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1/72 ICM Polikarpov U-2/Po-2VS

By Stephen Tontoni

Overview

I was thrilled to hear last week that ICM was going to issue a new 1/72 Po-2. The only game in town had been the venerable KP kit. While a good kit, KP doesn’t provide a lot of detail and some of the molding is clunky. It’s long in the tooth, and we deserve a new Po-2. The ICM kit, on the other hand, is molded beautifully and features state of the art delicate detailing.

The Kit

The 104 part kit is molded in brownish gray styrene with semi-matte finish and very fine molding gates. The one piece wings have the sharpest trailing edges that I’ve ever seen on an injection molded kit. Holding the wing up to the sun easily shows how thin that trailing edge is. I removed the fuselage halves and lower wing to test fit for this review. The tiny locating pins in the fuselage halves click together and shouldn’t need any filler. In fact, you can put the halves together, and shake it without the other half flying off! The pins and sockets are molded into the edges and there are no sink marks that I could find. The lower wing has an edge where the fuselage drops in, so the wing/fuselage joint will not require any filler.

Details

The fuselage sides have ribs and details molded in. They may seem a little shallow even in 1/72 but it’s just fine. If you got really inspired, you may think about replacing that with photo-etch bits, but I wouldn’t. One possible issue is on the fuselage sides; the shallow injector pin marks may be visible. Since they are located below the fuselage ribs, they’re largely obscured. A small dollop of Mr. Surfacer in the shallow will take care of it. I wouldn’t even bother sanding that.

The four piece bombs are beautiful things. I like to use Ambroid to cement parts, but I can see that would be impossible here. The fins are extremely thin; Ambroid would wreck them in a second. The machine gun is equally fine. It’s a little gem.

Decals & Markings

I generally distrust matte decals as I frequently see those in older decals, such as the ESCI ones. These are brand-new and I’m assuming they’ll be sturdy things. The decals are quite thin, which should make dropping them in place a cakewalk. Without any engraved panel lines, it makes it that much easier too. The only real terrain they will need to adhere to will be the rib detail on the wings. Easy.

The kit provides a wheels/ski option, and there are markings for both. The ski variant incorporates a snow scheme and the weathering possibilities are extensive. The wheeled variant has markings for a few aircraft. The register of the red stars is spot-on. In addition to those, white patriotic slogans are included for the fuselage sides. I wish the decal paper were light blue, as scanning white-on-white shows nothing.

Options

There have been so many uses for the Po-2 in its long history that you could literally build Po-2s for the rest of your life and never duplicate markings. I’ve built a 1/48 Gavia Po-2 as a North Korean nuisance bomber and had a great time doing it. Next up ... the Night Witches. Don’t forget the civil uses too!

People get freaked out about the rigging but this one is really easy. All the rigging lines are singled up, not double. It’s a single bay biplane, making the chore that much easier. The upper wing on the Po-2 seems higher than it should be, which means that it’s easier to get in there to attach your lines. And again, since it’s a single bay biplane, it makes wing construction/alignment much easier.

Conclusion

Buy this kit. It’s easily the best Po-2 that I’ve ever seen although I’m sure there’s some resin gem out there that I’ve not seen yet. I was able to only find one weakness in the barely visible ejector pin shallows. The rest of the molding is just beautiful, and the engineering is excellent. At US$15.00, you can’t beat this for value. I bought one and know I’ll buy one or two more; this is a subject that just screams “collection”.