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Great effort, Ran. I also found the nose area joins to be difficult to take care of. And you did a better job with the tail exhaust seam than I. Cheers Jaime

@Ran thank you for your interest. I hope you can find something useful in my build to help you with yours Cheers Jaime

Thank you very much! The real "Caspian Sea Monster" was much bigger. The "Orlyonok" was a "baby" Ekranoplan. This video gives some interesting info about these machines: Cheers Jaime

Thank you very much, Karl! That's extremely kind! Cheers Jaime

Thank you very much, Giorgio! That's very kind! Cheers Jaime

Thank you very much! It was an attempt at using the black base technique. Thank you very much! Very kind!

Thank you very much! Cheers Jaime

@jhutchi, @junglierating, @Vinnie, @Johnson, @Ron Pearcy, @Wulfman Thank you all for your kind comments! Much appreciated! @AV O thanks for the link. I already knew this build Cheers Jaime

Thank you very much Charlie! Much appreciated! Cheers Jaime

Thank you very much!

Ken, Steve, Thank you very much! Cheers Jaime

Thanks Ozzy! I hope this time I manage to finish it and do it justice. Cheers Jaime

Thank you very much Gents! It certainly is an unusual bird Cheers Jaime

Thank you very much, Ced! Cheers Jaime

The final pictures are now in the RFI section here. Cheers Jaime

Hello, This is my build of the A-90 Ekranoplan in Soviet markings, as stationed in the Caspian Sea in 1990. The kit is Zvezda's and was built out of the box. The only modifications were fuselage windows made of Conctata Clear glue (after drilling the necessary holes on the fuselage) and Uschi elastic wire for the antenna wire on top of the fuselage. Paints used were Alclad for the metallics and Gunze acrylics for the rest. The kit is relatively simple, with just over 40 parts, but some areas are problematic, especially the nose intakes, and make painting of the parts a multistep affair. For achieving a worn look I relied mostly on the black base technique. I also applied a dark grey wash overall and black pigments on specific areas which got dirtier. The WIP can be found here. Here are the final pictures: 1. Overall views IMAG6809 IMAG6810 IMAG6811 IMAG6812 IMAG6813 IMAG6814 IMAG6815 IMAG6816 IMAG6817 IMAG6818 IMAG6819 IMAG6828 2. Detail views IMAG6822 IMAG6820 IMAG6821 IMAG6826 IMAG6825 IMAG6824 IMAG6827 Thanks for looking! Cheers Jaime

Hi Stix! Thank you very much! Cheers Jaime

Hi again, As said earlier in this thread, the model comes with black round decals to simulate the fuselage windows but I decided to create (hopefully) better looking windows using Revell's Contacta Clear Glue for transparent parts. Previously I drilled holes on the fuselage on the locations of the windows, which were blanked on the inside with pieces of plasticard: Now was the time to apply the glue on the window holes. For that, I built a rig with Lego so that the fuselage sides would rest horizontally: IMAG6763 The glue was applied with the tip of a toothpick and left to dry: IMAG6764 The glue tended to sink in the centre of the blob, so I had to apply several layers of glue. Each side took at least two days to cure and become transparent: IMAG6765 The excess glue which was not flush with the fuselage was cut off with a nº 11 blade. To restore transparency in these cases, a fin layer of glue was brushed on and, after curing, all windows received a coat of Alclad Aqua Gloss. It should be noted that the backs of the windows had been left with black primer on before applying the glue: IMAG6767 Next step was applying a bit o black pigments to some areas which got a bit dirtier. I used some pictures for reference: Anyway, I didn't want to overdo it, so I decided to just apply the pigments to the nose intakes, front exhausts and the tail area. Here's the setup: IMAG6768 The nose intakes were stained: IMAG6769 ... as well as the intake ramps: IMAG6773 The front exhausts were also stained, which cut a bit of the metallic shine of the parts but just in a subtle way: IMAG6770 The same was done on the back exhaust but is barely noticeable due to the dark colours: IMAG6774 The effect is more visible on the tail area: IMAG6771 IMAG6772 Next, the intake ramps were installed. I had to cut one of the locating pins in each of the parts, otherwise they wouldn't easily fit: IMAG6775 The cannon turret was also installed, as well as the antenna radome: IMAG6776 Finally, the propellers were glued in place: IMAG6777 The last step was installing antenna wires between the antenna radome and the first blade antenna on the fuselage top: IMAG6778 So, the model was finished. Here are some pictures of the final result, before posting proper pictures in the RFI section: IMAG6779 IMAG6780 IMAG6781 IMAG6782 IMAG6783 IMAG6784 That's it! Thanks for looking! Cheers Jaime

It's a nice kit. I started it in the 75th Anniversary of the Battle of Britain GB but only managed to finish it last year. You can find my WIP here, if you're interested. Good luck with your build! Cheers Jaime

Thanks!

I didn't buy their B-52 because I already have Italeri's in the stash. However, I bought their B-2 and Eduard's PE sets for it. It'll be a while before I manage to start building it.

Thank you very much for the detailed information. That certainly can explain the difficulties to correlate the upper and lower camouflage schemes from the pictures. As I said elsewhere I wasn't very concerned about accuracy due to the limitations of the model and because the main purpose was to test the black base technique. I hope a good modern 1/72 scale model of this aircraft appears in the market in the near future. Wasn't Modelcollect planning to launch one? Cheers Jaime

Thanks Ced! When I unglued the grid I thought it would be impossible to repair it but after shaking the model for a while, to see if the piece could be moved nearer to the opening, the solution occurred to me. Fortunately it was doable. Cheers Jaime.

Thanks! It's about 17 cm long, with a wingspan of about 14 cm. Same wingspan of a Spitfire Mk I in 1/72 but a bit longer. Cheers Jaime

Thank you very much Ced! Very kind as usual Cheers Jaime