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1/144 BURAN BUILD


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While waiting for some supplies for another build, I thought I'd start the Ark Models Buran.

 

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Dry fitting some parts, the fit looks pretty good. Now, bear in mind, I usually build 30+ year old kits, so a new one thrills me no-end!

 

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Giving the PE a bath in Vinegar to clean off any residue. The PE looks nice too! Plus tidying up some parts.

 

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Adding the Photo Etch

 

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Dry fitting the Payload Bay. It seems nicely detailed! You can see I've added the PE to it already.

 

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Starting to glue stuff ... this is the Payload Bay. And the fit here was excellent!

 

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Attaching the PB to the fuselage.

 

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Gluing the Wings / Belly

 

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As this'll be in-flight, the Landing Gear doors ... well, they'll need some patching.

 

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I tried to pull the wings nice and tight to the fuselage but ...

 

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... there was still a gap between wing and fuselage. My Payload Bay doors will be open and thus will hide the gap, but I'll patch it up anyway.

 

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Using 0.005" and 0.010" styrene scraps to fill the gap. I'll trim it and fill the last gaps with putty.

 

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... Same with the nose RCS ... 

 

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This is a fun build. The fit is trouble free, yes, I'll be sanding some seams but hey, that's fun too! And I've only been on it for maybe 10 hours over 5 days ... and thanx Hotdog for the links to Buran ... they're gonna be a big help!

 

Pete

Edited by K2Pete
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Pete, 

 

I'm really looking forward to this one.  You always do great work!  Do the photo etch parts come with the kit?  

 

Does this kit come with black tile decals?

 

Mike.

 

 

Edited by crowe-t
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Well ... hiya Mike! Merry Christmas to you!

The PE is from a 3rd party and while the belly tiles are included, they are in White. I'm hoping Hotdog will create some, but if not, I'll just paint 'em and weather 'em myself!

 

This earlier thread on ARC fills in some blanks including where to get the PE.

 

http://www.arcforums.com/forums/air/index.php?/topic/308245-1144-buran-from-ark-model/

 

Pete

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2 hours ago, K2Pete said:

Well ... hiya Mike! Merry Christmas to you!

The PE is from a 3rd party and while the belly tiles are included, they are in White. I'm hoping Hotdog will create some, but if not, I'll just paint 'em and weather 'em myself!

 

This earlier thread on ARC fills in some blanks including where to get the PE.

 

http://www.arcforums.com/forums/air/index.php?/topic/308245-1144-buran-from-ark-model/

 

Pete

 

Merry Christmas to you too Pete!  It's great seeing you back at building again!

 

It seems the wing/fuselage gap is hard to avoid with these shuttle kits.  The older Revell and Airfix shuttle kits have this as well.

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habu2 ... the Payload Bay has three or four standoffs on each side where the fuselage sides glue onto.

And when I dry fit it all, the fore and aft portions of the fuselage and Payload Bay were quite snug so I figured the whole thing would be a tight fit and just to try to be a little pro-active, I put some tension on the wings to snug 'em up to the fuselage ... and it didn't work. I guess you could experiment with shimming the PB to fuselage standoffs but, I think it would be hit and miss. Plus I didn't use the standoffs, I just glued the tops of the PB to the fuselage ... I'll look forward to seeing your solution on your build.

 

Spaceman, when I have any kind of gaps, I prefer using styrene to fill 'em rather than filler putty or CA glue and Talcum powder or some other thing that usually shrinks or is difficult to sand or chips out. Styrene scraps, I have a lot of it and I prefer the strong bond of styrene and styrene glue. Then the very minor flaws get a little putty.

 

I hope you had a very Merry Christmas and will have a Healthy and Happy New Year!

Pete

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Thanks K2Pete for your good wishes and the same for you!  :worship:

 

Using styrene scraps for filling the gaps seems to make sense and a useful solution, speak_cool.gif I'll try it out when I'll start with the Airfix orbiterup040577.gif

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On 12/26/2019 at 5:10 PM, K2Pete said:

Spaceman, when I have any kind of gaps, I prefer using styrene to fill 'em rather than filler putty or CA glue and Talcum powder or some other thing that usually shrinks or is difficult to sand or chips out. Styrene scraps, I have a lot of it and I prefer the strong bond of styrene and styrene glue. Then the very minor flaws get a little putty.

 

If you can melt plastic, melt it.  😉

 

1o9ejc.jpgvia Imgflip Meme Generator

 

 

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A little more patching some ill-fitting parts ... the landing gear doors and the elevon seams.

 

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... first sanding ... the belly sanded down bee-yoo-tee-fully!

 

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The wing to fuselage patch ... it's trimmed and I added a tiny bit of filler putty and gave it a quick sanding and ... done.

 

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The Remote Manipulator System has some nice PE from the 3rd party.

At the bottom you can see the 2nd robot arm that I cut up and repositioned

 

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The Cockpit windows Photo Etch. The PE supplier's instructions show the PE attached to the allowances in the plastic kit. But the clear plastic wasn't shown, so I glued in the Clear plastic windows THEN attached the PE frames to it ...

 

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... but as you can see, they stand proud of the surface ... so if you get the PE, don't use the clear plastic windows ... or ... 

 

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... I'm gonna try to even up the surfaces a bit. Using .005" styrene I'll trim and fit and file and sand and hopefully get a good result.

 

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... first filing ...

 

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And I also added some styrene below the window too.

 

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Once this window area gets smoothed out, I'll throw on some White paint, mask it, then spray on some dark Grey for the belly and some almost Black.

This is moving pretty well considering it's only been on my bench for about 2 weeks.

 

Happy New Year gents! I hope it'll be a happy and Healthy 2020!

Pete

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Randy, the fit on this little kit is pretty good. i've built a few other Shuttle kits from Revell, Monogram, Tamiya and Airfix and this is much better than those, granted, 30 year old kits. I think modeller error is the problem here.

 

I glued the Payload Bay to the fuselage halves at the top of the Payload Bay. I keep thinking I did this incorrectly. The Remote Manipulator arms don't fit properly and if I recall, there was a lip on the inside of the fuselage halves with holes, or allowances for the RMS pegs and I must have pushed the PB down too far, or not far enough because now there is a warp to the PB sides. When you all build this kit, watch for this. 

 

But the flash on this kit, what little bit there is can be quickly scraped off with a blade. And a little bit of elbow grease for the belly and you're ready for paint ... almost!

 

Speaking of which ... I gave this window area one more sanding and put some masking fluid on the clear parts.

 

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And then a coat of White Paint ... I'll start putting on the decals real soon, I'll let the paint dry for a couple days.

I hope the decals go on nice and easy.

 

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Till next posting

Pete

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Any Hardware Store will have this but I got these at Canadian Tire. Krylon was my preferred paint but they weren't on the shelves the last time I bought paint, this past November ... but was replaced by a Rust-o-leum paint.

But, many years ago, when I checked a can of Tamiya and it was a little, itty bitty can for $7.00 and these BIG cans were $2.00 more and you get 4 or 5X more paint, well, 'twas a no-brainer!

The can of Primer on the left side was bought in Nov 2012 ... and it's still good! To me, this is great value!

 

Pete

 

 

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Edited by K2Pete
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Pete great job on the PE and the white paint!  I used to use Tamiya Fine Surface Primer but it was expensive for the small cans.  I'm now using Dupli-Color Sandable primer.  It goes on as thin as Tamiya Fine Surface Primer but costs a lot less.  It comes in White, Grey Hot Rod, Red Oxide and Black Hot Rod.  I use the White and Gray Hot Rod which is a medium to dark gray.  It works as well as the Tamiya primer and sands real easy.

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I've been using that Rustoleum 2x like you have in the center photo for the past year almost exclusively. It goes on smoother than Tamiya cans (at least for me, here in the humid south US) and like you say it's a much better bargain for the amount you get in the can. The only down side is the cure time (1 week vs. 1-2 days for the Tamiya).

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I keep thinking I erred when assembling the Payload Bay to fuselage ... the gap between the PB door and the fuselage is about 1 mm, right in the middle of the door, but would more than likely not be there at all if I had assembled it properly ... I think. When you glue this up, your result may be better.

 

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When attaching the PE to the door, you'll have to remove these nubs so the PE can sit flush ... the instructions may indicate this, but, it's in Cyrillic.

 

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I taped the PE radiator panels in place before gluing ...

 

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... and attached. There are PE cables and hinges that I'll attach when the doors get fixed to the Orbiter.

 

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Starting to mask for the paint. Gunmetal on the Flipper Doors and Primer for the belly and RCC panels.

 

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The masking ... 

 

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I'll let this dry for a day or two then spray on Future for a nice glossy surface for the decals, then decal it.

 

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I hope the decals aren't problematic!

 

Till then

Pete

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