1:72 Soviet CAM-23

[Go Flight]

After a not so recent build article in SAMI, I had to find and build this oddball plane.


As the author mentioned it's hard to get any info from the instructions as it's all written in Russian. There is also very little on this on the net. One thought it might be a trainer. Another went a little further and said "It seems this was a proposed ground attack/support aircraft with a unique twist. The rear wheel was on a long arm running the length of the fuselage. In flight, it was extended down to the ground and the concept was it would be a crude terrain following device. Somehow a secondary arm attached to the main arm was directly linked to the elevator. When the wheel rolling on the ground compressed as the terrain changed upward, it would cause the elevator to automatically adjust the plane’s height to keep it at a constant ground hugging level."

Lets get started. First, this model is tiny. Here we have the simple cockpit built. I even drilled out the lightening holes to give it a little something extra. The other pieces shown are all that there is of the fuselage --



Here we have the fuselage glued together. You can look in and see that I added seat belts. I thought they looked pretty good, but looking at the image, they are *way* too wide. No matter once the canopy goes on, you won't see anything anyway.



Here's another view. The extra piece (lower right) is the start of the engine nacelle -



Finally for this session here's the engine nacelle installed on the wing.



Thanks for looking.

 

[Go Flight]

Today I got out the colors and started painting. The color call outs on the instructions listed "AMT" paints. Here's where I had my problem. I use Vallejo paints, and there are no conversions from AMT to Vallejo. Online, I found an AMT to RLM conversion. Then on the Vallejo website, I was able to look up the RLM to Vallejo conversion. As a sidebar between V's Model Color and Model Air, all the RLM colors are carried.

My color for the top of the plane turned out to be MC098 Bronze Green (RLM 70) and the bottom is MC064 Pale Blue (RLM 65). BTW, When I refer the MC number - that's the Position number as it's much easier to ID than the stock number.
The Pale Blue is the typical underneath color that is seen on a number of WW2 planes. The Bronze Green was a little weird. It goes on looking a deep gray, but then dries with a greenish tone. The image is just after I unmasked the plane after applying the Pale Blue --




Moving fwd. with the CAM-23, I feel I'm in the final stretch. I think I left off mentioning that I painted the lower color (Pale Blue), and I started the Bronze Green on the fuselage completely forgetting I had already painted the the Pale Blue( to my eyes the blue is almost exactly the same as the primer). After my first shot of the Bronze Green I realized... DOH.



Okay, the mistake was made. I kept going, knowing I would have to mask off the bottom part again.
Continuing I finished the Bronze Green color and then got the Pale Blue color again. After that I set up for the decals by glossing over the craft.
The decals went on with no problems, but after they showed a slight silvering of the edges. I put on multiple coats of Micro Sol which helped. Then I hand brushed some Future over the decals and the silvering further disappeared. No worries about brushing Future on - it has a self leveling aspect to it and any brush marks disappears before it dries.




The two shots (above) are prior to the extra gloss coats as you can still see a little silvering. You can also see I glued on the pistons or whatever they are onto the engine nacelles. The wheels have also been added.

I figure I have one more session and then I can call this one done. Thanks for looking.

 

[smokeriderdon]

A very interesting plane. Very cool build. I may have to scrounge one up as well.

 

[Go Flight]

A very interesting plane. Very cool build. I may have to scrounge one up as well.

Thanks. I like the oddball type of planes ;D I got mine from ebay as I couldn't find any of the usual online shops selling that particular producer.

This session I took some MIG pigments and mixed it with some water and then ran the mix into the panel lines on the green surfaces. Since I can't find out if this is an experimental plane or not, I didn't want to too beat up looking. For the Light Blue on the bottom I tried a little trick that I saw on You Tube in that I traced the panel lines with a 4B pencil and then smudged it with a cotton bud.

I then airbrushed another layer of Vallejo's Matt Clear and the silvering around the decals finally disappeared.
With that done I added the wheels, the canopy which needed a little Kristal Klear, and the propeller. Then there was two little spots on the boom that I painted on some Vallejo Air Steel, and highlighted the pistons (or whatever) with some VA Aluminum. Its done. Weird, the lights are making my Bronze Green paint job look a blue color. Hmmm...






Thanks for looking.