+++ FINISHED! +++ Soviet Ekranoplan: A-90 "Orlyonok" (Zvezda, 1/144)

[jrlx]

On 27/10/2019 at 21:42, bigbadbadge said:

Great work so far Jaime, they are very unusual machines, I wasn't aware of the fact that the front hinged like that, amazing.

Keep up the good work

All the best

Chris

Thank you very much, Chris. These are indeed unusual machines. It seems their development was abandoned after the dissolution of the Soviet Union.

 

Cheers

 

Jaime

 

 

[jrlx]

Hi again,

 

I've been a bit busy with life in the last few weeks and didn't manage to find time to carry on with the build. But I've also been a bit indecisive about how to deal with the fuselage windows (or lack of...) of the kit.

 

The fuselage windows are just represented by engraved circles and there are black round decals to apply over those circles in a very unsatisfactory representation of the windows.

 

I thought about drilling out the windows and fill them with some kind of glue. @John_W in a previous post in this WIP thread told he used PVA to fill the windows. I bought a arts & crafts glue that should be PVA-like, which indicated in the label that it became transparent when dry and tested it on a piece of scrap plastic. However, it didn't become transparent but rather dull instead. A few days later I decided to repeat the test using Revell Contacta Clear. This time I got a very transparent result. The following picture shows the results of my experiments: Contacta Clear on the left and PVA-like on the right:

IMAG6555

 

As there's nothing to see inside the model, the idea is to paint the back of the windows with black paint or black primer.

 

I was still unsure on how to proceed: should I apply the glue to the window openings before closing the fuselage, which would imply masking to protect the windows during painting and weathering, risking damaging the glue? The way forward was inspired by a post by  @JWM yesterday, where he said he'd fill some window openings with clearfix after painting. So inspired, I decided to back the window openings with plasticard and apply the Contacta Clear at the end, after all painting, weathering and finishing varnish coat. This way, the build will be easier and there's no risk of damaging the windows.

 

With this settled, I could resume the build.

 

The excess PPP applied in a previous post was removed using wet & dry.

 

Here's the result on the exhaust areas of the fuselage:

IMAG6556

 

... and on the engine air intakes:

IMAG6557

 

Next, I opened the windows on the fuselage sides. First, I drilled a hole using a 1.8 mm mini-drill (the thickest I have):

IMAG6558

 

The opening was enlarged, first with the tip of a nº 11 blade and finally using round files. Here's the result on the first widow:

IMAG6559

 

The process was repeated for all the windows on both sides:

IMAG6560

 

Then, I backed all the windows with pieces of 0,25 mm-thick plasticard:

IMAG6561

 

This is how things look like from the exterior:

IMAG6562

 

To finish with, I mounted all the small parts on toothpicks, ready for painting:

IMAG6563

 

Thanks for looking.

 

Jaime

 

 

 

[CedB]

Nice work on the windows Jaime. Your plan seems sound! 

[bigbadbadge]

Hi Jaime

Great work so far. I like the Idea for the windows, I have never thought of using the conacta glue before, that's very interesting. I have used Krystal Klear with success on a model aircraft kit and a model locomotive too. Also Cyano can be used. It will go dull but polishes up very well, just check out some of @Martian Hale builds , he has had some great results with it.

Keep up the good work

All the best

Chris

[armored76]

Great idea on the windows!

 

This kit keeps coming back on my "maybe this time?" list I'll be following this for sure, mainly interested in how you're going to paint and weather it.

[Jbbusybee]

Enjoying this build, the Ekranoplans seem so mysterious and fascinating.

[jrlx]

On 10/11/2019 at 06:33, CedB said:

Nice work on the windows Jaime. Your plan seems sound! 

Thanks, Ced! I hope it works!

 

On 10/11/2019 at 09:06, bigbadbadge said:

Hi Jaime

Great work so far. I like the Idea for the windows, I have never thought of using the conacta glue before, that's very interesting. I have used Krystal Klear with success on a model aircraft kit and a model locomotive too. Also Cyano can be used. It will go dull but polishes up very well, just check out some of @Martian Hale builds , he has had some great results with it.

Keep up the good work

All the best

Chris

Thanks Chris! I also considered using CA but as Contacta Clear produced good results in my test, I opted for it and didn't test CA.

 

On 10/11/2019 at 12:34, armored76 said:

Great idea on the windows!

 

This kit keeps coming back on my "maybe this time?" list I'll be following this for sure, mainly interested in how you're going to paint and weather it.

Thank you for your interest! I hope my "pioneering" work can be helpful I'm planning to use black primer mottled with a few shades of grey before applying the final grey coat in thin layers. From the pictures I've seen, these machines didn't seem to be too weathered, so the idea is just to have some subtle tonal variation.

 

On 10/11/2019 at 13:20, Jbbusybee said:

Enjoying this build, the Ekranoplans seem so mysterious and fascinating.

Thanks for following! Indeed they are. I've only learned about their existence when I hosted the first edition of this GB.

 

Cheers

 

Jaime

 

 

[jrlx]

Hi again,

 

Some more progress was achieved this weekend. Painting has already been started.

 

As I intended to paint the back of the windscreen black, since there's nothing to see inside, I started by protecting the front of the transparent part with tape:

IMAG6566

 

There are some areas of the fuselage that will be painted with Alclad metallics. Some parts that will be assembled between the fuselage halves, like the grids of the engine intakes, must also be painted with metallic paints. All things considered, in order to paint most metallics right away, before starting with the acrylics, I opted for priming the whole of the fuselage halves, even before closing the fuselage, as well as all the smaller parts:

IMAG6567

 

IMAG6568

 

Here's the wind-shield after painting the back with black primer and removing the tape. The front is not painted, though it may look like it is:

IMAG6571

 

This area of the fuselage halves is where the main landing gear will be installed and must be painted before glueing the landing gear part in place and closing the fuselage. Here it is already primed:

IMAG6570

 

The first metallic colour applied was Gunmetal because it is the colour of the circular area where the engine exhausts will be glued to, as well as the interior colour of the main exhausts. Here we see the said area, after painting with Gunmetal and already masked, as the surrounding walls will be painted Steel:

IMAG657

 

The circular masks were done with a cutting compass and are 1,1 cm in diameter.

 

Gunmetal was also applied to the interior of the exhaust area of the propeller engine, on the tail fin. Notice the metallic shine compared to the plain black primer:

IMAG6569

 

Gunmetal was also applied to the propeller blades and to the cannons:

IMAG6574

 

The next metallic colour applied was Steel, which was applied to the area around the main engine exhausts on the fuselage:

IMAG6575

 

... and to what seems to be an auxiliary exhaust near the tail fin:

IMAG6576

 

The final metallic colour, Burnt Iron, was applied to the engine exhausts and engine intake grids:

IMAG6573

 

Notice the white blu-tac inside the main engine exhausts, to protect the Gunmetal paint of the interior.

 

The metal colours are all quite dark and the black primer doesn't help much in making the pictures exciting. Sorry about that.

 

Thanks for looking

 

Jaime

 

 

 

 

[AdrianMF]

Those metallics will look good against the grey finish. It’s great to see a build of this rare bird!

 

Regards,

Adrian

[CedB]

More great work Jaime on what must be some tiny parts - good stuff!  

[SeaPlane]

Some lovely work here Jaime

 

Even at 1/144 its a big brute isn't it?  My recollection of the build is that most of the fit is OK-ish but it seems as though almost everything requires a little something! Particularly around the intake area which I don't think is quite right in size or shape.

 

When finished they certainly attract a lot of comment and attention.

 

Take Care

Andrew

[jrlx]

Thanks for the kind words and interest, Andrew! @SeaPlane

 

Indeed it's rather big compared to the 1/72 WWII aircraft I've been mostly building. I agree with you that the kit is not bad but it's just lacking some refinement. However, I believe it'll end up looking good (if I manage to get the kind of finish I'm aiming to achieve).

 

I've been slowly working on it since the last update but haven't managed to post updates. I'm now ready to glue the main engine intakes, which seem to be a problematic area of this kit.

 

Cheers

 

Jaime

 

[CliffB]

It's interesting to see you using black primer Jaime.  It may be too soon for you to say, but do you have a view on how good it is a revealing defects?

 

Cheers

Cliff

[jrlx]

16 hours ago, CliffB said:

It's interesting to see you using black primer Jaime.  It may be too soon for you to say, but do you have a view on how good it is a revealing defects?

 

Cheers

Cliff

Thanks for your interest, Cliff. I think white, grey or black primer show defects equally effectively. My idea is to use black primer as a shading layer under the camouflage paint. It's being used frequently in modelling magazines (e.g.: Model Aircraft Magazine) and it is explained here (the author calls it "black basing"). It can be combined with a technique called "colour variation" or "marbling", where a kind of mottling with different shades of other colours (greys or tonalities related to the camouflage colours) are applied within the panels (also mentioned in the same link).

 

This will be my third attempt at the technique. My previous two attempts (Do-24 flyingboat and Defiant) were not entirely successful. I must use thinner layers of paint.

 

Cheers

 

Jaime

 

[bigbadbadge]

Hi Jaime, nice finish on your metallics there . I have tried the black under coat previously but have not had much success , although I brush paint so have moved to post shading more now.

 

Keep up the good work

All the best

Chris

[jrlx]

On 07/12/2019 at 08:43, bigbadbadge said:

Hi Jaime, nice finish on your metallics there . I have tried the black under coat previously but have not had much success , although I brush paint so have moved to post shading more now.

 

Keep up the good work

All the best

Chris

Thanks very much, Chris! Since the aircraft is light grey overall, I hope the black base technique will be more effective this time.

 

Cheers

 

Jaime

 

 

[jrlx]

Hi again,

 

I've been slowly working on this build in the last few weekends, but didn't have the time to update the thread. As I'm now in Brussels for a few days for a conference, I'll use some free time before sleeping to try and update this.

 

I had a few colours to apply to the smaller parts before moving to closing the fuselage. The first things to paint were the propellers, which had yellow blade tips and white hubs. I determined the length of the blades to paint yellow from this picture (This is a different machine, with blue propeller hubs, already with Russian instead of Soviet markings. It seems there are no pictures of the one I'm building):

 

I used pieces of tape with the right length (to scale) as templates for marking the yellow tips:

IMAG6577

 

Then, I masked the propeller blades, to protect the dark part, and exposed the tips:

IMAG6578

 

Here are the propellers ready for painting:

IMAG6579

 

The end result:

IMAG6586

 

The antenna assembly was also painted (light grey support - mask - medium grey radome - unmask):

IMAG6587

 

Before going further, I noticed, in pictures of the real thing, that there were two auxiliary intakes near the nose, below the main intakes:

 

These are simulated by decals in the kit (just like the fuselage windows). So, I decided to drill these openings. I used a PE template with circles and ovals over the said decals to determine their dimensions. Next I cut pieces of masking tape, using a nº 11 blade and the oval template, which were applied on the fuselage halves:

IMAG6588

 

A manual mini-drill was used to partially open these intakes:

IMAG6589

 

Next, I masked the metallic areas of the fuselage, the backs of the fuselage windows and some surface details that should be black in the final scheme (there are also black decals for these, but the black primer should provide a better looking end-result):

IMAG6590

 

The back grids of the air intakes were glued in place:

IMAG6591

 

The back grids were masked, for protection during the paint phase:

IMAG6592

 

And the intakes were glued to the fuselage:

IMAG6593

 

Here's how they look with the fuselage halves closed (not yet glued together):

IMAG6595

 

I also glued in place the main undercarriage part:

IMAG6596

 

and the propeller engine internal parts:

IMAG6597

 

Finally, I glued the two fuselage halves together. This was done by, first, applying regular Tamiya liquid glue along the mating surfaces. Then, I joined the halves together, and, finally, applied Tamiya Extra Thin glue along the join, in small sections. The fuselage was left clamped:

IMAG6598

 

That's all for now, and the thread is updated.

 

Thanks for looking.

 

Jaime

 

 

 

 

[CedB]

Nice work Jaime, detailed as ever

 

The prop masking looks a bit complex IMHO - I usually spray white tips, then yellow, mask the tip and spray the rest black. 

Easier?

[jrlx]

1 minute ago, CedB said:

Nice work Jaime, detailed as ever

 

The prop masking looks a bit complex IMHO - I usually spray white tips, then yellow, mask the tip and spray the rest black. 

Easier?

Thanks Ced! You're right about your approach being easier but I had to paint the blades with alclad gunmetal first because alclad should not be applied over acrylics.

 

Cheers

 

Jaime

 

[Johnson]

Still on catch up (as ever). Another quite amazing plane, almost as incredible as the Savoia Marchetti S. 55 X! (but not quite).

 

And a super build Jaime, I look forward to following the rest.

[jrlx]

Thanks a lot, @Johnson much appreciated !

[jrlx]

Hi again,

 

I didn't manage to progress much since the last update. And now I'm on Christmas holidays away from home. So, I won't finish the build in the time frame of the GB, which is in keeping with my tradition of not finishing my GB entries in time

 

Anyway, this is the last update before the GB ends. I just managed to glue in place the part that closes the opening between the main air intakes. The following pictures show how it turned out and confirm the need for putty and seam treatment:

IMAG6616

 

IMAG6617

 

IMAG6618

 

This is really the worst area of the kit.

 

I'll resume working on the build after Christmas.

 

Thanks for looking.

 

Jaime

 

 

[CedB]

Nice work Jaime - you'll have those seams sorted in no time  

 

Have a good Christmas!

[jrlx]

3 hours ago, CedB said:

Nice work Jaime - you'll have those seams sorted in no time  

 

Have a good Christmas!

Thank you, Ced! A Merry Christmas for you too!

 

 

 

[Johnson]

I look forward to following the rest of the build, have a great Christmas Jaime!