After World War II, the Ilyushin OKB began working on a turbine-powered light bomber design using engineering data captured from Germany for the Ar 234 jet-powered light bomber. Ilyushin developed the Il-22 that was powered by four Lyulka TR-1 axial flow turbojet engines (also based on captured German designs). They also developed the Il-24 which was also an Ar 234-based design but powered by four Rolls Royce Derwent engines. As luck would have it, the Soviets were able to acquire the Rolls Royce Nene which had twice the rated thrust of the Derwent and was produced as the RD-45. With twice the power available, Ilyushin was able to make further revisions to his light bomber design moving the pilot up out of the glass-nose cockpit of the Ar 234 into a fighter-styled cockpit under a dorsal canopy. The aircraft was powered by two RD-45s, one slung under each wing. The bombardier/navigator remained in the glass nose though both the pilot and bomb/nav were equipped with ejection seats. The third crewman was a tail gunner who sat in the rear of the aircraft and escaped out of a ventral hatch.

The Il-28 entered production in 1949 and became the Soviet Air Force’s primary tactical bomber for many years. As with any practical aircraft design, the Il-28 saw derivatives developed for specialized missions including the Il-28U for ejection seat training, the Il-28R for reconnaissance, and the Il-28Sh (Shturmovik) for ground attack. One other unique configuration was the Il-28T torpedo bomber. Like the Soviet Air Force, the Soviet Navy also adopted the Il-28 into service and found that it was more suitable to the mission than their existing Tu-14 (NATO Codename: Bosun). When you look at the Tu-14, you’ll note that it looks like a super-sized Tu-2 Bat powered by three jet engines. Though the Tu-14 had found a niche as a torpedo bomber, the Il-28T was given the mission of carrying the new rocket-powered RAT-52 torpedo. While the RAT-52 wasn’t a successful design, the production Il-28T shared the same bomb bay as the standard bomber but could only carry one RAT-52 internally. With only one RAT-52, the Il-28T was only using 1/3 of its payload lift capability and the bomb bay was not long enough for the standard Soviet Navy torpedo. Instead, the Il-28T was given two external racks to carry torpedoes on the fuselage sides under the wings.

Bobcat Hobby Model Kits is a company from China that started out two years ago with their impressive 1/48 Yak-28P Firebar interceptor kit. This kit was followed by the Yak-28PP Brewer E electronic warfare variant, but for whatever reason, they never released the standard Brewer tactical bomber version. Bobcat is back with this new-tool kit of the Il-28 Beagle tactical bomber kit, with this specific release depicting the Il-28T torpedo bomber variant. While HpH was the first to get this subject out in 1/48 scale (and I have this one on my shelf), the Bobcat kit was the first to produce this kit in styrene in this scale. Molded in gray styrene, the kit is presented on six parts trees plus one tree of clear parts.

Detailed bomb sight
Detailed bomb/nav station
Positionable bomb/nav entry door
Detailed cockpit
Detailed ejection seats (no crew restraints provided)
Positionable canopy
Detailed tail gunner’s station
Positionable tail gunner entry door
Full-depth engine exhaust ducts
Twin main spars for nice wing/fuselage alignment
Positionable landing gear (choice of open doors or molded-closed doors)
Positionable rudder
Positionable ailerons
Positionable flaps
Two external fuselage racks (Soviet) or underwing pylons (PLANAF) provided for torpedo carriage
Choice of RAT-52 (short) or 45-36MAN (long) torpedoes

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