Modelsvit AN-225 Mriya

Yess!! Finally, it has arrived. 

The model I’ve been waiting for. 

Every big part shrinkwrapped in thin plastic. 

Very good protection during transport. 

The manual, in Russian and English. 

Parts list and detailed views 

Landing gear is a project in a project.. all those parts! 

The decals for 4 options 

I do like the modern blue-yellow version the most. 

First quick assembly to see how big this kit is.. 

With his ‘little’ brother, the Modelsvit An-124 which I’m also building at the moment. 

I also have the Amodel Buran; I’m still in doubt which version I will build. I like the modern blue-yellow lines very much, but this is a rather unique opportunity to build the Buran-version. But it is HUGE with the Buran on top! 

For comparison: a 1:72 scale figure on the wing. 

That’s huge! 

I started with the tail section, a bit of a challenge with positioning and aligning the tails under the right angle. 

Then I started attaching the 'bumps' on the fuselage. Quite a lot of them. 

I didn't attached the biggest bumps yet, as they partially cover the wings which are detachable. So to avoid breaking loose again during a test fit, I'll wait with the attachment on the fuselage.  

A 1/72 Piper Cub on the tail for scale comparison 

Then I started construction of all the flap hinges on the underside of the wings. 

To attach these hinges to the wings, I needed to cut out the attaching pins myself to the hinges: 

Normally these pins are already on the parts, but here i needed to attach them myself. As you can see, you can cut out 4 pins each from these parts. 

Construction of the flightdeck.  

you need to measure the position of the seats yourself as there are no pre-casted edges to glue them to. 

Most parts need to be sanded and dry-fitted first, as it won't fit at all.. Modelsvit has very nice kits, but not for the beginner.  

There are also little parts to fill the big gap at the underside of the nose.. 

As with my An-124 model, I made a rib from Evergreen Plasticard to support the flightdeck-construction and the weight that has to be added to prevent this huge model from tail-sitting.
As you can see in the An-124, this way you have a secure fit from the flightdeck to the inside of the nose section. Otherwise you would have to glue the polystyrene flightdeck 'somewhere to the fiberglass inside of the nose'. No pre-casted fitting edges or positions, so quite a challenge to get that construction well done.. 

This way it's 1 tight secured construction that also keeps the heavy noseweight in secured position (in this case, for the An-124 2 large M10 bolts with a lot of M10 nuts.. I wonder what the An-225 needs for weight!) 

Test fit of the rib 

Looks good enough 

The hollow bumpy fiberglass inside of the nose section 

the partition from the flightdeck to the aft-flightdeck. Yes, with curtains 🙂 

I need to blend the rib with parts of the flightdeck to make it 1 smooth construction. In this case, I replaced the curtains-parts by drawing the contours on the rib and cut it to the same shape. 

Measuring the width of the front flightdeck, so it can fit through the rib 

This is how it will look 

After cutting the contours of the curtains and fitting the flight deck through the rib, this is the result 

After having some fitting-issues with the flightdeck construction (some parts do not fit well), I started with the engines to let it rest for a while.
The engines are little projects, a lot of parts and a lot of test fitting and sanding. Also a lot of flash to be removed from parts.. Not outstanding quality. 

The engines consists of quite a few parts! 

I sprayed the fanblades parts 'Polished Steel' color 

and arranged them for construction 

and here I made a mistake.... Due to an error in the manual!
It shows an incorrect drawing of fanblades attachment, so I need to glue 1 part upside down to avoid too much distance between the 2 fanblades parts. It's a little difficult to explain, but it needs to be said that this is a careless mistake from Modelsvit. Also because it's not clear how the parts finally look after glueing them. Well, lesson learned: more dry fitting with the rest of the parts first! 

The 2 fanblades parts.. 

...are supposed to fit into each other... 

...so the 2x16 fanblades.. 

...have to shape into 1 ‘disc’ of 32 fanblades..??
It’s clearly that that is not possible... 

...whatever I try; upside down.. 

...it keeps consisting of 2 parts stacked on each other. 

Also switching the position of the 2 parts doesn’t make any difference. 

It’s frustrating me, so I started to improvise.
I decided to cut 1 fanblades part loose.. 

...and I glued each fanblade between the other part’s fanblades. I used a circular mold to keep a steady circle as the little fanblades are bended and need to be glued at an inclined angle. 

Starting to look good 🙂 ! 

Almost finished... 

...and finished! 

And there it is, a perfect 32 bladed fan.
Now 5x16 more blades to go.. 

...but job done, and ready to continue the build. 

looks much better this way. So be warned, don’t glue something from this kit before test fitting it and think in advance what the result will be.  

Continuing the engine project, first a lot of sanding and test fitting before painting and gluing. Some parts are quite a challenge. 

The turbine parts. Not a single part fits.. every part needs sanding and test fitting. 

Still need a lot of sanding! 

Just fits on the shelf. It does take a lot of space 😉 

Painted the turbine parts 

These are the yet to be fitted intake ring and exhaust cone.  

The intake ring doesn’t fit well, what a surprise.. it has to be painted polished aluminium. But also, there is a little extra edge on the inside of the ring that belongs to the white sprayed intake half. So first it needs to be glued and after that filled, sanded and white to the already constructed intake halves . Talk about challenging.. 

After research on the internet, it seems the inner turbine halves are not completely white.. so I sprayed part of it grey. 

Ready for assembly of the turbine halves, with the fan blades part in between 

As I need to spray the engine intake white, I need to cover the fan blades. So I thought of making hard intake covers from styrene sheet.
A normal thin plastic circle placed for the fan blades ring is nice for protection, but I will NEVER get the circle out of the intake again after I glued the intake halves together.  

I drew 6 circles of the same diameter as the fan blades ring 

Then I used my RC Lexan-cutting scissors for cutting the circles out of the sheet 

After that I sanded the circles smooth.
Then I divided the cirkels in 8 parts... 

...and carefully incised the lines with my hobby knife 

1 Of the 8 lines was cut through 

A normal thin plastic circle placed for the fan blades ring is nice for protection, but I will NEVER get the circle out of the intake again after I glued the intake halves together.
So the circle has to be like an 'aperture'; adjustable in diameter, so after sanding and filling and spraying I can take it out of the intake again.
This way I have a bendable, slight cone-shaped adjustable plastic circle which protect the fragile fan blades 

The picture shows a slight gap between the intake and the circle; this is easily to adjust by pressing lightly on the outward bending cone.

So...
I can only hope this experiment succeeds, otherwise I have a new intake-project ahead.. 

Today was a hot day outside; 31'C.
It was even hotter in my hobby room, an almost unbearable 33' C 

Ok, as we all know, the construction of these engines is a complicated project. I will keep the explanation of these steps short 😉.

-I glued the turbine halves together, with the fan blades inside;
-I glued the engine halves together with the turbines inside:
-Then I filled and sanded all the seams and attached the exhaust rings to the engines.
As these rings are slightly oval-shaped, I marked the best position of the rings with a stripe to glue them the right way 

Meanwhile I treated the 4 engines from my Modelsvit An-124 kit the same way, that'll save me some extra work later.
So there I sat in my hobby room, sanding and filling 10 Ivchenko D18 engines at a time..

-I attached the intake rings to the intakes;
-Then I filled and sanded all the intake seams smooth.

Finally I had engines in 1 piece, no more loose parts waiting to be sprayed or sanded. Yess!!
I only need to attach the spinners to the fan blades center, but that's after I sprayed the intakes white. 

I thought it was best to construct the pylons now, as they are part of the engine construction.
I had 2 choices;
-attaching the pylons to the engines first, and later this to the wings;
-attaching the pylons to the wings first, and later on the engines to the pylons.

Modelsvit finally helps you here with recognizing part numbers; they numbered the different pylon parts! 

This is because the left 3 pylons are formed to the angle of the left wing, and so on for the right wing.
Great, as you don't want to make a mistake while glueing polystyrene parts to a polyester wing..
Even the manual is very clear about the parts placement and position under the wings 

And here you also have to attach positioning pins to the pylons to make a firm construction possible.
I chose to attach the positioning pins to the wings, so I can 'click' the pylons to the wings later on 

Like this 

I also decided to attach the pylons to the engines first, and later on this to the wings.
That way it's easier to adjust the correct angle of the 'hanging' pylons, should that be necessary.
If you need to adjust the position of the round engine to an already incorrect positioned pylon it will make things worse..

So I attached the engines to the pylons first. 

As you can see, still needs additional filling and sanding. Man, never had a laborious kit like this one 

But first i just had to test fit the whole thing to see the behemoth with it's engines under the wings!!
So I roughly taped the engines to the wings for a quick look 

..And now all 6 

Just taped the engines to the wings, to see how they fit. Still a lot of filling and sanding to do before I glue them in position. 

Great :thumbsup:!
Now on with filling and sanding so I can glue them firmly to the wings. 

Back to the cockpit section.
As there is no indication in the hollow nose section to attach the flightdeck to, I constructed a rib made from Plasticard and 4 'contact points' in the nose section.
Now I can join the rib (with flightdeck) firmly to these contact points with tiny screws.  

Like this 

As this model is a real tail-sitter, I will have to add serious weight in the front section.
I will integrate this weight (several long M13 bolts and nuts) with the Plasticard rib so it will stay in place. Therefore I made a Plasticard T-shaped construction-table which will be attached through the rib to support these bolts. I first drew the position of that table... 

...and this is the table. I will wait with the final attachment until everything is ready, including the cockpit.  

Testfit of the nose section tot the fuselage with tape. 

Not very seamless... 

...this will need some filler... 

Testfit of the flightdeck section with the transparent cockpit window part, to check the correct height and position of the windows with the glareshield. 

I noticed earlier that the flightdeck was positioned too low relative to the cockpit windows, so I corrected this with a new Platicard rib.  

This gap will be filled with a part provided in this kit.
 

..But still no seamless fit on the underside.... 

As I studied some pictures of the flightdeck, I noticed that the An-225 has a raised section on the glareshield for the autopilot and EFIS.
Modelsvit has provided this kit with a flat glareshield, so I decided to build this raised section from scratch. 

A slightly angled part of white polystyrene from the spare parts box will do. 

now I only need to respray the glareshield semi gloss black. 

After that I applied the instrument decals. 

The yokes are slightly bended forwards, so I bended the yokes a little. 

Time for inspection of the flightdeck... 

...and time for a beer 😉  

Enough cockpit, time for the next project in this project: the mighty 32 wheels landing gear! 

I spent quite some time only studying the complicated construction of the gear... So many parts, and this needs planning. 

I collected all the sprues with gear parts... 

...wheels and wheels.... 

...and lots of tiny parts. 

I started with the wheel halves.
 

But before assembling these halves you need to construct rims which consists of 3 parts.
 

These parts are tiny, and need to be trimmed from flash from the sprues.  

Here are all the parts for the wheels together. 

Did I mentioned there are also brake disc parts for each wheel..? 

The bogies consists of 2 parts. 

Even the main fitting consists of several parts. 

So a little project in this project.. a lot of tiny parts! 

Details of the difference in gears 

I’ve placed every gear separately in a little numbered zip bag after construction, as there is difference in left or right gear.. 

Partly glued together, as I don’t want to glue the piston part in position..
my aim is to construct a gear that is adjustable in height.
I’ll explain the reason later. 

Detail of the gear hinges 

The piston and hinges construction, which I want to replicate so I can make the intricate gear of this kit self-leveling  

Parts of the main gear bay 

The mid-center construction of the main gear bay. The ribs will be attached to the sides of this section. 

The ribs attached to the sides. A tricky job, as I had to use a 90’ angled hook to help me attach the ribs in a perfect 90’ angle to the mid-section. 

A test fit of the bay into the fuselage 

Looks nice, but there’s a big gap between the last rib and the fuselage.  

The holes in the ribs are the attaching points of the gears and suspension parts 

Two types of suspension for the two types of gear. This is the tricky one; all the parts need to be glued in a kind of triangle, with very fragile contact points. 

The parts for the suspension 

First carefully clinge the parts to the main frame.. 

...then carefully bend the parts in the right triangle shape... 

...and it’s done. 

Second type of suspension; only 2 parts and as I don’t know the right angle in relation to the gear I’ll keep these parts unattached for now. 

Stored in a numbered bag 

This gear was really tricky.. it needed several parts being put together at once under different angles as you can see 

To make an adjustable gear I decided to fabricate little axes in the hinge-points made of iron wire, so the piston can move up and down in the gear to make it adjustable in height. So first I drilled 0,5 mm holes through all the hinge points. 

All the gears in numbered zip bags with additional parts that need to be attached later 

The adjustable gear with piston in up position... 

...and in down position. 

Now I have 0,5 cm of adjustable height to make the gears level 🙂 ! 

Yesss 🙂 !! My Edgley Optica kit arrived today from the Ukraine.
Always loved this odd looking plane, in Microsoft Flight Simulator X I flew it often for slowflying and sightseeing scenery. I always wondered how it would be to fly this plane for real..

Now I have the 1:72 kit, and couldn’t resist a scale comparison with the Antonov. So here you see that the Optica wingspan is equal to the 225’s wheel bay length 🙂) !  

There are still some tiny additional parts left to be attached to the gears.
 

It looks like pistons for adjusting the bogies..? 

The tiny axles need to be attached to the bogies and above the hinges... 

...and the angled piston parts need to be attached to the axles.
This is only possible for the upper axle, as if I cement it also to the lower axle the complete ‘adjustable height-function’ of the gear will be lost. 

Time for a dry fit of the gears in the wheel bay. 

First I studied the different numbers of the gears, so every gear will be placed correctly..
There are differences between left and right gears! 

To be sure I place the gears correctly, I numbered the positions on the wheel bay with tape.  

All the gears are placed in position.. 

...and this is a little milestone in this landinggear project 🙂 !
 

Front side view 

Here I tested the adjustable height.
Right gears extended, left retracted.
I placed a little level on the wheel bay to show the angle, as the photo doesn’t show this very well. 

Front view of all the gears fully extended.. 

...and fully retracted. Indeed 0,5 cm adjustable height to get all the gears level!  

Even forward / backward tilt is possible. 

Testfit of the gear bay in the fuselage 

The suspension system for the gear must be attached in the bay one one side, and on the other side to the gear. The manual says that the parts of the suspension need to be cemented in a straight line, but after testfitting this I saw that the parts only fit to the gear in a slight angle.. 

So I tried to make the suspension-parts movable by making little iron wire axles through the pivot points... this was harder than making the sturdier landinggear parts adjustable with the axles, as the suspension parts are very tiny. 

It worked only for 5 of the 14 suspension systems, as I failed to drill straight holes through the other 9 suspension parts.. Just to fragile and tiny. But it looks nice, I managed to make 5 gears adjustable in height ánd retractable 🙂 ! 

Afterwards I thought: it has no use to make the suspension systems retractable. It only makes the gear more ‘wobbly’ and it needs to have strength downwards as it has to carry almost 3 kilos of weight. So I will cement the suspension in the correct angle to the gear, to make a sturdy construction. 

But the retractable movement looks nice doesn’t it?  

To cement the suspension system in the correct angle to the gear, I first needed to position all the gears in the correct angled position relative to the ground.
As all the gears are still hanging loose in the bay (I need to airbrush the bay and the gears first before cementing all parts in position), I can only adjust them correctly with the wheels on the ground. So I dry-fitted all the wheels to the gears and the bay into the fuselage, and for the first time the behemoth stands on its 28 main wheels.. 🙂 

Impressive sight! 

The wheels carry the fuselage easily.. but wait until I have to add 2 large wings with 6 engines, a weighted nose section and the massive tailsection.. I will test that later. 

Front view; a large hollow fiberglass fuselage, where later on at the front the nose gear bay will be attached with the double nose gear. 

And as usual, the scale comparison with 1:72 figures.  

Ok, time to let the gear be for a while. I want to continue with the flightdeck and nose section for a change.
This photo inspired me to try to recreate this scene; the FO waving an Ukrainian flag at arrival. I will give it a try to see if that's possible; if not, I will make the normal closed window version. 

I went through the figures-spare box and created 2 sitting pilots from different arm, body and leg parts (sounds horrible????).
Here an impression of how it will look like.  

As the flightdeck will be attached into the rough inner fiberglass nose section, I need to check the correct height from the seats and figures relative to the height of the flightdeck windows.
The pilots have to able to look through the windows..  

In this case, it will be the Captain who holds the flag out of the window as the CO doesn't have the right arm position for holding a flag. And changing their positions doesn't look correct as they tend to look at each other instead of looking out of the windows.
I marked the position of the side window on the nose so I can position the Captain's arm in the correct angle and direction. 

It takes a lot of trying and different positions with a tiny cut off 1:72 scale arm.. 

You may recognise the sitting figure with the 'Aussie'-hat from previous pictures.. but here he changed head and left arm????.
It looks terrible here with gaps and paint-stripped, but it can be corrected easily later on this tiny scale. 

Right arm holding the glareshield, so his left arm can support the flag out of the window better. 

This will do. 

Very important to check and dry fit the complete nose section to the fuselage first, as once the flightdeck is cemented to the fiberglass inner nose the complete construction will become more fragile and I don't want to do a lot of sanding and measuring afterwards.
So at first glance the fit looks good.. 

...also the underside... 

..and the other side.
But closer inspection reveals: 

That the nose section doesn't fit very well! As I fit the transparent window part on the upper side of the nose, the lower part of the nose doesn't fit anymore. 

Look at this gap.. 

And the transparent part doesn't fit also. 

After a more precise dry fit by taping the parts together the lower gap becomes even bigger. 

This will not do.
Time for some brainstorming on how to fix this problem. 

The panel lines on the fuselage and nose section don't match either. 

Still have this spare transparent windows part for emergency, but using this part will take some more desperate measures as I will need to remove even more material from the nose section to make it fit.  

I sanded some of the upper part of the nose section to make things fit better.. 

Here you can see the panel lines in a continuous line, but look at the upper part of the nose.. This will not do, I need to focus on a perfect upper and lower fit together instead of trying to get panel lines straight. 

In the manual everything fits perfectly, looking at this side view???? 

Ok, back to the flightdeck. As the Antonov Airlines crew mostly wear blue flight suits I dressed them up with some paint and added patches on the sleeves. 

Back to the nose fit.
I want to fit the nose to the fuselage just like in this picture.. 

As the transparent part doesn't fit well, I thought of using the spare fiberglass windows part of my other An-124 kit. After all, these nose sections are equal in size and I personally cut off this part from the 124 nose, so this has to fit! And behold..  

Look at this bad fit. 

This part needs less adjustments for a correct fit. 

But it's not transparent as this original part so how can I use the fiberglass part.. 

I had an idea. I used the spare adhesive An-225 window mask sheet as a 'mold' so I can spray the correct windows on the fiberglass part. After that I can remove this windows and fabricate transparent fitting windows..
But after a check i found out that this spare mask has too big sized windows. 

Looks nice but not the right size. 

Here you can compare the space between the windows on the 2 parts. 

But look at the poor fit of the transparent part! 

So I took the An-124 window mask set and look at this, the right size! 

I sprayed it black.. 

And this is the result! 

Looks good, the 225 has a face ????! 

So I removed the windows by sanding and drilling a lot.  

Looks quite good, but I have my doubts.. It's quite a challenge to fabricate fitting windows for this part...
To be continued! 

Hi fellow modelers, here another update of the An-225 project after 2 months of absence.
As it's been a while since I worked on this giant kit, I decided to start with construction of the nose gear.

I need to know how much added weight the Mriya needs in it's nose before assembling the nose section with flightdeck to the fuselage later.

To test the correct amount of added weight, I need to make a complete 'dry' setup of the kit. With tail section, gear, engines etc so I won't be disappointed after complete assembly with a big tailsitter!
This is what the manual says about the nose gear parts. 

As you can see, the 2 main struts(15) are suspended in the 4 little 'eyes with stud connections' (Y5). That's all..

The support arms (Y11 + Y3) have no support function in this construction.

So I hope the noseweight will be just enough to prevent a nose gear collapse!
I started to glue the 2 gear bays(36) onto the main rib(J1). 

These are the assembled main struts 

As all the parts needed to be assembled at once, I made a support so I could dryfit all the parts in the right position and angle with tweezers.
After that I used a needle with droplets of glue to join the parts together. 

Time for a testfit in the nose section 

I also had to fit the rib into the scratchbuilt 'weight-table'. (The part i made for supporting the noseweight)
This immediately solves a problem: it prevents the rib of coming loose from the nose section with heavy nose weight! 

A quick testfit on the fuselage. The complete rib construction dissappears behind the closed gear doors! 

So, on to the point of adding nose weight.

I used long M13 bolts, because

-you can keep adding weights (nuts, rings)

-the length divides the weight, so it's not all concentrated on 1 point.

I drilled holes for the bolts in the flightdeck support rib 

This way the bolts are sitting firm on the support table with their flat sides.
On the screw thread side of the bolts I added M13 rings and wingnuts. 

Now the nose weight is firmly secured.

It's quite heavy already! Heavy enough to keep the complete nose section in balance.. 

I decided to test this amount of nose weight.

Time to assemble the complete An-225 with tape for a balancing test!

First the flightdeck. 

It all fits nicely with the support table 

Taped the nose section to the fuselage 

Later on 4 nosewheels(!) will be attached to these struts 

And the tailsection is taped to the fuselage. 

I decided to do the test without the still fragile and not yet finished main gear section, as this is a risk. I first want to finish the complete main gear before I break something.

So I took a woodblock for testing, this way I can safely test too much weight. 

Here I added the wings to the fuselage 

With the woodblock moved to the front still not a tailsitter 

..and with the woodblock moved to the rear it starts to nosedive a little. So i'm quite satisfied with this weight! 

And now with all the engines added. The model keeps getting heavier..

I also needed to add space on my workbench due to the width of the wings, so I placed an extra shelf on my workbench. 

Also here, with woodblock moved to the rear, still nice balanced. 

And with the woodblock moved to the front it tends a little backwards. 

So I think this nose weight is good enough to keep this big boy level on the surface when it's finished. The real test will come when I will attach the complete gears with wheels, but I can still adjust the weight before I definitely join the nose section to the fuselage.

But... After the test I suddenly thought of a problem.
What if I decide to make the Le Bourget Mriya with Buran version?? What kind of total weight will that be? Will the gear be able to carry that extra weight? Questions..

So I took my 1:72 Space Shuttle from the B747 with Space Shuttle project, and I decided to do a test.
I have an unbuilt 1:72 Buran, so that is not the complete weight yet; the Shuttle is also not the real weight as it is bigger and it has the tailcone attached, but it is assembled so it represents the 'correct' weight. 

Well, with the Shuttle the model is a real heavyweight!! I don't think the gear will hold..

So I think I will choose the modern Mriya version. In case of a gear-collapse I won't be able to repair the multiple parts gear construction.

Only if there's an aftermarket gear set for this behemoth, made of steel and nylon parts, just as my Anigrand C-5A gear, I will think of making the Buran version.

Maybe this is the reason why Modelvit still hasn't produced their promised "Limited Edition An-225 with Buran' set...? 

This was a never realised project.. imagine this taking off.. look at the amount of engines! 

I made the gear construction semi-retractable. Nice, I thought, but why...?

If you think about it, it only makes things more complicate with this kit:

-the kit is too big for constantly showing people 'the gear is retractable
-If all the parts are glued together the total construction will form a stronger whole, and that's necessary for the weight of the kit.

So I decided to glue the movable joints to make it sturdy.
The only parts that I will not glue together are the pistons of the gears; adjustable height of the wheels is always useful, as some of the wheels need to be adjusted to touch the surface.

So I first started a 'dry' setup of the main gear before using glue.

It all needs to be pefectly level and all the gears placed in a right angle to the bay (90').

I took a wooden turntable and placed it level on my workbench. Then I clamped a glass plate to it to be sure it's a perfectly smooth and level surface.

On the glass plate I placed a sheet of fine sanding paper, so the gear struts can't slide sidewards during levelling.

I placed the gear on the sanding paper and levelled all the struts and placed them in a straight line by adding an aluminium rail to the sides of the axes.

Now everything is level and I added drops of glue to almost every part, except the pistons. 

(The wheel was necessary to level the bay) 

Meanwhile I made the nosewheels. 

Also consisting of several parts. 

Again on with the never ending gear-story. Yes, there are still parts to be added to this complex construction..

This time parts that need to 'carry' the folded gear bay doors, parts V4 + V6: 

A strange part as it doesn't fit clearly, I couldn't find attachment points.

It just hangs there on the struts, and difficult to keep in position. 

After some dry-fitting I discovered some minimal, almost invisible detachment points.. See the red circles: 

And these are the pins: 

So I managed to fit them in position with very little glue. I had to keep notice which one I needed (V4 or V6), as the pins were in mirrored position.

But this is the result: 

So, on with the other parts of the gear.

This time parts no. Z5 and Z1: 

I wonder what's the use of these rods in the real lifesize gear of the 225; it seems they 'push' against the upper side of the gear bay..:hmmm:? Whatever. They are parts that need to be attached, so I did.

I first detached the tiny fragile rods from the sprue, and sorted them ready for attachment: 

To be sure that the rods indeed 'press' against the upper side of the gear bay, I taped the upper plate to the gear construction (without glue) so I can check the position of the rods: 

And this is what it looks like: 

I noticed that the gear becomes stronger by adding all these parts.

It becomes quite like a 'honeycomb'-structure; lightweight but sturdy.

I think I'm becoming more confident that the gear-construction will sufficiently support the weight of this kit.. 

On with the wheel bay doors. They also need little parts attached for the folding mechanism. 

Mark the parts with numbered tape, so I don't forget which part belongs where. 

A lot of parts, all tiny and fragile. 

To be attached in an angle.  

Another question that kept my mind busy with this kit was:

What is the position of the stabilo, flaps and tailrudder of this giant when it's in parking position on the platform?

Does it have flaps extended, or stabilo dropped for example?

I couldn't find any clear pictures until last week, when I found this picture:

planephotos.net/phot..-225-Mriya_UR-82060/



The stabilo is slightly dropped and the outer flaps are dropped also.

So I decided to make the tail more life-like with a slightly dropped stabilo!

First I carefully cutted the parts loose with a fine resin saw tool: 

I removed the pointed parts from the tail again for better cutting, sanding and attaching the parts later on.

During cutting some tiny parts of gel-coating broke from the fiberglass parts, but that's no problem. It can be solved with sanding and filling. 

The tail became weaker now it has loosen it's overall strength a bit.. 

So I made it sturdy again by adding 020" thick Evergreen Plasticard to the sides: 

After that I made sides for the separate parts: 

I removed the excess material, and sanded the sides smooth: 

Now I need to repair the edges from the tail with some filler and sand them smooth.

A dry fit of how the completed tail will look like: 

I still need to make dropped outer wing flaps.

 

I taped the flap in the correct dropped position, looks good. 

Both outer wing flaps ready. 

Ok, flaps and stabilo ready.

But after close inspection of 'AN-225 on ramp' pictures on the Internet, I noticed that also the tail rudders often are slightly out of position..

So I decided to cut the tail rudders also and position them more life-like, just as the flaps and stabilo.



The Mriya has 4 tail rudders. 

The tail became weaker, so also here I made it sturdy again by adding 020" thick Evergreen Plasticard to the sides. Same for the cutted rudders. 

So, the end result with the tailcones re-attached looks nice: 

Working with the resin saw tool is great, it cuts sharply and straight!

So I tested it on some panel lining, which are often semi-filled with the protective gel coating on this kit.

Works fine, so I started re-scribing ALL (😮..) the panel lines on this kit.

A lot of panel lines. No really, A LOT 

Also some polystyrene parts, caution there as these are much weaker.. 

The aluminium axles which hold the wings attached to the fuselage.

One is wrong diameter, the other tends to slide constantly out of the fuselage and into the hollow wing..

Not an option, before it stays in the wing forever.

So I decided to make split pens which will hold the axle in place.

First I drilled holes in the axle: 

Then attached the split pens: 

..and voilá, problem solved. 

About the cockpit-project.

The constant brainstorming sessions without results whether to make side window open or closed, the ill fit of the transparant part, the self made part without windows, trying to make the captain waving an Ukrainian flag.. AAARGH!! Enough. 

1- trying to fabricate windows in the self made cockpit part: not done.

Doesn't work, tried it and failed 3 times. Fabricating exact fitting windows which need to be attached with cyanoacrelate glue.. nope.

2- captain waving a flag? Not done.

Can't get the figure in correct position, and need to drill out a window and fabricating a new one slided aside inside the cockpit.. please no. Enough little projects on this kit.

3- I'm out of ideas and just want to have a correct fitting transparant part, so I can finish the nose project. 

So I studied the transparant part, tested the ill fitting and made it fit by adding thin strip of Plasticard. 

The attachment of the complete landing gear construction into the fuselage.

First of all, it doesn't fit well, and second, I want to keep this fragile construction completely detachable from the fuselage during transport to a show.

Imagine trying to fix 2 broken parts 'somewhere' in the main landing gear bay later... Impossible.

So I first sanded the edges of the fuselage gear bay opening, and now the construction fits well. 

A look through the fuselage: 

About keeping it detachable:

I'm going to make some kind of rib from the top of the fuselage, which will support the upper side of landing gear construction so it won't push itself further into the fuselage from the planes own weight.

This way the plane will sit itself on the gear bay construction, and easy to lift it off again. 

Adding PE vents to the pylons of the engines. 

Hi fellow modelers, time to update the mighty Mriya project.

It's been a while since I did some scale modelling, and now the Mriya is suddenly world wide known since she's lost due to the war I decided to honour her and finish this project.

Also, the World Model Expo 2022 in Veldhoven (the same expo as where I was with my Anigrand C-5 Galaxy) is this year in the Netherlands from 1-3rd of July, and I want to show the Mriya there.

I bought the only aftermarket set for this kit, a set of resin wheels 

Nice detailed, crisp and high quality resin wheels. 

Much better than the original plastic 'discs'. 

So I started to remove all the wheels and parts from the sprues, sand them and I drilled holes to fit the gear axles 

A metallic spray for the rims 

A basic black coat for the tires 

.. and ready for later weathering and assembly 

Next project: the everlasting problem of the transparent window part on the nose section.

Tried several methods, nothing was really satisfying..  

Now it's time for the final decision. I'm going to use the spare transparent part, and fit that without adjustments on to the nose section.

That's a radical decision, as I need to adjust the nose section for fitting.

I drilled little holes to remove some materia 

After that, some sanding and test fitting, and sanding again 

A test fit with the cockpit section in the nose: 

..and it fits. 

So I glued the part to the nose section, filled the gaps and sanded smooth.

I made a big mistake later, you will see.

 

Colors of the Antonov.

I tried to find the correct color for the underside of the Mriya, it looks like blue or grey. Or bluegrey. Whatever.

I've seen models with bright blue undersides, I just don't think that's correct.

So I first thought of Humbrol 127 

The kit manual says this: 

It says Ghost Grey... maybe this color? 

As I need to spray a fuselage length of 1.17m, I'm thinking in Tamiya spray colors.

So maybe this one: 

Dark Ghost Grey.. Too dark.
During my Internet search, I thought: the only one who can tell me for sure what the correct color is, is Mr. Dmitry Antonov, the captain of the Mriya.

He has a daily vlog on YouTube about the (former) Mriya, so after a complicated search I found his personal e-mail an I mailed him with the color question.

And what do you know... he answered! 

Tamiya AS-26 Light Ghost Grey. I'm happy with it, otherwise I can never make a decision and time is running out. 

But I found out that the DuPont color code is a color code from Chevrolet cars in the eighties.. And after translation the color of the underside says dark grey, so not exact what I was looking for.

But he answered, a nice addition to this project! 

I did a test fit fuselage-wings. What a difference in height, and what a gap.... 

This is not done.

After some thinking I decided to make a correction from Plasticard 1mm sheet which will be placed onto the fuselage. 

Some experimenting with cut-outs for the bulbs on the fuselage: 

..and attached it to the fuselage with superglue, added filler and let dry. 

The transparent window part was scratched and not shiny enough, so I decided to give it a layer of clear gloss.

The horror....

After 2 minutes it looked like this: 

So after contacting some fellow modelers for hints and tips how to solve this problem, nothing worked by the way, I decided to give it one last try with different nail files.  

 

The last file was a polishing file, and luckily enough the windows became transparent again.
Important lesson learned for me: never treat clear parts with clear lacquer without testing! 

As I was working on the window part, I kept thinking about my former idea of an open side window with the Ukrainian flag hanging out..

Very actual at this moment, so I decided to give it a try.

First removing the little side window with a fine drill 

Looks good, the finetuning will come later. 

Test fit of the fuselage-wing gap with the added sheet, after sanding 

The upper fuselage still needed 3 more 'bulbs' to be attached 

The gear construction.

That never ending multiple parts headache project.

The wheel bays are Russian Green, so I started with that. 

While the paint was drying I thought about how to fabricate a 1:72 scale Ukrainian flag waving from the side window, a ceremony often done when Mriya visited a new foreign airport. 

May I introduce a friend of mine, Perry, who is a master modeler of WWII 1:35 scale dioramas. Nothing impossible for him, so he said he can fix a waving flag for me. Great!!

Later that evening he sent me this picture of this self made basic flag 

Ailerons and leading edges.

The Mighty Mriya has quite an area of ailerons and leading edges, so I decided to spray these metallic areas first and tape them before the master white paintjob of this behemoth.

I started with the tail first 

Nice job, I will do the the wing areas later. 

Project open side window.

The side windows slide backwards into the cockpit, so I made a new side window from transparent Plasticard 

..with an extra strip for attachment on the inner side of the cockpit 

I'm satisfied! 

Time to attach the nose to the fuselage.. forever.

This means:

-the cockpit will be out of reach

-no more adding nose weight possible

-the nose gear is out of reach for adjustments

-everything must be tightly secured in the complete nose section.



So did a checklist twice, and then the big moment of attaching the nose 

Tight fit, another milestone in this project reached. 

Time to sand and fill the gaps in the nose-fuselage part.

Sanding, filling, sanding, filling again, etc. 

After that more Russian Green paint on more gear parts, and weathering of the gear.. 

..and weathering the resin wheels. 

Meanwhile i made a copy of the decal sheets, because I want to test fit the correct position of the curved stripe on the fuselage as I have no reference points.

This way I can experiment with positioning the decals before I go 'live'.

The stripe on each side consists of 6 parts(!), so a challenge to make a perfectly curved single stripe... 

And Perry sends me a picture of the end result of the Ukrainian flag.
Well done Perry, thanks!! This will look great. 

Back to the landing gear.
The gear housing consists of several hatches for each gear. So if you Google for pictures, you will see that each hatch has its own position. So not a straight line, as the 1 kit part shows..

So I cut every hatch loose and repositioned them to each other, now it looks more realistic 

Looks great in the end result, you will see. 

Adding wing navigation lights.

I used some Bare Metal Foil for the lighting housings 

.and attached the transparent parts.
Afterwards filled and sanded the gaps. 

Time to attach the resin wheels to the gear... but, this needs to be done in 1 straight line!

Problem is that all the resin wheels were like 'dangling' to the axles due to their weight and ill fit.

So... time to think about how to solve this.



I took some sanding paper (anti-slip), took aluminum 90' corner profiles as a guiding rail, and added each wheel in this construction 

Next I added a droplet of superglue with a fine steel wire end to each axle-wheel connection.
Not a nice job, but the end result is a straight and level row of gear and wheels! 

Another big day!

Because the white paint job has to be done.

We are talking about a 1.22m x 1.17m big area of white fuselage, tail and wings.

So I emptied the garden shed and turned it into a spray-booth (with permission of my wife 😉) for a few days. 

Nice room, dry and clean. Ideal for spraying big kit parts.

I started with the tail 

..later on the fuselage. 

..and thanks to the nice temperature and weather it dried perfectly.

Took everything inside for an overnight dry. 

Time to glue the tail to the fuselage.

This means:

-From no on very careful with turning and twisting the fuselage

-the fuselage is more difficult to handle during the decal process.

But it needs to be done, so took the industrial superglue and added the tail to the fuselage 

The engines need to be prepared for spraying, so I made covers for the exhaust areas from Plasticard 

So the engines can now be sprayed gloss white after primer 

During drying I prepared the fuselage for spraying 

Today the wings get their gloss white jacket. 

During drying I tested the gear with the resin wheels. Looks good! 

The engines are sprayed gloss white and ready for further painting and decals.

Never noticed how huge this engines must be in real life, compared to this picture with the 1:72 figure.. 

Removing the covers and masking tape from the sprayed engines. 

Adding the gear hatches to the gear construction 

I think it's a great improvement those 'irregular' placed hatches, looks more realistic. 

Sprayed gun metal plates above the exhausts and sprayed bare metal engine intakes on the engines 

And finally the wings got their gloss aluminum ailerons 

..and the red wingtips 

I changed my hobby room into a decal-workspace. I made a table with a soft foam mat to protect the paintwork during the decal process.

(and yes I know, my tv is dying) 

In 2015 I made a 1:72 scale foam An-225 from which I still had my self made full scale drawings.

I used this drawings to determine and pre-position the copied stripe decals onto the fuselage 

I added the copied stripe decals on the fuselage 

As the curved stripe decals consists of 6 separate parts, it's nice to exercise with these copies so I know what to expect later.

I also did this because this way I can determine the exact outer line of the grey area I need to spray.

I don't want to risk spraying too high or too low with grey, that will be hard to correct with the fragile decals already placed on the fuselage..

The manual gives little info on a very little picture about placing the stripe 

I taped the copied decal with little pieces of masking tape onto the fuselage 

Don't forget the tail; I need to cut that stripe decal for the in- and outwards positioned rudders 

Now the other side 

Okay, so now the part where to determine the grey spray line 

I placed masking tape half under the copied decal and traced the underside-line of the decal on the tape.. 

..and cut that line and removed the tape. 

Now I have the exact position of the stripe decal in tape on the fuselage 

 

Now I only have to wrap the rest of the fuselage in plastic and the underside is ready for it's coat of grey! 

Back to the shed / spray booth for the coat of ghost grey.

Finally another color, I already sprayed about 5 cans of whit 

Tail heavily protected in plastic bags 

..and we have a grey underside of the fuselage.

 

A big day; decal day!

Let's start with the most difficult decal, the stripe part on the nose with all it's curves.
It took me about 20 minutes to get this decal in the correct position, and during this time it wrinkled, cracked, I needed to cut it, repositioning with added water, added lots of Microsol setting solution etc.

A nightmare but I succeeded! Still some little wrinkles but it's fine.  

Now the rest of the stripes. 5 pieces, and this was quite easy on a flat side of the fuselage 

After that the tail decals 

Ok, enough for today. 

Today I applied the other decals on the fuselage: 

After drying I applied a layer of clear lacquer for protection and sealing the decals 

Time to do the decals on the other side of the fuselage, same exercise 

Don't forget the text decal on the underside of the nose 

The other side get's its layer of clear lacquer 

...and after drying I took the Mriya inside for a complete test fit: 

Looks great!
I applied the stripe decals on the engines 

And now the boring part.

There is a lot of data stenciling decals on the wings and engines. A lot!!

For some decals the manual says '45 times' or '33 times'... 

This is the data decal sheet: 

So it begins...

Starting with engine data decals 

Now the data decals on both wings.

I think about 250+ decals for each wing. 

And finally the decal sheet is almost empty. Took me 2 days. 

Test fit of the waving Ukrainian flag: 

Nice, just how I thought it to be! Thanks Perry, this is a great addition and it's in honor of the Mriya. 

Time for constructing the nosewheels.
For the first time the Mriya fuselage rests on its complete gear!

And now the moment of moments.


It's time to test the complete assembled Mriya on it's gear...
This is the moment of truth.. will it stand without added supports on it's own wheels? 

Yesss!!

 

This was my most feared moment. But my calculated nose weight and balance seem to be ok! Yess!! Very satisfied. 

I made a wooden transport case for the Antonov, so it is safely protected during transport to the expo. 

It only needs foam on the inside to secure the fuselage + wings, this will be done later. 

I glued the flag in the hands of the co-pilot 

I know, the outside of the window is not perfect but the lacquer is very hard so I don't want to risk to do something stupid during repair or removal. 

Glued the nosewheel in left steering position, as the tail rudders are also turned to the left.

And added the extended nosewheel lights. 

The finishing touch: weathering.

As this is a huge plane, Perry helped me with some parts of the plane. 

Did the rest of the plane myself the last evening. 

Ladies and gentlemen.



After 2 years of hard labor.

sweating.

thinking.

Inventing.

sanding.

keeping the faith.

and crying.



May I present to you:























The mighty Antonov An-225 Mriya, how she was.

And still is in our mind. In her last worn jacket.

The pride of Ukraine! 

And the inevitable Piper Cub and figure for scale 

So, this is it.

I hope you enjoyed this sometimes dull, sometimes exciting project.

I would like to thank all the great fellow modelers on this forum for your kind messages, support and the tips and tricks.

Much appreciated, thank you!



For those interested:

This model will participate in the WME2022 contest in Veldhoven, The Netherlands from July 1-3 2022. 

And for the ultimate scale comparison:

Me holding the Mriya model.

 

So, today I went to the WME 2022 in Veldhoven, The Netherlands.
I secured the Mriya with self made foam blocks in my self made transport box. 

Firm and secure during transport 🙂  

I copied and enlarged the side of the kit box it came in, and made the wooden transport box more ‘fancy’. 

The tail on the side of the box  

And here she is momentarily, at the show.

I hope to get some prize but as I said earlier, the level of professionalism is very very high.. 

We will see Sunday morning; at least the Mriya has joined a world modeling expo, and that’s something I’ve achieved in time 🙂 !  

Yess!!! 

I have won a silver medal 🙂 !!!