AModel Mil Mi-1M
Posted: Wed Feb 26, 2020 11:54 pm
OK - I am finally calling this one closed too. Antenna has been added - I followed Diggers excellent suggestion and used some thin wire. Took maybe 5 minutes cropping tiny bits off to get it to fit but it doesn't look too bad. Again, as with the Kamov Ka-18, I know in myself it could have turned out a lot better. When I was last building models so many years ago it might well have.
The kit itself was hard work - Amodel do not provide locating pins on anything and a lot of the externals only had the slightest dimples in the skin to indicate where they should go. I would up using a hand drill to make dent indentations for the parts to fit securely. It made a big difference. Other issues were the amazing amount of flash on virtually every component and the almost equally amazing poor fit of the clear components. This included the cockpit doors. Had I put them in the closed position there was a good 2mm gap between them and the canopy itself. In hindsight a couple of days cutting fine strips of plastic card and sticking them to the tops and bottoms of the door pieces might have sorted that but by then I was running out of patience. Anyways - here is the finished Mil Mi-1M (last photo shows the Mil and the Kamov side by side - gives you an idea of the genius of Kamov as both these machines entered service the same year.).
Important lesson learnt for next time - use a larger scale!!! This has taught me at age 63 my eyesight ain't what it was so a larger scale - 1/48 or 1/32 - will give me a fighting chance of seeing the parts I am supposed to be fitting. And a chance of fighting with the wife for somewhere to put the finished model!!
The kit itself was hard work - Amodel do not provide locating pins on anything and a lot of the externals only had the slightest dimples in the skin to indicate where they should go. I would up using a hand drill to make dent indentations for the parts to fit securely. It made a big difference. Other issues were the amazing amount of flash on virtually every component and the almost equally amazing poor fit of the clear components. This included the cockpit doors. Had I put them in the closed position there was a good 2mm gap between them and the canopy itself. In hindsight a couple of days cutting fine strips of plastic card and sticking them to the tops and bottoms of the door pieces might have sorted that but by then I was running out of patience. Anyways - here is the finished Mil Mi-1M (last photo shows the Mil and the Kamov side by side - gives you an idea of the genius of Kamov as both these machines entered service the same year.).
Important lesson learnt for next time - use a larger scale!!! This has taught me at age 63 my eyesight ain't what it was so a larger scale - 1/48 or 1/32 - will give me a fighting chance of seeing the parts I am supposed to be fitting. And a chance of fighting with the wife for somewhere to put the finished model!!
I know it could have been better - but also given the kit it could have been much worse!! 
