Search the Community
Showing results for tags 'grizzly'.
-
Airbus A400M Atlas RAF (03822) 1:72 Carrera Revell The A400M is a large, turboprop powered aircraft designed by Airbus Military to fulfil the future military transport requirements of the air forces of Belgium, France, Germany, Luxemburg, Malaysia, Spain, Turkey and the UK. Following the first flight of the A400M in December 2009, Airbus planning delivery of the first production aircraft in 2013, which they managed to achieve, to the French Air Force in August of that year. Further deliveries have been made to other customers since, and the RAF initially ordering 25, then reducing that to ‘at least’ 22, whatever that means. A further order later in the 2020s is expected, but with the fickleness of governments worldwide, who knows? In terms of capability, the A400M is designed to fill a gap between the tactical capabilities of the venerable C-130 and the strategic lift abilities of the C-17. When parked up next to a Herc, it dwarfs it, and you realise what a large aircraft it is, but equally it is dwarfed to a lesser degree by the Globemaster III. It will eventually replace the Herc when their airframes time-expire with many operators, and it offers a substantial upgrade to capacity over its predecessors. Powered by four huge and highly efficient Europrop International TP400 turbo-prop engines, each developing 11,000 shaft horsepower and delivering it to an 8-bladed prop, the A400M is capable of cruising at 37,000 feet at a speed of up to Mach 0.72, cruising at a shade under 500mph with a range of around 2,100 miles when fully loaded, or 5,400 miles unladen as a ferry flight. The A400M is capable of carrying up to 37 tonnes of cargo or 116 passengers, or up to 66 medical cases on stretchers plus their attendant medical staff. The Atlas has been in service now since the end of 2014, and although there have been some issues with the type, we often see them flying over Britmodeller Head Quarters at fairly low-level, which is quite an impressive sight to see and hear. The RAF airframes have been involved in a number of disaster relief efforts, and have also been deployed on combat missions, most recently evacuating refugees from Kabul during the hand-over of Afghanistan back to the Taliban in 2021. The Kit This monster of a kit was first released toward the end of 2011, and this reboxing represents an in-service machine in RAF and Spanish service, dedicated to taking up much of your display space in your cabinet at its earliest convenience. Once complete, it measures almost 65cm nose to tail, and 69cm from wingtip to wingtip, which gives an indication of its true size. The kit arrives in a large top opening box, and inside are fourteen sprues in grey styrene, and some of these are almost too large for my 60cm3 photo booth. There is also a (comparatively) small clear sprue, a large decal sheet, and the instruction booklet that has colour throughout and profiles at the rear to help with painting and decaling. Detail is good, but due to the size of the thing, it can seem a little spread out to some, but as you will see, there’s a lot to it. Construction begins with a choice whether to have the rear ramp deployed so viewers can see the inside that is provided by the designers. If you wish to open it up, you need to carefully cut the outer door and the cargo floor into two sections before you start on the cockpit, which is the first aspect to need glue. This process starts with adding the two bulkheads to the front of the floor, which include a set of steps that lead to and from the cockpit. The cockpit floor has the side and centre consoles moulded-in, plus the three bases for the crew seats, which are each a single part, joined by another one that is fitted on its own base in a nook at the level of the cargo floor. The instrument panel and its coaming are fixed into a groove across the centre console, and there are a total of six decals for the consoles and panel, all of which are on a clear background so there’s no paint matching needed. The rear of the cockpit floor has two more bulkheads laid on grooves in the floor, which creates the bedroom where two of the crew can sleep during longer journeys. Sadly, very little of this room will be seen unless you have sharp eyes and a torch. The completed interior is then encased in the inner skin, which has the expansive ribbing in the rear, and a set of folded-up seats moulded into each side. The outer fuselage halves have small side windows inserted into the apertures from within, and the nose area is painted, then the nose gear bay is made up from a C-shaped roof, and two side panels to get detail on all surfaces. It is placed into the starboard nose, and at the rear either the aft part of the cargo door, or the full uncut part is inserted for open or closed doors, respectively. With that done, you can close up the fuselage, placing 80g of nose weight in front of the nose gear bay before you commence the gluing. To avoid narrowing the cargo area within the fuselage, the landing gear is housed in large external sponsons that are made from separate parts once the upper sections of the landing gear legs have been emplaced, totalling three per side. Bulkheads are inserted after putting the top section of the sponson into position, with another smaller one near the rear. The lower surface has a large rectangular hole for the gear, and another pair of tiny windows in each one at the rear, then they close in the bay and complete the sponsons, leaving the visible part of the gear until later in the build. For a change, the upper wing is full-span, and has the lower halves glued in place, adding two lights at each tip, then four flap fairings under each wing before it is joined to the fuselage and glued in place at the same time as the canopy, which also includes the are above it to make hiding the seam easier, and is overall a much better method than trying to fix individual panes in place. The tail of the beast is a peculiar shape, the fin appearing to be wider at the top, where you will find the elevators. Each of these three sub-assemblies are two parts each, and are joined to the fuselage on a long peg, taking care to get everything aligned tidily in order to keep your pedantic friends from having a dig. There are four engines to build up next, and each one has an identical internal representation of the turbo-prop motor, which includes front and rear surfaces of the engine with a long trunk, and a tapering intake added to the top. These are then installed in four unique pairs of external cowlings, that are given different numbers to assist you in putting them in the right slots on the wing. The front of each engine has an identical insert that contains the intake under the prop, and a bobbin onto which the prop will be added later, taking care not to inadvertently glue it in place. Three forward-raked gear legs are made from two halves for each side, with a two-part axle inserted perpendicularly at the lower end to receive a two-part tyre on each side, with a scrap diagram showing how they attach to the U-shaped uppers that were glued into the sponsons earlier. The nose gear strut is squat and also has two wheels, plus a separate scissor-link and retraction strut, a transparent diagram showing where they mount within the bay. Many wheels require many doors, beginning with the long set that close over the main gear bays. For in-flight, they are moulded into a single part per side with an engraved line down the centre, which you should use to cut them in half for the gear-down option. The same method is used for the nose gear bay, cutting them in half for the wheels-down option. There are a lot of blade and rail antennae dotted around the underside, and more around the hump over the wings, with a clear flasher and an exhaust for the APU included. The crew door on the side can be posed open by adding stairs and a handrail to the door and gluing it by the long hinges, or you can cut those off and close the door. For the cargo bay door, the closed version is already finished, but if you cut the floor and outer skin into two parts, you now join those together to complete the ramp, which is fixed into slots in the sides of the aperture, and is held in place by a pair of struts, plus another that drops down onto the ground to help keep her straight and level during loading. A few more small parts are added just in front of the gear sponsons, and two strakes are placed under the tip of the tail, plus a two-part refuelling probe over the cockpit. The last task is to make up the 8-bladed props, and again you need four, which is no surprise, but you also have a choice of feathered blades with their leading edge following the line of flight to minimise aerodynamic resistance. Both types of blade units are moulded as one part, and have small overflow nubbins and a tiny bit of flash to tidy up, then they are each trapped between the front and rear of the rounded spinner. The blades are handed, so take care to use the instructions to help you put them where they should be, and if you have been careful with the glue, they should be able to spin once glued to the bobbins in the front of the nacelles. Markings There are two decal options included on the sheet, plus a template for the walkway that runs along the majority of the top of the fuselage, making sure that the crew exiting one of the two top doors don’t wander over delicate parts of the airframe. You can either cut it from the sheet and use it carefully as is, or you can make another replica from tape. Whichever you feel will work best. From the box you can build one of the following: ZM406 ‘100 Year No.70 Squadron’, RAF Brize Norton, 2016 TK.23-02, Ala 31, Spanish Air Force, base Aérea de Zaragoza, 2022 Additional diagrams are provided for each of the engine nacelles from the sides and underneath, plus the props, each blade of which has the yellow tips and stencils front and back on each blade, although you will have to paint the grey de-icing boots in the leading edges yourself. I’d suggest grey decal strip from Fantasy Printshop if you don’t already have a candidate of your own. There are a lot of decals, as is common with many modern aircraft, so it won’t be a 5-minute job, so take your time and work methodically to get them all in the correct place. Decals are by Zanchetti, which is a guarantee of good registration, sharpness and colour density, with a thin matt carrier film cut close to the printed areas. Conclusion A welcome re-release of this huge aircraft now that suitable time has elapsed and the type has been out in the wild and had time to get used. It’s a nice kit, and if you’re interested, the only real question will be ‘do I have the space?’, but when has that ever stopped us? Highly recommended. Carrera Revell model kits are available from all good toy and model retailers. For further information visit or
-
Hiya, folks. I finished my Willys, so it's time for something new. This time I decided to build something more modern. I found this Grizzly in my stash. I bought it once in Berlin for a bargain price due to the box damage. It's an easy to build (i hope) model with no interior. It has lotsa mistakes - too bad. I'll try co correct some of them. Here's what's inside the box: But first, the box itself... Rubber tires. Some PE parts. Clear parts. And the sprues. The Hull. I also started on lower hull and suspension. So far everything fits fine, no problems. Some more details added. Some close-ups. As lower hull is nearly done, I'm gonna go for upper one. First I'll fill these 3 holes in the center of the image. They are incorect, the hull should be flat. That is it for now. Cheers. DAwid
-
Having made a bit of a mess of my Sea King, and seeking some light relief, I've started assembling one of the Airfix Jackals. I have one each Jackal and Coyote to build, plus crew and Landies. More or less OOB. Mini-stash: Untitled by jongwinnett, on Flickr As I mentioned on the Sea King thread, I was inspired when a Jackal rolled past me in the village late one evening, crew muffled against the Scottish summer, and I thought what a cool looking bit of kit. And I love Land Rovers. Obligatory parts shot: Untitled by jongwinnett, on Flickr
-
Yamaha 450 Grizzly Quad + Trailer as used by The British Army, pics thanks to Ruari.