Colin m's 1:72 Airfix Kamov Ka25A/C

[colin m]

Well Cosford came and went and along with it was the £5.00 challenge. As an aircraft builder I wanted to step out of my comfort zone and try a bit of armour. So I bought this.

OK, some of you might have noticed it isn't anything armour related, true, but it is a sort of helicopter I think.
The price was verified by Tony, Ian and Neil. I wonder if I should of haggled...……...anyway.

A fair bit of white plastic. A bit offensive to the eyes. I might just prime everything. And as for the 'glass' bits, sturdy is the politest thing I can say about these.


Nicely drooped blades I thought. No, I realised they are just warped.



Sergei, Yuri and Mykolaiv all seem to be wearing turbans !


And the vintage for this fine old kit, 1983, a mere 36 years old.


Right, I'm off to research Russian helicopter pilot's.

[Allen Dewire]

Colin, it looks like a challenge, but I'm sure you'll handle it. Are those booties on the landing gear??? Never seen that before...….

[colin m]

Colin, it looks like a challenge, but I'm sure you'll handle it. Are those booties on the landing gear??? Never seen that before...….

They look a bit like floats, but surely to small to support a helicopter ? Anyone got any ideas ?

[yak face]

Apparently colin the undercarriage was fitted with emergency rapid inflation flotation bags , i imagine these would be triggered by immersion in water. In most pics these arent fitted though so its up to you whether to use them or not. Always liked the look of these choppers , kind of looks like the designers started with a van and then nailed on bits to turn it into a helicopter. Cheers tony

[Neil Merryweather]

Go for it Colin ! it looks like fun.......

[papa 695]

Think I'll watch what you do with this one Colin.

[colin m]

kind of looks like the designers started with a van and then nailed on bits to turn it into a helicopter.

Sounds like Russian engineering at its best.

[colin m]

I've done a bit. Sergei and his mates cleaned up quite nicely, a bit of primer made all the difference.


All you figure painting chaps and ladies should look away now. So after a bit of work they ended looking like this. I'm not going to bother tarting up the inside as I doubt much will be seen through the windows. So these comrades just about represent the interior.


This is what the rotor blades attach to. There's probably a really good technical name for it.
At this point I was quite happy I had found some instructions on the web for this model.


And finally for this update. The fuselage halves have just been stuck together. There was no point using Tamiya thin glue here, as it would have nothing to attach itself too - it's a bit 'gappy' So, out with the old thick Humbrol. I'll leave this to set overnight, hopefully, it has filled a few gaps for me.

[Jim R]

Hi Colin
Looks an ok kit. Nothing wrong with those figures. For £3.99 I reckon you have a bargain.
Jim

[papa 695]

Nice work on the figures Colin.

[Neil Merryweather]

looking Good , Colin

[Steven000]

Figures look much better indeed, looking forward to the rest of your build.
Cheers
Steven

[colin m]

Not much to update, with weather like this it nearly seems criminal to be inside. However, there's been some small progress. The fuselage is together and the old routing of filling / sanding has begun.
Unfortunately, I missed the bit in the instructions about needing ballast in the 'Radome' So I had to chop some lead up really small and drop it behind the IP, into a hole in the floor, which allowed access to the radome. 5g of lead later, the nose is suitably heavy.
A test fit of the screen shows a bit of a gap along the front joint, but hey, old school Airfix, such is life. The doors, however, don't really fit. Much fettling will be required, and of course, as I decided to have a sparse cockpit, the doors will have to be closed.

[papa 695]

Well it’s taking shape nicely Colin

[colin m]

Managed a bit more. The 'glass' took quite a bit of fettling to get an acceptable fit, but here it is done.


Followed by a splodge of primer which of course, showed up all the problems around the hugely thick nose mounted antenna. So I cut it off.


I also made a start on the rotors. Most of the blades were warped - in the wrong direction, how unlucky. Time for a bit of hot water.



And just for fun, a test fit of the 'strange' rotor assembly.