Soviet NKL-16 Aerosan

I was inspired to buy this one after watching Mike build his lovely Soviet Aerosan RF-8 Fast Attack Snow Machine....... now it's time to build it.

Trumpeter 1:35 kit.





Main body length is 130mm so with skis and engine, I guess it will be around 150-160mm.



I'm going to have a go a doing some AB pre-shading on this one but those panel lines are mighty close together. Probably do some 'chipping' too.

Looking forward to seeing this one built. Are you planning on keeping the rivet detail?

Mike, the NKL-16 was an armoured version Aerosani, albeit just on the front. So as I'm sure you know, the rivets are incorrect and should really be countersunk screws. However, I'm no rivet counter and they look good, so they are staying.

The Trumpeter instuctions thow you in at the deep end with the P/e stuff. Starting with assembling the skis:





Fortunately it's of the brass type and is easy to cut from the sprue and not prone to breaking on bending. (FLW's) LOL

The odd thing though, is the instructions call to assemble five skis. One at each corner and a spare on the roof..... BUT..... then they provide TWO spare P/e ski holders for the roof. Go figure!! Six ski's supplied so two WILL go on the roof. LOL

One down, thirty five to go. Oh joys of joys!!! One ski per session methinks. LOL

Hi Al,

I see you're punishing your eyes again Sir...

Andy...

What can I say Andy, I'm a glutton for punishment!! LOL

The interior is pretty basic, not even any pedals, which you would be able to see through the open right side door.

However, everything so far about this kit is a perfect fit and goes together without any drama.

I can't find any ref. for interior colour and the instructions don't give colour callouts for it. So I'm going to wing it and go with aircraft cockpit green. Seems a reasonable guess to me.

Cool unique model Al. I agree with your interior color choice. Now scratch build and add those pedals!!

You are certainly spending a lot of time on the dark side Al.

Wow, this is different. Does this mean your HMS Warspite is now parked next to your HMS Hood? Your camera was on macro setting......no way would I try something so small, well done Al!

coyote wrote:Wow, this is different. Does this mean your HMS Warspite is now parked next to your HMS Hood? Your camera was on macro setting......no way would I try something so small, well done Al!

Chris.... this one should be finished by the end of the month. I then don't have any group builds on until August 1st so I plan on getting on with the Warspite and Mile End Garage June 1st. Maybe even earlier.

Being a snow machine I would think the interior might be a gray or white color that would blend with the snow if the door was open. That is just a wild guess from an old Army guy. I really like tyhis subject. Good job Al.

Found a rough translation from a russian site ...... basically to give you more work heh heh

"Housing snowmobile consists of a wooden frame - a set of transverse frames and longitudinal stringers - and lined with plywood. In the place of installation of power units and fixing units of the machine are glued to plywood reinforcing boss internal brackets"

operative words there being "lined with plywood" ... i would imagine they would have just been left as is or maybe just painted in dope or similar.

http://hobbyport.ru/venicle/nkl_16_42.htm

There's a piccie or two (down the page) of the interior showing what the peddle/levers were like as well

Hope this helps some

Thanks Colin.

I already visited that site. There was a legend attached to the photo and online translation has the left pedal as braking the front skis, the right pedal braking the rear skis and the centre pedal is the throttle.



Must have been a nightmare to drive. I wonder how you do a handbrake turn in one of these? LOL

Steering mechanism was complicated too..... and NO, I'm not going to try and replicate it!!! LOL



I also came across a ref suggesting green as an interior colour, so I'm just going to go with that.

The interior is pretty spartan but then I guess so was the 1:1.

Trumpeter do however give you a nice set of easy to work with decals for the instrument panel.

For the interior colour, in the end I chose Tamiya XF14 JA Grey.....which looks very much like pale green to me!! LOL. I also gave it a wash to mucky it up a bit.

And yes, I couldn't resist adding the pedals.

This is starting to look like something that would chase James Bond down a mountain before exploding. A really interesting subject Al, its looking good.

Looking cool. Like Coyote, I thought of James Bond flying down the slope on skis, being chased by one of these with bullets flying!!

Thanks guys.

I now have the hull closed up but there is a fit issue with the nose:





Looking at photos of the model online, it appears that most if not all, have had the same problem. So out came the filler:



It's not perfect but I'm planning on some 'snow' weathering so that should help.

Got the 5 cylinder rotary engine done. I had to replace some of the pipework with copper wire, as, despite being mega careful removing them from the sprue, ALL of them broke!!

Liking that engine. Nice work Al.

Filler job passes muster ... that engine is well smart mate !!!

Woo, very cool engine!!!!

Thanks guys.

Two ski's fully completed. Four to go. Boy it's tedious and fiddly work!!! LOL



Anyone fancy tackling this one in 1:25th?

Looks like a really great scratch build project. Go for it Al.