Ikarus 451M

by Aleksandar Mladenovic

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In the early morning of 25th October 1952 pilot Capitan Tugomir Prebeg made a flight in very first Yugoslav jet plane Ikarus 451M. This flight together with Ikarus 451M opened the jet era in Yugoslav aviation. Ikarus 451M was an experimental, all metal construction aircraft designed by Major Dragoljub Beslin, built by Ikarus aircraft factory and powered by two Turbomeca Palace 056A turbojets.

Only one example was ever built and it was used for test flights until 1959.

Today this interesting aircraft rests in Yugoslav Air Force Museum’s collection Belgrade, Serbia . It is important to note that Ikarus factory had experience in aircraft production since early mid war period and was mostly known by its IK-2 and IK-3 fighters.

Models of these two fighters are also available from Aeropoxy( http://aeropoxy.freeservers.com/ )

 
During 2002 year Aeropoxy Resin Kits Co. commemorated the fiftieth anniversary of the Ikarus 451M’s first flight producing resin kit of this aircraft in 1/72 scale.

Click the thumbnails below to view larger images:

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This kit is made from polyurethane resin featuring 21 part, one vacuum-formed canopy with die cut canopy frame, decal sheet, easy to follow assembly instruction, drawings of the aircraft both in 1/72 and 1/48 scale and two painting schemes all that neatly packed in a box.

This kit is simply great for your first full resin project ( as it was mine ) . I’m saying this because the fuselage, wings and engine nacelles are molded together as one part. It took me only two hours for assembling and painting preparation. After fitting tail unit (vertical and horizontal) tail and main wheels most of the kit was done, engines intake and exhaust holes should be drilled from front and rear.

The vacuum formed canopy was most challenging part of assembly it took me some time for trimming and test fitting after I was satisfied how it fits die cut canopy frame adhesive foil was applied (so called “Aeropoxy cool frame“). This fits very well and only minor trimming was needed. This is where my skepticism ended.

After the Future floor polish had cured, the canopy was crystal clear and ready for final fit on the model with white glue. 

Some air bubbles became visible after trimming and sending some flash on fuselage but they were fixed with Gunze Mr.Surfacer 500, after that whole model was over-sprayed with Mr.Surfacer (diluted 50% with Ethanol 96) and wet sanded. I’ve decided to paint model in the later but not so attractive silver scheme with Humbrol Silver and ended with quite good results .

Decals were produced by Oluj D-cals and represent combination of color laser printed roundels and flags with separate white decal for a base. They are very thin and should be applied with special care however results are superb. Finally decals were sealed with thin coat of Testor's Metalizer sealer.

My first resin kit was done !
 
Special thanks goes to my friend Milosh Gazdic for letting me use his profile of Ikarus 451M.


 

Model, Images and Text Copyright © 2003 by Aleksandar Mladenovic
Page Created 22 December, 2003
Last Updated 17 March, 2004

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