Build of Buran is done and not very spectacular (if you don't want to build the open variant). This is the final white couting before masking and painting the black underside and wing parts.
Decal job finished. The fitting of all segments is very good, exception both front parts. I had some trouble with the joint by the upper manouver trusters. But now i think, it's ok.
The Underside. The joints of the printed tiles are much to strong and bright, but there are no alternatives.
Here you can see the mistake on the decalsheet: The decals for the underside of the flaps are to small and the pattern of the tiles are to big. The designer mad the mistake, just to double the decals from the top to the botton, forget that the size is complete different.
This is a sticker i get from the Technical Museum in Speyer, Germany. They had an original "Buran"-Shutte in their Space Section. If you ever have the chance to visit the museum, do it! It's spectecular!
The six engines of the An-225 are ready for attaching. This should be done as last build step, so you can paint the airplane much easier.
An An-225 had her white coating. Not very impressive.
Underside of the An-225 before assembling the rear tires. The red stripes at the nacelles and the plane are decals from the An-225-Decalsheet from Begamot and fit very well!
The Rack for the Buran is fortunately very simple. I build it scratch with some metal round profiles and plastic spare parts from my leftover box.
Final look an the An-225 with the Buran-Shuttle. The Base is made of wood. The figures and the fences came from the hobby train section in scale 1/160 (Spur N), and fits very good!
Maybe i will add some more people in the future. But for now, i think it's ok.
This shows the legendary Ukraine An-225 with the "Buran"-Orbiter on the Le Bourget Air Saloon in Paris in June 1989. At this time, you were really happy to see a sowjet plane. Now, you will send him a warm and friendly anti-aircraft fire welcome!
It's a shame, that one single man can bring so much pain and destruction above the world. At some times, it was not really lots of fun to finish the Buran or paint the An-225 in her old white look. But then i remember the words of Dmytro Kuleba (Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine):
"This was the world’s largest aircraft, AN-225 ‘Mriya’ (‘Dream’ in Ukrainian). Russia may have destroyed our ‘Mriya’. But they will never be able to destroy our dream of a strong, free and democratic European state."
