Author Topic: 1/35 Aerosani Vertolet (Aerosan helicopter)  (Read 5151 times)

Offline Frank3k

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1/35 Aerosani Vertolet (Aerosan helicopter)
« on: July 20, 2022, 11:41:28 AM »
I like the look of the various Soviet WWII aerosans but they just seem useless during the fraction of the year that isn't covered in snow and ice - and a waste of potential with their small, serviceable aircraft engines.

I've already made a Gaz-98 based swamp boat, so why not turn an aerosan into an airplane or helicopter?

I started with the idea of turning the Trumpeter NKL-6 Aerosan into an airplane:



and even went as far as tracing the wings of the Monogram Piper Tri-Pacer (which is listed at 1/32 but based on the figures, might be closer to 1/35), and printing them out. Placing them on the NKL-6, it was clear that they would work best shoulder mounted and it would be an easy modification.... but what about the tail? I would have to make a couple of tail booms far apart enough ti clear the prop and support them from the main wings. The more I thought about it, the less interested I was in the project (at least for now).

I also have the much smaller KM-4 Aerosan:



What about turning it into a small helicopter? After some futzing around, I found some of the bits from an old Revell 1/35 Bell H-13H so I went ahead and printed an engine/gear head cover for the rotor. I used the engine section of the Mil Mi-1 for inspiration. Fresh from curing and having the supports removed:



Here's where it is at the moment, all taped up. The French guy and the bored guy at the computer (I modified his legs) should give a sense of how small this helicopter is.  I removed the original engine section from the kit's roof and added the 3D printed part  The tail section is the rear half of a 1/200 B-52 and the angled rotor support is one of the tail booms from an old Heller 1/72 J-21. The tail rotor is from a Hasegawa Hughes egg helicopter kit:



The tail rotor may be on the wrong side - it's easy to rotate it to the other side. I've been tempted to make the roof completely in 3D, but I don't want to add any extra transparencies. The kit part fits poorly; the KM-4 body is flimsy,so it's hard to line everything up. I may leave it as is.

I scratchbuilt a copy of the seat from a Tamiya Schwimmwagen in white styrene; I also designed a similar seat and printed it. I think I'll use the styrene seat for the pilot and one or two of the 3D printed chairs for the passengers.

As for the original NKL-6, I'll turn it into a coaxial helicopter, similar to some of the early Kamov coaxial helicopters - flip the engine pod around, remove the prop, make a gear head cover then add a drive shaft from the engine.
« Last Edit: July 20, 2022, 11:45:19 AM by Frank3k »

Offline Jeffry Fontaine

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Re: 1/35 Aerosani Vertolet (Aerosan helicopter)
« Reply #1 on: July 20, 2022, 02:43:44 PM »
Great idea Frank!

I had visions of a twin-boom with wings and tail arrangement like that one car from the bond movies (Man with the golden gun?) when you were describing your idea to convert the Aerosan to a flying vehicle. 
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Offline Ramba

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Re: 1/35 Aerosani Vertolet (Aerosan helicopter)
« Reply #2 on: July 20, 2022, 10:12:07 PM »
Cool idea! Looking good so far.

Offline LemonJello

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Re: 1/35 Aerosani Vertolet (Aerosan helicopter)
« Reply #3 on: July 21, 2022, 12:32:24 AM »
Much coolness.

Offline apophenia

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Re: 1/35 Aerosani Vertolet (Aerosan helicopter)
« Reply #4 on: July 21, 2022, 01:30:54 AM »
Much coolness.

Indeed. This is fantastically inventive Frank  :smiley:

Also looking forward to your coax NKL-6  :D
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Re: 1/35 Aerosani Vertolet (Aerosan helicopter)
« Reply #5 on: July 21, 2022, 01:51:45 AM »
 :smiley:
All hail the God of Frustration!!!

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Offline raafif

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Re: 1/35 Aerosani Vertolet (Aerosan helicopter)
« Reply #6 on: July 21, 2022, 05:47:39 AM »
I'm thinking a twin fin like a Kamov Ka25B “Hormone” for the NKL-6 version ?

Offline Frank3k

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Re: 1/35 Aerosani Vertolet (Aerosan helicopter)
« Reply #7 on: July 21, 2022, 07:18:45 AM »
Similar. I was thinking more like the Yakovlev EG (from the link):


In fact, it uses almost the same engine.

Offline Frank3k

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Re: 1/35 Aerosani Vertolet (Aerosan helicopter)
« Reply #8 on: July 28, 2022, 11:37:53 AM »
I've spent days just dealing with the windows on the KM-4. The kit windows are attached to a clear plastic strip that gets pushed into the window openings. It looks awful. I thought that I could saw the windows out of the carrier strip, but each window has an odd step-down in the middle - the edges are supposed to represent the window seal, but they take up about 1/3 of the clear area... not that the windows are all that clear.  So I went with plan B and vacuformed copies of the windows and trimmed them to fit. All good except for the windshield. It has a main clear area and two smaller side windows. Getting all three to stay in - and even with the front - was impossible. So I cut out the two frames that defined the side windows, cut some clear plastic to match and I was done. There's some clear glue that I have to remove but all I have to do now is mask it:



With that out of the way, I painted the interior with a turquoise similar to Russian interior green and I added a kit part seen behind the pilot's seat, a scratchbuilt pilot's seat control stick from a Hasegawa egg helicopter and 3D printed pedals, passenger seat and collective stick/side control panel. The back wall is from a Trumpeter CH-47 interior kit - always handy for parts:



The silver tube is supposed to represent conduit for control lines, cables, whatever. It's just some styrene rod:



Also visible above is the control panel. I found artwork online depicting the control panel for a Robinson R44 helicopter. I printed two copies on my color laser printer - I used one to represent the instruments, then punched holes in the other where the instruments were. I painted superglue on the back of the paper instrument panel parts and when dry, I used Gator Glue (just a nice PVA style glue) to sandwich a thin clear sheet between the two instrument panel parts. I then glued everything to a sheet of styrene and cut to shape. It sounds complicated, but it couldn't have taken more than 30 minutes to complete.

The panel looks OK from a distance (and inside the cockpit) but close up, you can see that it was printed on paper:



I could probably get better results printing on glossy or photo paper.
« Last Edit: July 28, 2022, 11:40:54 AM by Frank3k »

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Re: 1/35 Aerosani Vertolet (Aerosan helicopter)
« Reply #9 on: July 28, 2022, 12:03:14 PM »
Nice work on the windscreen and I have to say that the first image looks like a face with a frown :)

The interior details are looking great.  Nice reuse of the Chinook bulkhead for a better purpose. 
"Every day we hear about new studies 'revealing' what should have been obvious to sentient beings for generations; 'Research shows wolverines don't like to be teased" -- Jonah Goldberg

Offline Old Wombat

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Re: 1/35 Aerosani Vertolet (Aerosan helicopter)
« Reply #10 on: July 28, 2022, 05:38:37 PM »
Bigger windscreen looks better, anyway, Frank! :smiley:
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Offline Ramba

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Re: 1/35 Aerosani Vertolet (Aerosan helicopter)
« Reply #11 on: July 28, 2022, 07:51:22 PM »
Great job on the IP.

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Re: 1/35 Aerosani Vertolet (Aerosan helicopter)
« Reply #12 on: July 28, 2022, 09:06:29 PM »
Model problems getting some ingenious solutions.  Well done!

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Re: 1/35 Aerosani Vertolet (Aerosan helicopter)
« Reply #13 on: July 29, 2022, 03:21:12 AM »
Looking good
All hail the God of Frustration!!!

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Offline Frank3k

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Re: 1/35 Aerosani Vertolet (Aerosan helicopter)
« Reply #14 on: July 29, 2022, 11:00:31 AM »
Thanks guys - this is moving along. The cabin floor has raised plugs for the passenger chairs (which seem to be child sized). Since I'm only adding two adult sized seats, I had to do something about the extra chair positions. I cut a rectangle of lined styrene and gave it a distressed wood finish, with some old stains. I also made some lap belts for the pilot and passenger, added some hold-down straps to the wall and dirtied up the cabin floor:



The two remaining chair plugs will be covered either by a small fuel tank or a beer/vodka bottle crate.

I found a wooden box from Value Gear that would fit perfectly in the "cargo area" - I painted it red, gave it some extensive weathering and strapped it in place:





I don't know if this aerosan was very small or if this is another example of a Trumpeter scaling issue; there are few Trumpeter kits without at least one major screw-up on their part. I couldn't find dimensions for this particular aerosan, but the passengers would have been crammed in like sardines. Here's the driver from the Tamiya Quad for a size comparison. He doesn't hit his head on the cabin roof on, but getting in (or out) would require some contortions:



Next is putting the windows in, then the upper components.


« Last Edit: July 29, 2022, 11:10:56 AM by Frank3k »

Offline KiwiZac

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Re: 1/35 Aerosani Vertolet (Aerosan helicopter)
« Reply #15 on: July 31, 2022, 09:24:39 AM »
Similar. I was thinking more like the Yakovlev EG (from the link):


In fact, it uses almost the same engine.
The nose on that reminds me of the cool version of the Bell Model 30!
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Offline Frank3k

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Re: 1/35 Aerosani Vertolet (Aerosan helicopter)
« Reply #16 on: August 03, 2022, 09:01:49 AM »
This helicopter project is dragging. I spent a couple of days cutting out and installing the vacuformed windows for this project and the kit windows for the NKL-6 project. The KM-4 kit windows, with their ridiculous frames, are just unusable. The NKL-6 windows have a plastic frame that I removed.

I used liquid mask for the windows and sealed everything up. I used the Microsol masking liquid for the front windscreen and the Gunze masking liquid for everything else. It does look kinda cool:



I decided to use the old H-13 tail boom as Phill from WhatIf suggested. It looks ugly, but in a good way. One advantage is that the open boom reduces the weight past the CG, so it sits firmly on all three wheels with the main rotor fore and aft. I used the kit's ski mounts for the main landing gear - I just extended them with a white styrene tube. The wheels and the front landing gear strut are from an old ESCI 1/48 HS-129. The main rotor and tail look droopy here, but they're just held in place. I can (and will) adjust the tail boom droop to level everything out. It's starting to look like a helicopter. Maybe for children or midgets, though. The figure is 1/35 scale. I'm wondering if the scale is the patented Trumpeter Screwup for this kit :



Hopefully I can start priming - and maybe even painting - tomorrow.


Offline raafif

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Re: 1/35 Aerosani Vertolet (Aerosan helicopter)
« Reply #17 on: August 03, 2022, 09:25:52 AM »
 :smiley:

Offline Jeffry Fontaine

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Re: 1/35 Aerosani Vertolet (Aerosan helicopter)
« Reply #18 on: August 03, 2022, 10:10:58 AM »
Wow!  For a moment I thought I was looking at a Bristol Sycamore :) 

I would imagine the pilot would be a bit inconvenienced with the lack of visibility but it definitely looks like a helicopter. 
"Every day we hear about new studies 'revealing' what should have been obvious to sentient beings for generations; 'Research shows wolverines don't like to be teased" -- Jonah Goldberg

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Re: 1/35 Aerosani Vertolet (Aerosan helicopter)
« Reply #19 on: August 05, 2022, 02:35:58 PM »
Brilliant internal detail this is looking really good  :smiley: :smiley:

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Offline Frank3k

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Re: 1/35 Aerosani Vertolet (Aerosan helicopter)
« Reply #20 on: August 07, 2022, 09:26:22 AM »
The KM-4A Vertolet is almost done. Taking the masks off the windows peeled some paint and one of the windows popped out, but the damage is minor. Both the rotors and the tail section are just held in place. The tail section is sturdy enough that I won't have to glue it on:





Next up is fixing some of the paint issues, repair the side window, add the exhaust and some bits to both the main body and the tail section. I think I'll keep the weathering to a minimum.

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Re: 1/35 Aerosani Vertolet (Aerosan helicopter)
« Reply #21 on: August 07, 2022, 07:06:11 PM »
it just works Frank. Terrific work

Offline Old Wombat

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Re: 1/35 Aerosani Vertolet (Aerosan helicopter)
« Reply #22 on: August 07, 2022, 07:59:02 PM »
 8)

Yep, any more than absolute minimum weathering would spoil the look. :smiley:
"This is the Captain. We have a little problem with our engine sequence, so we may experience some slight turbulence and, ah, explode."

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Re: 1/35 Aerosani Vertolet (Aerosan helicopter)
« Reply #23 on: August 08, 2022, 12:28:47 AM »
 :smiley:
All hail the God of Frustration!!!

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But you can make the Bastard work for it.

Offline Frank3k

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Re: 1/35 Aerosani Vertolet (Aerosan helicopter)
« Reply #24 on: August 08, 2022, 01:17:03 AM »
Thanks, guys. The date code on the tail looks like a US Navy style number (white "shadow") but it was a printing error. It looked interesting, so I went with it.