The Ilyushin Il-12 was designed in the mid 1940s to replace the Lisunov Li-2 (a Soviet version of the DC-3). They began entering service in the late 1940s and served with several airlines and air forces in Warsaw Pact countries.

Development of the Il-12 began in late 1943 and it made its maiden flight on 15 August 1945.

The early version suffered from many deficiencies so it was significantly revised and the improved version first flew on 9 July 1946 and completed flight testing on 20 May 1947.

The improved Il-12 was quite successful and 663 were manufactured.

They entered service with Aeroflot in June 1947, were used on that airline’s Paris service from 1954 and flew for it until the end of 1970.

They also flew with the airlines of Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, China, Poland, Romania and North Korea and its large volume made it a successful cargo plane with several Warsaw Pact air forces.

This model represents an Il-12 in service with Aeroflot in the late 1940s

Amodels 1/144 kit completed by Leigh Edmonds in February 2012.