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Modelsvit 1:72 Antonov 225 Mriya


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11 hours ago, iaf-man said:

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

:)Thank you iaf-man!

 

Yes, you're right.. I was thinking of making the real airfoil leading edges.

But as you said no one will ever see the straight edges, as they will disappear in the tail after construction.

It would become an issue when the stabilo would be adjustable.

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5 hours ago, Back in the Saddle said:

Incredible work, really enjoyed reading this thread!

 

Great save on the fans. 👍

 

Look forward to seeing this come together.

👍Thank you Back in the Saddle!

 

 

 

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  • 3 months later...

Hi everyone!

It's been a while, but to be honoust I was a little done with the everlasting 'AN-225 gear'project:mental:.

I tried to get the Mriya finished before october the 20th, because I was aiming to participate in the SMC 2021 competition here in The Netherlands, but Corona ruined it. 

The show was cancelled, and maybe better for me because I would never have finished on time, and that would have ruined this kit.

 

So I took an 'Antonov'-break and I'm busy with another 'big' 1:72 project, which I will post here on Britmodeller as soon as it's finished.

But I made some progression with the 225 in run-up tot the SMC, so you know the project is only on hold for a while, I will continue it for sure!

 

 

Ok, back to the everlasting landing gear.

I will open up a bottle of champagne as soon that part is finished, what a load of intricate parts:crosseyed:..

This time some parts for the landing gear panels, some kind of 'ribs':

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The parts U5 and U4, S4 and S3, here is the sprue:

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..and also these kind of 'hinges' with axles (parts V1 and V2, and parts S2 and S6):

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Well, another precision project.. The hinges and axles need to be attached to eachother in an (tri-)angle. 

No problem, I'm getting used to it!

Carefully cut the parts out of the sprue without breaking..

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...and positioning the parts, adding a droplet cement, and repeat this 16 times. 

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Ok, so far the gear project.

Change of project with this kit, on to the stabilo and flaps and rudders.

Last time I made dropped stabilo-flaps, I still need to make dropped outer wing flaps.

So I took the resin saw tool:

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I taped the flap in the correct dropped position, looks good:

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This was quite easy, so time for the other one:

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...and both flaps ready.

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Ok, flaps and stabilo ready.

But after close inspection of 'AN-225 on ramp' pictures on the Internet, I noticed that also the tail rudders often are slightly out of position..

So I decided to cut the tail rudders also and position them more life-like, just as the flaps and stabilo. 

 

The Mriya has 4 tail rudders:

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The tail became weaker, so also here I made it sturdy again by adding 020" thick Evergreen Plasticard to the sides. Same for the cutted rudders:

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Time to position the tail rudders back slightly off position:

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So, the end result with the tailcones re-attached looks nice:

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Working with the resin saw tool is great, it cuts sharply and straight!

So I tested it on some panel lining, which are often semi-filled with the protective gel coating on this kit. 

Works fine, so I started re-scribing ALL (:o..) the panel lines on this kit.

A lot of panel lines. No really, A LOT. 

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Also some polystyrene parts, caution there as these are much weaker..

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Ok, enough scribing and exploring every millimeter of this giant kit. Enough.

 

What comes next..

The aluminium axles which hold the wings attached to the fuselage.

One is wrong diameter, the other tends to slide constantly out of the fuselage and into the hollow wing..

Not an option, before it stays in the wing forever.

So I decided to make split pens which will hold the axle in place.

First I drilled holes in the axle:

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Then attached the split pens:

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..and voilá, problem solved.

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Next...

The attachment of the complete landing gear construction into the fuselage.

First of all, it doesn't fit well, and second, I want to keep this fragile construction completely detachable from the fuselage during transport to a show.

Imagine trying to fix 2 broken parts 'somewhere' in the main landing gear bay later... duh:doh:. Impossible.

So I first sanded the edges of the fuselage gear bay opening, and now the construction fits well.

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A look through the fuselage:

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About keeping it detachable:

I'm going to make some kind of rib from the top of the fuselage, which will support the upper side of landing gear construction so it won't push itself further into the fuselage from the planes own weight.

This way the plane will sit itself on the gear bay construction, and easy to lift it off again.

 

 

About the cockpit-project.

The constant brainstorming sessions without results whether to make side window open or closed, the ill fit of the transparant part, the self made part without windows, trying to make the captain waving an Ukrainian flag.. AAARGH!! Enough.

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1- trying to fabricate windows in the self made cockpit part: not done.

Doesn't work, tried it and failed 3 times. Fabricating exact fitting windows which need to be attached with cyanoacrelate glue.. nope. 

2- captain waving a flag? Not done.

Can't get the figure in correct position, and need to drill out a window and fabricating a new one slided aside inside the cockpit.. please no. Enough little projects on this kit.

3- I'm out of ideas and just want to have a correct fitting transparant part, so I can finish the nose project.

 

So I studied the transparant part, tested the ill fitting and made it fit by adding thin strip of Plasticard.

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Ok, one last thing.

Adding PE vents to the pylons of the engines.

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So far the update of my AN-225 Mriya project.

I will be back!

 

 

 

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  • 4 months later...

Given the terrible situation in Ukraine at the moment, I definitely choose to build my Modelsvit 1:72 Mriya in its last worn blue-yellow Ukrainian colors.


I doubted whether or not to build the AN-225 with the Buran on top but it will definitely be the blue-yellow scheme. 
 

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On 12/03/2022 at 09:39, Wolfhound32 said:

Given the terrible situation in Ukraine at the moment, I definitely choose to build my Modelsvit 1:72 Mriya in its last worn blue-yellow Ukrainian colors.


I doubted whether or not to build the AN-225 with the Buran on top but it will definitely be the blue-yellow scheme. 

I think that is an excellent decision.👍

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 2 months later...

Hi fellow modelers, time to update the mighty Mriya project.

It's been a while since I did some scale modelling, and now the Mriya is suddenly world wide known since she's lost due to the war I decided to honour her and finish this project.

Also, the World Model Expo 2022 in Veldhoven (the same expo as where  I was with my Anigrand C-5 Galaxy) is this year in the Netherlands from 1-3rd of July, and I want to show the Mriya there.

So, hold on to your ..., grab some popcorn and enjoy this last episode!

 

 

April 13th.

I bought the only aftermarket set for this kit, a set of resin wheels:

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Nice detailed, crisp and high quality resin wheels. Much better than the original plastic 'discs'.

So I started to remove all the wheels and parts from the sprues, sand them and I drilled holes to fit the gear axles:

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A metallic spray for the rims:

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A basic black coat for the tires:

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.. and ready for later weathering and assembly:

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April 16th.

Next project: the everlasting problem of the transparent window part on the nose section.

Tried several methods, nothing was really satisfying.. 

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Now it's time for the final decision. I'm going to use the spare transparent part, and fit that without adjustments on to the nose section.

That's a radical decision, as I need to adjust the nose section for fitting.

I drilled little holes to remove some material:

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After that, some sanding and test fitting, and sanding again..

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A test fit with the cockpit section in the nose:

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..and it fits. 

So I glued the part to the nose section, filled the gaps and sanded smooth.

I made a big mistake later, you will see.

 

 

April 20th.

Colors of the Antonov.

I tried to find the correct color for the underside of the Mriya, it looks like blue or grey. Or bluegrey. Whatever.

I've seen models with bright blue undersides, I just don't think that's correct.

So I first thought of Humbrol 127:

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No, no. not correct. 

The kit manual says this:

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It says Ghost Grey... maybe this color?

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As I need to spray a fuselage length of 1.17m, I'm thinking in Tamiya spray colors.

So maybe this one:

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Dark Ghost Grey.. Too dark. 

During my Internet search, I thought: the only one who can tell me for sure what the correct color is, is Mr. Dmitry Antonov, the captain of the Mriya.

He has a daily vlog on YouTube about the (former) Mriya, so after a complicated search I found his personal e-mail an I mailed him with the color question.

And what do you know... he answered!

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And 2 days later anothe mail:

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LOL!! But I found out that the DuPont color code is a color code from Chevrolet cars in the eighties.. And after translation the color of the underside says dark grey, so not exact what I was looking for.

But he answered, a nice addition to this project!

 

I searched again and finally decided to use this color:

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Tamiya AS-26 Light Ghost Grey. I'm happy with it, otherwise I can never make a decision and time is running out.

 

 

April 21st.

I did a test fit fuselage-wings. What a difference in height, and what a gap....

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This is not done.

After some thinking I decided to make a correction from Plasticard 1mm sheet which will be placed onto the fuselage.

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Some experimenting with cut-outs for the bulbs on the fuselage:

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..and attached it to the fuselage with superglue, added filler and let dry.

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April 27th.

The transparent window part was scratched and not shiny enough, so I decided to give it a layer of clear gloss. 

The horror:owww:....

After 2 minutes it looked like this:

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Nooooo!!! Panic!!

So after contacting some fellow modelers for hints and tips how to solve this problem, nothing worked by the way, I decided to give it one last try with different nail files. 

The last file was a polishing file, and luckily enough the windows became transparent again..

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After a final treatment with soft cloth everything looked ok again.

Important lesson learned for me: never treat clear parts with clear lacquer without testing!

 

As I was working on the window part, I kept thinking about my former idea of an open side window with the Ukrainian flag hanging out.. 

Very actual at this moment, so I decided to give it a try.

First removing the little side window with a fine drill:

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Looks good, later comes the finetuning.

 

 

 

April 30th.

Test fit of the fuselage-wing gap with the added sheet, after sanding:

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The upper fuselage still needed 3 more 'bulbs' to be attached:

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At first glance still a visible seam, but in the end result you will see that after a few layers of lacquer it will become seamless.

 

 

 

May 2nd.

The gear construction.

That never ending multiple parts headache project:mental:.

The wheel bays are Russian Green, so I started with that:

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While the paint was drying I thought about how to fabricate a 1:72 scale Ukrainian flag.

May I introduce a friend of mine, Perry, who is a master modeler of WWII 1:35 scale dioramas. Nothing impossible for him, so he said he can fix a waving flag for me. Great!!

Later that evening he sent me this picture of this self made basic flag:

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You will see the perfect end result later!

 

 

 

May 6th.

Ailerons and leading edges.

The Mighty Mriya has quite an area of ailerons and leading edges, so I decided to spray these metallic areas first and tape them before the master white paintjob of this behemoth.

I started with the tail first:

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Nice job, I will do the the wing areas later.

 

 

 

 

May 7th.

Project open side window.

The side windows slide backwards into the cockpit, so I made a new side window from transparent Plasticard:

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..with an extra strip for attachment on the inner side of the cockpit:

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I'm satisfied!

 

 

 

May 8th.

The big day!! 

Why?

Time to attach the nose to the fuselage.. forever.

This means:

-the cockpit will be out of reach

-no more adding nose weight possible

-the nose gear is out of reach for adjustments

-everything must be tightly secured in the complete nose section.

 

So did a checklist twice, and then the big moment..

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Tight fit, another milestone in this project reached.

 

 

 

May 9th.

Time to sand and fill the gaps in the nose-fuselage part.

Sanding, filling, sanding, filling again, etc.

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After that more Russian Green paint on more gear parts, and weathering of the gear:

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..and weathering the resin wheels.

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Meanwhile i made a copy of the decal sheets, because I want to test fit the correct position of the curved stripe on the fuselage as I have no reference points.

This way I can experiment with positioning the decals before I go 'live'.

The stripe on each side consists of 6 parts(!), so a challenge to make a perfectly curved single stripe...

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And Perry sends me a picture of the end result of the Ukrainian flag:

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Great work Perry, thanks!! This will look great:D.

 

 

 

May 11th.

Back to the landing gear.

The gear housing consists of several hatches for each gear. So if you Google for pictures, you will see that each hatch has its own position. So not a straight line, as the 1 kit part shows..

So I cut every hatch loose and repositioned them to each other, now it looks more realistic:

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Looks great in the end result, you will see.

 

Now a test fit of the gear construction in the fuselage:

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Everything still fits.

 

 

 

 

May 13th.

Adding wing navigation lights.

I used some Bare Metal Foil for the lighting housings:

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..and attached the transparent parts:

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Afterwards filled and sanded the gaps.

 

Back to the gear.

Time to attach the resin wheels to the gear... but, this needs to be done in 1 straight line!

Problem is that all the resin wheels were like 'dangling' to the axles due to their weight and ill fit.

So... time to think about how to solve this.

 

I took some sanding paper (anti-slip), took aluminum 90' corner profiles as a guiding rail, and added each wheel in this construction:

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Next I added a droplet of superglue with a fine steel wire end to each axle-wheel connection:

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Not a nice job, but the end result is a straight and level row of gear and wheels!

 

 

 

 

 

May 14th.

Another big day!

Because the white paint job has to be done.

We are talking about a 1.22m x 1.17m big area of white fuselage, tail and wings.

So I emptied the garden shed and turned it into a spray-booth (with permission of my wife:argue:..) for a few days.

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Nice room, dry and clean. Ideal for spraying big kit parts.

I started with the tail:

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..later on the fuselage..

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..and thanks to the nice temperature and weather it dried perfectly.

Took everything inside for an overnight dry.

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May 15th.

Again a big day!

Why? 

Time to glue the tail to the fuselage.

This means:

-From no on very careful with turning and twisting the fuselage 

-the fuselage is more difficult to handle during the decal process.

 

But it needs to be done, so took the industrial superglue and added the tail to the fuselage:

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Adding filler to the seams and sanding :

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The engines need to be prepared for spraying, so I made covers for the exhaust areas from Plasticard:

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So the engines can now be sprayed gloss white after primer:

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During drying I prepared the fuselage for spraying:

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Enough for today, I'm satisfied.

 

 

 

 

May 16th.

Today the wings get their gloss white jacket.

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During drying I tested the gear with the resin wheels. Looks good!

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The engines are sprayed gloss white and ready for further painting and decals.

Never noticed how huge this engines must be in real life, compared to this picture with the 1:72 figure..

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May 17th.

Removing the covers and masking tape from the sprayed engines.

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May 20th.

Adding the gear hatches to the gear construction:

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I think it's a great improvement those 'irregular' placed hatches, looks more realistic.

 

 

 

 

May 21st.

Sprayed gun metal plates above the exhausts and sprayed bare metal engine intakes on the engines:

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And finally the wings got their gloss aluminum ailerons:

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..and the red wingtips.

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Much improvement these days, feels good and the Mighty Mriya starts to look better and better.

 

 

 

 

May 22nd.

I changed my hobby room into a decal-workspace. I made a table with a soft foam mat to protect the paintwork during the decal process.

(and yes I know, my tv is dying):

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In 2015 I made a 1:72 scale foam An-225 from which I still had my self made full scale drawings.

I used this drawings to determine and pre-position the copied stripe decals onto the fuselage:

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I added the copied stripe decals on the fuselage:

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As the curved stripe decals consists of 6 separate parts, it's nice to exercise with these copies so I know what to expect later.

I also did this because this way I can determine the exact outer line of the grey area I need to spray.

I don't want to risk spraying too high or too low with grey, that will be hard to correct with the fragile decals already placed on the fuselage..

The manual gives little info on a very little picture about placing the stripe:

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I taped the copied decal with little pieces of masking tape onto the fuselage:

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Don't forget the tail; I need to cut that stripe decal for the in- and outwards positioned rudders:

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Now the other side:

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Okay, so now the part where to determine the grey spray line.

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I placed masking tape half under the copied decal and traced the underside-line of the decal on the tape, and cut that line and removed the tape.

Now I have the exact position of the stripe decal in tape on the fuselage:

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Now I only have to wrap the rest of the fuselage in plastic and the underside is ready for it's coat of grey!

 

 

 

 

May 24th.

Back to the shed / spray booth for the coat of ghost grey.

Finally another color, I already sprayed about 5 cans of white..

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Tail heavily protected in plastic bags:

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..and we have a grey underside of the fuselage. 

 

 

 

May 25th.

A big day; decal day!

Let's start with the most difficult decal, the stripe part on the nose with all it's curves.

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It took me about 20 minutes to get this decal in the correct position, and during this time it wrinkled, cracked, I needed to cut it, repositioning with added water, added lots of Microsol setting solution etc.

A nightmare but I succeeded! Still some little wrinkles but it's fine. 

Now the rest of the stripes. 5 pieces, and this was quite easy on a flat side of the fuselage:

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After that the tail decals:

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Ok, enough for today. 

 

 

 

May 26th.

Today I applied the other decals on the fuselage:

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After drying I applied a layer of clear lacquer for protection and sealing the decals:

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May 27th.

Time to do the other side of the fuselage, same exercise:

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Don't forget the underside:

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May 28th.

The other side get's its layer of clear lacquer:

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...and after drying I took the Mriya inside for a complete test fit:

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Looks great!

I applied the stripe decals on the engines:

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And now the boring part.

There is a lot of data stenciling decals on the wings and engines. A lot:mental:!!

For some decals the manual says '45 times' or '33 times'...

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This is the data decal sheet:

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So it begins...

Starting with engine data decals:

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May 29th.

Now the data decals on both wings.

I think about 250+ decals for each wing.

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And finally the decal sheet is almost empty. Took me 2 days.

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May 31st.

Test fit of the waving Ukrainian flag:

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Nice, just how I thought it to be! Thanks Perry, this is a great addition and it's in honor of the Mriya.

 

 

 

 

 

June 1st.

Time for constructing the nosewheels. 

And for the first time Mriya rests on its complete gear! 

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Okay. (drumroll).

 

The moment of moments.

 

It's time to test the complete Mriya on it's gear...

@Flankerman: This is the moment of truth.. will it stand without added supports on it's own wheels??

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(drumroll intensifies)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yessss!!!!

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This was my most feared moment. But my calculated nose weight and balance seem to be ok! Yess!! Very satisfied.

 

 

 

 

 

June 5th.

I made a wooden transport case for the Antonov, so it is safely protected during transport to the expo.

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It only needs foam on the inside to secure the fuselage + wings, this will be made later.

 

I glued the flag in the hands of the co-pilot:

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I know, the outside of the window is not perfect but the lacquer is very hard so I don't want to risk to do something stupid during repair or removal.

 

Glued the nosewheel in left steering position, as the tail rudders are also turned to the left.

And added the extended nosewheel lights.

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June 7th.

The finishing touch: weathering.

As this is a huge plane, Perry helped me with some parts of the plane.

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June 8th.

Did the rest of the plane myself the last evening.

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Ladies and gentlemen.

 

After 2 years of hard labor.

sweating.

thinking.

Inventing.

sanding.

keeping the faith.

and crying.

 

May I present to you:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The mighty Antonov An-225 Mriya, how she was.

And still is in our mind. In het last worn jacket.

The pride of Ukraine!

 

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And the inevitable Piper Cub and figure for scale:

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And for the ultimate scale comparison:

Me holding the Mriya model..

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So, this is it.

I hope you enjoyed this sometimes dull, sometimes exciting project.

I would like to thank all the great fellow modelers on this forum for your kind messages, support and the tips and tricks.

Much appreciated, thank you!

 

For those interested:

This model will participate in the WME2022 contest in Veldhoven, The Netherlands from July 1-3.

 

 

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Mind-blowingly good! you really did the kit justice with a truly magnificent build. My 6-week basic build of this kit pales into insignificance by comparison, Of all the marvellous things you did, I'm most struck by the excellent wing-root joins you achieved despite the wings being removable! But then again, your achievement with the undercarriage is incredible, whilst the cockpit window fixes and clean up of all the panel Ines are testament to your determination! Finally, your decals and paint finish are fantastic, I stand humbled and in awe...

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              hi Wolfhound32 ,

                                            thanks I needed the Walkaround details for my  build

                   of a 1/700  EV Model An-225 Mriya.

 

                                                                    cheery "Modellin' " mumbas !

 

                                                                                             Geoff

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