Author Topic: SK-1 "Malt"  (Read 9047 times)

Offline Acree

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SK-1 "Malt"
« on: May 07, 2015, 12:54:10 PM »
On November 13, 1962, the Miami Field Office of the US Federal Bureau of Investigation was called in on a mysterious find in the Everglades.  A local sportsman had stumbled across an all-black airplane in a clearing.  The fisherman had called the game warden, who notified the Dade County sheriff.  The deputy who was dispatched presumed he was going to see an old abandoned wreck in the swamp, but when he arrived he was surprised to discover, not a moss-covered, rusted and rotted out old Cessna, but a mysterious, all black airplane that had clearly not been in the swamp for long.  Even more mysterious, the airplane had no registration and no engine! 
The sheriff's department called in the FBI who promptly took over the investigation.  The FBI Special Agent in charge took photos of the airplane to nearby Homestead AFB, where the intel shop identified it as a PZL-Mielec SK-1 (SK = szybowiec komandosów [commando glider]).  The SK-1 had been developed especially to support special operations forces of the Warsaw Pact nations.  It was able to carry 6 commandos, plus pilot and copilot, along with 450 kilograms of weapons and supplies.  Unusually for a glider, the SK-1 was equipped with a 23 mm gun, intended to clear landing zones on approach; but what was particularly unique was that it could be quickly and easily dismounted to become an infantry support weapon when needed.  PZL-Mielec built over 200 SK-1s which eventually received the NATO reporting name "Malt," though it remained a fairly unknown aircraft.  Many were exported in small numbers to various Soviet client states, including Cuba, and more than 75 went to North Korea.  Most Malts were finished in overall black paint with minimal markings, and the model shown below represents the Cuban example discovered in the Everglades in 1962. 

The model:  I purchased the HobbyBoss 1/72 Mi2URN at a sale price for it's rotor assembly, which I will use in the upcoming VTOL GB, but that left me with some very nice, if quirky-shaped fuselage pieces.  It was a simple matter (sort of) to mate some surplus F6F wings, Kingfisher horizontal stabilizers and Corsair horizontal stabilizer as the vertical tail to convert the Mi-2 fuselage into a stealthy(?) commando support glider! 

Hope you like it!

Offline arkon

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Re: SK-1 "Malt"
« Reply #1 on: May 07, 2015, 01:58:55 PM »
nice! I like the wing tip skids. I think this is the one Mi helo I never saw as a plane. nice work!
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Offline Camthalion

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Re: SK-1 "Malt"
« Reply #2 on: May 07, 2015, 06:45:03 PM »
Cool.  Nice work

Offline Volkodav

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Re: SK-1 "Malt"
« Reply #3 on: May 07, 2015, 07:11:59 PM »
Cool, a real blast from the past concept but in a mass Soviet airborne assault against NATO it would actually be viable.

Offline LemonJello

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Re: SK-1 "Malt"
« Reply #4 on: May 07, 2015, 07:54:47 PM »
That is ingenious! Nicely executed.

Offline Buzzbomb

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Re: SK-1 "Malt"
« Reply #5 on: May 07, 2015, 08:17:37 PM »
Yes, nicely done and very plausible

Offline Jeffry Fontaine

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Re: SK-1 "Malt"
« Reply #6 on: May 08, 2015, 12:20:11 AM »
Excellent work!  Your short but very descriptive 'Evil Genius Level' back story allows the imagination to ponder what could have been. 

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Offline Weaver

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Re: SK-1 "Malt"
« Reply #7 on: May 08, 2015, 12:06:04 PM »
Nice work: I like helo-to-fixed-wing conversions and vice-versa. :)

Excellent work!  Your short but very descriptive 'Evil Genius Level' back story allows the imagination to ponder what could have been.

Yep - a good mystery is better than a lame explanation.
"I have described nothing but what I saw myself, or learned from others" - Thucydides

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Offline Tophe

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Re: SK-1 "Malt"
« Reply #8 on: May 08, 2015, 12:22:24 PM »
 :-* :-* :-* Wonderful mix! :-* :-* :-*

Offline Acree

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Re: SK-1 "Malt"
« Reply #9 on: May 09, 2015, 01:17:32 AM »
Thanks guys for all the encouraging words.  It was a fun build.  Glad you like it!

Chuck

Offline Tophe

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Re: SK-1 "Malt"
« Reply #10 on: May 09, 2015, 02:47:11 AM »
Thanks guys for all the encouraging words.  It was a fun build.  Glad you like it!
Chuck
Fun for you building + fun for us discovering the result... this is Heaven! ;)

Offline deathjester

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Re: SK-1 "Malt"
« Reply #11 on: May 09, 2015, 06:02:32 AM »
Very nice!  And the back story is brilliant too !!

Offline GTX_Admin

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Re: SK-1 "Malt"
« Reply #12 on: May 09, 2015, 06:16:52 AM »
I like.
All hail the God of Frustration!!!

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Offline The Big Gimper

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Re: SK-1 "Malt"
« Reply #13 on: May 09, 2015, 06:22:31 AM »
It's so good, I'm Malting!!!   ;)
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Offline GTX_Admin

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Re: SK-1 "Malt"
« Reply #14 on: May 09, 2015, 06:31:02 AM »
Its a good thing you didn't draw this build out into a long thread otherwise I might have been forced to refer to the instalments as ...












































































Yeah, I know ...door to the right... ;D
All hail the God of Frustration!!!

You can't outrun Death forever.
But you can make the Bastard work for it.

Offline apophenia

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Re: SK-1 "Malt"
« Reply #15 on: May 09, 2015, 09:36:24 AM »
Very nice! It's easy to envision a powered version with a pair of pusher props  :)
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Offline Frank3k

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Re: SK-1 "Malt"
« Reply #16 on: May 09, 2015, 11:28:23 AM »
This is a fantastic kit bash. Add engines and it would look a bit like an AN-14/AN-28.

Offline elmayerle

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Re: SK-1 "Malt"
« Reply #17 on: May 10, 2015, 08:19:26 AM »
Beautiful kitbash and enjoyable back story, just enough to tease and draw you in.

Offline Brian da Basher

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Re: SK-1 "Malt"
« Reply #18 on: May 24, 2015, 09:51:41 PM »
I almost hate to say this, but dang is that cute!

Well done, Chuck!

Brian da Basher