Mil Mi-V-12 - the BIG one!!

[DRUMS01]

Right on digger, that was my thought exactly....

[RangerNeil]

Cheers guys. Sent the wife out today and she came back with this.


So - next decision is how to paint it. First thought was concrete colour with the yellow H in a circle, scribe some joint lines into the surface with a bit of grass/weeds here and there (This IS the Soviet airforce after all) and stage it so its being loaded. But then part of me says cover it in grass for a deployment scenario. What to do???

And the kit is STILL fighting me - I took the masking tape off the wheels today - and a nose wheel sheared off!! So put came the CA and hopefully it will stay back on. I had my doubts when I saw how thin the axles were. In hindsight, which as we all know is 20/20 - what I should have done was cut them off, drilled the nose gear and ised brass rod. I would say "next time" - but some one would have to put a lot of £££'s on the table to get me to go through this again.

[digger303]

Cheers guys. Sent the wife out today and she came back with this.


So - next decision is how to paint it. First thought was concrete colour with the yellow H in a circle, scribe some joint lines into the surface with a bit of grass/weeds here and there (This IS the Soviet airforce after all) and stage it so its being loaded. But then part of me says cover it in grass for a deployment scenario. What to do???

And the kit is STILL fighting me - I took the masking tape off the wheels today - and a nose wheel sheared off!! So put came the CA and hopefully it will stay back on. I had my doubts when I saw how thin the axles were. In hindsight, which as we all know is 20/20 - what I should have done was cut them off, drilled the nose gear and ised brass rod. I would say "next time" - but some one would have to put a lot of £££'s on the table to get me to go through this again.

It's hell when a kit has so much fight in it, but we did enjoy seeing you succeed. It looks great.

[RangerNeil]

Latest part of the project arrived today:


And for those baffled by the post in the "What the postie brought" thread they translate into this:


Soviet era PAG-14 runway plating mats. I bought the only two Hannants had, one to slice up.and fill in the gas around tbe first.
Next question now has to be - whats going to be best to stick it onto the baseboard with - PVA or ???

[BigWall]

Latest part of the project arrived today:


And for those baffled by the post in the "What the postie brought" thread they translate into this:


Soviet era PAG-14 runway plating mats. I bought the only two Hannants had, one to slice up.and fill in the gas around tbe first.
Next question now has to be - whats going to be best to stick it onto the baseboard with - PVA or ???

What are they made of?

[digger303]

Spray on contact cement as it gives a even thin layer and you shouldn't get bulges of excess glue. Then get a glass jar and roll it after application of the mats.

[DRUMS01]

Should be time to take the masking off the glass, lets see into this beast.....

[RangerNeil]

Mats are trimmed ready to be stuck onto the board - spray adhesive arrived today. Hopefully tomorrow will be a dry day as the can says use in a very well ventilated area. Which in this house means the garden!!


And I've made a start in removing the masks from the glazing. True to form for this kit they do not want to come off - its taking an age to get the little bits of each one off - and the fuselage windows are going to need polishing as they are leaving adhesive residue on the glazing. So far - touch wood - the cockpit hasn't suffered the same fate!


*** UPDATE ***
All the masking is now off - fought me to the bitter end, not a single piece came off intact. An in the process I noticed a slight bleed of the blue onto the red. Got to sort that out now....
Just got the Radome under the nose to do plus the matt black under the engine pods and all the paint will be completed.

[digger303]

Aught to call this one " ROCKY " never goes down for the count.
I like the base tarmac

[RangerNeil]

Remembered today that I had these ready for the final build phase. 8nterestingly the box labels them.as Spetznaz but the image (and painting guide) show VDV Desantniks with bright blue berets - Spetznaz would be a deep red, somewhere between the UK Paras and RMP's. However none of this is actually relevant because in the scenario being depicted the troops would be a part of the Strategic Rocket Forces and thus the beret,where worn, will be Black. Panama hats will be standard Soviet brown - probably well faded


Theres a few more than I need so what I don't use can be set aside for a future project.


The figures are very nicely moulded with almost no flash and only a few seam lines. The ones I'm going to use are positioned roughly on the base board:








They have now been scrubbed in warm soapy water, rinsed, dried and primed with Ultimate Grey ready for painting.

[RangerNeil]

Chosen figures now going through paint.
First - Ultimate Grey primer:


Next, flesh areas picked out and the base green coat on:


Lastljy for today - bases coated (need blending to suit the mats, berets/panamas & boots done, weapons done & the yellow section of the VSR cammo pattern is on.

[digger303]

[RangerNeil]

Spent the build time today painting the figures and trying to blend the bases into the PAG-14 mat. I think they are close enough - whats the collective opinion??

[RangerNeil]

So - good and bad news tonight!!
First the bad: I've misplaced a pair of sprue that have the rest of the fuselage door handles on them. I haven't thrown any sprues away so they must be here - somewhere.....

Good news is not only did I remember that I had a 1/72 ICM kit of a Soviet airfield with Mig 29, fuel bowser and command truck - I also found it in the stash!! So these will complete the diorama.

[digger303]

So - good and bad news tonight!!
First the bad: I've misplaced a pair of sprue that have the rest of the fuselage door handles on them. I haven't thrown any sprues away so they must be here - somewhere.....

Good news is not only did I remember that I had a 1/72 ICM kit of a Soviet airfield with Mig 29, fuel bowser and command truck - I also found it in the stash!! So these will complete the diorama.

Swings and roundabouts

[RangerNeil]

Having spent over half a day checking the sprues against the sprue diagram for both this and the Mi-6 I finally found the missing 2 sprues. Only to find the handles weren't on them. A - much - closer look at the model revealed the proof I'm losing the plot as the handles had already been fitted! Doh......
So they got a quick lick of chrome silver and set aside to dry.
Tomorrow - hopefully - will see the ramp and clamshell doors go on and that will be the Mi-V-12 effectively finished. He says with everything crossed!!!

The figures are finished, debating now whether to actually stick them to base or leave them free-standing. There are pro's and con's to either so it needs some thinking on.






Having found the ICM airfield kit:


I've made a start on the support vehicles but more to the point I found the kit included moulded PAG-14 plates. 30 of them. So I laid some out on the base to see how they look.





Now I'm wondering if ICM will sell the packs seperately - I only need another 120 (4 packs).....

[digger303]

Now it's coming to life

[DRUMS01]

Looking very close to the finish line. Just wondering, how large is the display base for this?

Ben

[RangerNeil]

Looking very close to the finish line. Just wondering, how large is the display base for this?

Ben

Base is 600mm x 600m. Just about takes the fuselage of the Mil - if I wanted the rotors inside the base it would have been 1500mm x 1500mm which would have been a tad too big!!

Got left dog-sitting today so couldn't work on the Mil - so did a bit on the support vehicles. A pair of Zil-131's, one is a command vehicle - this is finished:


The other is a auxilliary power unit - АПА-50 - which is still.a work in progress:

[digger303]

[RangerNeil]

Rear ramp went on permanently today. Had to use an "object of weight" to hold the ramp fingers down whilst the CA set.
In the interim I did a quick measure up and fabricated the finger ramps between the ramp end and the ground. A quick nose on-line found about the only photo of the back doors open AND the finger ramps in place. Ramps look to be solid rather than a framework - probably not a surprise given the weight they had to carry.

(Image copyright www.aviastar.org)

The fabricated ones need finishing and a coat of Flat Aluminium.


Which brings up the next issue - the side doors. I had a look today and both them and the fuselage have a slight radius meaning there is only a single, very small of point of contact, not enough to support the weight. So - how to fix the doors on? I was thinking of a pair of plastic card hinges, issue there is the doors are barely 1mm thick vs. the 3mm of the fuselage its going to need a bit of thinking. This will be the last major job to be done. Once these doors are on its just the little job of replacing the rungs on the cowlings.and then, dare I say it, the build will.be finished

[digger303]

A curly problem to solve, but I'm sure you can handle it.
Big doors like those need a mechanical opener, but I can't see it on your pics. I assume it would be on the top of the doors. Does your kit provide anything ?

[smokeriderdon]

Please dont throw anything at me for this. I was a loadmaster on C-141s. I noticed right away the scud launchers likely would not be able to go up just the ramp and fit. The angle would be too severe and it would impact the top of the cargo compartment before the CG of the vehicle hit the tipping point. On long load like that we used shoring to extend the ramp and lessen the angle so that the vehicle could fit in.

I imagine they would have done the same. Something along these lines.

[RangerNeil]

A curly problem to solve, but I'm sure you can handle it.
Big doors like those need a mechanical opener, but I can't see it on your pics. I assume it would be on the top of the doors. Does your kit provide anything ?

If you look VERY closely at the photo of the real thing you can - just - see the mechanical openers. And, like the rest of the interior part the instructions don't refer to them so locating them is very much suck it and see.....

Please dont throw anything at me for this. I was a loadmaster on C-141s. I noticed right away the scud launchers likely would not be able to go up just the ramp and fit. The angle would be too severe and it would impact the top of the cargo compartment before the CG of the vehicle hit the tipping point. On long load like that we used shoring to extend the ramp and lessen the angle so that the vehicle could fit in.

I imagine they would have done the same. Something along these lines.

Me? Throw things?? Never.... Much prefer a longbow......
The only known ramp extenders are the ones shown in the photo of the original. Its a good point though - I found that if I put the Scud launcher in then slowly drew it out after about a third was out the rear was hitting the fuselage roof. However these things never saw service, only two prototypes were built before the project was canned thus they never got around to actually trying to load missiles etc into them. Had they done so I guess they would have used a similar solution. Probably somewhat more robust as it would have to carry getting on for 40 tons. Whilst being light enough to be moved. A "Topol" unit:


would fill the fuselage so they would have needed ramps at both the loading base and silo to get the units on and off. Again this supposes the missiles were transported on something like a TEL and not a low slung trailer - which, knowing the Soviets, was eminently possible.... Then a powered tug like that used to move aircraft would be needed which - theoretically - could be carried aboard
As there is absolutely nothing to copy it would need the math doing to come up with a "what if" for both structure and length.
Ah rats - just as I thought the damned end was in sight... Wheres that damned longbow.......

[RangerNeil]

Well - the doors are on!! How long for - ah, now thats a different question!!

[RangerNeil]

I couldn't find the stringer for the longbow so - one pair of perforated ramp extensions.


I put some hours in today and got the clamshell doors on too plus replacing the rungs on the engine cowls so I am now calling this build officially finished. Photos will be in the reveal thread
There are some - issues - that I will correct in time:
* 1 rotor head isn't sitting square but tilts in towards the body.
I'm not happy with the base - the printed mat had to be trimmed to fit. So I've ordered some of ICMs moulded PAG-14 plates and I may flip the base and use them...

[digger303]

Well done.