Sunday, December 11, 2011

Trumpeter NKL-26 Aerosan

By Dave Blankenship
The Trumpeter NKL-26 is a beautifully engineered kit but be prepared to deal with a lot of small parts. The skis are probably the most tedious part of the build. Each ski comprises a total of 19 parts including 14 tiny photoetched pieces...10 of which require a double bend. The engine, with almost 40 parts, also requires some care in assembly.




I built the kit pretty much out of the box. The propellers and  body of the vehicle (interior and exterior) were painted with oils to simulate the plywood from which they were constructed. The exterior was then over-sprayed with Tamiya white acrylic and hit with several layers of a grey filter to tone down the brightness of the pure white.  The only additions to the kit were internal steering cabling  and pulleys ( hidden from view unless you go peeking around with a flashlight), an MV lens for the headlight and an ignition cable to the engine.  The figure is an Alpine Miniatures (#35091) painted with Vallejo acrylics.


All-in-all, an enjoyable build and definitely something different for the collection.  The only fault with the kit is that the body is too long (I think one reviewer said 9mm) and when compared to photos of the real thing, it is noticeable.  I plan to build another one as an ambulance version and scratch -build the body to the proper dimensions as soon as I  find 1/35th scale plans.    Meanwhile,  the Vision open cockpit RF-8's are waiting to be built.



2 comments:

  1. Finally I found pictures of the model on which the prop is mounted correctly. The drawings in the instructions are wrong and most people fit the prop like it is drawn and I haven't found one comment on the internet that mentioned this. By the way, very nice model, hopefully mine will look this great when it's finished.

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    1. Pascal...Yeah, I realized the error in the instructions but forgot to mention it in my brief write-up. I guess because I also build aircraft it was just second nature to put the prop on correctly. You have to wonder how Trumpeter could make such a glaring mistake. How is work going on your Aerosan?

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