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Mikro Mir 1/144 Blackburn Beverly


Ron Bell

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In keeping with their tradition of designing particularly ungainly aircraft, this was the British Army's heavy lift aircraft during the Cold War. Don't let the scale fool you. In 1/144 it has a 13 inch wingspan. That would be 26 inches in 1/72. A Halifax in that scale has a 15 inch wing span, so that gives you a point of comparison. It was a BIG aircraft. It could carry cargo and/or paratroopers. Google it and see how the troopers loaded and jumped. Weird, but it worked. The kit was typical MIkro Mir, a mix of nice molding, decent fit, but vague instructions as to what went where, especially when it came to the PE parts. It comes with a pretty detailed, at least for this scale, flight deck and cargo area. The rear clamshell doors have interior detail as does the fuselage, so if you can find some 1/144 scale British troops or vehicles, it could make a neat diorama. I was going to do mine buttoned up, so I just left all that out simplifying assembly greatly. The decals were just outstanding, being opaque, thin and tough. They settled down nicely. This was obviously going to be a tail sitter, so I made sure to have plenty of weight in the nose area, but even with that, it still settled on its hind end, so I had to make a prop for it out of an old clear plastic stand. 

 

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Lovely build and a great looking scheme! I take it those landing gear were fixed? Guess that wouldn't matter much to a plane designed to cruise rather slow for jumps....Thanks for sharing and congrats on another British build!

 

GIL :smiley16:

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Mike, Yes, white can be tricky. Only way I can get it right is that since white covers so poorly and you may have different colored things on your model such as fillers, PE parts or other colored plastic, to get one color that the white can cover, first apply a light grey primer, then a coat of FLAT white that covers the primer evenly. When that is set, if it is at all rough, go over it with either very fine sandpaper (600 grit or higher) or very fine steel wool being careful to avoid burning through the white. Gil Hodges has even been known to use a small piece of burlap as a buffer as it is soft yet has just the right amount of "grit". When you've removed any orange-peel, apply fine coats of gloss white until a nice even color is achieved. As painters say, keep a wet edge. If you apply gloss white over gloss white that has started to "skin" over, it won't mix with then paint already applied and will sit on top and may orange peel. Then leave it alone for at least a day so the top coat can set. It's a little involved, but does produce an even coat of white. You can use this same procedure for other "problem" colors such as red or yellow, just use the flat version of those colors for the coat between the primer and top coat. 

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