COBI IL-2M3 Shturmovik Set 5744

COBI's Il-2M3 Shturmovik is a 1:32 model built from 625 blocks, 36.3 cm long with a 46.4 cm wingspan, released in cooperation with the Polish Army Museum and modelled on the aircraft displayed there. The propeller and ailerons move, the wheels fold, and the canopy opens for pilot and gunner figures whose uniforms were taken from the museum's collection. Rockets are included, and the pale blue underside carries Polish chequerboards.

The swept wing

The visible difference from the earlier Il-2 is the outer wing panels, which are angled back rather than square. That was not styling. Adding a second crewman and heavier armament had moved the centre of gravity aft and made the aircraft unstable; sweeping the outer wings shifted the centre of lift back to match it. It is a fix rather than a feature, and it gave the M3 the arrow-like planform that identifies it at a glance.

The map in the box

Il-2M3s equipped four Polish ground-attack regiments in 1945, and 158 were on Polish Air Force strength on 1 May that year. The aircraft in the Warsaw museum served with the 3rd Assault Regiment.

COBI includes a printed brick map of Poland, and it shows the borders as they were before the territorial exchange with the Soviet Union of 15 February 1951 — a swap in which Poland gave up a stretch of land near Sokal and received an area around Ustrzyki Dolne, at Soviet insistence, because the Soviets wanted the coal under the first one. It is an unusually pointed inclusion for a toy, and it is worth knowing what the map is showing.

In the COBI range

Set 5745 is the earlier Il-2 of 1943, with the original straight wing and winter camouflage.

Specifications

Pieces: 625 · Figures: 2, pilot and gunner · Scale: 1:32 · Brick map included · With the Polish Army Museum
Model dimensions: 36.3 × 46.4 × 12.5 cm (14.3 × 18.2 × 4.9 in)