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1/35 Miniart FL 282 V-6 Kolibri


Wackyracer

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There's the frame of a V-10 in the Midlands Air Museum. It seems to be quite elusive online

 

@ Richard,

 

The helicopter wreck presented at the Midland Air Museum situated just outside the Baginton village in Warwickshire UK, IS NOT a V10! It is the V20 (registered as CJ-SN). The "V10" claim is completely wrong and unfortunately nobody seems interested to fix the mistake on their website.

 

The specific helicopter is the fifth Fl-282 captured by the Allied forces at the end of WWII (total three captured by US forces, one by Soviet Red Army and one by British forces). It was previously assigned to Staffel 1/196 at Pillau AB, found & captured by the British Army in good condition. For some unexplained reason, the helicopter been brutally disassembled and some parts of it ended up as souvenirs. The doped fabric ripped away & removed from fuselage, the horizontal stabilizer fins mysteriously stolen, the clipped rotor blades cut off and are never seen again since that day. The remaining framework wreckage with upper rotor transmission, transferred back to UK as a War trophy, on late May 1945. Notice the "04" which indicates the serial number of the upper rotor transmission as pictured right after been found and next photographs as finally disassembled & transferred on a truck by British troops as War trophy. Upon arrival in UK, this exact helicopter Fl-282 V20 relic became property of the Cranfield College of Aeronautics until mid 1960ies, when sold to Midland Air Museum. Now days, the captured V20 helicopter fuselage framework parts with upper rotor transmission and what left of the chopped (once full-length) rotor blades, are presented at the Midland Air Museum situated just outside the Baginton village in Warwickshire, UK and is adjacent to Coventry, UK airport. Unfortunately, many parts are still missing and the doped fabric cover & rotor blades never been restored.

 

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Edited by Nick_Karatzides
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Those last two are the best pictures I have seen on the internet

 

The air museum is a ten minute drive from our house, I have visited several times although not recently

 

Richard

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Thanks for all the info Nick. Great help. The rear section has no metal on my build. Only the front panels. Were these plywood also?

 

Typically this afternoon I decided upon the markings with the green band as I liked the rlm 65 front wheel and the green band. Oh well it will be 1943 version now.

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Since the project first surfaced I wanted one of Nick's big Kolibri kits (the Christmas card arrived in time, thank you my friend!) so I'm very pleased to learn this kit benefited from his knowledge. I need to get one of these!

 

I'm really enjoying this build. Beautiful work.

 

Now, who wants to motorise one? :hmmm:

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Thanks for all the info Nick. Great help. The rear section has no metal on my build. Only the front panels. Were these plywood also?

 

@ Wackyracer, I am silently watching your nice building from day #1 and didn't want to interrupt you - just sent this message to prevent you doing some false painting. I hope it's not too late to fix.

 

Regarding your question about the paint-chipped panels, YES these were made of plywood too (or fabric covered plywood). As you can see in following two pictures (sent by fellow modeler Thomas Mayer / Wurzacher who built the cutaway version of the 1/18 scale Flettner Fl-282 V21 Kolibri model kit and kindly published a review in LSP forums - check HERE and HERE) and also extensively described on my builing thread for 1/18 scale Kolibri model presentation almost 3-4 years ago, the fuselage was constructed from truss-type welded steel tube, covered with doped fabric. Also (to keep in mind for the rotor blades later) the rectangular outline with rounded tips rotor blades were made by tubular steel spar with riveted-on wooden ribs and plywood skin with fabric covering and axes of both rotors were angled outboard at 12° from the vertical. The horizontal stabilizer and a rudder fin also were made of plywood (riveted-on wooden ribs, plywood leading edge & fabric-covered). Rudder fin was made of wood and covered by fabric. The vertical stabilizer and the elevators were also made of wood, with plywood leading edge and fabric covering, bolted to fuselage frame. Despite the fact that there were some slight differencies between the V6 version you are building using the MiniArt 1/35 model kit and the V21 version built by fellow modeler Thomas Mayer, the general idea is the same. Only the tubular frame made of steel (and engine components ofcourse including rods for transfering controls from cockpit to engine and rudders) were metal. Any other part, was made of plywood, plywood covered with fabric or fabric only.

 

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For example, the opened engine panels and cockpit side & front covers on the following captured by US Army Kolibri V23 helicopter, are made of plywood or fabric on plywood frame. The helicopter in following pictures used to be Luftwaffe's CI-TW registration and later changed to FE-4613 when entered USAAF for evaluation flights conducted at Benedict airport at Booth Corners Pennsylvania, USA. The prefix “FE†on USAAF registration, meaning "Foreign Equipment". Actually, eveything is fabric and plywood riveted on the metal steel frame, in order to give an aerodynamic shape.

 

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Another detail that may be helpfull for you (regarding the fabric cover) is the following. A set of pics of a Flettner 282 helicopter parts (with balkenkreuz insignia on) cut out by WWII veteran US Army PFC Donald R. Nankervis who sent it to his home back in States as a War trophy. According to the instructions written on the back of the canvas, the item was "...taken from a German airplane stationed at Hittler's private airport at Ainring village between Teisendorf and Salzburg, Austria...". Nowdays Ainring airport museum officials, confirm that the Flettner 282 helicopters were actually stationed there at that particular time period (7th May 1945) and used by the 3rd Reich authorities to serve Berchtesgaden & Berghof residence - this makes the story plausible enough and quite convincing, as far as the Historical data and dates. On the other hand, I have some doubts because at that time, all Kolibri helicopters were supposed to be painted with the Luftwaffe's RLM Green / Light Blue colours and not the Kriegsmarine's Grey. I'm also puzzled as to why the US serviceman didn't cut out the entire stammkennzeichen marking, but I think that US soldiers were more interested for balkenkreuz & swastikas insignia trophies at this moment, because they symbolic represented the victory on the 3rd Reich. Possibly, the US troops didn't have in their mind that these items will become very valuable for collectors & scale modelers 70+ years later. Additionally, if the picture is genuine, it turns out that the British troops were not the only ones who vandalized some one-of-a-kind (at that time) aircrafts, just to show to their friends & family back home that they fought Germans. Anyway, the following pics are certainly valuable info, considering the rarity of helicopter's color photographs.

 

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Typically this afternoon I decided upon the markings with the green band as I liked the rlm 65 front wheel and the green band. Oh well it will be 1943 version now.

 

I said "...do not follow MiniArt recomendation for the green stripe on grey camo as pictured on box..." because as far as we all know (unless someone surprisingly brings never-seen pictures and change the view we have up to date), the Kolibri V6 fuselage was painted with Kriegsmarine's Grey.

Edited by Nick_Karatzides
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Since the project first surfaced I wanted one of Nick's big Kolibri kits (the Christmas card arrived in time, thank you my friend!) so I'm very pleased to learn this kit benefited from his knowledge. I need to get one of these!

 

@ Zac,

 

Keep in mind that MiniArt got three versions. The Kolibri V6 naval version already released as #41001 on their catalog, the cutaway version as #41002 on their catalog and the Kolibri V21 twin seater version marked as #41003 on their catalog. As we all know, they officialy announced the model kits, I know well they already produced few test runs, but I have no idea when they plan to public release the next Kolibri V21 twin seater (item #41003) and cutaway (item #41002) versions on hobbyshops Worldwide. I guess, they will also be accessible to average modelers within following months.

 

For me, all of these three different versions (naval V6, twin-seater V21 and the cutaway one) are equally beautiful and must-have / must-build items, but as you know I cannot be impartial judge on this. Only fellow scale modelrs can confirm or deny if these Kolibri model kits are well designed, nicely produced and if they really worth money spent for purchasing (or not).

 

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Edited by Nick_Karatzides
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So here we go. After spending Sunday afternoon at the bench working on the V-6 this is my efforts (now clearly incorrect)

 

Masked off the 'green band' and sprayed RLM71 Mr Paint

 

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Assembled and painted all the undercarriage plus bits n bobs

 

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Affixed said pieces and applied decals to green band to check for sizing

 

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And took some pics!

 

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Rotors done and painted

 

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She's a tail sitter for sure and nowhere to put any weight to stop it. The only place where you could (the belly pan) is too far back and has no effect.

 

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So with Nicks helpful information I'm pretty much stuck as to where to go. I suppose I could spray the rest of it RLM 71 to hide the band and the chipping, or try and respray the green band and overcoat the chips in grey again. There's a few decals of the crosses I could replace the current ones with.

 

Thoughts?

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Corrections and modifications

 

Following some helpful advice from Nick I've removed the green band

 

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Sanded and re-sprayed

 

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As well as covering the metal chipping on the engine covers (these were plywood)

 

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Control panel has been decaled and glassed

 

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And rotors re-sprayed as well (again wooden not metal)

 

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She's a tail sitter for sure and nowhere to put any weight to stop it. The only place where you could (the belly pan) is too far back and has no effect.

 

As for being a tail sitter, is there any chance to slip some weight into the two tanks (intakes?) that drop downward behind the pilot? If they are hollow, maybe drill a hole from the bottom, slip in some fishing weights and then plug the hole? They look to be far enough ahead of the main gear to shift the center of gravity some. Just a thought from looking at it.

 

Great project that really looks sharp. 

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