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


jrlx

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24 minutes ago, Johnson said:

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

Thank you for your interest, Johnson! Have a great Christmas too!

 

Jaime

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  • 3 months later...
On 20/04/2020 at 09:21, CedB said:

Nice to see this one back Jaime :) 

Thanks Ced! I've been silently and slowly working on it since the last post. The main painting is now done. Due to the usual lack of time, worsened by the COVID-19 lockdown (working in a Telecom company, I'm one of the few who's having even less free time now...) I still haven't updated the thread.

 

I've also been working in parallel on a 1/260 B-1 Excalibur (!) by Academy. A nasty little kit...

 

Cheers

 

Jaime

 

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Fascinating and rather incongruous "vehicle" the Ekranoplan.

 

Did you know that one can be found on Google Maps?

 

Preserved Ekranoplan - Moscow Museum of the History of the Navy of Russia

 

It looks like it might be possible to have a look inside as there is a walkway leading to the vehicle but unlike the "Tango" class submarine B-396 there are no internal photographs.

 

The website for the Museum is in Russian only it appears there is an English tourists website at https://www.moscovery.com/russian-navy-history-museum/

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Looking forward to seeing your progress Jaime, when you have time :) 

 

1 hour ago, jrlx said:

I've also been working in parallel on a 1/260 B-1 Excalibur (!) by Academy. A nasty little kit...

Oooh, a B-1! I guess a 1/72 model of that would be enormous, but 1/260 sounds weird eh?

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4 hours ago, Rumblestripe said:

Fascinating and rather incongruous "vehicle" the Ekranoplan.

 

Did you know that one can be found on Google Maps?

 

Preserved Ekranoplan - Moscow Museum of the History of the Navy of Russia

 

It looks like it might be possible to have a look inside as there is a walkway leading to the vehicle but unlike the "Tango" class submarine B-396 there are no internal photographs.

 

The website for the Museum is in Russian only it appears there is an English tourists website at https://www.moscovery.com/russian-navy-history-museum/

Thanks for the links @Rumblestripe. There are many pictures on the internet of this museum's A-90 and one operational A-90 from the 1990s. I've linked to one or two in previous posts to illustrate a few details. The colour scheme I've chosen is an earlier one from the Soviet era, but very similar to the one used in the 1990s.

 

3 hours ago, CedB said:

Looking forward to seeing your progress Jaime, when you have time :) 

 

Oooh, a B-1! I guess a 1/72 model of that would be enormous, but 1/260 sounds weird eh?

@CedB this B-1 is as big as a 1/72 Spitfire. The kit is an old Academy attempt and the scale is very weird. The fit is terrible but it looks like a (simplified) B-1 in the end. I expected it to be a quick build in order to experiment with the black primer technique but it turned out to be very laborious. The "Excalibur" name instead of "Lancer" is very strange and I couldn't find any reliable source to explain it (though there are some spurious explanations). Here's the kit box art:

107369-10000-pristine.jpg

 

When I have some spare time, I'll post a WIP thread for this as well.

 

Cheers

 

Jaime

 

 

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15 hours ago, jrlx said:

The "Excalibur" name instead of "Lancer" is very strange and I couldn't find any reliable source to explain it

Interesting…

 

This thread on BM from Shaun says that the Lancer was renamed Excalibur when the RAF procured it to replace the Vulcan but I think it's a WHIF?

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The A-90 in Moscow was towed up from Kaspiysk on the rivers Volga and Moskva and placed on display as if in 'flight'......

 

I photographed it over the years as it was made ready for display....

 

2007 - not long after its arrival - still in its original colours...

 

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You could photgraph it over the fence....

 

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In 2009 it was on display (but not open to the public) - painted in its original 'civilian' colours - albeit slightly incorrectly..

 

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... from the opposite bank..

 

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In 2011 it was supposedly open - but we couldn't get aboard due to 'safety concerns'... (note the ship in the background)

 

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In 2012 it was beginning to show signs of neglect...

 

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Remember that ship in the background..?? - in 2017 I went on a river cruise down the Volga from St Petersburg to Moscow - and where did we berth

in Moscow - right opposite the A-90 - I was overjoyed and took these from our ship...

 

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Great work on the Orlyonok Jaime - it's coming along nicely.... :thumbsup:

 

FWIW - the Revell/Zvezda kit is totally inaccurate around the cockpit and nose intakes - fixable, if you are interested...

 

http://www.flankers-site.co.uk/modl_a-90.html

 

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Happy Ekranoplanning - and stay safe

 

Ken (sorry if I've butted in too much)...

 

 

 

 

 

 

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4 hours ago, CedB said:

Interesting…

 

This thread on BM from Shaun says that the Lancer was renamed Excalibur when the RAF procured it to replace the Vulcan but I think it's a WHIF?

3 hours ago, alt-92 said:

I still think the 617 Sqn markings look smart on that though.... 

I believe the RAF version is a What-if. The story I've read elsewhere is that "Excalibur" was a brand of condoms and the USAF thought it better to change the name to "Lancer". Possibly spurious. It seems the air crews didn't like "Lancer" and called it "Bones".

 

1 hour ago, Flankerman said:

Great work on the Orlyonok Jaime - it's coming along nicely.... :thumbsup:

 

FWIW - the Revell/Zvezda kit is totally inaccurate around the cockpit and nose intakes - fixable, if you are interested...

Ken, thanks for the pictures and appreciation! I'm afraid I'm almost finished with the kit, I won't be able to make any modifications to the front area now... By the way, great work on your A-90! I'm doing the same scheme (nº 21, with the eagle on the fuselage).

 

Cheers

 

Jaime

 

 

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  • 2 months later...

Hi again,

 

After a long period with limited time to post here in BM, I'm finally able to get back to updating this thread. In the meantime, I managed to finish the build but I still have to take proper pictures of the finished model.

 

So, in the last update I was preparing to take care of the seams of the nose air intakes. I did this by first applying generous doses of Perfect Plastic Putty (PPP):

y4m9ZlxYu5cnVD-kJmYZakkB16nNDUr-Fd6vynVe

IMAG6621

 

I also applied PPP on the exhaust of the back propeller engine:

y4mu864jSLpCAm_LF7_m_YqdyWblDU80gqm6SFBn

IMAG6622

 

and around the main landing gear:

y4mA1dUd5bSAM9hIirZ9keuKAhTuQFOTK8zlhVo6

IMAG6623

 

After cleaning the excess PPP around the nose intakes, this was the result. It was an improvement but, in retrospect, I should have tried harder:

y4mUgCryPkMo9FNyn7Js9v8-e9UUMtAqFlnjdyK_

IMAG6624

 

y4mnpEC6DM2DkGDW5Cr987hlp5WGltz_yGVomWmr

IMAG6625

 

y4mL_W5eys48-cKy7UvOFlKYegQ2pduU4hyUly8I

IMAG6626

 

I should have also improve the rear exhaust a lot more. Just applying PPP was not enough:

y4mQNQnQSfhq_tWijMzq3R5Kpbq7sJwr8M_b9mii

IMAG6627

 

The area around the main landing gear, on the other hand, looked good enough:

y4mUC7nvkdSE4ZvfEcrAMdfViobc0zyKxF9OvcBg

IMAG6628

 

I also installed the windscreen, which had been painted with black primer on the back side:

y4mFSImPGQWBiYtHvdGqMjzDuKlF-w1u08nZNStz

IMAG6629

 

and masked it:

y4m9MgA4679EGEkV2FG8Tr9J8bXVJOHjkmyXxbgj

IMAG6630

 

The joins along the fuselage were then sanded, polished and PPP applied to take care of seams. After that, I glued the wings and tail plane in place:

y4mJtO7FA9XqkAXr9Am6ULqPJ6DcaUjEzShLFTkr

IMAG6640

 

The wing-fuselage joins required serious attention:

y4mHYCJ4btTkTaf_GUX9ohoOqsi9lD2Aq_gjkubI

IMAG6655

 

y4mp46l6d-FK_KFuCD3c_ldhHvFxV1sZUUGPse4I

IMAG6656

 

After treatment with PPP, this was the result:

y4m8ex03AmiZLWTtKedRTkFBuvQO46Iuy4c-YuAi

IMAG6658

 

y4mHmR5HWhNvY1TWu40KSiA9uraeVCf3qXZKUDBw

IMAG6659

 

y4m27QpcxBOnkyM-m0KSwRyCG9tZxCL962HIW9D7

IMAG6660

 

The joins between the tail plane and fin also needed care:

y4mcVE2-ZIrRybLFG3njNBrF1smN4qiX9gZt-UbK

IMAG6657

 

Result after PPP:

y4myPT9GmL08U53EN-VlWCgbCqBUMflcpNK4AHKm

IMAG6661

 

y4mzVb1ege5erT78PkoJLbM0KXy5B_6hBPF_sjuc

IMAG6662

 

One of the antennae on the top of the fuselage had to be repaired, because it was broken on one of the fuselage halves. This was done with thin plastic sheet (possibly 0,25 mm-thick):

y4mwkQ3egxjbrzB5MftgqB-4506NBolziWkaHB_n

IMAG6663

 

The excess plastic was removed:

y4mAqyTJUMCbL19kEq_dRJMOUFvp9rVZZXywUIwf

IMAG6664

 

That's all for now. Thanks for looking.

 

Cheers

 

Jaime

 

 

 

 

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6 minutes ago, CedB said:

Nice work Jaime, there's certainly a lot of filling going on there! :) 

 

Big, isn't it?

Thanks Ced! It's indeed quite big at 40 cm long and 21,5 cm wing span. And the scale is 1/144, half my usual 1/72.

 

Cheers

 

Jaime

 

 

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Hi again,

 

Continuing with the update, the model was primed with Alclad Black Primer and Microfiler but some additional seam treatment was needed, as can be seen in this picture:

y4myhGGaURfq1-TO_LNOiaGaTshIUspx7MK86DOj

IMAG6689

 

The area around the rear engine exhaust was painted Alclad Burnt Iron and masked:

y4mfc63DT0t4_VoqpMlD8oBrUr33EHn3Hol8Tx1-

IMAG6694

 

The inside of the exhaust was painted Alcald Gunmetal and also masked:

y4majkCauX256a1ZR0jtSDEyD6_Fq6ZNRxFPwj6x

IMAG6695

 

I decided to try with this model the black base technique, using black primer, which should provide more realistic look. The first step now, to provide some tonal variance, was applying a light grey mottling on the inside of the panels:

y4mp4jbMvnbAbiQDSkOA0iIYjR0P9Qa3zAx_3dZT

IMAG6696

 

y4mHIDMSeloSgA9t08_fxzT_yu0iW9FHxCRegIfA

IMAG6697

 

Next, I painted the model with the camouflage colour, also a light grey (Gunze H306). The paint was applied in a mottling pattern again, so the first mottling was a bit redundant. Probably I should have applied the camouflage colour as a continuous, very thin, transparent layer, to let the underlying mottling provide the tonal variance. I tried this with my B-1 "Excalibur" build, which I still have to post.

 

So, here is the result after painting:

y4m5OHHsVmhCPTIztHSrT0zpS2TXoEbT2WwT_PFX

IMAG6701

 

y4meoXLwtNCPWuloJFm2wzA3jXYJNsRkys47EUgv

IMAG6702

 

Thanks for looking.

 

Cheers

 

Jaime

 

 

 

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It isn't the 'Caspian Sea Monster' Adrian - that's the much bigger 'KM'.......

 

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Note the 1/144 scale Tu-95 'Bear' for size comparison.......

 

It is quite big in 1/72 scale..... my scratched A-90 next to my Modelsvit An-124 at Telford 2015....

 

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There was a plan to carry the A-90 piggy back on top of the An-225 - to carry it to any corner of the world, where the A-90 would separate to fly to its

destination - a kind of Soviet 'International Rescue'..........

 

Great work so far Jaime - it's looking great...

Ken

 

 

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Another update.

 

The rims of the nose air-intakes are red. I had to mask the area before painting. For that I used 1 mm-wide strips of Tamiya masking tape. First, I masked around the external edge of the rims:

y4mvzkGJ9iPgVdjl0CZhQw4fdqB-0fTuP-QPb8mr

IMAG6709

 

y4mhvZalSkcO_Q-AwOjlpyQxVK590Q70uUy243d0

IMAG6710

 

Next, I masked around the inner edge, which was a bit difficult to do:

y4mvWJAlGkTRcfzcwrvaucyYedkgfP_1rAq7_xFm

IMAG6711

 

The inside of the air-intakes was protected with a mix of masking tape and blu-tack:

y4mIWC9gUGs08MyoVwD7eG6FUSaRqkSjjz6sprMW

IMAG6712

 

To make sure no spills would stain the rest of the painting, I completely protected the model with kitchen cling-film:

y4mpBW3kThYiJKHz-YHGFgnIEf9FYJvNN4xgxD_z

IMAG6714

 

The painting started with the application of white matt paint, which serves as a white primer before the red colour is applied:

y4mITbLvIDP_rmD0ioc-gTCrmZinF5hCL4zsVXC9

IMAG6715

 

Finally, the red was applied and the masking removed after letting the paint dry for a day:

y4m8XmNG-bCF0yo4BPF3nIVUg-EkgrPMhDnKbAav

IMAG6716

 

Some touch-ups with very diluted Grey H306 were done and then I painted the wheels with Tyre Black by paintbrush:

y4mKwM33VwojY3ynnIBeyUT0-C8q_Q03VJF1QWwt

IMAG6717

 

Thanks for looking

 

Cheers

 

Jaime

 

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39 minutes ago, CedB said:

Nice work Jaime - that tricky masking really paid off! :) 

Thank you Ced. It was really tricky. I used the flexible 2 mm-wide Tamyia masking tape, cut along its length to make 1 mm-wide strips. It's very flexible and bends nicely along complex curves.

 

Cheers

 

Jaime

 

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Next step: decals.

 

A gloss coat of Microgloss was applied to the model before the decals.

 

Here's the setup for the job:

y4mSZVrIS3T8aqpt_XqChmaIwlLN8H07HjrToGDA

IMAG6722

 

There weren't too many decals to apply and they didn't present any special problems. Here's the end result:

y4mgocisxVPJXGwimkivCUoSbjAGAihMwmCE2IxS

IMAG6725

 

y4mkpaCCFG1-jzyF6mnLle9fbJAKmXc_F3OT1C5A

IMAG6726

 

y4mhyHOGR-Cx7rTUfG27hR6Zc9dHZF8_jjkZc5mB

IMAG6727

 

Decals also had to be applied to the leading edges of the propeller blades. These were a bit more tricky to apply:

y4meQxWumid1a0ItAlNVaS6l404MuUmPlb1sE-TM

IMAG6728

 

Here's a detail of the vertical fin ensigns:

y4mjIe_o1v2lv1wQWskQ69vccpvLgO9Ry8lmKyhy

IMAG6732

 

A new coat of Microgloss was applied before proceding to the weathering phase.

 

The weathering relies mostly on a dark grey wash, for which I used a Vallejo acrylic wash. Here's the setup:

y4mPUHZkBD6hRZ9-YK8EBT8uTB6h9V9QCBYZy50L

IMAG6733

 

End result:

y4mHQHbpgoKUme-H7kCvXWuyIpaYYdkNHnfOaU-6

IMAG6734

 

A final Alclad Flat coat was applied to the model:

y4mD3Z0ZFg68uHQgql2FfyOKidGLhSEV-oe6Ozj5

IMAG6737

 

y4mmft0Dn1Z1Mmu6t4TTwetLd2Gk_NrhV6uvHtNB

IMAG6738

 

y4mSSrwChUkRCzj7jjvn5PVnyM44rX-5e9gP_GTs

IMAG6742


Detail of a wing. The texture of the surface, which is not smooth, contributes to the effect of the wash:

y4mkW0CCsR8zieVRSeefqRnqqOo4k6_LTs80OnGy

IMAG6739

 

Detail of the tail:

y4m2_gSGODxbe24z2K7GhOHU5dS5CiX1nOku6JlD

IMAG6740

 

Detail of the front section:

y4mHNvFm6uKwCOzdjS6zdJOgWWTt_lPDP9vSNBW1

IMAG6741

 

Cheers

 

Jaime

 

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4 minutes ago, CedB said:

Very, very nice Jaime. An excellent result.

It’ll be a great addition to the collection. 

Thank you very much Ced! Very kind words :)

 

Cheers

 

Jaime

 

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Hello again,

 

While trying to remove the masking from the nose air-intake grids, an accident occurred: I applied to much force and the starboard grid unglued and let itself loose inside the fuselage:

y4mC2XxtngBcyGq5LLy2pC2eRivZE4rQPVhBDBy6

IMAG6744

 

I stopped and let the model rest for some time, while thinking about a possible way to recover the grid. It should be noted that the diameter of the piece is larger than the diameter of the opening, so it doesn't fall to the outside of the model.

 

Since the masking tape was still covering the external face of the grid piece, I decided to "fish" it with a blob of blu-tak on the tip of a toothpick, with some CA glue on the blu-tak:

y4m8prRnxPouscTJc0AAcRoIgHz9Mvkz2bh0pi8o

IMAG6745

 

First, I had to make the piece slide to the opening, with the masked side facing up. Then used the toothpick and blu-tak to "fish" it.

y4msActNFIwJwS6LE3q4E-KpXpoVMUlaX7F97f6R

IMAG6746

 

Since the blu-tak became glued to the masking tape, I could adjust the position of the piece on the opening and finally glue it in the correct position using TET:

y4m7X8ewv36ZsboC05it486Qt2FlWSOnr2_mGl8d

IMAG6747

 

Here it is, recovered and in place. Of course, I damaged the painting around this area:

y4mOlKdl0YMVuVfXjtQYDaZoa-oCXWnVcTMYNdBs

IMAG6755

 

After repairing the painting, here's the model ready for the next steps:

y4m4zseDBzCocvNicPBlLX5luV_EypbOR4jmF1dA

IMAG6762

 

Next, I unmasked the front engines' exhaust areas:

y4m5zZwsqHwaWJaP5RHhgbCW1UtUmm5aQxnKfN28

IMAG6757

 

... the metallic areas on the tail:

y4m8DDFRVoNZOs3YRn7UkFc4JeklGCwyvhQ9ueOa

IMAG6758

 

and the tail engine exhaust:

y4mljEtw2dwl-HZpw0ujtagXAFXN3_7ykfNiMWEp

IMAG6759

 

The front engines' exhausts were glued in place:

y4moL87NvWgL1MW_EMKF-Q56FGNZ_5_R1UVgWgMM

IMAG6761

 

The propellers were also unmasked after being coated matte on the hub and semi-gloss on the blades:

y4maQDEFPB-hiKPt27M51igrFyA67SPiiGfLjD2f

IMAG6760

 

There are still a few steps before finishing but I'll leave them for another post.

 

Thanks for looking.

 

Jaime

 

 

 

 

 

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Wow, great save on the grid! Good tip… :) 

 

The unmasked detail looks great too, especially those props - good job!

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