Wings of Intent: February 2013

for the completed model please go here:
http://wingsofintent.blogspot.com/2013/03/ikar-172-tupolev-ant-25-completed.html

Following the previous posting:
http://wingsofintent.blogspot.com/2013/02/tupolev-ant-25-distance-record-ikar-172.html
with the kit review here begins the building process.
As said before, this seems to be a case of very good masters and horrid molding.
As you can see all parts are off the sprues, more or less cleaned up. The transparencies (not sure the name applies) remind little ragged chunks of iceberg, but I managed to separate at least the main parts (the little windows will be done with window-maker). The openings on the fuselage have been cut-out, filed and refined.

Some halves glued together and minor assembly:

It seems that the building board time is being consumed more on preparation than on actual assembling, but some times it is just like that. Here the fuselage sides are being thinned-down, to perhaps 1/3 of their original thickness. This was done to better suit some scratchbuilt interior details and open some hatches down the lane. The wing had some details applied and a few areas are being puttying to correct mold flaws.

Besides the colors, you should know that the position of the Venturi probes cluster differs between the two machines (N025 and N025-1). Also, the fairing that follows the wheels once retracted, does not have a flat front as depicted in the kit, but protrudes between the wheels in a more aerodynamic way (see original contemporary photos of the plane).

Firewal and some stringers in place:

More interior, still a stretch to go:

Nose panels were removed on both fuselage sides to partially show an engine borrowed from another kit:

Wing and aileron halves have been glued together, with some general tide up:

Fuselage interior almost complete:

Logic, common sense, practicality, all dictate that fuselage fronts should be rendered as a separate piece. Of course in this kit not only was the very nose tip part of the fuselage sides, but, as indicated, covered in thick flash. I had to perform reconstructive nose surgery to mitigate the horrors. I don't mind to take the time to add details or do some preparation, but I really do not appreciate spending time fixing somebody else's sloppiness, carelessness and lack of regard for the consumer.

A few bits more on the engine:

Fuselage with all components and decals already inside, ready to be closed:

The trusty Mattel Psychedelic Machine was used to make a couple of copies of the transparencies to obtain better clarity:

Yet more tiding up required here and there on joints and spots, given the kit's poor molding:

The maximum thickness of the airfoil in one wing was 2 mm short of its socket on the fuselage, so two spreaders had to be glued to correct the discrepancy:

This version had 7 Venturis, so more needed to be scratched:

The model now assembled got very large, and care should be taken while working on it. I started to knock down stuff around.

CMK navigation lights:

Small parts washed after some sanding:

Priming, more sanding and the long long way to Tipperary:

Painting begins with the white color:

And while paint dries some small parts are painted too:

To add yet another hoop in this obstacle course, the white decals are printed on white paper AND the carrier encompasses all images, so you have to cut the individual subjects.

I stated before that I was skeptic about the decals, but a small part with some irrelevant text that I cut and tried worked well. Let's hope the rest goes uneventfully.

Attentive -and informed- eyes will notice that the Russians used, for the non-Cyrillic speakers benefit- "normal" characters; so, instead of "CCCP - H205-1" (Which in Russian would be SSSR- N205-1) they wrote "URSS - N025-1".

Again, please notice: not USSR, but URSS, as easily corroborated on contemporary photos. That alternative spelling is commonly used on another languages, Spanish and French among many others.

(The completed model is here:)
http://wingsofintent.blogspot.com/2013/03/ikar-172-tupolev-ant-25-completed.html

LONG LIVE UKRAINE

красные крылья

(Krasnye Krilya)

(Red Wings)

The Reds Are Coming!!!

For those who know me, my limitless joy will need no justification. Finally, a plane I can model that has, irrefutably, undoubtedly, definitely, red underwings!

I owe the pleasure of having this one to Lars Opland of Khee-Kha Art Products fame, whom, very kindly and unselfishly agreed to pass it on from his personal stash. Those who know Lars are aware that he lives in Wasilla, Alaska, inside an igloo made of kit boxes.

As said, my joy was immeasurable when I had the kit, finally, in my hands. This Russian-made jewel is kind of hard to get. Made by Ikar (Икар) and with the box lid illustrated by E. Alexeenko, it can depict both versions of the famous plane, the one piloted by Chkalov to Vancouver, Washington, or the one piloted by Gromov to San Jacinto, California.

The plane itself was a real stylized beauty, and the model is a good rendition of it. The kit is sort of rough, as you will see in the accompanying photos. A little bit of flash, perhaps some subtle chunkiness, but with some good surface detail and interesting parts’ count.

As you can tell by the images some of the parts got broken, and a spare for one was included in the sealed box at the factory. No big deal, easy to repair or replace. The transparencies could be rescued, but perhaps using them to pop vacuformed replicas would be wiser.

The decals got a tad smashed in the long haul from mother Russia, so we’ll see how it goes with them at the time of application.

The instructions are...there. But you should gather some references. I did and had a very good time going through the history of the type development, the construction, modification and trials of the machines, and the record flights themselves. I chose to model the modified RD-1 that landed in San Jacinto, California, since I live in the general area. My grandparents were originally from Ukraine and I ended up in California, so it is sort of commemorative of the family history.

A short clip of it landed at that location can be watched here:

http://www.criticalpast.com/video/65675063618_Russian-Airmen_flying-6600-miles_over-North-Pole_crowd-watches

It is the machine that has no blue nose (the blue nose is the one mostly modeled, by the way) and could appear a tad less showy, but perhaps some scratchbuilt details could bring some extra pizzazz.

The kit box is apparently made of recycled material: recycled polar bear, recycled burlap, recycled politburo members, and so forth, as the images describe (notice the fibers in the close-up). As per the broken parts...I found at the bottom of the plastic bag a quality control tag stamped “1” (see image) so, number 1....we know who you are, and we are watching you. Another kit with broken parts and to Siberia you go!

The kit:

Now, the bad news. As you can see in the photos below, the kit parts are, as said before, rough. The wings and ailerons are, by far, the worst, and almost fall in the mission impossible category. Harbor no illusions, to fix them will imply very hard work making the labor of the Volga Haulers look like ladies on tutus on a paddle boat on a summer day at the lake.

And then, the bad news: once the parts are sort of cleaned up, they won’t particularly feel inclined to match their opposite counterparts. More work ahead.

Some bad news: references are not always perfect, look, when possible, at actual photos of the machine you are modeling. There is good will on part of the scholars and writers, but their product does not always match reality.

Even more...bad news: the trailing edges are very thick, the “flat” parts (like the inner surfaces of the ailerons, are not flat. The flash present is not of the "gone with the wind" type, but instead requires positive action to be removed. It is strange, but it is as if the wing/aileron molds (which are bigger) were produced somewhere else, up to far lower standards.

And -finally- some good news: once you are done with the wings and ailerons, Siberia will appear to you as a Cote D’Azur destination. AND the rest of the kit is rather good, although not quite “there”, as in "normal". Yes, Tamiyinsky and Hasegawoff this one is not. But, my friend, you are a modeler, are you not? Get at it!

There is another one of these made by Eastern Express. I haven’t seen one personally, though. For what I can tell from photos on the Net these are the same masters, but modified. The wings are broken down differently and the laid-down is different.

Was that one refined at the time of re-issue? I’d like to know. Some halved parts of the IKAR kit are rendered as one in the Eastern Express kit, the interior is not there anymore, the prop blades are attached together, etc. Sort of simplified version seems to me, and again I wonder if they did something –in case they are more or less the same masters- to improve the horrid quality of the wings seen in the IKAR kit.
I will render this posting as a review, and the next one will be dedicated at the actual building, since the "critique" got kind of long.