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.