1/72 AMT Kamov Ka-52 "Hokum B"

[Pete in Lincs]

Was AMT twinned with Starfix & we weren't told?

Nice swerve & recovery on the nose weights.

[perdu]

The fit of those parts has all the precision I've come to expect from Italeri, sad to see that Esci is in the mix with them

I rather fancy I'll be tagging along too Nigel, is the popcorn stall still open?

(Guess who has the sadly less imaginary Italeri AH-64D to build soon... "I bought you that for your birthday and you haven't even started it yet!")

[Sgt.Squarehead]

Wow I never realised Brahmos was quite that big!

Looks like this one is throwing up a few challenges.....Following with interest as always.

[Nigel Heath]

I rather fancy I'll be tagging along too Nigel, is the popcorn stall still open?

Great to have you on board Bill.

[CedB]

Great progress Nigel and good job on the I/p decals - they look really good.

[Nigel Heath]

Today I have been mostly sanding all the filled joints on the fuselage, wings and engines so nothing too photogenic. However, this morning the very nice looking Begemot decals and masks (which won't fit this kit) arrived from Hannants:

This wing tip part has this feature on it which is supposed to be a navigation light but at 4.5mm long it would be over a foot long so will have to go:

I decided to remove the seats to make filling, sanding and painting of the joints easier:

I think this feature is supposed to be a clear red light and will also have to be removed:

I will also cut off these blade antennas on the underside and replace them with some shaped PE:

These engine inlet shields were quite rough and took a lot of tidying up, done on the right hand side:

In fact I have now got all the engine parts ready for some paint:

The fuselage is pretty much all cleaned up now and I've started to assemble the winglets:

I think I'll try to get the cockpit finished tomorrow so that the canopies can be fitted.

Bye for now,

Nigel

[Navy Bird]

Nice save with the nose weight! I can't tell you how many times I've closed up the fuselage knowing full well that weights were needed. Thank goodness for pods, eh?

I bought this kit when ESCI first released it (late 80s maybe?) but never built it. I think I donated it to a kit auction for the local club. It will be interesting to see what you make of it.

Cheers,

Bill

[Duncan B]

In the real world at this stage the shape is quite aesthetic and futuristic. It's the twin rotors that spoil the looks of the real thing but actually make a kit of it more interesting if that all makes sense?

Anyhow Nigel it looks like you've had a few challenges along the way so far but have got the beating of it now.

DB

[phildagreek]

Looking good (as per)!

[Nigel Heath]

This was how I masked up the cockpit ready for some more grey on the seams:

As well as applying the grey I also got some primer on the engine parts:

Now for the canopies, I decided that sawing them off the sprue was the best option:

Hard to photograph but there are quite a few marks and scratches which need polishing out before proceeding further:

This is part way through the Micromesh polishing process:

Here they are finished off with 12000 grade Micromesh:

Next I got them masked up ready for attachment:

Before that I reinstated the seats, gave the cockpit a coat of matt varnish and glued in the HUD with Gator Grip:

Now I could glue on the first canopy with five minute epoxy:

Clamping was necessary as it wanted to spring away, I'll let that cure overnight before adding the second section.

Bye for now,

Nigel

[Andrew D Jolly Rogers guy]

Oh, I've missed this one! Needs some background.

This kit was put out in the very late 80's when the Iron Curtain was still up, when we only had some drawings/illustrations of the then-new Kamov project which, from all intelligence findings, was promising to be one fantastic chopper. It was also believed at the time to be the first chopper with a major air-to-air capability as part of its design, hence the AA-8's.

So yes, today it's only a what-if, but when it came out this was true to the best references available to the public at the time.

[Nigel Heath]

Today I have been mainly cleaning up parts ready for painting so nothing too exciting to report. However, the first job of the day was to get the forward canopy attached with another mix of five minute epoxy:

I found that the strut on the front undercarriage leg was already broken. I might well have replaced it with metal anyway so no big deal:

I started to assemble these anti-tank quad missile launchers and found they were wrongly numbered on the sprues. They also forgot to provide location pins for the sockets:

I did most of the cleaning up of the fronts of the launchers while still attached to a section of sprue as well as drilling out the launch tubes:

The front undercarriage doors need to be separated so I scored both sides to obtain a nice clean break:

These are all the parts I've got ready for painting so far, the wheels, some of the weapons and parts of the rotors:

Bye for now,.

Nigel

[Pete in Lincs]

Only page two and into paint already?

Must be a Nigel blitz build.

[Sgt.Squarehead]

I was just thinking the very same!

[Nigel Heath]

Today I started to assemble the rotor hub. When I did a test fit up of the parts I found that the main shaft looked dangerously short, likely to result in a wobbly main rotor so I set about extending it with some 2mm tube and a 1.5mm hole up the shaft:

That was then finished with some 1.5mm rod down the middle:

I ended up shortening the extension a bit - I think you can see how short the kit part would have been. I've only added about 1.5mm but it makes all the difference. These links have nice fine gates which made cleaning them up no bother at all:

Next handles - I reused the bending jig I made for the ones on my Helix:

This kit is so different from the real machine that this is just an interpretation of where the handles actually are. There are a couple on top of the engines:

Then I put three on the roof (there are four on the real machine):

However, I have been spending most of my time today cleaning up parts and I now have a substantial pile with not too many more to go:

Bye for now,

Nigel

[phildagreek]

Good progress, like it.

[Duncan B]

Drilling and brass rods, tiny brass handles, and there was us thinking this was going to be a blitz-build.

DB

[Nigel Heath]

The first job of today was to finish building the rotor hub:

Then I tackled all the little odds and sods jobs to finish all the parts ready for some paint. The replacement gun was a simple length of 0.7mm tube:

Then I drilled out for the pitot tube:

I made a new pitot tube out of 0.3 and 0.5mm nickel silver tube:

I also had to drill out the other side for this probe:

I might yet replace the plastic probe with a replacement metal one. I've not decided.

The final thing to make at this stage was a replacement for the broken strut on the front undercarriage. The ram will be 0.6mm rod sleeving into 0.8mm tube for the cylinder and finally a short length of 1mm tube to pack out the mounting hole:

Here is the finished item:

Then I tidied up some of the joints with a combination of PPP (for the wider gaps) and Vellejo putty (for the narrow ones):

I have now cleared all the sprues and this lot are all ready for painting:

I'll just pop off and do that then.

Bye for now,

Nigel

[Andrew D Jolly Rogers guy]

"Toothpicks: They're Not Just For Pickin' Anymore"

Quite a forest you've got there! And really great work; not very often one sees an obsolete kit get the love it deserves.

[Nigel Heath]

Instead of getting the painting done when I looked back at my last post I decided the plastic probe wasn't good enough so set about making a new one using 0.8, 0.6 and 0.4 tubes:

Those were then soldered together and fettled to create the tapered section:

I then created this set up to attach the vanes, the aluminium foil is there to pack the vanes onto the centre of the tube:

Then it was a case of just trimming the vanes and giving it a minor tidy up:

The final job of the day was to glue on the wings which can now harden up overnight:

I'll get the painting done tomorrow.

Bye for now,

Nigel

[Tomoshenko]

Just caught up again. Mice detailing and bit n bobs added. IPs look great, but no fire extinguisher!! It's a whatif so not too late to fit one in somewhere.

[CedB]

Great stuff Nigel - I thought that probe would get the Nigel treatment.

[Duncan B]

This build is fairly whizzing along, nice work.

DB

[Nigel Heath]

Mice detailing

I haven't added any mice, they must have snuck in there under their own volition.

[Duncan B]

Their own Vole-ition?

DB