airstrip at Veliki Radnici to prevent their capture. The kit is very cleanly molded in a light tan resin, with incredible detailing throughout. The surface detail is all recessed and very fine. There is a small amount of flash around the fuselage and wing, and lots of flash around the smaller parts (which is how they keep them all together, so I guess that isn't a bad thing). The cockpit consists of a floor, seat, instrument panel, and control stick. No brass detailing is included in the kit.
With only a handful of IK-3s ever built, and the last one put to the torch by its own pilot 57 years ago, finding accurate information on this plane is going to be difficult. The decals provided are printed by Propagteam and feature the plane flown by With the release of Accurate Miniatures’ Yak-1, we could see an explosion of Eastern Europe and Russian aircraft designs from mainstream kit manufacturers, which is a good thing. This should also open up more resources for such planes as the IK-3. With companies like Classic Resin Airframes putting out great kits of these lesser-known fighters, you can have something on your shelves that will provide a great contrast to the Yak-1s and MiG-3s already there. |
of the 161 and 162 Eskadrilla found it to be much more to their liking than either the Bf 109E or the Hurricane Mk I in service at that time.
Assembly looks to be very simple and straightforward. The wing is a solid one-piece arrangement with decent wheelwell detail provided. The landing gear could use some extra detailing, but the gear doors themselves are quite well done. The parts layout is designed to keep seams to a minimum, and therefore putty work is minimized. The fit is hard to judge without tearing into the kit, but lining up the wing with the fuselage shows that, with some careful cleaning and fitting, you might be able to use little or no filler on this one. A lot of care went into the design and engineering of this kit, and it shows.
Potporucnik Dusan Borcic, who was credited with one victory while flying the IK-3. There is some confusion as to the actual camouflage colors used on the IK-3, and this is noted in the instructions. The kit provides directions for a two-tone dark green/dark earth camouflage scheme over a light blue-gray, but it could also have been finished in a three-tone camouflage as seen on Yugoslav Blenheims. No other notes are given about this three-tone scheme, but it is mentioned that both styles could have been carried by the IK-3s. Some serious digging in the resource arena will be needed if you are interested in finishing this kit as one of the other IK-3s.