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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 :analintruder:  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'....

 

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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......

 

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Now the right way up, the rectangulay starboard side panel is attached....

 

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.... together with the port panel and rear bulkhead......

 

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The fuselage inverted to show the planing vee...

 

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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.......

 

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The planing bottom and flat rear side panels are attached...........

 

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The fin is made from a plastic card outline shape - with balsa wood stuck to both sides and sanded to aerofoil section.......

 

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Checking the fin for fit - and 'planking in' the lower rear fuselage with strips of narrow plastic card........

 

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The port side lower rear fuselage is planked in....

 

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The fin has the rudder separated and is skinned with thin plastic card...

 

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More later....

 

Ken

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The pix are GREAT!

This build is lovely! ... so far-r-r ... !  I've been in this hobby for just 12 years and never knew building, like you've done, even existed. 

This ... is my kind of build. All built from scratch ... don't keep us hangin', post some more pix ... or even tease us with an image of the finished model and we can then just sit back and enjoy the build progress.  :popcorn:

Thanx!

Pete

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Fin and separated rudder skinned........

 

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Narrow plastic card strips are used to form the curved roof.....

 

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Just like making a flying model...... with balsa ribs and stringers - but in solid plastic.....

 

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Filling in the surface between the rear fuselage and fin. It looks crude but it will all be filled and sanded smooth later...

 

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Adding the fillet at the top of the fin leading edge...

 

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The starboard side still needs 'planking' in......

 

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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..

 

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Magazine photo showing the sideways-hinged front section.....

 

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A length of plastic tube is used to form the intake and exhaust for the jet engine. Note the planked in vee planing bottom...

 

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Top view of the nose section showing the port side jet engine intake....

 

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Nose section after planking in - with scraps of plastic card filling the radome....

 

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Time to break out the filler......

 

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More Later...

 

Ken

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The wings are made in the same way as the fin - a shaped balsa core skinned with thin plastic card....

 

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The fuselage / fin joint in progress....

 

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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...

 

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Milliput for the larger areas, Green Stuff for the smaller, final gaps.....

 

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Making the horizontal tailplane - using the same balsa and plastic card method...

 

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Finished tailplanes....

 

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Wing endplate floats made from laminations of thick plastic card (top) - and sanded to final shape (bottom)

 

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All the major sub-assemblies ready to be joined....

 

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Fuselage section showing the amount of filler needed to achieve a smooth finish....

 

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Rear fuselage and fin......

 

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Nose section.....

 

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More to follow....

 

Ken

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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......

 

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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....

 

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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.

 

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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.

 

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Ken

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My, my, my-y-y! This is just ... SOO-PERB! ... and you did this 20 years ago ... ??

 

The job you did on the nose with the Milliput and that per-r-rfect sanding job ... DANG you did nice work!

And your photos look GREAT too!

 

Thanx for posting these ... I'm lovin' this!

 

Pete

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