KT-03 aerial tow target

[dutik]

I'm in (again )

 

 

This was the WARPAC aerial tow target during Mig-15 times. Some kind of small aircraft to be towed behind a Mig-15 with specialized towing equipment (winch, emergency wire cutter and that stuff). No electronics, just a metal body to shoot at (the drone, not the Mig ). Hits got simply counted by hand after recovery of the target. This aerial target was surprisingly large, so it had to be replaced by a new type (the KT-04) when the L-39 stepped in after retirement of the Mig-15s.

 

Technical data provided by Profimodeller:

Constructed in the years 1957-1959, manufactured 1961-1970. The target is a metal with square section, covered with duralumin sheet. Start is performed on a three-wheel chassis. In front of the body is a shock absorber for landing by parachute, which is stored at the rear.
Length: 6.65 m
Wingspan: 7 m
Take-off weight without chassis: 112 kg
The total weight of the chassis: 267 kg
Max. towing speed at 6000 m: 780 km/h
Length of start: 1600 m

 

Regards

- dutik

Edited August 31, 2020 by dutik

[dutik]

 

Inside the sturdy box are:

- two bags of resin parts for the trolley and the core of the KT-03

- two bags of metal and styren rods, some string ans a decal sheet

- four massive PE frets

- instructions (not at the photo)

 

The first task is to build up the inner framework from resin parts, then to clad them with large PE parts that also need to be bent somewhat... Interesting times

 

Regards

- dutik

[dutik]

 

Just plain PE sheets, some resin strips and metal rods. Feels like building a paper model. A number of flat parts to be formed into something threedimensional...

The central cage is the very core of the whole thing. Take your time to get it right-angled ans square in all directions, or otherwise the whole fuselage will become crooked forever. The outer shell are just 4 large PE pieces, so there is no way to correct bent shapes with some putty and paint.

 

I diverted from the instructions that want you to build the fuselage frame first. But there are no alignment pins or other supports, so there is the risc of misalignment, or simply that your frame is too wide or too narrow to accept one or more of the PE sheets. so I've glued at first one fuselage side onto the central frame core, then glued the parts of the framework onto the inner shell face. Also added some strip styrene to get larger contact surfaces for the other PE.

 

Regards

- dutik

[dutik]

 

 

Take your time and dryfit, dryfit, dryfit. Had to sand off a bit here and to shim with strip styrene there. Added some substatial styrene strips behind the wingroots. The original resin strips are much to week to support the wings. Also added spacers and bulkheads where the furselage sides tended to bent inwards. Nonwithstandig all the dry fittting I had to partially cut off one PE sheet to sand down the frame underneath. And the top sheet does not fit. There is somewhere a bend into my build. Have to think about how to fix this to get the fuselage closed. The companies name "Profimodeller" has a serious meaning. Just saying...

 

Regards

- dutik

[dutik]

Congratulations, it's a fuselage:

 

 

Front is facing to the right, rear to the left. Thats it for the next days. All the etched lines have to be covered with triangular profiles, but these profiles are not provided with the kit. Not very professional, Profimodeller I've ordered a fistful of styrene profiles from Ebay, but delivery might take two days or three. Also ordered square profiles of different size as inserts for wings and rudder. There are PE parts for the wing ribs, which are OK, but I want to use something more solid to get the wings straight and even. Meanwhile started to cut resin for the trolley to go on with the build.

 

BTW, this one is surprisingly large:

 

 

Close to the size of a Texan/Harvard...

 

Regards

- dutik

[mgbooyv8]

Wow, that's for the real Profi-modeller!

Good job with an unforgiving medium.

Indeed not very profi to omit the prominent ridges on the fuselage in the kit .

Interesting to show the tow target with a Texan...it is large!

 

Keep up the good work.

 

Cheers,

 

Peter

 

 

 

 

Edited January 10, 2021 by mgbooyv8
typos

[dutik]

 

Started the trolley. While the real thing was made from sturdy steel tubes is the model trolley made from wobbly resin parts. Fit was not the best, some struts were misaligned, some too short, some simply broken off. So I've replaced some struts with styrene rods (1,6mm) and added wire pins to all joints to get a straight, sturdy and stressfree structure. Just take your time. This is the rear part. The front part is angled upwards and made of more resin parts. Alignment might be a bit challenging, but I have an idea how to get all things straight together.

 

Still waiting for the styrene strips to build up the wings of the target. Thats life

 

Regards

- dutik

Edited January 19, 2021 by dutik

[Out2gtcha]

Excellent work, very deceptive in size

[dutik]

By a long shot not as complicated as your Tigercat. But thank you for the heads-up

 

Of course my kit has some problems of it's own. The one-piece PE for the wings has to be bend inwards; but the etched-in bending lines are all at the outside. You are supposed to make 4 exact bendings per wing without any markings. Very interesting stuff

 

Regards

- dutik

[dutik]

Made the rudder (mostly):

 

 

 

Just a dryfit. Ignore the glue smears which will be removed soon. This is a sandwich: The shell is just a large PE part with inner PE ribs. I've added strip styrene inside to augment the small ribs and to save the rudder from getting smashed just by touching it. Thickness of the styrene inserts is 2,75mm, aka 2,5 and 0,25 mm strip glued together. Small problem here: The halfround 3mm styrene strip from the box is just a bit to narrow to cover the front of the rudder. So I have to wait for the delivery of some Evergreen 3,2 mm halfround profiles. Not a biggie: Meanwhile there are waiting two fullsize PE parts to be bend into a wing shape...

 

Regards

- dutik

 

 

Edited February 2, 2021 by dutik

[dutik]

Building a wing:

 

 

Poor image, but you get the idea: Anything golden are kit parts. The shell and 3 tiny ribs. Not sufficient enough to keep the PE shell in shape. I've added 4mm square strip styrene fore and aft and a styren tube amidst to hold the crossrod from the fuselage. Well, how do you glue a large PE part that still has to be folded down? In hindsight I should have used twopart epoxy, but I have no epoxy at hand. First idea was to fold the upper part down, fill the gap with thin superglue and hold the whole thing down until the glue had cured, but it didn't work. For some reasons the superglue did not bond. The second try was using super slow drying, gap-filling superglue, aka the "black slow dry" by Ammo of Mig. I smeared a good amount into the gap, using a toothpick, then pressed the whole wing down using a wooden slat - and this worked. Worked better than expected - I had to cut off the wing from the working desk too and to remove a lot of glue spill. So we have one wing now. Dryfit onto the fuselage:

 

 

Still lacking the frontal halfround styrene strip but it is fine. Maybe I will tackle the other wing tomorrow. Or go on with a simpler task for now - like adding the triangular profiles along the etched lines at the fuselage. We shall see.

 

Regards!

- dutik

[dutik]

Decided to go around with the strenghtening ribs first. I use evensided triangular 2mm profiles. Maybe 1,5mm size would be fine too. Still one side left, but it looks more and more like the real deal:

 

 

 

To get the bends of the ribs right I simply made a cut from below at every bend with a razor saw. Say for 2/3rd of the profiles height. This removed enough material to snug-fit them down onto the surface.

 

Regards

- dutik

[dutik]

Not much response here. Just feel encouraged to leave a comment!

 

Profiles are in place. And I have got a second wing. Dryfit:

 

 

It resembles an aircraft. Somehow. Maybe something from a japanese anime movie...?

 

Watch these stub wings! Now you know why it took a fully grown fighter like the Mig-15 to tow this aerial target!

 

Regards

- dutik

[LSP_Kevin]

Don't be disheartened by a lack of comments, dutik - I'm watching every post! It's just a weird subject and weird kit, but you're doing an excellent job. I would have walked away from all that PE!

 

Kev

[BradG]

Yeh mate I'm always watching too.