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Vietnam...1/48 Antonov An-2 Gunship NVAF


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The C-47 will be finshed in about a week. Then my dad will start the next shelf eater, this time a bit smaller.

Gonna do a North Vietnamese Gunship with the Hobby Boss kit, decals and rocket pods from the Valom kit.

 

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42 minutes ago, WildWeasel said:

Interesting subject, I believe N. Korea still fly these?

Yes, the North Korean military still uses them. Some other countries have them in military use too. But most are now in civil use, have been produced until 2001...a lot are still alive and flying.

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Hi Reini, I was going to have a go at that subject a while ago but stalled due to conflicting ideas about the markings and scheme. I since found a photo in a book that showed the markings apart from the tail number were painted out, , but it`s black and white photo so don`t know what the colour was. Presumably fresh of the original colour but it contrasts quite a bit .

PM me if you would like a scan of it.

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1 minute ago, russ c said:

Hi Reini, I was going to have a go at that subject a while ago but stalled due to conflicting ideas about the markings and scheme. I since found a photo in a book that showed the markings apart from the tail number were painted out, , but it`s black and white photo so don`t know what the colour was. Presumably fresh of the original colour but it contrasts quite a bit .

PM me if you would like a scan of it.

I recently looked at yours on Hyperscale ;)

Yes, would be nice if you can send me the pic.

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Hello Reini!

 

An interesting subject and a good looking cockpit. It seems like this aircraft had the electric trim system. It was like an old telephone switch board behind the throttle lever: there was three electric cables with a plug at both ends. You then inserted the other end to a hole in the switch board and then decided to which hole the other should go for a certain trim setting.

 

I had a chance to fly one of these (not the gun ship) back in 1987 or 1988. "DOSAAF Leningrad" visited our flying club and the Soviets let us fly with their aircraft. Of course 1000 hp radial engine was something I couldn't resist. My "Flying Instructor" was an elderly professor from the Technical University of Leningrad. He told me that his real salary came from crop dusting during his summer vacation. The money he made teaching was "useless" or "terrible".

 

It was very interesting to see the soviet system. For example two ground crew members turned the huge propeller by hand before engine start. Then the Crew Chief entered cockpit and started the engine. Pilots weren't allowed to do that. It took ages before the huge radial came to life. The blue smoke, the vibrations and terrible noise weren't very assuring.

 

When I opened the throttle it felt like nothing is going to happen; beside the even greater noise. But all the sudden the tail wheel lifted up and we were airborne. It was quite a feeling to fly at tree top level over the Finnish country side with a big olive green/ pale blue aircraft with big red stars on fuselage, tail and wings. Professor showed me some maneuvres he was using in crop dusting. One was a "flat side slip" between two barns. An-2 cruised 80 km/h no matter where the nose was pointing at. It was useless to touch the throttle.

 

Turning into final my "Flying Instructor" used very simple yet effective hand signals: pull! Pull harder! I had the stick allmost fully back half way down the final leg. Then we simply sat and wait. What a soft landing it was.

 

Enjoy the project! I will follow this.

 

Best Regards,

Antti

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I, too, am following this WIP, since I have this kit in the build pile. Looks like you are off to a great start. One issue that I have with this kit is the grossly-overdone ribs on the fabric-covered portions on the wings, and empennage. Do you have any plans to address this?

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2 hours ago, Marv said:

I, too, am following this WIP, since I have this kit in the build pile. Looks like you are off to a great start. One issue that I have with this kit is the grossly-overdone ribs on the fabric-covered portions on the wings, and empennage. Do you have any plans to address this?

 

don´t know yet but most probably not

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8 minutes ago, exdraken said:

Very nice project!

How do these kits compare? Any specific reason why you chose to mix them?

 

Haven´t really compared them, but I guess the Valom kit, regarding shape, dimensions, rivets....gets closer to the original than the Hobby Boss kit. (as usual :-D)

Gave my dad the HB kit because it is easier to build. The Valom kit has short-run charakter, which my dad isn´t a fan of. As mentioned, only use the rocket pods and the decals from Valom for a Vietnam bird, no further mix of the kits.

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Reini,

 

the cockpit looks very good! Nice building and paintwork. The An-2 I flew had a very dusty cockpit and everything was covered with a sticky tar from cigarettes (the Soviets were smoking all the time). And the smell inside the plane...words fail me.

 

Best Regards,

Antti

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working on the wings

saw too late that there are landing/flood lights from Quickboost, kit ones have no interior, but they are best to be installed before gluing the wing halves together, so my dad tries to scratchbuild something

DSC_0001_zpsjnp4trrt.jpg

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