1/72 Airkits Rafaelyanc PR-12

[StephenCJ]

This turned up in the post today, so I had better get on with it.

No absolutely nothing about Russian aircraft.  If you can give any help/advice I am all eyes.

Have you built one of these Moa?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks for looking.

 

Stephen

 

 

[stevehnz]

Not seen or heard of one before but it looks like a well molded kit, I hope the fit is as good. Is it just me or is that wing plan form a bit Il-2ish, same designer?

Steve.

[StephenCJ]

 

45 minutes ago, stevehnz said:

Is it just me or is that wing plan form a bit Il-2ish, same designer?

Pin will be able to answer that , I hope. 

 

I bought 2 kits, in the second one a bag has opened and there are tiny bits loose.  I hope there aren't any lost.  Will have to have a look tomorrow as I have to go to the dungeon now.

Edited October 10, 2018 by StephenCJ

[neil5208]

One of the guys at my model club was sent a few of these by a Russian modeller, quite nice little kits of obscure aircraft

[Pin]

3 hours ago, StephenCJ said:

Pin will be able to answer that , I hope. 

I am indeed

4 hours ago, stevehnz said:

same designer?

No, it is not the same designer.

PR-12 is a derivative of PR-5 that, in turn is a civil version of R-5 recon plane ( "PR-5" meaning "Passenger R-5"). The conversion, including new fuselage, was designed by Aram Rafaelianz

 

Polikarpov R-5:

 

Rafaelianz PR-5:

 

PR-12 was the last modification of R-5. Only two photos of the plane are known:

 

The story of designing of AirKits kit (sorry, in Russian, but some pictures may be useful):

https://propjet.ucoz.ru/forum/14-210-1 

 

In brief, Valentin Muchichko, a brilliant modeller, who created moulds for some well known ICM kits such as He-51 and SB, was contacted by "South Front" to create an R-5 kit for them.

https://www.dishmodels.ru/gshow.htm?p=6314

 

The company, unfortunately, went bust so Valentin sent his resin masters to Alexander Kozyrev, who was working on AirKits PR-5 kit. Once PR-5 project was compete it was quite logical to follow the steps of the history and relase PR-12 kit as well.

Here is PR-5 built from AirKits kit by Valentin himself:

 

 

More:

https://www.dishmodels.ru/gshow.htm?p=7152

 

And this is PR-12 built by Mr. AirKits himself:

 

 

 

This is my build of PR-12:

 

I realized, however, that I have forgotten to add Venturi tubes on starboard so it is officially not complete yet.

 

More builds

Igor Shvetsov:

https://propjet.ucoz.ru/forum/14-173-33779-16-1537208205

His approach was to separate the nose from the body.

 

Oleg Okunev:

http://karopka.ru/community/user/20241/?MODEL=499663

 

There are a couple of things worth mentioning. Joining fuselage halves with bulkheads  require careful dry fitting, the thickness of the walls should be reduced otherwise bulkheads will not let the halves join without a gap.

The nose was also a bit problematic, I was not able to join parts together without a gap:

 

 

Apart from that this was an enjoyable and straightforward build.

 

Enjoy the kit and let me know if you have any more questions  

 

[Terry1954]

Thats a very interesting subject and I must say I know nothing of this type either, but that front end looks very Heinkel 51 like to me.

 

I'll follow this one with interest.

 

Terry

[Graham Boak]

Fascinating thread.

 

The similarity with the nose of He.70 is due to using the same engine.

 

To come in on one marginal point.  The wing planform was not only like that of the Il.2 but can also be seen on the Yak and Lavochkin design series, the Pe.2, Tu.2, MiG.3 and no doubt others.  The Central Design Bureau  (TsAGI) was heavily involved in basic research into aerodynamics, and it is clear that this extended to the creation of idealised aircraft configurations which were then used by the design bureaux to develop and create their individual designs.  This certainly extended into the 50s, with the MiG/Sukhoi heavy/light fighter designs, and arguably into the 70s with the Mig 29/Su 27 being light/heavy fighters developed from the same basic aerodynamic shapes - very heavily developed in these cases.

[Pin]

A couple of remarks.

 

- although the plane looks silverish it is not NMF, it is of wooden/linen construction covered with metallic paint so there must be no panel effect and/or chips. The exceptions are metal panels on the lower surface clearly seen on the second photo.

- the instruction sheet suggests metal skis, there is an evidence that the skis were actually made of ash

- do not glue lower edges of front fuselage before installing engine cover, otherwise the part that represents engine exhausts will not fit. So my suggestion for the sequence of fuselage assebly

  - reduce the thickness of fuselage walls

  - dry fit bulkheads. I did not use the one that separates cockpit from engine compartment. This part

 

 

is not a ski but a bulkhead to which the tail skid is attached.

 

  - glue bulkheads and the tail section of the fuselage up to the cockpit

  - once glue is set insert exhaust part (do not glue it), fit and glue engine cover. There may be a gap

 

 

that will be covered by propeller spinner, so I did not bother to fill it.

  - glue together front lower parts of the fuselage.  Another suggestion is to cut off actual exhaust pipes from the part so that they could be inserted from outside once the body is painted, this will make it possible to avoid masking. I did not follow this advice but you may find it useful.

  - wing / body join will also need some dry fitting

  - radiator is a bit too long, needs some cutting otherwise landing gear struts won't fit

 -  be careful installing tail stabilizer, I glued it upside down

  - landing light on the wing are shown but not cut, there are no clear parts for them either. If you want to replicate them you would need to do some scratch building

 

It may seem like a long list but it is easier done than said

 

 

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

23 hours ago, StephenCJ said:

Have you built one of these Moa?

I am too late to the party, Stephen, I am afraid*.

But I gladly see that you got bags of help from Pin already.

Also photos were provided, which is fantastic.

I have a not unsubstantial folder, but can't access it at the moment, and won't be able to do it for a little while.

I like many of the Airkit subjects, I love the civil ones (this one and the Ant-9 Krokodil, for example), but I find their price to be too high. Surely the makers put a lot of work on them, and a superb level of detail, but all my friends report fit issues on their products. In comparison, SBS from Hungary produces resin kits that are equally detailed, and with a superb fit. I would consider paying the price Airkits have, but only if the fit issues were not as extensive. This, of course, is a personal opinion, and doesn't detract a bit of the very good research, wonderful subjects, and high level of detail Airkit have.

 

* Busy at the moment:

 

 

 

[StephenCJ]

Pin I have run aground..   Do you have any picture of the cockpit?  I am a little confused by the drawing.  The pilots seat has a large lump of resin on the bottom and I am trying to work out if it is a pour block or part of the seat.

I will add some pics but it is time to go to 'fools paradise' (work).

 

Stephen 

[StephenCJ]

Thanks for the reply Moa, they are expensive.  Have you an address for SBS in Hungary?

I am also thinking of getting a Krokodil.

 

Stephen

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

6 minutes ago, StephenCJ said:

Have you an address for SBS in Hungary?

https://www.sbsmodel.com/

 

Once there you may navigate to the area of your preference.

Cheers

[StephenCJ]

Thanks Moa.  Some nice kits on their site.

[Pin]

4 hours ago, StephenCJ said:

The pilots seat has a large lump of resin on the bottom and I am trying to work out if it is a pour block or part of the seat.

 

Here is a hint:

 

 

so there is a small pedestal the seat seats atop. Generally the top edge of the seat must be just below the bottom edge of the headrest. You may also want to add seat belts.

 

4 hours ago, StephenCJ said:

 Do you have any picture of the cockpit? 

There are no known pictures of PR-12 cockpit, however it is a direct derivative of R-5 so you may look up for "Polikarpov R-5 cockpit"

 

 

6 hours ago, Moa said:

SBS from Hungary

My problem with SBS is that they don't produce anything I would be interested in 

It is worth knowing that the master model fits ideally and all the issues are caused by moulding process rather than poor quality of the original and therefore the good fit can be achieved by careful dry fitting. Generally with AirKits kits you would rather need to remove excess of resin than use filler.

Based on the experience of the resin kits I built I would rank the fit of AirKits kits below Prop & Jet, CMK, Choroszy Modelbud or Lukgraph, on-par with ABM and RusAir / PAS and above Planet and Anigrand.

 

But none  of them are even close to the pinnacle of Israeli Small Stuff kits:

http://www.hyperscale.com/2013/reviews/kits/smallstuff72002reviewmd_1.htm

http://www.hyperscale.com/2016/reviews/kits/smallstuff72003reviewmd_1.htm

 

Although I 'dare to compare' it must be said that size matters. Because of the nature of resin moulding, flexible silicon forms, the larger is the part the harder it is to provide dimensional stability and therefore the fit. All of Prop&Jet kits are relatively small planes whereas many AirKits models are rather large. Smaller AirKits models, such as ANT-1 or ANT-2 do not any fit issues at all. 

 

6 hours ago, Moa said:

Busy at the moment:

Wow! Just .... wow! Where is it?

[StephenCJ]

Pin.

Home from the dungeon early and have finally had a chance to take in the material you have posted here.  Thank you as it will be very helpful and costly.  I have seen some more models I like none at SBS though.  There is a good chance I will be getting a kit or two from Israel and I'm definitely buying more Airkits.  The Krokodil looks interesting.   The boss said I have my birthday present already, she is wrong it will be at least 3 more Airkits.  I will be in trouble, as always.

I feel as bright as a 1/2 watt bulb in a blackout for not seeing the cutaway drawing, I had the instruction sheet folded and the exploded view in front of me.

Wet weekend so I am intending to model.  Mum needs to go shopping,  the daughter wants Barramundi (fish) for dinner Saturday.  That's a trip to Ballina 2 hour round trip.  We have 2 Bull Arab dogs they love going to the park.  I am not winging I wouldn't swap the dogs for anything or getting my daughter Barra for dinner and taking Mum shopping.

 

 

Stephen

Edited October 12, 2018 by StephenCJ

[StephenCJ]

This is a really nice kit.  Mind you there is not much accomplished today.  There was a little time spent fitting the bulkheads, I have made the IP and a pic will come tomorrow.  

I do have a problem,the prop is poorly formed and I can't fix it and I have no skis.

Pin what type of seatbelts do I need to use?

 

 

Thanks for looking.

 

Stephen

[Pin]

2 hours ago, StephenCJ said:

I do have a problem,the prop is poorly formed

That is sad, do you have a pic? Sometimes resin parts get warped that is easily fixable by putting a part into boiling water for 20-30 seconds. 

2 hours ago, StephenCJ said:

I have no skis

You may use wheels, but if you want to build the airplane on skis I'm pretty sure the manufacturer will agree to send you the missing parts and propeller replacement. Should I contact him?

Although it will unfortunately take some time the skis and prop are among the last things to assemble/paint/attach.

2 hours ago, StephenCJ said:

type of seatbelts do I need to use?

 

 

 

[StephenCJ]

I don't have wheels either.  I want to buy some more kits, I will pm you.

 

Stephen

[occa]

Damned I am late here.

I too thought the fuselage resembles the R-5 when I saw the kit's photos.

Then Pin confirmed it.

 

Truly fascinating stuff anyways !!

 

Edit: Question @Pin :

Sorry if I missed a link but where do we order Airkit stuff ?

[StephenCJ]

Ask Pin.

They are great kits.

[Pin]

23 hours ago, occa said:

Sorry if I missed a link but where do we order Airkit stuff ?

Generally - you register on "https://propjet.ucoz.ru/" and sent PM to Alexander Kozyrev AKA "KAJUK", who is the owner and producer of AirKits, he tells you the price you transfer money, he makes a kit for you.

It must be understood that this is not a business, rather a retired guy who is making kits for fun, therefore there is no stock, usually kits are produced on demand.

There are a couple of complications, you must speak Russian and he does not take PayPal. I have helped a couple of people on this forum to purchase AirKits models because I am native Russian speaker and I have means to arrange money transfer (I have no material interest and take no commission, I'm well off  ), but there is one more unfortunate thing to mention - at the moment Alexander does not take new orders because of personal issues, I hope this is temporary thing. 

 

There are a couple of sellers on eBay who offer AirKits for sale, for a time being, I afraid, these are the only source, although their prices are expectedly higher and they don't offer the full catalogue

https://www.ebay.co.uk/str/hobbymodels-lv/AirKits-KAjuK/_i.html?_storecat=23411162018

https://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/m.html?_ssn=mrs.goldencoooin&LH_PrefLoc=2&_from=R40&_trksid=m570.l1313&_nkw=airkits&_sacat=0

https://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/m.html?_ssn=47ru713&LH_PrefLoc=2&_from=R40&_trksid=m570.l1313&_nkw=airkits&_sacat=0

[occa]

Thanks a lot Alexey !

 

Hope his personal issues get solves ASAP !

 

Cheers,

Martin

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

Hi Stephen

Back in town, but I can't add anything relevant to what Pin posted.

This is a very good looking plane.

 

[StephenCJ]

On 10/20/2018 at 8:43 AM, Moa said:

This is a very good looking plane.

Yes I agree, very nice looking plane.

Hope your trip was good, Moa.

 

Some progress.

The Instrument Panel.

 

 

A few pics of the interior.  I need some Russian seatbelts and to make the windows.

 

 

 

Windows next.

Thanks for looking.

 

Stephen

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

9 hours ago, StephenCJ said:

Hope your trip was good, Moa.

It certainly was, Stephen,

Heaven.

Thanks!