Fanera

[zenrat]

That's going to be one WEIRD looking aeroplane!  

Correction, it already IS one weird looking aeroplane, but it'll be a fully finished weird looking aeroplane!

Make sense to me.  Putting the engine there allows tuning during flight and reduces length.

The engine isn't accessible in flight.

Well they missed a trick then.  I had "assumed" it was an inline engine situated between the pilot and the other bloke.
With that exposed valve gear (will you be scratchbuilding it?) they can keep an eye on things although the windscreen seem ideally situated to be coated should there be an oil leak.

[JayBee]

The engine, looking more like a working engine should.





This is a field modification, well whenever anything is handed over to the military they never leave it alone, do they?
More of this in the backstory.





Jim

[Mossie]

How has been to build Jim?  Looks to be a bit of a putty monster, par for the course for a short run kit?

I'm itching to get hold of their Beverley when it's out.

[jcf]

Will you be doing a KHAI 3 as a companion? 

http://airwar.ru/enc/cw1/hai3.html

[PR19_Kit]

Will you be doing a KHAI 3 as a companion? 

http://airwar.ru/enc/cw1/hai3.html

That looks rather good, I'm surprised it only has one engine though. Tophe would have given it seven. 

[JayBee]

Will you be doing a KHAI 3 as a companion? 

http://airwar.ru/enc/cw1/hai3.html

Absolutely not JCF, I only do sensible models. 

[jcf]

The point, as it were, of these planerlets (roughly glider-plane or motor-glider) was maximum efficiency
with a single M11 engine.
Most of the designs had long wings. 

A couple of others:
http://www.airwar.ru/enc/law1/lem2.html
LEM-2/OKA-33 first design by Oleg Antonov

http://www.airwar.ru/enc/cw1/lig6.html
LEM-3/LIG-6

[JayBee]

How has been to build Jim?  Looks to be a bit of a putty monster, par for the course for a short run kit?

I'm itching to get hold of their Beverley when it's out.

To answer Mossie/Simon's question, it has not been that bad a build.
It is certainly not a putty monster. One area that did need some putty was the rear fuselage but that was really because, with no locating pins, I had misaligned the left and right halves.
The one area where there is a problem is the upper wing to fuselage join. I have quite a gap there and the PE walkways make it more obvious. This of course may be due to my building but I am NOT going to try and correct it.
Mentioned earlier is the problem of fitting figures into this build. Maybe the pre-war Rusian diet meant that they did not grow as tall as people tend to do now.  Anyway as Zenrat posted earlier I had to take the Stalinist approach and cut the Generals down to size. And the pilots, And move them all nearer the centre line. Just to get the clear fuselage parts to fit.
Then there is the engine. This has three parts, the main ring of cylinders, and a front and back set of (I think) pushrods. The detail is a bit crude as is the fit. This becomes more obvious if you are, as I did, leaving the Townend ring off.

The last point is that I had originally planned to bring this model up to production standard (20 production standard aircraft were produced for Aeroflot) but the number of changes was too great.
Removal of the Townend ring. No problem.
Changing the shape of the fin/rudder. No problem.
Re-profiling the rear fuselage, and fitting the tailplane as a shoulder mounted unit, rather than on top. Doable.
Re-working the wing so that it has smaller outboard ailerons and mid-span flaps. Easy.
Changing the layout of the windows. ARGH! No! No! No!.

Keeping it as the prototype does require a bit of a change to the backstory.

Now back to work.

Jim

[zenrat]

Yes, get on with it.
I can't wait to see it finished.

[JayBee]

Well having given this it's first couple of coats of primer, the previously mentioned gaps between the uperwings and fuselage are rather more obvious.
I am going to have to do something about them.





Jim

[Rick Lowe]

You've probably already thought of this, but if you're at that stage and don't want to go through the PSR hassle, try White Glue to fill the gaps.
You can smooth it off by dragging a damp cotton bud or similar along the top and this should negate any sanding requirements.

Drywall filler could also work, again smoothed with a damp utensil.

FWIW, HTH

Cheers

[Mossie]

How has been to build Jim?  Looks to be a bit of a putty monster, par for the course for a short run kit?

I'm itching to get hold of their Beverley when it's out.

To answer Mossie/Simon's question, it has not been that bad a build.
It is certainly not a putty monster. One area that did need some putty was the rear fuselage but that was really because, with no locating pins, I had misaligned the left and right halves.
The one area where there is a problem is the upper wing to fuselage join. I have quite a gap there and the PE walkways make it more obvious. This of course may be due to my building but I am NOT going to try and correct it.
Mentioned earlier is the problem of fitting figures into this build. Maybe the pre-war Rusian diet meant that they did not grow as tall as people tend to do now.  Anyway as Zenrat posted earlier I had to take the Stalinist approach and cut the Generals down to size. And the pilots, And move them all nearer the centre line. Just to get the clear fuselage parts to fit.
Then there is the engine. This has three parts, the main ring of cylinders, and a front and back set of (I think) pushrods. The detail is a bit crude as is the fit. This becomes more obvious if you are, as I did, leaving the Townend ring off.

The last point is that I had originally planned to bring this model up to production standard (20 production standard aircraft were produced for Aeroflot) but the number of changes was too great.
Removal of the Townend ring. No problem.
Changing the shape of the fin/rudder. No problem.
Re-profiling the rear fuselage, and fitting the tailplane as a shoulder mounted unit, rather than on top. Doable.
Re-working the wing so that it has smaller outboard ailerons and mid-span flaps. Easy.
Changing the layout of the windows. ARGH! No! No! No!.

Keeping it as the prototype does require a bit of a change to the backstory.

Now back to work.

Jim

Thanks Jim, that's really helpful.  I guess as I'll be putting out an order for the Beverley as soon as it's available. Cheers!

[Captain Canada]

Looks great. The big twin looks pretty wild as well !

[JayBee]

Well this one is finished. The only extra bit I will add to what has been said before is that although you get masks for the transparencies, and they are a wonderful addition to the kit, there was an amount of paint creepage under the edges, and yes they were well rubbed down. Also when removed they left a lot of adhesive behind. OK this was cleaned up with white spirit and a cotton bud, but it would have been better if it did not happen.

Also it is shown on a grassy base as I just have not had the time to creat a snow type one.

Now to the model.

The backstory :

In 1930 the LIIPS ( - Leningrad institute for sail and communications engineers) formed a UK GVF ( - training centre for civil air fleet), in turn the UK GVF formed the NIAI (Naoochno-Issledovatel'skiy Aero-Institoot - scientific test aero-institute)
One of it's products was the LK-1 (Leningradskii Kombinat - Leningrad combine), (a.k.a. Fanera-2 – Plywood no.2), (a.k.a. NIAI-1) and this was a four-seat cabin aircraft designed and built from 1933.
Flight trials at Leningrad and state acceptance tests at the NII GVF(Naoochno-Issledovatel'skiy Institoot Grazdahnskovo Vozdooshnovo Flota - scientific test institute for civil air fleet), were very successful and an order for twenty production aircraft with modified tails, spats removed, no Townend ring and other modifications was placed, for use by Aeroflot inside the USSR and the Arctic.
So much for the aircraft's history.
The Siege of Leningrad, also known as the Leningrad Blockade (Russian: блокада Ленинграда, Transliteration: blokada Leningrada) was a prolonged military blockade undertaken by the German Army Group North against Leningrad
The siege started on 8 September 1941, when the last road to the city was severed. Although the Soviets managed to open a narrow land corridor to the city on 18 January 1943, the siege was finally lifted on 27 January 1944, 872 days after it began.
On 23 August, the Northern Front was divided into the Leningrad Front and the Karelian Front as it became impossible for front headquarters to control everything between Murmansk and Leningrad.
From June 1942, Leonard Goviroy was the commander of the front, and he was later awarded the title "Marshal of the Soviet Union".
It was in the very early stages of Goviroy's tenure that a need for a small communications aircraft was identified for the Commander's use, and it was at this time that it was discovered that the NIAI still had the prototype Fanera-2 in storage.
This was taken on charge as the personal transport for the Commander. The aircraft was modified to give it a self protection capability by the fitting in the cabin roof with a hatch that was in two halves that could be slid sideways on rails and a machine gun, on an improvised mount would be manned by the co-pilot, or even one of the passengers. That this was a successful modification is shown by the fact that the aircraft carried two kill markings, one German and one Finish. The German one was a Henschel Hs126, while the Finish one has only ever been described as "a reconnaissance type".
Records do show that the aircraft survived the siege but it's fate after that is sadly not known.





























Lastly, if anyone wants a set of spats, drop me a PM.

[Captain Canada]

Where is Brian when you need him ?

Looks great. Love the look/ shape of this one. Great job around the engine and prop as well, really looks the part. I'd leave the gunnery to the co-pilot....I wouldn't want so crazy passenger getting all excited and shooting the tail off !