Search the Community

This is the 1/72 Moskalyev Cam 23 by Mikr Mir. The WIP thread is here http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/234963754-moskalyev-cam-23-finished/. This is a prototype aircraft that was used to develop a very crude type of terrain following system. Some inventive soul that knew nothing about flying decided on a novel way to create a terrain hugging aircraft. Here is a picture of the box art depicting it in the terrain following mode. So, the idea is have the tail wheel do double duty as a tail wheel and as the means to determine the terrain below the plane. The tail wheel would be extended down the length of the aircraft and through a series of levers would automatically control the elevators up and down as the tail wheel rolled on the ground beneath the aircraft. Three immediate concerns should have hit the designer in the face: 1. Hopefully the terrain the plane is to follow does not have any dips or peaks higher or lower than the length of the plane; 2. The assumption is the plane will only fly where there are no obstacles that stick out of the ground, like fences, trees, bushes, buildings; and 3. Having a pilot fly for any length of time about 20 feet off of the ground without crashing seems a bit demanding of the pilot. Luckily for the Russians, this plane never went into production. Perhaps the designer of the plane was a German trying to help the war effort! The kit is a fairly straight forward, short run kit. There is very little flash and the parts fit together semi-okay. I gave up on using the plastic parts to create the tail wheel assembly as it fits to the nose and just used wire instead. The detail on the little engine cylinders was fantastic. But, there was not any reference to an exhaust system or parts. Again, some wire was used to simulate (poorly) the exhaust pipes for each cylinder. It is a very small plane and the parts are delicate. I really didn’t have any problem with this kit and enjoyed it greatly. If you have an interest in very weird aircraft, I would recommend this kit in a heartbeat. And here it is home with some other Russian buddies. As always, all comments welcome.

While searching through my business storage unit I discovered (re-discovered?) this kit. (Yes I know I have a stash at my home, a stash at my business and the secret one that even SWMBO doesn’t know about at my business storage unit. I have a problem.) It is from Mikr Mir, a Russian company. The model is of a prototype from Moskalyev designated Cam-23. There is an absolute dearth of knowledge about this plane on the internet. From the little information I have found, it seems this was a proposed ground attack/support aircraft with a unique twist. The rear wheel was on a long arm running the length of the fuselage. In flight, it was extended down to the ground and the concept was it would be a crude terrain following device. Somehow a secondary arm attached to the main arm was directly linked to the elevator. When the wheel rolling on the ground compressed as the terrain changed upward, it would cause the elevator to automatically adjust the plane’s height to keep it at a constant ground hugging level. Believe it or not, this really didn’t get past the prototype stage; go figure. The first obstacle to this concept working is once the plane begins to climb, what brings it back down to the correct level when the terrain dips back down? Second, since this is a really small aircraft, the arm couldn’t have been longer than 20 feet. This doesn’t give a lot of reaction time to climb out of harm’s way. If the plane had gone into production, I think it would have helped the German war effort immensely. You have to wonder how this ever got further than a drawing board concept as someone, with a bit of sense, should have said no way this is going to work. Anyway, I found this kit staring at me, it looked really simple, and I thought I could work on it as I wait for various things to dry on my Neptune build. The parts count is not high. And the instructions are not exactly rocket science; that, and they are entirely in Russian. Looks like this will be a build strictly based on pictures and diagrams. I started off by painting parts while still on the sprues. Then it is off to build the tiny little cockpit. It looks like it consists of a floor, rear bulkhead, seat, instrument panel, control stick and rudder pedals. I started off with the seat. My initial thought with this kit was to detail it as much as possible as I have been shamed (maybe a bit too harsh there) by some nameless people (Nigel, Hendie, Vanja, Duncan) into being more aggressive in scratchbuilding than OOB. So I started with the seat and began to drill out the lightening holes. I then painted it a dull metal colour. My reasoning was this being a prototype, not a whole lot of effort would go to make sure the interior was protected from use, abuse and the elements. I also added some homemade seat belts from masking tape. Using the premise pilot safety probably not high on the list for this aircraft (look at the concept!!) and Russian, I just did seat belts and not a harness. Here is where I ran into trouble. I cannot even find a picture on the web for this plane, other than this kit’s box art. So my project of detailing the interior went nowhere as I couldn’t find a single reference picture for it. Back to OOB. I assembled all of the cockpit parts and placed them in the starboard fuselage. I buttoned up the fuselage and not a whole lot is visible of the small amount of work I did do. While I waited for the fuselage halves to dry, I started work on the engine cylinders. I thought I should put a bit of effort into them as they are exposed on the kit. I have never built a Mikr Mir kit before, but I must say on their engine parts, the molds are just superb. I am most impressed by the amount of detail they have been able to put in these small parts. For frame of reference as to the cylinder size, here is a photo of one of the cylinders next to the tip of a scalpel blade. Just really is amazing. The wings were built up next, along with the engine housing that goes on top of the fuselage. I then affixed the wings to the fuselage. There was a bit of sanding, scraping on both the wing mating surfaces and the fuselage mating surface to make these two fit together. Once the wings and fuselage were joined the engine housing was placed on top of the fuselage. This really is a very tiny aircraft. It is almost the same as putting a 1/144 kit together. In the next picture, I have borrowed a propeller blade from my Neptune build (also 1/72) to show exactly how small this plane is. The next step is attaching the pylons from the wing to the tail and making sure they are parallel and level. The elevator is then attached with the tail fin waiting its turn. The tail fin is in two pieces; a ¾ piece that fits on top of the elevator and extends down and a second piece comprising the rest of the lower elevator. These two pieces did not match in size at all. So, going by the diagram in the instructions, the lower piece was trimmed to fit the size of the upper piece. And finally, the landing gear struts were attached to the fuselage. This is a good stopping point for this kit. I will let everything set and harden as the kit is extremely fragile due to its size and the delicate rear pylons. In fact, the plastic pieces are so thin I switched from styrene cement to superglue when I started working on the pylons and rear section. I was afraid the plastic was not thick enough to withstand the dissolving qualities of styrene glue. The next step will be to paint the two tone camouflage scheme. If the cylinders are installed prior to this, it will be a nightmare to mask and all of them would be knocked off during the paint process. This will also give me time to try to devise some sort of exhaust system for this plane. All comments always welcome.