Kamov assembly

The Black Shark and its pointy teeth

The building process was pretty typical. First I piled up the bits of the pilot's workstation and then forgot it for days. Then I started working on the rocket pods and the missile launchers. First things first, the 80mm S-8 rockets, which consisted of a couple of pieces per launcher and the pylons to top it up.

Next I built the 130mm AT missiles, of type 9K121 Vikhr (NATO: AT-16 Scallion) and there was a good load of them. I didn't really have a clue of how good those have been but I'd guess that twelve missiles would be good enough for a couple of tanks and/or tanklike vehicles.

The double mixer

I have always liked the counter-rotating blade setup that a bunch of Soviet and later Russian helos have used. They've just looked neat (and it was great fun flying with them in OFP). The mechanical and structural complicatedness has been something I haven't looked into much care, but by the Empire, the yule tree that was to be built...

The helicopter's airframe was a simple two-piece build, all the extra bits (such as the wings, exhaust pipes and so on) fit like noses on faces. It was a very pleasant build. The most bothersome piece was the 30mm autocannon (Shipunov 2A42) thanks to its flimsiness, I was a bit afraid that it'd just snap off in two when I was cutting it off the sprue. That's also why I didn't drill out the end like I had wanted to.

The rotor blades (6) settled in nicely, except for one. To support it I left the xacto blade's arm under it while the setup was curing overnight. When I checked it later on it looked just fine.

At this time the infamous real world started being a bit on the way of hobbies and I was pretty low on spare time. The priming was to be done "whenever I get to" and as always, the painting itself was going to be on the mercy of the artist's whims. Earlier these may have had weeks in between, so the Project Mumblings will return to the story of the Ka-50 when we can. Hopefully sooner than in half a year or so.