Polikarpov I-16 Ishak RED 21

[ramses]

I loved your Polikarpov during IIFI2025.
As discussed it is one of my future projects from Richard's plans.
It would be ideal if you have and present the whole building process. It would help alot!

Hereby i will make a build thread of my Polikarpov I-16 RED 21.

Polikarpov I-16 Ishak RED 21

Richard Crossley Design
Scale: 1/14
Span: 25" / 63.5cm
Balsa and tissue construction



I made my own printwood by transferring the parts to the balsa by a clothing iron.
This will only work with a laser printer (thermo activated ink).



All required parts cut out:



Cheers, Ramses

[ramses]

I have glued the parts of the keels together and glued the half formers to the keels:



Following the instructions, I removed the left fuselage half from the building table and glued the other half formers to the right side.
I also started on the engine cowling, a clever and simple construction using interlocking parts:



I covered the cowl with soft 1.5mm sheet in one piece all around:



Short stubby fuselage



Cheers, Ramses

[ramses]

I have added the stringers to the fuselage formers.
Added an extra peg position as suggested by Richard, one bay forward of the peg position on the plans.
Made the tailcone from soft light balsa and hollowed it out:



I read a covering tip on the very extensive and beautiful plans:



Made a frame and glued a piece of tissue to it:



Damped it and put it away for later:



Cheers, Ramses

[Spiros]

Astonishing!!
As menntioned, it's on of my targets and these pics really help!

[ramses]

Thank you Spiros!
And my pleasure.

Cheers, Ramses

[ramses]

The cowling has a front made of 0.8mm aircraft grade plywood, which I cut out with a jigsaw:



The templates for the rest of the parts for the cowl cut from the drawing:



Transferred the templates to balsa of different hardness/weight and cut out:





The openings for the exhausts were made according to the extensive building instructions:



Initially, I had made the exhaust openings according to the building instructions.
But that's a different I-16 version; my I-16 version has two fewer exhaust openings at the bottom.
I added different, wider openings and a central air intake in their place:



I made a plug from hard balsa to make the gun covers.
Heat shrunk very thin styreen over the balsa plug:



Cheers, Ramses

[ramses]

The turtledeck for the Polikarpov is made from a shaped and hollowed-out block of balsa.
I selected the lightest, thickest balsa I had available and first cut out the side contour:



Glued these together and then cut out the top contour:



First I made the outer shape and then hollowed it out as much as possible:



Cheers, Ramses

[ramses]

The I-16 has laminated tail surfaces.
I first made the required templates from balsa:





Despite its short, stubby appearance, the Polikarpov also has beautiful lines in its design (especially with the fairings):



Start of building the wings:



Cheers, Ramses

[ramses]

The Polikarpov I-16 parts so far:







Cheers, Ramses

[ramses]

Richard Crossley designed rocket racks for his Polikarpov I-16 and shared these drawings with me. I cut rods from a piece of foam and sanded them round. The rails are made from 1.5mm balsa:



Carefully sand, sand and sand...:



I blackened the rails with a marker pen and made fins  for the rockets from paper:



0.62 grams for six rockets, that's just over a tenth of a gram per rocket:



Cheers, Ramses

[ramses]

I lift the tailplane outlines according to plans and made the ribs for the tailplanes.
Also glued the wing ribs to the lower stringers:



Added the upper stringers and lightly sanded the tailplanes.
Also painted a ground layer on the cowl:



Covered the leading edge with 0.5mm soft balsa:



Made openings in the engine cowling to fit the wing:





Cheers, Ramses

[ramses]

I choose the subject for my model:

Polikarpov I-16 type 24 Ishak
4GvIAP Red 21
GD Tsokolayev
sn 2423321
Novaya Ladoga Airfield 1941-42

I placed a 4-view of the Red 21 at the same scale as the plans on an A0 sheet in photoshop and plotted it:



I use this 1:1 drawing as a reference for details, markings, panel lines, etc.:



Cheers, Ramses

[ramses]

As mentioned in a previous post, the turtle deck is made of hollowed-out solid balsa.
It sits well behind the CG, and I was wary of the weight...

First with a Dremel, then with progressively finer sandpaper i hollowed the block.
The wall thickness is less than a millimeter in many places, but thanks to the double-curved shape, it's still strong.
The resulting weight of the entire turtle deck is 1.1 grams, with the pores already filled and sanded smooth (outside):



The plans shows a top, front, and side view of the windshield.
Based on this, i made a balsa plug with extra balsa on the bottom and rear:



I glued a piece of scrap balsa wood to the undersite of the plug, so I could hold the plug in a vice. For this small windshield, I simply held a lighter under clear PET and pulled it over the balsa plug:



In the same way, i also made a cockpit frame from very thin white styrene:





I found it the easiest way to cut the frame over the balsa plug:



Then I glued the frame over the windshield with canopy glue:



Cheers, Ramses

[ramses]

The wheels i made from multiple layers of foam.
I cut the foam discs with a circle cutter:



The thin brass axles are glued into the foam with epoxy (they now look like tea lights 



After the epoxy hardend, I inserted a steel wire into the axle and clamped the axle in a Dremel. I sanded the wheels/tires into shape with sandpaper. The landing gear legs are bent as shown on plans:



It's difficult to see in the photo below, but next to the legs are four brass tubes that are glued into the wing:



Glued the brass tubes in the wing and started dressing the legs with light round balsa:



Further dressing the legs with light round balsa and strips of paper:



The rough landing gear:



Cheers, Ramses

[ramses]

I painted the rockets black with acrylic paint, which doesn't damage the foam.
First, I painted a layer over a test piece of foam to be sure:



Let the rockets dry in a sort of "V2 setup" 





The rockets and landing gear are weathered with Humbrol silver paint, applied by dry-brush. I glued the foam rockets to the balsa rails with UHU Por:



The paper rims glued onto the foam wheels and the tyres painted black:



Cheers, Ramses