North Korean People's Army Air Force Kamov Ka-58

[seadude]

With the recent hype all over the news about North Korea, I thought my next modeling project might look good as a North Korean whif. So I plan to whif the following into a North Korean Ka-58 attack helicopter.    Here's my problem: I'm not good with camouflage patterns, so I won't be doing any. The copter will be mostly one color all over, or it will be a lighter shade on the bottom and a darker shade on top. So I need ideas and suggestions for color choices.

[Caveman]

Black on top like the glorious leaders hair and grey undersides like the glorious leaders suits?

[seadude]

Ok, I need help. Somebody on the manufacturing line screwed up with this kit.    The top and bottom halves of the main fuselage are warped. How the hell do I correct this? The front nose area, and the back tail area don't come together. I can either:
a) Glue the two halves together and pray the glue, clamps, etc. work.
b) Anybody got another idea?
c) Ditch the kit and move to something else.

[PR19_Kit]

Try soaking the worst part in hot water, bend it straight and dunk into cold water. Depending on the styrene it works quite often.

[seadude]

A few initial observations about this kit:

a) Sprues are thick and so are the attachment points of the parts.

b) There is some flash, but not an excessive amount.

c) The aircraft "skin" is not smooth, but is more like an "orange peel" finish.

d) All parts are molded in black plastic. If painting any parts in white or other lighter colors, then be prepared to give 2-3 coats.

e) Instrument panels in the cockpit have raised details like knobs, switches, etc.  Modelers can either dry brush these details, or sand them off and use the instrument decals.

f) Plenty of weapons and weapon options. Modelers have the choice of opening the belly weapon bays and hanging missiles from them, or closing the belly weapon bays and using the wings/weapon pylons instead. It might be possible to do both, but I'm not going to do it for my model.

[Mossie]

a) Glue the two halves together and pray the glue, clamps, etc. work.

This one.  I started one years back and got no further than the fuselage, but the warping isn't a deal killer and the parts went together relatively easily with some firm clamping.  It's stayed together, if I can find the rest of the parts I might just pick this up again.  The main problem I had was the tail ended up a bit short-shot and required a fair bit of sanding to fair it in.  I sanded down the 'orange peel' lightly.  It's one of those kits that will take effort, plenty of seams to fill, parts that need persuasion to fit etc.
http://www.whatifmodellers.com/index.php/topic,23873.0.html

[Mossie]

I did some profiles around the same time to help me decide on a scheme.  I did some single colour ones that may help.


Harbin WZ-13A, Zhōngguó Rénmín Jiěfàngjūn Kōngjūn (Peoples Liberation Army Air Force)


Kamov Ka-58 Bhartiya Nāu Senā (Indian Navy) IN568


Kamov Ka-58 Eesti Õhuvägi (Estonian Air Force)


Kamov Ka-58 British Army of the New Commonwealth

I did plenty more in camouflage patterns, that might help as inspiration for a simpler scheme:
http://www.whatifmodellers.com/index.php/topic,24996.0.html

[PR19_Kit]

Till I saw the profiles I didn't realise quite how much that resembled a 'Kamov-ised' Comanche. It's almost the same shape minus the Fenestron.

[Mossie]

I hadn't really realised that before, they're surprisingly similar, the other main difference being the side by side seating.

Apparently there's some real world legs to it, the design supposedly appeared on the Kamov website at some time.

[Caveman]

Im pretty convinced that parts of that model are actually FROM the Revell/Italeria Comanche kit. Im almost certain that the rotors originate from the comanche kit, as does the rotor pylon and rotor head fairings. The engine inlets are identical and I dont think in this instance its a case of just convergent evolution...

[PR19_Kit]

Could you post some sprue pics please? I've just built a Comanche so I'm pretty familiar with the shapes.

[PR19_Kit]

Ahah, after digging a bit on the Net it seems the Ka-58 is already a Whiff! 

It was 'invented' by Zvezda in 2000 and the Revell kit is a re-box of the same kit.

This came from a Wiki page called 'List of fictional military aircraft' here :-

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fictional_military_aircraft#Kamov_Ka-58_Black_Ghost

It obviously needs updating because it DOESN'T include the PR19!!!

[seadude]

@Mossie:  I really like some of those color choices. Looks pretty good.    Due to being short on money to buy new paints, and also having a "slight" overabundance on some other colors already at home, I've come up with the following choices:
a) Overall Testor Acryl Olive Drab
b) Overall Testor Light Ghost Grey
c) Overall Testor Dark Ghost Grey
d) Overall Testor Flat Black
e) Top half: Flat Black, and Bottom half: Light Ghost Grey  (Kinda similar to the AIRWOLF helicopter pattern.)
f) Top half: Dark Ghost Grey, and Bottom half: Light Ghost Grey
g) The only other two abundant colors I have are Testor Intermediate Blue and Testor Gunship Grey. But I really don't like the idea of putting this bird in any sort of blue or blue/grey scheme. Though, who knows, maybe I'll change my mind again in the the future. 

Some interesting links:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kamov_Ka-50
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kamov_V-80

[seadude]

Could you post some sprue pics please? I've just built a Comanche so I'm pretty familiar with the shapes.

Sure. I'll have those ready this afternoon.

[chrisonord]

I built 2 of the Zvesda boxings of this kit, I don't remember having any trouble building the though, the Revell version must have flaws in it, to be like that and not like them to let something like that happen. I have a Revell one in the stash somewhere too. I put some pictures of mine on here a while back but are stuck on the damned  stupid photobucket
Chris