Ilyushin Il-2 Stormovik 1/72 Scale Model

Soviet Il-2 - This is a model of a ground support plane that resisted the German invasion of 1941. The first Stormoviks were one-seaters, with no defensive machine-gun position located behind the pilot. More than 36,000 Il-2's were built during WWII, making it one of the most successful planes of the war, and the most successful of the three new attack bombers the Soviets secretly developed after their invasions of Poland and Finland in 1939. The two other new planes were the Pe-2 and the SU-2. The Stormovik was so heavily armored that it earned the nickname of the "flying tank."

More Photos: Right, Left, Top, Front Angle Right, Front Angle Left, Rear Angle Right, Rear Angle Left, Above Right, Above Left

Black Cross/Red Star: The Air War Over the Eastern Front, Volume 1, Operation Barbarossa, Christer Bergstrom

Black Cross/Red Star; The Air War Over the Eastern Front: Resurgence, January - June 1942, Christer Bergstrom

Il-2 Shturmovik Guards Units of World War 2, Oleg Rastrenin

Il-2 Stormovik in Action, Hans-Heiri Stapfer

Ilyushin Il-2 and IL-10 Shturmovik, Yefim Gordon

Red Star Against the Swastika: The Story of a Soviet Pilot Over the Eastern Front, Vasily Emelianenko

Soviet Combat Aircraft of the Second World War: Twin-Engined Fighters, Attack Aircraft and Bombers, Yefim Gordon

Stopped at Stalingrad; The Luftwaffe and Hitler's Defeat in the East, 1942-1943, Joel Hayward