Modelsvit 1:72 Antonov 225 Mriya

[Wolfhound32]

3 hours ago, Marklo said:

I’m afraid I am an Engineer 👩‍💻  

 

What about packing the inside of the piston with a cylindrical slug of something spongy ie punched out rubber sheet or packing foam, even cotton wool would give you a bit of compliance. You can get 1 or 2 mm metal punches very cheaply from eBay.

 

Oh and btw amazing work. I struggle to make two identical assemblies for anything, your skill and patience are an example to us all.

Thanks for your compliments Marklo! 

And thanks for the tips, I will try some of your ideas👍!

[Wolfhound32]

Ok, on with the gear-project.

Did I mentioned that there are still some tiny additional parts left to be attached to the gears? No?

Ok, there are still some tiny additional parts left to be attached to the gears.

 

I'm talking about these tiny parts (get your microscope ready):

 

And this is where they need to be attached:

 

I think these are little pistons that can raise and lower the bogies of the gear..? 

So I cutted out the parts very carefully, as they are very fragile.

 

And now comes the tricky part.

The biggest axle (the upper one) must be attached on the upper side of the hinge, and the little axle must be attached to the front side of the bogie pivot point.

After that the little pistons must be attached to these axles...

But: I can't attach them to the lower axle, as the bogie must be able to hinge for the adjustable height!

So a tricky job to get them in the correct position, and watch out with the thin cement before it runs through little pivot points.

This is how it looks:

 

Ok, repeat this six times for the other gears and on to a dry/test fit of all the gears in the wheel bay.

I want to check if all the gears fit and I want to test the adjustable height..

 

First I studied the manual very well, as all my numbered and sorted gears will be all placed together in the wheel bay.

 

 

As you see, all kinds of numbers on all kinds of positions. 

 

I don't want to sort out left and right gears afterwards because I forgot the numbers or something..

So I numbered the positions on the wheel bay with tape.

Most of the gears fit well, but some had to be sanded on the outer edges to prevent the ribs from bending outwards. 

This is how it looks with all the gears dry fitted in the wheel bay:

 

And now in the correct position:

...and this is a little milestone in this gear project  ! Yess! Impressive construction... and still there need to be a suspension system added to it. 

 

Front view with level placed on the mid section:

 

Now an adjustable height test.

Right gears fully extracted and left fully retracted:

 

 

Aft gears fully retracted and front gears fully extracted, as if the fuselage is tilted backwards:

 

Works fine! And as said, there is 0,5 cm room for height. All gears fully extracted:

 

And fully retracted:

 

So tested successfully, only need to test some kind of shock absorption for the pistons of the gears to make them level automatically. 

Marklo mentioned some options above, so to be continued.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

[Wolfhound32]

39 minutes ago, Moa said:

[Gondor44]

That's aone heck of an enginering project by itself, let along the rest of the build!

 

Gondor

[Wolfhound32]

I apologise that I continue this (maybe already very) boring story about the An-225 landing gear construction.

But I can explain why, here some cold hard facts about this huge kit.

 

It has a total of 975 parts, from which 642 parts () are only landing gear...

 

Yes, 642 parts only landing gear.

 

The 6 engines 'only' consists of 150 parts, and the flightdeck has a laughable 40 parts.

The rest of the parts of the kit are the fuselage-wings-tail parts, photoetch, lights, vents etc.

 

So, I'm sorry but I will keep boring you with the landing gear construction for a while.

For those who are still interested and are still patient with me: Cheers!!

 

So, on with the gear-story.

First I did a test fit of the wheel bay under the fuselage:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Looks good, and most of the gears stand firm on the surface. Only some are slightly lifted upwards (photo 4), but it's good to know I can adjust those gears in height so it can be corrected.

As the gears are kinda 'wobbly' this way, it's time to add some suspension for strength.

 

I already had the 2 types of suspension ready, these are the triangled bars which will be attached into the ribs of the bay and on the side of the 14 gears:

 

 

The manual is very straight (literally!) about these parts: Just cement them together in a straight line.

I don't trusted this (I learned from other mistakes in this manual), so I will test fit the suspension-construction first. maybe they need to be positioned not straight but in a slight angle..?

 

But; how do I dry-fit loose parts? I can't cement anything before I know the right angle and distance from wheel bay to the gear.

Solution: little axles on the pivot points of the hinge parts, just like the gears.

 

One thing: the suspension parts are very tiny and fragile, so I had to drill holes very carefully..

The first gear succeeded perfectly:

 

 

As you see, there is a slight angle in the suspension..

 

 

As you can see, I now have gears that can be adjusted in height ánd be retracted!!

So on with the other gears.

But my luck only lasted for 2 other gears:

..and then things started to get wrong.

 

As I said, the parts were just too fragile and tiny. So I started drilling holes out of position, and some parts broke. I managed to make 5 gears retractable, after that I stopped.

I also thought: why make these gears retractable, as I need sturdy gears with enough strength to carry the 3 kilos weight of this behemoth?

It's just better to cement them in the correct position.

So nice try, but the suspension won't be retractable anymore, end of this mini-project.

 

To get the right angle for the suspension between wheel bay and gear, I first need to position the gear with wheels on the ground. This way the complete gear will 'settle' itself onto the surface, so I can measure and see the suspension-angle.

So I dry-fitted all the wheels to the gears, and positioned the wheel bay into the fuselage.

Another little milestone in this project: the behemoth sits on its wheels for the first time:

 

 

 

 

Looks great! As you can see, some of the wheels are slightly out of line compared to the others, but that's because of the dry-fit. This can be corrected later.

A little scale comparison with 1:72 figures (sorry, I just like that😞

 

 

So, next time the construction of the suspension. To be continued!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

Unbelievable. It makes my head spin just to look at that complexity.

Excellent figure size comparison, it provides a precise idea of how immense this plane is.

[Wolfhound32]

Here a little update after a month.

 

Ok, no gear this time. 

I want to continue with the flightdeck and nose section for a change. 
This photo I found on the Internet inspired me:

 

https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.gettyimages.com%2Fdetail%2Fnews-photo%2Fpilot-waves-a-ukrainian-flag-from-the-cockpit-window-after-news-photo%2F531488262&psig=AOvVaw36SPUUFCx4hQmukS5aZpuO&ust=1606161885680000&source=images&cd=vfe&ved=0CAIQjRxqFwoTCKiT0L_5lu0CFQAAAAAdAAAAABAD

 

The FO waving an Ukrainian flag from the cockpit window after arrival at Perth, Australia. Looks great to recreate this scene, as it will add some 'action' to the model later.

I will give it a try to see if that's possible; if not, I will make the normal closed window version.

 

So I went through my pilots and figures-spare box and created 2 sitting pilots from different arm, body and leg parts (sounds horrible eh?).
Here's an impression of how it will look like:

 

An important thing to check:

As the flightdeck will be attached into the rough inner fiberglass nose section, I need to check the correct height from the seats and figures relative to the height of the flightdeck windows. 
The pilots have to able to look through the windows:

That's no problem.

 

For the pilot I used the sitting figure with the 'Aussie'-hat that I use for scale comparison before:

Here you can see I already gave him another head and arm position. It looks terrible here with gaps and paint-stripped, but it can be corrected easily later on this tiny scale.

 

In this case, it will be the Captain who holds the flag out of the window as the CO doesn't have the right arm position for holding a flag.

And changing their positions doesn't look correct as they tend to look at each other instead of looking out of the windows.
I marked the position of the side window on the nose so I can position the Captain's arm in the correct angle and direction:

 

 

Right arm holding the glareshield, so his left arm can support the flag out of the window better:

 

Very important to check and dry fit the complete nose section to the fuselage first.

Once the flightdeck is cemented to the fiberglass inner nose the complete construction will become more fragile and I don't want to do a lot of sanding and measuring afterwards.
So at first glance the fit looks good: (note: the big 'gap' is correct, the kit contains 2 parts for that😞

 

..also the underside seems to fit well..

 

..and the other side. 

 

But after that I added the transparent windows part to look how everything fits together, and closer inspection reveals:

That the nose section doesn't fit very well! The lower part of the nose doesn't fit anymore!?

 

Look at this:

 

 

And the transparent part doesn't fit also:

This will not do. 
Time for some brainstorming on how to fix this problem.

The panel lines on the fuselage and nose section don't match either.

 

In the manual everything fits perfectly, looking at this side view..

 

 

Ok, back to the flightdeck.

As the Antonov Airlines crew mostly wear blue flight suits I 'dressed them up' with some paint and added patches on the sleeves:

 

 

 

 

Back again to the nose fit.

As the transparent part doesn't fit well, I thought of using the spare fiberglass windows part of my other An-124 kit:

After all, these nose sections are equal in size and I personally cut off this part from the 124 nose, so this has to fit! And behold.. 

 

The transparent part really has a poor fit:

 

 

It looks like the fiberglass part fits better, and it's easier to sand and fill the gaps.

...but it's not transparent as the original part so how can I use the fiberglass part..?

I had an idea.

I used the spare adhesive An-225 window mask sheet as a 'mold' on the fiberglass part, so I can spray the correct windows on the part.

After that I can remove this windows and fabricate transparent fitting windows.. 
But after a check i found out that this spare mask has too big sized windows:

Looks nice but not the right size.

 

You can compare the space between the windows, just not the right size.

 

So I took the spare adhesive An-124 window mask set and look at this, it's the right size!

 

I sprayed the masks black on the part, so I have the correct positions of all the windows:

 

 

Looks good, the 225 finally has a face!!

 

And it fits much better as the original transparent part!

 

But now comes the trick; a lot of careful drilling and sanding and rasping to create open windows...

 

Looks quite good, but I have my doubts.. It's quite a challenge to fabricate fitting windows for this part... 

 

 

To be continued!

 

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

Amazing work, and extraordinary dedication to accuracy, engineering and detail.

And working in this massive scale! the muscles you may have developed!

When I saw the fiberglass spare I though you would use it to vacuform a clear part, instead of carving the windows out.

Great job overall!

Cheers

 

[Wolfhound32]

@Moa: Thanks for your compliments!

I developed some muscles for sure😄

 

Vacuform a clear part... that’s a nice option! Thanks, if everything else should fail I could give that a try.

[roginoz]

Strongly suggest you remove the Airliners.net photo and replace it with a link.

 

Airliners.net get very copyright conscious about the use of their pictures on other sites, and BM could end up in strife. FYI.

 

great build, I'm enjoying the way you sort out the problems with this behemoth !

Rog 

[Wolfhound32]

@roginoz: 👍Ok thanks, I removed the picture. 
And thanks for the compliments! 

[Markyp2015]

Just bought the Revell 144 scale version. Hope its a bit easier than this one  Very nice build tho

[Wolfhound32]

@Markyp2015: Thanks! Your Revell Mriya will be easier to assemble.. the gear for sure😉! Good luck with the build! 

[Alex1978]

Just found this thread.Absolutely amazing.

I have the halve size Revell kit and this is already huge,but this one is a leviathan.

I would have no idea where to display it,let alone the workspace to build this thing.😉

 

I will follow this with interest anyway.

 

 

[Wolfhound32]

Hi fellow modelers, here another update of the An-225 project after 2 months of absence. 

 

As it's been a while since I worked on this giant kit, I decided to start with construction of the nose gear. 

I need to know how much added weight the Mriya needs in it's nose before assembling the nose section with flightdeck to the fuselage later.

To test the correct amount of added weight, I need to make a complete 'dry' setup of the kit. With tail section, gear, engines etc so I won't be disappointed after complete assembly with a big tailsitter.

 

This is what the manual says about the nose gear parts:

 

Ah... another little challenge. As you can see, the 2 main struts(15) are suspended in the 4 little 'eyes with stud connections' (Y5). That's all..

The support arms (Y11 + Y3) have no support function in this construction.

So I hope the noseweight will be just enough to prevent a nose gear collapse! 

 

I started to glue the 2 gear bays(36) onto the main rib(J1).

 

These are the assembled main struts

 

The next picture deserves some explanation.

As all the parts needed to be assembled at once, I made a support so I could dryfit all the parts in the right position and angle with tweezers.

after that I used a needle with droplets of glue to join the parts together.

 

Time for a testfit in the nose section:

 

 

 

Note: The lower piston-parts of the struts are still movable and adjustable; this is needed for the final assembly and positioning of the Mriya to get the giant level on the surface. 

 

I also had to fit the rib into the scratchbuilt 'weight-table'. (The part i made for supporting the noseweight)

This immediately solves a problem: it prevents the rib of coming loose from the nose section with heavy nose weight!

 

 

 

A quick testfit on the fuselage. The complete rib construction dissappears behind the closed gear doors!

 

 

 

So, on to the point of adding nose weight.

I used long M13 bolts, because 

-you can keep adding weights (nuts, rings)

-the length divides the weight, so it's not all concentrated on 1 point.

 

I drilled holes for the bolts in the flightdeck support rib:

 

This way the bolts are sitting firm on the support table with their flat sides.

On the screw thread side of the bolts I added M13 rings and wingnuts.

 

Now the nose weight is firmly secured.

It's quite heavy already! Heavy enough to keep the complete nose section in balance..

 

 

I decided to test this amount of nose weight.

Time to assemble the complete An-225 with tape for a balancing test!

First the flightdeck.

 

It all fits nicely with the support table:

 

Taped the nose section to the fuselage

 

Later on 4 nosewheels(!) will be attached to these struts:

 

And the tailsection is added to the fuselage.

 

I decided to do the test without the still fragile and not yet finished main gear section, as this is a risk. I first want to finish the complete main gear before I break something.

So I took a woodblock for testing, this way I can safely test too much weight.

 

 

Here I added the wings to the fuselage...

 

With the woodblock moved to the front still not a tailsitter:

 

..and with the woodblock moved to the rear it starts to nosedive a little. So i'm quite satisfied with this weight!

 

And now with all the engines added. The model keeps getting heavier..

I also needed to add space on my workbench due to the width of the wings, so I placed an extra shelf on my workbench.

 

Also here, with woodblock moved to the rear, still nice balanced.

 

And with the woodblock moved to the front it tends a little backwards.

 

So I think this nose weight is good enough to keep this big boy level on the surface when it's finished. The real test will come when I will attach the complete gears with wheels, but I can still adjust the weight before I definitely join the nose section to the fuselage.

 

But... After the test I suddenly thought of a problem..

What if I decide to make the Le Bourget Mriya with Buran version?? What kind of total weight will that be? Will the gear be able to carry that extra weight? Questions..

 

So I took my 1:72 Space Shuttle from the B747 with Space Shuttle project, and I decided to do a test.

I have an unbuilt 1:72 Buran, so that is not the complete weight yet; the Shuttle is also not the real weight as it is bigger and it has the tailcone attached, but it is assembled so it represents the 'correct' weight.

 

 

 

 

Well, with the Shuttle the model is a real heavyweight!! I don't think the gear will hold.. 

So I think I will choose the modern Mriya version. In case of a gear-collapse I won't be able to repair the multiple parts gear construction. 

Only if there's an aftermarket gear set for this behemoth, made of steel and nylon parts, just as my Anigrand C-5A gear, I will think of making the Buran version.

 

Maybe this is the reason why Modelvit still hasn't produced their promised "Limited Edition An-225 with Buran' set...?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Alex1978]

Impressive.👍👏

Very inspiring work you make here.

I am currently working on and off my AN-225 with the Buran,although in 1/144,which is still a huge model.

 

This looks awesome and surely will consume a LOT of shelfspace

[Sgt.Squarehead]

On 6/14/2020 at 1:12 AM, Wolfhound32 said:

This topic is about my latest project in progress, the Modelsvit 1:72 Antonov 225 Mriya.

Enjoy!

**** Me! 

 

Couldn't you find anything bigger? 

 

Gobsmacked that such a kit even exists, fascinated to see what you do with it. 

[Wolfhound32]

17 hours ago, Alex1978 said:

I am currently working on and off my AN-225 with the Buran,although in 1/144,which is still a huge model.

Thanks Alex! 

Nice, a Buran in 1:144... is it resin? 

[Wolfhound32]

13 hours ago, Sgt.Squarehead said:

Couldn't you find anything bigger? 

 

Thanks Sgt.Squarehead!

 

No, I couldn’t find anything bigger no.... 

I think this is quite the limit in scale 1:72. 

 

I do have the Amodel Spruce Goose  kit, but even that is not as big as this Mriya.

 

 

[Alex1978]

4 minutes ago, Wolfhound32 said:

Thanks Alex! 

Nice, a Buran in 1:144... is it resin? 

No.Its an injection moulded kit from Ark Models.

Their first own tooling.Its a superb model with great decals.Highly recommended

[Wolfhound32]

@Alex1978:

Ok! 
Modelsvit announced that with the ‘Limited Edition 225 with Buran’ a highly detailed tiles-decal will be included.

 

I have the Amodel Buran in 1:72, but that’s a rather basic PVC-like molded fuselage with wings already attached, and NO details. Just very basic..

 

If you’re interested, I found a Russian site  literally everything about the Buran:

http://www.buran.ru/htm/flight.htm
 

Just keep clicking all the hyperlinks.. from flightplans to tile-plans, detailed pictures etc. 

 

 

 

[Wolfhound32]

Hi everyone, after some busy months I started modeling again on the 225 project. 

I had some home renovation to do, I found another job and in the meantime I tried to start another 1:72 project.. which I quit again due to the very bad quality of the kit.

It is the 'Replica's by JC' 1:72 MD-80 kit. 

Some photos:

The kit box

 

The kit (a very strange kind of resin.. very brittle, greasy and it smells very bad!

 

Some parts are missing and lacking detail 

 

The blobs of resin are pilots (..), and a transparent thin vacform cockpit window part. Doesn't fit also.

Besides... nice challenge to attach a thin flexible part to a thick resin fuselage!

 

The manual

 

...and this is my work until now.

I quit this project for now as I just don't know yet how to make a real-looking nose on this Mad Dog, and that is almost the most important part of the model!

 

I ordered the 1:72 American Airlines MD-80 decal sheet at DrawDecal, as I want to make the iconic shiny bare metal AA MD-80 version:

 

 

Well, when I want to finish it I will place a new topic here. Until now it's back to the An-225 project!

 

Yesterday evening I looked at the 225 fuselage on the shelf and I thought: Ok, let's go on with this project! I just want to see it finished.

So I started with the landing gear project. It's the most difficult thing to assemble, and there's a lot of parts still waiting to be attached.

 

I made the gear construction semi-retractable. Nice, I thought, but why...?

If you think about it, it only makes things more complicate with this kit:

-the kit is too big for constantly showing people 'the gear is retractable

-I need to attach additional parts to the gear that will obstruct the retract movement (parts W1 + H15):

 

 

-If all the parts are glued together the total construction will form a stronger whole, and that's necessary for the weight of the kit.

 

 

The only parts that I will not glue together are the pistons of the gears; adjustable height of the wheels is always useful, as some of the wheels need to be adjusted to touch the surface.

One thing I will do also is keeping the total main gear construction detachable from the fuselage. 

As I want to take this model to scale model exhibitions I want to protect the gear during travel.

 

So I first started a 'dry' setup of the main gear before using glue.

It all needs to be pefectly level and all the gears placed in a right angle to the bay (90').

I took a wooden turntable and placed it level on my workbench. Then I clamped a glass plate to it to be sure it's a perfectly smooth and level surface.

On the glass plate I placed a sheet of fine sanding paper, so the gear struts can't slide sidewards during levelling.

I placed the gear on the sanding paper and levelled all the struts and placed them in a straight line by adding an aluminium rail to the sides of the axes.

Now everything is level and I added drops of glue to almost every part, except the pistons.

 

 

 

(The wheel was necessary to level the bay )

 

So...on to adding all the remaining parts of the gears. To be continued!

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Wolfhound32]

Hi everyone, after some busy months back again with some progress with this kit.

 

Again on with the never ending gear-story. Yes, there are still parts to be added to this complex construction. 

This time parts that need to 'carry' the folded gear bay doors, parts V4 + V6:

 

 

A strange part as it doesn't fit clearly, I couldn't find attachment points.

It just hangs there on the struts, and difficult to keep in position.

After some dry-fitting I discovered some minimal, almost invisible detachment points.. See the red circles:

 

And these are the pins:

 

So I managed to fit them in position with very little glue. I had to keep notice which one I needed (V4 or V6), as the pins were in mirrored position. 

But this is the result:

 

 

 

So, on with the other parts of the gear.

This time parts no. Z5 and Z1:

 

I wonder what's the use of these rods in the real lifesize gear of the 225; it seems they 'push' against the upper side of the gear bay..? Whatever. They are parts that need to be attached, so I did.

I first detached the tiny fragile rods from the sprue, and sorted them ready for attachment:

 

To be sure that the rods indeed 'press' against the upper side of the gear bay, I taped the upper plate to the gear construction (without glue) so I can check the position of the rods:

 

 

And this is what it looks like:

 

I noticed that the gear becomes stronger by adding all these parts. 

It becomes quite like a 'honeycomb'-structure; lightweight but sturdy.

I think I'm becoming more confident that the gear-construction will sufficiently support the weight of this kit..

 

 

Another question that kept my mind busy with this kit was:

What is the position of the stabilo, flaps and tailrudder of this giant when it's in parking position on the platform?

Does it have flaps extended, or stabilo dropped for example?

I couldn't find any clear pictures until last week, when I found this picture:

https://www.planephotos.net/photo/7648/Antonov-Airlines_Antonov-An-225-Mriya_UR-82060/

 

The stabilo is slightly dropped and the outer flaps are dropped also.

So I decided to make the tail more life-like with a slightly dropped stabilo!

First I carefully cutted the parts loose with a fine resin saw tool:

 

I removed the pointed parts from the tail again for better cutting, sanding and attaching the parts later on.

During cutting some tiny parts of gel-coating broke from the fiberglass parts, but that's no problem. It can be solved with sanding and filling.

 

 

The tail became weaker now it has loosen it's overall strength a bit..

 

So I made it sturdy again by adding 020" thick Evergreen Plasticard to the sides:

 

 

After that I made sides for the separate parts:

 

 

 

I removed the excess material, and sanded the sides smooth:

 

Now I need to repair the edges from the tail with some filler and sand them smooth.

A dry fit of how the completed tail will look like:

 

On with the outer flaps!

 

 

 

 

[iaf-man]

Antwork,excellent!!!!!!

one remark-the flying surfaces you cut should have airfoil leading edge and not straight

but if noone can see-doesn't matter