NKL-26 AEROSAN by AMG

[dierk]

Hello everybody,

This is the kit I was just going to nail together whilst waiting for all the bits for my Stug III to arrive back home...



Although, it hasn't got the same problems as the Trumpeter kit, it manages to come up with a whole host of problems of its own!
As you know, you can't polish a turd - but I'll do my best to roll it in glitter

Unlike Trumpy, AMG manages to include a right-way-round propeller, but still manages to get it wrong: the leading edge is on the wrong side, and it requires a gender-reassignment operation as both the engine block and the prop have locating pins:



Then there is the MG mount: like most of the kit's problems it stems from it being a pretty faithful copy of a scale drawing found in the Tankograd book - apart from the picture on the boxart, I have not been able to find any photos that show the NKL in that configuration.
Here the missing mounting for the spare prop has been added, the petrol-cap (that should have been one of the white metal parts, but was missing) has been added from a piece left over from a GAZ-AA wheel set, and the thing that purports to be the MG tourelle is still in place:



And here it isn't:



First time I had a go at turning a straight bit of plastic rod into something resembling a ring. Bit more cleaning up and it might look OK.

I'm still not convinced I can turn this into something presentable...
More to come?

Cheers,

dierk

[dierk]

Thanks for looking!
You're right, Trumpy doesn't do the wheeled version. But other than the wheels it's the same sled. AMG also do a version with skis.
The wheels were just fitted during refurbishment/repairs in the summer.
AMG cheated a bit with the wheels, I think - they look slightly too big..almost like they came from a 1/32 kit they also don't fit and have no hubs/lock nuts.

The ring was fun: I taped some rod to a Pound coin and bunged it some hot water, then tried to achieve a chamfered edge - which almost worked the blocks are made of several strips of styrene laminated together, sanded and cut.

Cheers,
Dierk

[Mence]

Wow, never seen one with wheels, looking forward to much turd polishing....

[wbill76]

I'd say you were doing pretty good in terms of making this into a presentable build dierk, keep it coming!

[TRM]

Yup, looking good from here!! Keep at it!!

[panzerjager]

With wheels!? I had no idea about the existence of such vehicle.
Waiting for updates

Darío

[bbd468]

Hey Dierk, i never saw one of these before....looks fun! Lookin' forward to see how it turns out.

Gary

[deafpanzer]

Always dig those funny looking vehicles! Wondering if its fan has killed more than its machine gun? ;D

[spud]

interesting subject Dierk

[dierk]

Glad you're all liking it, so far.

deafpanzer: strangely they insisted on using wooden props on the NKL aerosans - very easily damaged, that's why they had to carry a spare. Stranger still, they weren't bare wood as most people seem to think, but painted green.

@gary, prof and Darío: neither had I, that's why I bought it...slightly regretting it now...

According to the Tankograd book, these NKLs were fitted with wheels during summer refurbishments. BTW, to have a half decent chance of turning this kit into something resembling an NKL-26 the Tankograd book is a must have - the instructions are often vague and sometimes wrong.

Didn't get much done today.

As previously mentioned, the wheels in this kit are a bit odd: I strongly suspect they were intended for a 1/32 plane. As the locating pins on the suspension arms had no chance of ever mating with the wheels, I ground them off and carefully drilled a 1mm in the end. Did the same to the wheels and glued a bit of brass wire in to act as a locating pin.



At the other end I stuck in a slotted hex nut from Masterclub to act as a lock nut.



Still have to drill out the hole for the valve - it's the slight depression visible in the picture above.
Talking of drilling: I cleaned up the white metal heat exchanger (a sort of exhaust that sits under the engine and is fed by the two bottom most cylinders...don't ask me why)



The PE is the thinnest I have ever seen! Normally I cut PE parts off the fret on a metal plate with a strip of masking tape stuck on in an attempt to stop the stuff from feeding my carpet monster - even the tiny amount of give in the tape is enough for the PE to start deforming More head-scratching on that subject later.

That's it for now.
Cheers,
dierk

[bullardino]

Nice subject, I'm with you Dierk

I think you got the best NKL-26 kit around, at least in size and shape. Trumpy's one is a total mess in shape and size...

[wing_nut]

What an odd little thing. Can't wait to see it all done.

[dierk]

Due to a job interview I haven't been able to get any bench-time in so far today (got the job BTW: more money to buy kits, less to build them hohum :

You're about right Luigi - but only as far as the dimensions are concerned! I was contemplating getting the Trumpy kit to kitbash this, but there are so few parts that are worth having, it would be an exercise in futility (not to mention a waste of money)

Indeed Dicky - I can't understand why they keep trying to fight me: I'd have thought word would've gone round by now that resistance is futile?

Welcome to the party wing nut - might yet turn into a wake ;D. What can I say? Odd is my middle name - birds of a feather and all that...

Who knows, I might just shock you all (including myself) and build something OOB one of these days ;D ;D

cheers,
dierk

[Deleted]

wow! that's one weird looking vehicle great stuff!

[dierk]

The struggle continues...

Today I filled the worst of the gaps with a mix of CA and talcum powder, started on the engine mounting/cowling. The triangular bits actually had locating pins to connect them to the cowling (hurray!) but the corresponding holes in the cowling were only hinted at and had to be drilled (boo).



Looks like it'll need a bit of filling and sanding, ey? If you look up positive fit in the dictionary, you will NOT find a picture of this kit...
All the struts for the engine mounting and prop guard are supposed to be made of wire (included in the kit, but not cut to length - not surprising considering the vagueness of the kit) but I think I'll use styrene rod instead.

The 'instructions' for this kit make Dragon's offerings look exemplary! Maybe they were done by a fan of Meccano sets of the 1950s, which had mistakes built in to teach kids problem-solving skills?

Started work on the engine:



Obviously, the exhausts had to be opened up - and yes, they really did stick out at odd angles...I've yet to add the two bottom-most zorsts and somehow mate them up to the heat-exchanger AND get everything to line up...
Still to add are the push-rod tubes, which you get to make yourself from wire, the rockers, and according to the instructions, the open running valve-springs - which would be correct, but the cylinder-heads are the wrong shape to achieve that easily - or at all. I'm afraid the engine will probably have to live without valve-springs.

The engine is already quite heavy - and there's more white metal bits to be added, so I'm expecting to have to sacrifice one Lizzy Windsor's coins as a counter-weight in the front of the cab. I hope the rather flimsy suspension isn't just going to collapse under all that weight...

This kit is certainly helping to improve my skills - but fun it ain't.

I'm going to go and study my multilingual book of expletives and then cry myself to sleep

Thanks for watching,
Dierk

[wbill76]

Keep at it Dierk! It's putting up a fight but you'll beat it in the end. Sorry to hear it's struggling so hard though at least you've got some good excuses to mutter expletives under your blanket at night.

[Deleted]

Now this is somethin different !

[bullardino]

Wow, nice progress Dierk

[Mence]

Engine looks good, some nice white metal there.

[dierk]

@bill: as an ex-courier I don't need any excuses to swear ;D it's not even second nature for me - more like first ;D

@ Carl: thanks for joining us.

Mence: the engine bits can only be considered nice if you haven't seen pictures of the real thing...the cylinder-heads only bear a passing resemblance and there's nowhere for spark-plugs to go, either. Talking of which, spark-plugs and HT leads are supposed to be included on the PE fret according to the instructions - by now it won't surprise anyone to learn that they aren't...considering how thin the PE is, they'd have been useless anyway.

Didn't get a great deal done today - at least nothing worth taking pictures of (winter, or possibly AMG blues setting in?). All I've done is drilled some depressions into the cylinder-barrels so I've got somewhere to stick spark-plugs, which will be made from stretched sprue, and some holes in the engine casing to give the HT leads somewhere to go.

Cheers,
dierk

[dierk]

This kit is not growing on me - at all!

Nothing to it, but to jump head first into the mouth of madness...

I know I said I was going to replace the wire with styrene rod - change of plan...it really needs wire to give it any chance of sturdiness.
Here's the jig I made to fix the cowling in place:



Yeah, yeah, I know smoking's bad for you - but you can't deny the box came in handy

And a closer look:



After much filing, squeezing and swearing one of the suspension arms is in place. Tried to gently squeeze the steering mechanism to give a positive lock on the bit of wire that is the steering arm, going to the rear suspension, only for the inside part of it to snap off
Thankfully, it shouldn't be noticeable. I decided to go for sturdiness, rather than accuracy:



And guess who decided it was a good idea to lay the hull on its side, pushing the 'prop mounting' into the hull? Like this kit hasn't got enough problems already - did I really have to add to them?
One of the few useful side-effects of all the cutting and sanding I had to do on the rear suspension is that the model just might end up with the correct tracking - the front wheels/skis stuck out a little bit further than the rear ones.

Just to give you a taste of how well-fitting the parts are: this is the left rear axle in place, lined up properly - check out how far away the suspension-arm is from the cowling:



Three options, I suppose: cut it off and glue it in the correct position, heat it up and bend it or soften it with cement and bend it into place.

Sorry, couldn't handle any more work on this today...

[deafpanzer]

Looking real good!!! Those shocks look great...

[dierk]

Jan 26, 2013 14:13:54 GMT -5 deafpanzer said:

Looking real good!!! Those shocks look great...

Very kind of you to say so - I'd have preferred the coils to be a bit more even, but there was only so much tension I could use to wrap the wire, without the plastic core snapping...it did anyway - on the last one I was doing and it's the first time I've done the wire thing for shocks.

Cheers,
dierk

[wbill76]

Dierk, this one won't kill you and will make you stronger...but it's not going peacefully by any stretch! Nice work on the coils and that's one wicked misalignment on the strut you have to deal with. Makes you wonder if the scale plans were off when they did the molds or something.

[dierk]

Jan 26, 2013 15:56:50 GMT -5 wbill76 said:

Dierk, this one won't kill you and will make you stronger...but it's not going peacefully by any stretch! Nice work on the coils and that's one wicked misalignment on the strut you have to deal with. Makes you wonder if the scale plans were off when they did the molds or something.

Nietzsche, ey? Did you know he was a modeller too? He must have attempted a similar kit, that inspired him to write this:

"There are horrible people who, instead of solving a problem, tangle it up and make it harder to solve for anyone who wants to deal with it. Whoever does not know how to hit the nail on the head should be asked not to hit it at all."

In the end I went for option 4: slap some glue on it and clamp it over-night:



By hook or by crook, the suspension is on:





Tried to make the separators between the springs by painting on Mr. Surfacer - not happy with the result, so I'll have a go at making them from Tamiya epoxy putty - apparently no longer available in Europe, due to containing a substance that is now banned in this neck of the woods Thankfully Chinese eBayers aren't bothered, and will happily send you some ;D

I'll leave you (for now) with more wise words of the above mentioned philosopher:

"The doer alone learneth."

Cheers,
dierk

[wbill76]

Yes I believe there are secret yet-to-be-published photos of Nietsche working in balsa wood and copper wire circulating in the conspiracy-theory forums. Thank goodness for the Chinese and ebay! ;D

[bbd468]

Jan 27, 2013 16:52:15 GMT -5 wbill76 said:

Thank goodness for the Chinese and ebay! ;D

;D LOL..... Ài shì ài tāmen de zhōngguó yìqù shuàigē.....(Gotta love them chinese ebay dudes)

Dierk, i admire your persistence and tenacity on this uncooperative kit. It aint easy bein' patient.

Gary

[Deleted]

Great work on what looks a pig of a kit, sometimes it is a chore working on some models I have had my share of problems but hey your nearly there!

[dierk]

[/quote]It aint easy bein' patient.

Gary[/quote]

As a friend of mine used to put it: "Patience is a virgin"

@ snipersmudge: I wish I could share your optimism of this kit being nearly there - the real humdingers are still ahead: there's still quite a bit to do on the engine...and then there's the prop-guard at the back, which I'll probably have to scratch, as the kit parts are laughable (bits of wire that are supposed to get attached to a small bit of white metal)

@ ian: I'm pretty positive they're too big - usually they were fitted with different wheels anyway(also from planes, by the look of them)and I don't mind putting some work into the kit, but I'm not spending any money on it - but maybe you can confirm something else for me? In all the written descriptions they reckon that the prop-guard was painted red/white - but I have not seen a single photo that would confirm that - most look like 4BO under white paint.

There's going to be a bit of a delay before my next update, as I've just started my new job today.

[dierk]

Didn't get a great deal done, but thought I'd better give you something to remind you how 'brilliant' this kit is

The kit MG is pretty useless (ammo drum was missing as well) so I've done a bit of mix and match: MG and ammo drum are from the Hobbyboss T-26 (probably my next project) the PE part and canvas bag for spent shells is all that's been taken from the kit:



I've also added the rockers to the engine, which needed a spacer made from Evergreen rod:





And yes, they aren't quite parallel on purpose, as one valve would be open, the other one closed - next will be the push-rods.

The blob of putty is a cover that was missing on the kit part - could have saved myself the bother, as it's going to be all but invisible once the fly-wheel is in place Also had to add a bit more rod to the engine casing where the push-rods are going to sit:



Enjoy!
dierk