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BURAN 1/144-ARK Model


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After seeing X-Plane Fan's Buran and Antonov, I remembered that I had almost built an ARK Model Buran.

It was a couple of years ago and I got sidetracked by ... gee, any number of things.

So, let me get re-acquaitned with this build and maybe even finish it off!

 

Here's the box ... as I recall, the Gold sticker means the full set of decals are included. But it all may have changed in these past 2 years ...

 

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This is my 1/144 AIRFIX Shuttle and I want this Buran to be displayed in-flight to accompany this one.

 

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Not too may parts ... After Market PE is being cleaned in Vinegar in the background.

 

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Putting the wings together. I remember the fit being pretty good!

 

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Belly dry fit ... the fit is nice but will still need some sanding and filling. The Rectangular hole is for an instrument ... maybe radar.

 

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The Belly sub-assembly being dry fit ... looks like i'm gonna need some Putty ...  ;^ D

 

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Still dry fitting ...

 

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The Payload Bay is in 3 pieces ... sides and bottom. Not counting the 2 Bulkheads ...

 

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Dry-fitting the Payload Bay ... some PE has been glued to the Bulkheads.

 

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Assembling the Payload Bay to one side of the fuselage ... with the Bulkheads.

 

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A Gap between Wing and Fuselage. Maybe the overall fit isn't anything special. Seems typical for Shuttle models, either NEW or 40 years old ... ;- (

 

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And my method for filling gaps is to stuff scraps of thin styrene into 'em, sand 'em down and use minimum putty.

 

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See ya in the next post ... let's see if all these images post too!

Pete

 

 

 

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Alright-y! That posted with no problem ... 'twas a nice treat!

 

PE attached to the 2 Bulkheads and the Aft Engine section ...

 

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... and some more PE ... antennae

 

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Attached the Wing and the Aft section ...

 

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The Nose section and RCS plate will need some TLC too. I stuffed some 0.005" styrene scrap into the small gaps

 

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Some patching on the Belly ...

 

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... and sanded down ...

 

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PE for the Remote Manipulator System ... 

 

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My FOTKI just went down so this is a good place to stop ... for a little while ...

 

Thanx for taking a peek!

Pete

 

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The PE stands proud of the surface and I had to try to recall what the issue was. I had glued in the clear windows and THEN attached the PE on top ... I can only assume that I should have used one or the other, not both.

 

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But in order to salvage this mistake, I shimmed the difference in levels with Styrene and will sand it down ...

 

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And after a lot of sanding and Priming and sanding, it'll look just fine under some paint.

 

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Onto the PB doors. This is the assembly instruction  ... pretty sparse

 

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PB doors dry fit ... there's no PE yet, just plastic. I love all the little detail

 

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The little nubs need to be removed so the PE strips will fit

 

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I taped the PE Radiator panels to keep their position

 

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Those nubs needed to be removed so that the little PE strip, at the upper edge, with the holes, could be attached

 

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A coat of paint

 

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That'll do it for now. till next post!

 

Pete

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Onto some decalling ... now these decals are lovely. Thin and way too easy to screw up. I ruined my big wing decal 2 years ago and had to order a new sheet ... plus the elevon decals were mis-numbered on the guide.

 

And even in the session this week, applying the decals was frustrating. I was just the least bit careless putting the decal down, and it surprised me by folding under itself and it did NOT want to unfold. I did that on 3 different decals.

 

 

The Elevon decals, just below the kit, were mis-numbered and I thought they were mis-printed. But I realized this week that these decals are virtually the same on the top and belly surfaces, but they are indeed mis-numbered in the guide.

 

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and they are printed White, so you have to paint the belly a dark colour. I think this one is just Primer.

 

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This is what confused the heck outta me ... this is as the guide suggests ...

 

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Anyway, once they're down, they do look pretty good!

 

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With the replaced Wing decal ... 

 

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The 'tiles' on the nose were misaligned, creating a gap down the middle, I guess it was my mistake, but i'm gonna cannibalize my 'new' sheet and cut off a piece of the nose decal.

 

On the Windows, I guess I'll try to touch up the misalignment with some carefully placed Paint.

 

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I'll just cut off a tiny bit of this decal ... where the Brush is pointing.

 

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Still some PE on the Payload Bay then just small touch-ups left to do ... it'll be nice to have this finished!

 

Tony, it woulda been nice if you provided a build log of your Buran too, but it did give me the "kick in the a$$" that I needed!

 

thanx!

Pete

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Mr Forests (   ;- D ), when I used HotDog's decals for my 1/144 Shuttle, they were a dream to apply ... worry not ... it'll still be fun!

Thanks Manfred!

 

 

Although the PB doors Thermal tiles won't be seen, I wanna show the nice decals that were provided, and applied, for the doors

 

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After attaching the PB doors, a nice gap showed up ... 

 

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I tried simply gluing it together with Tamiya Extra Thin glue and a couple clamps ... and it did the job nicely!

 

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Now I could attach the PE for the Payload Bay ... tiny fiddly stuff ... The thing that ALWAYS amazes me is how, when grasping, FIRMLY, a small item of PE, with tweezers, it manages to FLY off with a small 'click' never to be found again! 

 

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The RMS got attached, one deployed and one stowed, plus a couple of Antennae and ... it's DONE!

 

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All in all, this is a nice little kit.

 

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i'll post a couple more pix in the next post.

 

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Here's a few more Beauty pix ...

 

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The Buran has an Antenna or Sensor in the Belly ... 

 

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I'm glad I got this off the "Shelf of Doom" and it looks pretty good.

Now to complete 2 others on ... The Shelf!  ;^ D

 

Thanx for following along Gents!

Pete

Edited by K2Pete
Fixed a couple typos
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Big compliments, Pete! :clap2:

 

As not otherwise used to from you, a wonderful and, above all, clean work, to which I take my hat off! up047803.gif

 

Your BURAN model is ready for the next scale modeling fair and worthy of an award. up040577.gif

Edited by spaceman
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  • 2 weeks later...

Started the Ark model when it was first released. Scratched a crude flight deck, that actually can been seen through the tiny window openings. Then got bogged down with the decals. Despite the seller description, my kit didn't come with the tile decals and it took the better part of half a year to finally score a set. And they okay, but missing a few parts that were included in another supplementary set, and the printing wasn't great, and they didn't quite match the tile maps I'd found online. So what's a certifiable person to do? Instead of finishing the stupid model, I drafted a "corrected"/complete version of the decals. 

 

These look to be about the largest file sizes I can post here. I've two versions of the bottom tiles, one for over light grey paint, one for over dark grey paint, depending on which one would prefer. I've not used them yet, but printed on regular paper, they seem to fit the Ark kit nicely. If anyone wants to print your own decals... 

 

These are bitmap only, as my original source material is of poor quality. At least half of the tiles from the Ark set have been re-drafted by hand. My originals were done at 800 dpi. 

2014315852_BuranBottomBlackClosedSmall.thumb.jpg.e77d40dd18a9e4ce33c47e8ce83fe70f.jpg240993431_BuranBottomBlackOpenSmall.thumb.jpg.7197f4ea84b8ad0d4282ccf460db8203.jpg1063994938_BuranBottomWhiteSmall.thumb.jpg.8e54c9e75a101c743f3e62f6d58e5517.jpg2042083882_BuranSidesSmall.thumb.jpg.bc028288025254e6a9e14591d9982827.jpg2005333364_BuranTopSmall.thumb.jpg.a99962f0c4a530ef46c4a829db273c70.jpg

Edited by SpacecraftGuy
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