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Mi-17 Czech Air Force...Probably!


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5 minutes ago, Blogs On said:

Still trying to complete my post-covid RTF and get my category back!

Bloody hell!!!😔 I'll refrain from commenting on the ATC/VGS situation...

As to work, well I'm an inspector and normally run the maintenance organisation in Myanmar so have lots of technical experience...just so happens they need someone with a bit of technical knowledge and the ability to be flexible and paint the walls in their building extension too😋 Very happy to have any work, and the fact that it's for a very nice little company on the doorstep is a big bonus.  Have a look at http://schroederballon.de

 

 

 

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The latest job has been the rotorhead.

 

It's quite detailed straight out the box, but I thought I'd add a few bits too. I'm waiting on a new top end but that may take some time as it was actually sent back in may but didn't arrive until after we'd left for the summer so got sent back again! It's being sorted out as I write...

 

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So whilst I'm waiting I decided to get on building the rest of it...

 

This is the OOB head

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But I thought I'd add some of the plumbing too...In tried cutting these brown blobs from bits of sprue but I couldn't get a consistent thickness, so used a bit of imagination...

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Then some lateral thinking was required for these little jobbies...

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Made up from the roof bars of the tilt from a deuce and a half truck😋

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Then onto the pipework...

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Then I had to put the blades on😮

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Basically to bring things up to date, this is the final pic of progress so far...More to come this week before I start running around Europe again on thursday.

 

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More progress...

 

The good news is that the rotor head and winch parts have turned up...at my in laws place🤨 Looks like Paypal used their delivery address rather than mine🙄 Anyway, everything seems complete and the supplier has been notified and thanked for his trouble😇

 

This is the rotor head set(Some bits already assembled). The parts needed a bit of tidying up but on the whole aren't too bad.

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Otherwise it's mostly tarting up and weathering with Flory Dark Dirt wash.

 

These are the components for the winch, the next job...

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When it's cleaned up the effect is subtle and doesn't show up well in the pics, but I'm quite pleased with it especially as it's the first time I've used the stuff.

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A quick test fit of the rotors

 

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Then it was time to attempt the exhaust staining; 0837 seems to be the display aircraft and as such is kept reasonably clean, or at least is cleaned up for shows. However in its day to day life it can get quite grubby it would seem. There are pics showing the two extremes on line...

 

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I'm reasonably pleased with this, but I'll do some touching-up tomorrow.

 

Final job was tidying up the rotor head and priming it. I also had to do some work on the aftermarket head jobby to get it to fit, which basically meant drilling out the centre with a 4mm drill to accept the nobble on the main Rotorhead(When I type this, it autocorrects to Motörhead😋)

 

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Slow but sure...

 

This update comes live from a hotel near Bristol where the internet is 10x faster than our usual German version😉

There won't be much progress in the near future unless I can get a bit done on Monday evening before I leave for another month in France! 

Anyway, here's the state of affairs so far...

 

The time had come for it to stand on its own three feet...

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This was the repaired leg(as can be seen by the fact that it doesn't line up properly🙄) I needed three hands to hold everything in place when rebuilding the leg and obviously I didn't do a very good job of it!

The rest of it went reasonably well.

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Then it was onwards with adding the little details; Engine bay doors, antennae and the forgotten nose wheel strut...

 

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I managed to lose one of the door latches so made another out of a bit of copper wire; Not brilliant but it'll do.

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The holes for the pitot probes had disappeared during the epic nose fitting saga so had to be drilled out again...

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Then to round things off it was time to start sorting out the rotor head; Primer, grey top coat, detail painting, and satin coat. Then a coat of Dark Dirt wash .

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Then a bit of a clean up to round it off...

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Incidentally, I found this little wonder in the local Vallejo/model railway stockists: A Faller brush with detachable tips. Faller build very good quality model railway stuff and this brush is no exception.

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Here's the result so far. Still some tidying up of the paintwork where the antennae and panel handles(the ones I didn't lose to the floor magnet🤨) were added. Then it'll be final assembly of the rotor head, and fitting the tail rotor, which should mean it'll basically be RFI...The Croatian MiG is already on the starting blocks😋

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Edited by 621Andy
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Latest update from France where I'll be for the next month... I got a tiny bit of work done on Monday evening in between packing! To be fair most of it now is just little details.

 

I resprayed the exhaust soot. It's too heavy really even for the usual dirtiness of this heli, but it was the only way to cover up the touch-ups in the grey satisfactorily.

I also did some sooting to the blades; the light wasn't brilliant so I can see by the photos I still have some work to do🤨

 

I balanced the tail and main rotors in place for a couple of pics. The mains won't droop as much as this when it's finished as the blades have jumped off their supporting pins and are sagging like a pair of baggy y-fronts.

I still have to do the CLV decal under the cockpit and some other bits and pieces...

 

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The roof hatch was added. The eagle eyed will spot that the winch isn't the after market one. This proved too fiddly for my gorilla paws with the combination of tiny parts, CA glue and resin🤮

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But I did manage to use the tub for the winch wire housing and added that to the kit part. I may still make up a hook, which was missing from the aftermarket kit; All the resin bits were there but no PE🙄

 

Anyway, the next, and probably final, update will be in a month or so work permitting! This winter is suddenly turning very busy!

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8 hours ago, Blogs On said:

Good work Andy. The Beast is nearly there😁

Thanks! Next problem is to work out where to put it 😁 These big kits are great for my big paws but they don’t arf take up some space🙄

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  • 1 month later...

Right, well welcome back to those of you who've persevered this far...

 

I got back from France on Tuesday night after a marathon 1100km drive from Provence, but not a great deal of modelling has been done due to real life getting in the way(mainly buying another motorbike😋).

 

However I did have a go at making the decals for the nose, but basically failed dismally due to problems with my printer and with the solution/paper; The printer is not printing boldly enough despite there being enough ink etc., and I couldn't get the shrunken CLV logos to work properly. I did manage to get the '0837' on the port side of the nose though.

 

I've given up on the logos for now until probably the spring when it's a bit warmer and I've ordered some fresh decal paper...

 

I got the tail rotor to stick in place despite it only being a tiny mounting peg. We'll see how long it lasts... The main rotor proved to be a bit of a faff as the tiny pins that stop the rotor drooping too much wouldn't stay in place and you need 5 hands to hold everything in place, mainly due to the sheer size of the thing! I haven't glued it in place for the same reason.

 

Anyway, I'm calling this finished and will post some pics over on the RFI thread. Taking the pics has proved a bit of a problem due to the space it takes up. I bought a sheet of white card that I thought would be plenty big enough as a backdrop...it aint🤨 So these are the best I can do for now. Wifey has given the go ahead for a glass display shelving jobby but I need to sort the damp in the wall of our 110 year old house first(Why is there always a caveat with women's decisions🤔)

The camera is unforgiving and I've discovered several areas that need improving which I'll do between jobs on the next build. On the whole I'm reasonably pleased with how this has turned out. It hasn't been an easy build with the parts fit being truly horrendous in places, but there's some nice detail on it and plenty of room for adding details if you're that way inclined. I suspect I might well build another one in the future but in civvy markings or something exotic, but space, money and time will dictate when...

 

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All comments, constructive or otherwise gratefully received😋

 

The next project is quite a bit smaller but is already on the chopping block...Time is going to be an issue as someone has offered me some real work for the winter which will come as a shock to the system but will bring welcome funds to the depleted coffers(I really must stop buying bikes🤫)

 

 

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