Moskalyev Cam 23, Finished!

[georgeusa]

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.

[Learstang]

Always great to see Soviet aircraft being built, and this is a very unusual one! Nice work! By the way, George, the "C" in Cyrillic is actually an "S" in the Latin alphabet, so the name of this aircraft should be "SAM-23". Cyrillic can be a bit sneaky in this respect with such false cognates as "H", "P", and "3", for example, representing respectively the "N", "R", and "Z" in the Latin alphabet. Oh, and "B", is actually our "V", and the "E" is really "Ye", and...

Regards,

Jason

[Sgt.Squarehead]

Mad as a Badger!

It.....Not you!

[georgeusa]

Jason,

I definitely bow to your knowledge of Russian. While in the military all I learned was some Vietnamese, Thai, French and mostly some strange dialect the Montagnards in Thailand spoke. I labelled this Cam-23 as that is what is on the box top. Maybe there are a ton of references to this plane in Russian aviation works, but I could barely find it mentioned in a halfway decent internet search. It is just a truly funky looking plane that would have killed any pilot relying on that boom system to follow the terrain. Glad you like it so far.

Mad as a Badger!

It.....Not you!

There are many and numerous people that would disagree with you about the above. Several are on this forum.

[Learstang]

Strange that the Red Air Force stuck with the thoroughly conventional (except for its extensive armour) Il-2 over this bizarre contraption. The Soviets came up with some truly strange aircraft, which is one reason I find Soviet aviation such a fascinating subject. At any rate, great to see you tackling this, George! As far as languages go, you seem to be a bit ahead of me, as I know only English, some Spanish, and a little Russian (although I have become well-acquainted with the intricacies and pitfalls of the Cyrillic alphabet - the "P" actually being "R" still gets me sometimes!).

Regards,

Jason

[Flankerman]

Just to add to what Jason pointed out regarding the Cyrillic C being Latin S.

The S stands for 'Samolet' - the Russian word for 'Aircraft'.

So 'Cam-23' is really 'Sam-23' - simply 'Aircraft-23' - or 'Moskalyev LT' as it says on the box.

Doing a search for 'Moskalev LT' in Cyrillic .... Москалев ЛТ ......yeilds a couple of hits... (mainly in Russian)....

http://www.airwar.ru/enc/aww2/sam23.html

Ken

[georgeusa]

Build update. I began painting the camo scheme for this aircraft. It is a fairly simple olive green upper/light blue lower pattern. After I painted the base colors, I noticed the nose needed some more work. So out came the sand paper and some Mr. Surfacer.

A blending in of the paint and the overall base paint seems acceptable.

Of course, being the delicate soul I am, I knocked off the lower tailplane part and that needs to be repaired.

The crazy tail wheel, terrain following mechanism is up next. I first installed the main tailwheel boom.

After that is attached, there are three support arms that hold the tail wheel in place as it glides against the ground surface. I discovered the nose support is the correct size. The two side supports are considerably short of the mark. I found a handy twist tie, courtesy of my dry cleaners, that once the red paper covering is removed, is the correct size of wire needed to simulate the side supports. I cut two pieces to the proper size.

And then I installed them.

The main build is over; all that is left is to attach the engine cylinders and wheels. I have put a coat of Klear on the kit as I think this is a good time to do the decaling and weathering.

So, as the Klear needs to dry overnight, I will stop here. As always, all comments welcome.

[Learstang]

George, the colours you used for the green (AMT-4 in Soviet parlance) and the blue (AMT-7) look good. What paints did you use?

Regards,

Jason

[georgeusa]

The green was Humbrol 86 light olive and the blue Humbrol 65 Aircraft Blue Matt; both enamels. In this small scale they seemed fairly close.

[Vanja #66]

Very nice seeing there are people knowing of cyrillic alphabet (or "азбука" as we call it).

Nice work George, another peculiar Russian bird here...

Edited July 13, 2014 by Vanja #66

[Learstang]

So those are Humbrol; I need to try those. Right now I use Testors Model Master Interior Green for the AMT-4 Green and Model Master Russian Flanker Blue-Gray for the AMT-7 Blue, although I read or was told that Testors are discontinuing the Flanker Blue-Gray. A quick check on their website shows it still listed, however, so maybe I need to stock up on it, just in case.

Regards,

Jason

[georgeusa]

Jason,

I do know that the Humbrol enamels I have of these colors are from pre-Hornby takeover. I cannot vouch for the current batch of Humbrol paints. I know some people are not happy with the new paints and there were some quality control issues with some recent batches. Those may have been sorted out. I just know these are a few years old and in the pre-Hornby packaging.

[georgeusa]

Teeny update. I placed all of the six decals that came with the kit on the plane. Between the drying time for the Klear coat and the drying time using setting solutions to make the decals conform to the kit surface, the weekend vanished and this is all I have done on the plane. Next up will be some light weathering, placement of the engines, making some sort of exhaust system and seeing how small of a punch I can use to add some detail to the tail wheel mechanism at the nose of the assembly.

That's it for now. As always, all comments welcome.

[Learstang]

Thanks for the warning on the paints, George! I'm also glad to see you're having a better time with the paint on this than on your Neptune.

Regards,

Jason

[Mach Turtle]

If this thing had gone into service, the phrase "YGBSM" would have appeared on squadron patches much earlier. What a design.

[georgeusa]

Small update of a small aircraft. I am at the weathering stage. I am not going to weather this too much as it was a prototype aircraft and was probably kept fairly clean. I just gave the surfaces a coating of Flory’s Dark Dirt

And then removed most of it.

After I sealed the weathering in with a top coat, I put the wheels on.

So, the only thing left is to install the canopy, the engine cylinders, exhaust and the prop and this puppy is finished. The canopy, engine cylinders and prop will be easy as I am just using the kit parts. From some very sketchy photos, I will try to fabricate a mostly imaginary exhaust system of 5 separate exhausts from hypodermic needle parts. (Hendie will be proud!) There were some places on the kit that needed some touch up paint, so that is drying as I try to make 5 separate exhausts all with the same bend. As always, all comments welcome.

[Learstang]

George, it's nice to see you're nearing the end of this interesting build!

Regards,

Jason

[hendie]

Only just found this one George - nice to see you trying out some scratch building.

Where do you find these aircraft ???? It's like you are living in some alternate universe and keep popping over to this one bringing your latest levitation engine

[Learstang]

It's the weird and wonderful world of Soviet aviation where submarines can fly and tanks have wings!* Come on over to the dark side - you'll have a blast!

Regards,

Jason

*The flying submarine was an actual Soviet project which sadly was never built, but a light tank was tested with biplane wings and supposedly flew or glided once. The "flying tank" was also the nickname of the famous Il-2 Shturmovik, but that was, apart from its heavy armour, a fairly pedestrian design.

[georgeusa]

Only just found this one George - nice to see you trying out some scratch building.

Where do you find these aircraft ???? It's like you are living in some alternate universe and keep popping over to this one bringing your latest levitation engine

I have a very eccentric local model shop owner that seems to have a warehouse of very old, odd kits. And, he just goes through his warehouse, pulls a few boxes out, and then sees who notices them. It's a great place to lose about an hour's worth of time. He does the same thing with model train sets and pieces.

I keep trying to tell myself scratching is fun. Haven't quite convinced me yet though.

[hendie]

it's like everything else - you have to become accustomed to it. First few times you have to force yourself into it, then it starts to become more natural and you slowly get better and better - maybe not noticable at first but as you keep on going, you do start to see the improvement.

Edited August 4, 2014 by hendie

[georgeusa]

Pitiful update, continued bad luck. (See the Neptune Build; See the Typhoon build) I was going to finish this kit today I thought. Not going to happen. When I came back to it I noticed it was sitting a little strange. Apparently, regular plastic cement and very small attachment points do not get along.

The cement melted too much of the plastic and the wheel attachment point to the landing gear strut is not in good shape. So, I will have to work on how to fix this by probably making another strut. (Perhaps a plot by Hendie to make me to more scratch building! As always, all comments welcome; although with this pathetic update what could you comment on.

[hendie]

I had completely forgotten about this build. - You could try a piece of wire embedded in milliput or some kind of putty, the when hard - file/sand to shape. The wire should provide enough strength to keep it all together

[georgeusa]

I will give it a try. Sounds like a good idea. Thanks Hendie.

[georgeusa]

Update, hopefully the next to last as I really want to finish this kit. At the last update my progress (de-progress?) was I had managed to melt the port main wheel off of its strut. Yea me. (Has anyone ever wondered how much as a percentage of time do we modelers spend correcting our self-induced mistakes?) I took the wheel off and used a piece of paperclip that was drilled into the wheel and then drilled and fit into the remaining wheel strut. Since this is such a small kit, the paperclip was sufficiently strong to do the job. Next up was the exhausts, you know, the ones the kit didn't think were needed. The plane has exposed cylinders, but not exhausts. There is a hint of what they should be from the cover drawing, so it was time for artistic license. I would assume, given the simple nature of the engine layout that each cylinder had its own straight exhaust. I found some donor brass that I bent so the exhausts would be curved back going in the direction of the airflow.

INSERT Exhaust 1

I test fit the exhaust and quickly discovered how my initial exhaust was not thought out too well.

Looks pretty neat the way it slopes back . . . straight into the path of the pusher propeller! Next exhaust design. After looking at the cover drawing, it seems as if the exhausts were straight stacks with just a hint of a curve. So design 2

I then tried it out with one of the cylinders

And then dry fit the propeller to see if it would clear

This is an idea of what it would look like in scale to the rest of the model.

It is not too bad. I am not happy about the thickness or the solid center, but I do not have any tubing even close to being small enough. My plan is to dab the ends of the pipe with Nato Black to try to attempt to give the illusion of hollowness.

The next step was to affix (love that word) the propeller and all of the cylinders in place.

So, I am painting the in place exhaust and the exhausts to be put in place. Once that is done, I have just a couple of bits and this will be finished. I attached the canopy, but I think I mucked it up. I will not know until I take the tape off of it and that is after I have shot the entire kit with a sealing coat when it is all finished. As always, all comments welcome.