Kamov Ka-18

[RangerNeil]

So - I am stuck indoors bored stiff and still waiting for the masks for the Mil-1 so I thought I'd have a crack at another of the smaller ones in the stash.
This is the Eastern Express 1/72 scale Kamov Ka-18. Never touched one of their products before so had no idea what to expect.


First the brief type history. The Ka-18 was the successor to the Ka-15 and first flew in 195. It was assigned the NATO code name "HOG". Never let it be said NATO planners did not have a sense of humour!! The Ka-18 had a longer fuselage and an uprated engine, a 255 hp Ivchenko AI-14V radial. Cockpit capacity was 4 pax including the pilot. A total of 120 units were built and they served with Soviet Naval aviation units and Aeroflot.
Technically speaking it had a rotor dia of 9.96 metres and was 7.03m long by 3.34m high - just right for the deck hangers of the Soviet naval vessels entering service. Weight empty was 1060 Kg and the max laden weight inc crew and fuel was 1480 Kg. Top speed was 150 Kph, cruising was 120 Kph and range was 165 Km.

Onto the kit....... Oh my gawd.... Opening the box revealed another photo-copy type instruction sheet, two parts sprues, one glaxing sprue in a seperate bag and the decals for an Aeroflot machine Both parts sprues are liberally adorned with flash - so far very reminiscent of the AModel Mil Mi-1. Eastern Express add a refinement in torture though - there is no sprue map and no part numbers on the sprues.....

This is the instruction sheet:




And these are the sprues:
Glazing:


Sprue 1 -Fuselage & interior:


Sprue 2 - Rotors and undercarriage:


Decals:


Anyone now thinking I ought to be sent to the funny farm after seeing these images say "Aye"!! I was bored, not masochistic but, having open the box and bags I now feel honour-bound to complete the kit If I can.....
I thought the Mil was bad enough - it seems Russian kit makers have vastly different ideas to the West - or Russian builders have a degree of telepathy we do not!!

[smokeriderdon]

Wow. You just WANT to have a crappy kit challenge.

[digger303]

The box art looks attractive, a nice looking machine. The kit is going to need some care and attention and as the lads said you like a challenge. Makes this intriguing...

[KalebB]

Well that looks like a whole lotta fun and challenging

Very cool looking kit

[Stokesy44]

Rather you than me mate!

Have fun, that is one dog ugly looking whirly bird you've got there

[RangerNeil]

Done some digging on this one - seems to be a rebadged AModel kit!! Box art is identical, just the makers logo changed.

Anyways - made a start last night and found to my joy this one has some locators unlike the Mi-1. There is a ridge for the vertical bulkhead and a couple of pins/holes for the fuselage halves.
So I pushed the vertical bulkhead loosely into place, taped the fuselage halves together and slipped the cockpit floor into place. Once satisfied it was all lined up I ran adhesive along the join and set to one side overnight to dry. Next job will be to prime/paint the inner fuselage sides and interior parts. Some parts are fairly easily identified - but there are a lot that are going to take inspired guesses!!

[Tomcat64]

I'm not sure mate but you might have crossed that fuzzy line between tackling dodgy kits and self-harming!!

Another really interesting bird though - looking forward to seeing you beat another one into the right shape despite the worst intentions of the manufacturers!

[RangerNeil]

I'm not sure mate but you might have crossed that fuzzy line between tackling dodgy kits and self-harming!!

Another really interesting bird though - looking forward to seeing you beat another one into the right shape despite the worst intentions of the manufacturers!

Thanks I am beginning to think this myself - compounded by the 3 rather larger Amodel kits in the stash awaiting build (Mi-6, Mi-10 and Mi-12)...

State of play thus far.....

[Tomcat64]

[Kevthemodeller]

that kit is most certainly going to be a challenge I'll be following along

Good luck with the build mate.

[RangerNeil]

The actual build of the fuselage section is not too bad - the issue is just in ID'ing the parts on the sprue. I spent a little while tonight putting the basics of the cockpit together. Neat trick I found out is - if your eye sight is as bad as mine and no magnifier is available - take your smart phone and use the cameras zoom function to close in on the minute parts on the sprues to find what you are looking for.

This is tonights handiwork - still got a lot to do with this section but its progress:


Floor, bulkead and shaft cover for the rotors. To note - the filler in the side of the shaft cover where it has sunk in as part of the moulding process


Still got the control pedals and column and the collective to be added and any detailing done. Seat paint is gleaming because its wet from the touch up after installing

My thinking - at the moment - is the best path is going to be to asemble the fuselage as completely as possible so that any parts left on the sprues are for the rotor heads. Because without knowing what part is what from a sprue diagram or having part numbers on the sprues themselves this is going to be an absolute NIGHTMARE!!! The blades and the hubs are pretty obvious - nothing else is.....

[KalebB]

Seems like an exercise in frustration on this build

But will definitely look cool once done . Smart idea to use a phones magnification function though!

[RangerNeil]

Still no sign of the paint masks for the Mi-1 so I cracked on a bit more with the Kamov. Tried my hand at adding seat belts to the seats before installing the cockpit assembly into the fuselage. Learnt a few lessons as it was the first time I ever did it - not the least being the need for a very sharp knife to thin the Tamiya tape down. I cut it to what I throught was the right width, painted the whole strip then cut it into lengths for the shoulder and lap straps. First one I went to put on revealed my estimate of the right width was out - by about 75%... So the cut lengths had to be further reduced in width. Doesn't look tooo bad (for a first attempt) I guess.
In the photos below the fuslage halves are clamped together to endure the cockpit assembly is seated into place correctly, the fuselage halves still need to be joined properly.







I also had a go at painting the glazing by creating masks from masking tape as I couldn't find a set of of Ka-18 masks in stock anywhere. The parts are painted internally and externally - the Soviet light grey of the interior and a Satin Red exterior (early Aeroflot colours).



Lastly I started trying to make sense of the rotor head assembly. Part numbers on diagrams are all very useful - until the manufacturer decided not to put part numbers on the Sprues and omitted to provide a sprue map....



We make progress albeit VERY slowly!!

[KalebB]

It's almost as if they never intended anyone to actually try to build that dang thing haha.

Looks like you're getting along with er tho!

[Hawkmoon]

Looking good and it looks like your being tested here but it goes to show how easy it is to build a kit with little or no issues that some peeps gripe about on some kits

[Kevthemodeller]

First time I've seen an engineers clamp used in modelling Neil

[DBMiller]

That is one serious clamp on the nose! I agree with KalebB - did anyone at the factory ever built one before shipping them?

[RangerNeil]

It's almost as if they never intended anyone to actually try to build that dang thing haha.

Looks like you're getting along with er tho!

I begin to wonder that myself..... The kit is definitely an old AModel one rebadged as Eastern Express. Looking at the rotor head last night there are 4 parts the centre shaft has to pass through - and none of of them have a hole right the way through, let alone being the right diameter......

First time I've seen an engineers clamp used in modelling Neil

I have a VERY restricted tool kit for the foreseaable future - and it didn't include anything to clamp parts bigger than clothes pegs. I think maybe the next investment might be in a set of suitable clamps of some kind! Those familiar with the Mil Mi-1 build in this thread will remember the massive gap in the cockpit roof where the two fuselage halves did not meet - I needed a way of holding them together whilst the adheseive set and was pulling whats left of my hair out trying to thinnk of a way of holding them that would not slip etc. - and I then I remembered my old toolmakers clamps from the days in my youth when I actually was a toolmaker!! Perfect - if overkill - solution as the jaws, within reason, will adjust to the angles of the fuselage and they can apply just the right pressure to hold joints closed without risk of slippage or deformation.

That is one serious clamp on the nose! I agree with KalebB - did anyone at the factory ever built one before shipping them?

Tell you what sir - I'll trade you the complete Autogyro for my rotor head!! There are a load of thin "rods" to make the head up and, like the autogyro, the instruction sheet references part numbers - but there are no numbers on the sprues nor is there a sprue diagram... And some of these rods (at least - the ones I have found so far) are less than 5mm in length and less than 1mm in dia.....

Seriously folks - I think it will look nice when finished - and will look good beside the Mil Mi-1 on display as they are contemporaries. 1 military and 1 Aeroflot. Its just getting to that bit about being finished!!

[DBMiller]

I have a VERY restricted tool kit for the foreseaable future - and it didn't include anything to clamp parts bigger than clothes pegs. I think maybe the next investment might be in a set of suitable clamps of some kind! Those familiar with the Mil Mi-1 build in this thread will remember the massive gap in the cockpit roof where the two fuselage halves did not meet - I needed a way of holding them together whilst the adheseive set and was pulling whats left of my hair out trying to thinnk of a way of holding them that would not slip etc. - and I then I remembered my old toolmakers clamps from the days in my youth when I actually was a toolmaker!! Perfect - if overkill - solution as the jaws, within reason, will adjust to the angles of the fuselage and they can apply just the right pressure to hold joints closed without risk of slippage or deformation.

That is one serious clamp on the nose! I agree with KalebB - did anyone at the factory ever built one before shipping them?

Tell you what sir - I'll trade you the complete Autogyro for my rotor head!! There are a load of thin "rods" to make the head up and, like the autogyro, the instruction sheet references part numbers - but there are no numbers on the sprues nor is there a sprue diagram... And some of these rods (at least - the ones I have found so far) are less than 5mm in length and less than 1mm in dia.....

Seriously folks - I think it will look nice when finished - and will look good beside the Mil Mi-1 on display as they are contemporaries. 1 military and 1 Aeroflot. Its just getting to that bit about being finished!!

No, no, I'm good. I'll suffer through my own (much smaller number of) un-numbered parts and bad fits.

[RangerNeil]

Had another go at the rotor head tonight - and unless I am much mistaken there are 3 parts actually completely missing from the sprues...... Based on this diagram:



I have:
3 pieces @ 10mm long which I think are part number 37 - 6 are required
3 pieces @ 7mm long which I think are part number 36 - 3 are required
3 pieces @ 5mm long which I think are part number 38 - 3 are required
3 pieces @ 2mm long which I think are part number 35 - 3 are required

So 3 pieces of part 37 are missing by the look of it!! Grrr......
(the parts in the top Left and top Right corners are the main undercarriage...)

[smokeriderdon]

I am only seeing 3 of the part 37 in the instructions. I think...

[digger303]

[RangerNeil]

Part 37 is the cross-strut between the rotor arms on each rotor head. It's only referenced on the one, upper, head in the diagram but you can see it in place on the second, lower head. Why they never moulded them as a part of the head is beyond me - who can fathom the Cyrillic mind???

[RangerNeil]

The mystery of the missing parts may well be resolved. If you look closely at the real thing here:



It seems the lower of the two heads does not have these links between the rotor blades. So the sprue is corerct and the build diagram is in error. Which is a great relief...
So tonight I've made a start on assembling the rotor heads - a task I've been putting off because, quite frankly, it scares the crap out of me.
I decided the best bet was to start from the top and build down - which is when I found out that the holes in all the lower parts need further opening out to let the main shaft go through. I put a 0.5mm drill through and its still too small so I think I need to go get a 0.8 mm or thereabouts. A 1.0 mm which is the next size up that I have will for sure be too big.
(In a classic case of s*ds law I got the digital calipers out to measure the actual dia of the main shaft only to find the battery had died - and its an oddball size that is not in any of the packs we have of cell batteries! )

[KalebB]

Will that be the color scheme you'll be going for? That blue stripe does look quite intriguing

[RangerNeil]

No - at least not on this one. Top of mine is Satin Red, lower is Satin Grey - very early Aeroflot colours. The blue and white are later ones. All the striping on mine is decals

[RangerNeil]

Tonights progress - fuselage nearly complete.....

[KalebB]

It's such a cute, little copter

[Stokesy44]

It's such a cute, little copter

'Cute' must mean something different in your part of the world Sir

[jmurphy18]

Looking good here Neil!

[RangerNeil]

Colds and a foot infection allowing a little more has been done on the Kamov. Still no sign of the paint masks for the Mil so I've cracked on with this one. So far we have the nose wheels and side steps in place and the upper and lower body colours applied. I'm not overly worried about the slight uneveness in the join line as there is a set of decals to cover this - a long one either side that runs from the front of the door back to the tail and a short one that wras either side of the nose. This one is in early Aeroflot markings, not military, for a change.



And I've been working through the nightmare that is the contra-rotating rotor head. I have the primary parts now assembled, just waiting 24 hours for the adhesive holding the lower cap on to set and then I can look at the rest of the control rods and the blades. Had to wait for a hand-drill and some micro-bits to arrive as all the lower head parts needed to be drilled out to fit on the shaft. And, of course, every single part needed to have flash removed Some of the smallest parts on the kit and - naturally - the worst affected by the excessive flash...



Once the head is done there is not a lot left to do on this little one. A feww small parts to go on, the glazing to fit and the decals to apply - then a display base of some sort. For all its been a right animal to get together its actually gone quicker than the Mil thus far.

[RangerNeil]

Went to finish the rotor head tonight - and found the long rods thatconnect upper and lower heads are about 3mm too short! So I am going to have to try mastering the sprue stretching came to get the right length. Other than that the fuselage is almost ready for decals - but there are some part on the diagram that look NOTHING like what is left on the sprue so I'm figging through the web trying to get some photos of the affected areas....

[KalebB]

This build has seemed to be a gigantic pain in your rear bud

Looking good though, can't wait to see it finished, such a weird looking helicopter

[RangerNeil]

A bit more progress on the Kamov tonight. The nightmare rotor head is complete, just needs the rotors attached and the first of the decals are applied!! Always a landmark step even if only the ones on the rotor blades. Once they have dried overnight the next step is to attach the rotor blades to the head.
The other decal applied is the instrument panel. Again that is being left to dry overnight and then the canopy and doors can be attached. I hope to god they fit better than the ones on the Mil Mi-1....

[RangerNeil]

Unlike on the Mil Mi-1 tonights work on the Kamov was all progress!! Yay!!!

The first of the decals are on - the Aeroflot stripes that wrap around the nose. With these in place it sets the position for the long side ones. The main canopy is one and this fitted a LOT better then on the Mil. I had to resort to using a clamp to hold the back edge down whilst the adhesive sets. I used polystyrene cement to fit this one as I found the PVA on the Mil had a distressing tendency to let got when dried.



The tyres need to be tidied up. The cabin doors on this one actually have the frames moulded into the fuelsage halves so overall they are a better fit - they still require sanding on the edges to actually fit into the aperturres though. One side fits better that the other so I might do that one closed and the other open. Both need to be fitted in the closed position first though to fit the long side decals.
Lastly the rotor head is finished - this was a nightmare to do!! But once done and with the decals on it doesn't look too bad. Just needs a dab of bright red onto the anti-collision light on the very top of the rotor head. (Who can spot the mistake here???)

[KalebB]

Looks like it's getting along well bud!

Very cool little machine

[RangerNeil]

Looks like it's getting along well bud!

Very cool little machine

Many thanks for the kind words...
Compared to some of the other builds in progress or completed I'm painfully aware of how much there is to learn again. But its been fun for me despite the kits fighting every step of the way!

Strange to think these two machines were contemporaries - they could not look more different!!

[Kevthemodeller]

Coming together really nicely Neil

You can see the complexity of the double rota Not convinced it's better than a single, perhaps more/same lift for smaller radius not really sure

[RangerNeil]

Coming together really nicely Neil

You can see the complexity of the double rota Not convinced it's better than a single, perhaps more/same lift for smaller radius not really sure

The real advantage is no tail rotor which confers two benefits:
1) Biggest cause of rotary wing crashes is loss of power to the tail rotor. As soon as that stops the aircraft starts..
2) Much smaller overall size. No so important on land but critical aboard ship.
Yes, two rotors means a smaller rotor dia but more importantly in the event of power failure contra-rotating rotors are inherently safer when volplaning.
If you think the Kamov set up is complex you should see the one on the Mi-12....

[digger303]

Coming together really nicely Neil

You can see the complexity of the double rota Not convinced it's better than a single, perhaps more/same lift for smaller radius not really sure

The real advantage is no tail rotor which confers two benefits:
1) Biggest cause of rotary wing crashes is loss of power to the tail rotor. As soon as that stops the aircraft starts..
2) Much smaller overall size. No so important on land but critical aboard ship.
Yes, two rotors means a smaller rotor dia but more importantly in the event of power failure contra-rotating rotors are inherently safer when volplaning.
If you think the Kamov set up is complex you should see the one on the Mi-12....

love hearing the knowledge learnt from actually knowing.

[KalebB]

Planes and helicopters amaze me.

We weren't made to fly and yet we as stubborn humans decided "ah screw it, were gonna go up in the sky anyway"

[Kevthemodeller]

The real advantage is no tail rotor which confers two benefits:
1) Biggest cause of rotary wing crashes is loss of power to the tail rotor. As soon as that stops the aircraft starts..
2) Much smaller overall size. No so important on land but critical aboard ship.
Yes, two rotors means a smaller rotor dia but more importantly in the event of power failure contra-rotating rotors are inherently safer when volplaning.

I see very interesting, but still puzzled as all Western helo manufactures appeared to have abandoned twin stack rota design in favour of single main and tail rota format.

If you think the Kamov set up is complex you should see the one on the Mi-12....

Could the complexity be the reason

[RangerNeil]

Could the complexity be the reason

Could well be... I am guessing the single main plus tail is cheaper to tool up and assemble.
The Kamov system is a nightmare to look at - I've no idea what its like to actually assemble but the maintenance must be pretty straightforwards given most of the Soviet enlisted forces were conscripts.
The Mil Mi-12 system - oh boy..... twin huge rotors on the ends of stub wings powered by two of the same engines used by the Mi-26 on each "wing". Cross-coupled together by drive shafts and return shaftsso that all 4 engines drive both rotors such that if both engines fail on one side it can still fly. There are reasons the Mi-12 remains the largest helicopter ever built..... And that's one of them!

[RangerNeil]

First of (many) Kamov decals went on tonight. Still got the inside flashing on the fin nearest the camera to do and about a dozen stencilled labels. Compared to the Mil bureau I get the feeling the Kamov one had a love afair with stecilled labels...




(thats not a crease in the decal just aft of the cabin window - its actually a bump in the fuselage skin!)

[KalebB]

That color scheme is rather pleasing to look at with the decals getting sorted now. I like it Neil!

[RangerNeil]

Well, the nightmare is almost over
Last of the decals went on today plus a couple of flimsy bits that I thought ber best left until that job was done. So - when you look at the photos below bear in mind the door handles,pitot head and dump tube still need painting and the pilots windscreen wiper is yet to be fitted (I forgot to paint it! And the doors need to be placed in the open position because the fit is so CRAP!! Short of making whole new doors there is nothing else I can do - the whole profile is wrong.
Once those are done the rotor head can be fitted and then the job is done. Going to try a Zvezda kit next as I think another AModel one would have me in a strait jacket!!

[KalebB]

With as many issues as you've had with this one, she's looking really good Neil!!

I still really enjoy the color of it

[Kevthemodeller]

Looking really good Neil, another absolute labour of love, hats off to you.

[Meliodas2019]

Amazing Neil stunning job

[RangerNeil]

Thanks every one. Just a couple more steps and it will be done and dusted.