Flankerman

Thanks Tomcat Fan........ Revell do a 1/144 scale A-90 - http://www.flankers-site.co.uk/modl_a-90.html It has issues around the nose intakes and cockpit windows - but they are fixable..... Ken

WIP Here :- Some pics of the finished model........ The contraprops came from an old Contrail vacform Tu-95, the number 21 was painted on using a cutout mask and the eagle emblem was made by a friend who scaled up the Revell 1/144 A-90 kit decal. My 1/72 scale Orlyonok at speed across my lounge carpet... Closeup of the cockpit glazing - note the rear view mirrors and simple 'artificial horizon'. The rough red outline is deliberate! Note the large anti-spray strakes... Scratchbuilt gun turret with 12.7mm barrels from suitable tubing. Rear engine and contraprops - note the APU exhaust and Russian Navy flag. NK-12MK turboprop showing the 'pen nib' exhaust fairing. Sequence showing the nose opening..... Note the cruise engine exhaust nozzle - note that I have got it wrong - it should be narrower to allow it to pivot to direct the thrust under the wings for takeoff and straight back for cruise. Almost fully open - note the front hydroski with its beaching wheel..... Loading ramps extended... The BTR-80 is a crude limited-run injection-moulded kit that I picked up in Moscow many years ago - long before the current crop of decent kits. Closeup of the sideways-opening nose... On display at Scalemodelworld 2014 - next to my Modelsvit An-124 and Flankers - to show scale. Closer view from Telford... The model was made long before I photgraphed the real thing - now on display on Khimki reservoir in Moscow... After being floated upriver on the Volga from Kasspiisk on the Caspian Sea, the A-90 'Orlyonok' ekranoplan - number 26 - is being prepared for display at Khimki reservoir in 2007. Note the cruise ships at the Moscow North River Terminal in the background. I'll post more of my pics later... Ken

After casting around for a piece of tubing of suitable diameter to make the engine nacelle for the NK-12 turboprop - I hit upon the idea of using a section cut from the circular fuselage of an old Airfix Il-28 kit...... With a rear pen nib fairing added and the front end modified, it made a decent nacelle. The main hydroski - with its ten beaching wheels - was made from plastic card with resin copies of a suitable wheel from the spares box cast by a friend.... The whole airframe was primed with Halfords Grey Plastic Primer after which the front nose section was finished off with a jetpipe inserted into the rear end of the engine tube. Anti-spray strakes were added, the windows were glazed with flat panels of clear plastic and plastic card baffles fitted into the intakes. The domed fairing that straddles the front and rear fuselage was made using a template carved from wood - which was then used to plunge-mould a plastic card dome. The gun turret was made from a series of contentric rings of plastic card carved to shape - with the 12.7mm barrels made from plastic tubing. The pylon-mounted navigation radar was scratched from plastic card. The nose section was fitted with a hinge on the starboard side and attched to the front of the fuselage. To stop it swing open too far, a length of aluminium tubing was fitted to make the hydraulic ram. The inside face of the nose section was detailed as per the photographs of the real thing.... The multipe latches around the nose/fuselage join were added using lengths of channel-section Plastruct. Ken

The wings are made in the same way as the fin - a shaped balsa core skinned with thin plastic card.... The fuselage / fin joint in progress.... After adding a simple cockpit interior - a long session of filling (using Milliput and Squadron 'Green Stuff') - followed by sanding and re-filling until a smooth finish was achieved... Milliput for the larger areas, Green Stuff for the smaller, final gaps..... Making the horizontal tailplane - using the same balsa and plastic card method... Finished tailplanes.... Wing endplate floats made from laminations of thick plastic card (top) - and sanded to final shape (bottom) All the major sub-assemblies ready to be joined.... Fuselage section showing the amount of filler needed to achieve a smooth finish.... Rear fuselage and fin...... Nose section..... More to follow.... Ken

Fin and separated rudder skinned........ Narrow plastic card strips are used to form the curved roof..... Just like making a flying model...... with balsa ribs and stringers - but in solid plastic..... Filling in the surface between the rear fuselage and fin. It looks crude but it will all be filled and sanded smooth later... Adding the fillet at the top of the fin leading edge... The starboard side still needs 'planking' in...... The nose section is a much more complex shape - so I used a centre side-view 'keel' and added the bulkheads on either side - cut to shape from the drawing... Note the circular cutouts for the jet engines and the rear entrance door.. Magazine photo showing the sideways-hinged front section..... A length of plastic tube is used to form the intake and exhaust for the jet engine. Note the planked in vee planing bottom... Top view of the nose section showing the port side jet engine intake.... Nose section after planking in - with scraps of plastic card filling the radome.... Time to break out the filler...... More Later... Ken

Here's one I made earlier........... During a computer cleanout, I 're-discovered' my photos of a scratchbuilt A-90 Ekranoplan that I made some 20 years ago..... so I thought I'd share the build with you.... Excuse the quality of the photos - they are now quite old - and not the best I have ever taken. The build was inspired by the release of the Revell 1/44 scale A-90 - plus some drawings I found in the Russian magazine 'Aerohobby'.... The drawings are excellent - and most importantly - they have cross-sections, so they were scaled up to 1/72, on printed out in A4 and the sheets taped together. The main fuselage section is essentially a rectangular box - with a curved roof (like a railway carriage) and a vee-shaped planing bottom... Here's the inverted 'floor' with plastic card bulkeads attached as per the drawing to form the vee...... Now the right way up, the rectangulay starboard side panel is attached.... .... together with the port panel and rear bulkhead...... The fuselage inverted to show the planing vee... The centre keel of the rear fuselage is added and shaped bulkheads are attached on either side. The curved roof bulkheads are fitted to a centre keel to form the outline shape....... The planing bottom and flat rear side panels are attached........... The fin is made from a plastic card outline shape - with balsa wood stuck to both sides and sanded to aerofoil section....... Checking the fin for fit - and 'planking in' the lower rear fuselage with strips of narrow plastic card........ The port side lower rear fuselage is planked in.... The fin has the rudder separated and is skinned with thin plastic card... More later.... Ken

You're correct Mario - I had a 'Senior Moment' there - my eyes read Viktor Pugachev - but by the time the signal got to my brain it read Anatoly Kvochur..... My entire post refers to Kvochur..... I'm going to lie down in a darkened room now...... Ken (who is rapidly losing it!!) PS - I also got Pugachev's signature at a previous MAKS - he signed a Sukhoi brochure for me....

I got him to sign Andrei Fomin's Su-27 book at Zhukovsky - he was standing there talking into his mobile phone when I approached him. He had a female assistant(?) with him and she held the book open whilst he tucked his phone under his chin and carried on talking whiilst autographing the book... Great times.....Nice guy.... I liked his 'dismount' from the Su-27 - he would put his legs outside the cockpit, parallel to the ground whilst holding on the the windscreen on one side and the seat head box on the other - like a gymnast on the parrallel bars...... Ken PS - I also got Mikhail Pogosiyans and Simonov's autographs in the same book.

Once you know what to look for, it's obvious......... Is this what you mean, Gabor???? Ken

Does this illustrate the 'break' in the nose section contours, Gabor??? It is the 10th prototype T10 I photograped at Lugansk in 2006 - fitted with a final shape production radome (I think?).... Ken

Just for interest......I've found a couple of my close-ups of Su-27 noseprobes...... The 'standard' probe - note the changing shape along its length.... The Su-33 probe is different - 'cos it folds down for carrier stowage...... The Su-27P flown by Anatoliy Kvotchur of the LII Gromov Flight Test Centre has a probe with small 'winglets' at its root...... I think these are there to generate vortices - maybe for when performing a high AoA 'Cobra' ???? Anyway - I thought they may be of interest... Ken

Excellent stuff Gabor - really interesting close examination of the Flanker and kudos to you and your fellow researchers and GWH for including such detail and explaning the differences. Your English is excellent - but may I just point out that you are using the word 'brake' instead of the correct 'break'........... Brake is a device for slowing down - as in air brake. Break is a change in contour - as in a break in a line or curve. I hope you don't mind - just trying to be helpful....... Regards Ken

The Su-33 has a bigger wing than the rest of the Flanker family - as well as having the wing fold and double-slotted flaps. Not a good starting point for the T10M-1... Ken

The State Aviation Museum at Zhulaniy in Kiev, Ukraine has examples of 3 Backfires - the M0, M2 and M3. I photographed them in 2010..... Tu-22M0 (prototype).......... Tu-22M2 'Backfire-B'.... Tu-22M3 'Backfire-C'...... There was a one-off 'M4' - a proposed upgraded Tu-22M3 fitted with NK-32 engines from a Tu-160 'Blackjack' - which I photographed at Ryazan in 2005. Note the 4 rows of auxiliary intakes (the 'standard' Backfire has only 3..) The Air Force museum at Monino has a Tu-22M0........ ... and has recently aquired an M3 from the Air Force Academy next door...... Ken

I agree Ryan - I built it dozens of years ago........ I'll try to find my photos of it... Stay Safe Ken