Zvezda Kamov Ka-58 "Black Ghost" (1/72)

[SunrayOne]

When asked what I wanted brought back from Russia, I answerd "A kit!" (obviously). So I now have... let's say a "prototype" combat helicopter in the collection. The Kamov Ka-58 doesn't exist, except in kit form. Apparently, there was a flurry of excitement (ahem) in the Russian aviation industry over an American attack helicopter (I forget which) and the result is still "under development" but in the meantime we have this speculative design by Zvezda. 

 

As per the Forum rules, this isn't going to be a blow-by-blow of the build. Besides which I can't be faffed to document this glue-covered, solvent infused, squinty-eyed, tweezer-waving process as I do it.

 

Anyway. The kit is nicely detailed, although the textured (no doubt radar-absorbing) surface has made lacquering it evenly a bit tricky. I have no idea when the kit was made or how large the run has been up until this one, but there were bits of flash here and there - on the smaller parts particularly. That's one of the Facts of Production, but there were also a few clumsy decisions taken in the design of the sprues. Some of the smaller parts were very close to the sprues themselves, making them very hard to remove cleanly (the flash didn't help either). The weapon pylons were particularly troublesome - very thin contact edges that didn't fit together cleanly. Also, more than one set of locatings pegs appeared to have placed with the intention of making you cry, more than anything else. The fuselage halves (top and bottom) came together cleanly, but the sprues containing the ancilliary parts (weapons, landing gear, sundry aircrafty fiddly bits, etc) had been moulded with the mould not in complete alignment. So, lots of mould lines and resulting nastiness to either sand off or hide. The rotor assembly is comprised of 18 or so parts - each of them tiny and poorly-moulded.

 

The kit came in black-coloured plastic, which seemed a little harder/brittle than Airfix's. All the larger parts had swirly, lava-like patterns in them. Didn't seem to affect the detailing on the viewable side, but interesting. Albeit in a very Plastics Nerd kind of way...

 

Some of you may notice that, compared to other images of this kit elsewhere on the Interwebs, it's a slightly different colour than the one stated in the instructions. All the way through the build I had it in my head that it would be finished in a stealthy (no doubt radar-absorbing) black. After the second coat, I discovered that the instructions call for the aircraft to be painted in Humbrol #79 Blue-Grey! I did think about repainting it, but then I decided that I would paint paint my fictional aircraft in any damn colour I please. Besides which, stealth aircraft are always painted black - it's the rules.

 

The kit only comes with six decals, which detached from their backing paper with surprising speed, but proved a bit tricky to apply. The combination of their tendency to curl up underneath themselves, along with the afore-mentioned textured surface, meant that I had to use a lot of Decalfix, a tiny brush, a toothpick and I briefly thought about using a hammer to get them flat. They were also presented on a sheet with a red decal border all the way around it. All very smart-looking and everything, but just irritating stuff to be cut out of the way. No decals are provided for the instrument panel, so the cockpit does look a bit spartan. You could paint onto the very nicely detailed panel, but then you probably have more patience than I do.

 

Overall, it's not a bad kit by any means but I feel that this is surely not their best work. I also have their 1/72 La-5 in the stash, and according to the box, that won Kit of the Year at some Model industry confab in 2007. This didn't seem like a kit that would win anything at a (no doubt radar-absorbing) European model conference, so I'm not going to pass any particular judgement on Zvezda's products based on just this. Although I wil say that if this kit is indicative of the standard of their instruction sheets, then Airfix have them beat by a long way. Although they ran in broadly sequential order, one or two steps were over the page, on the sheet after the point at which they're needed. So - it's 7, 8, 10 and 9 is actually over the next page. That was confusing. The quality of the illustrations wasn't anything like as good either (I do think the big A's instructions are the best and getting better).

 

In an very non-specific way, I'd give this one 7 out of 10 - not bad at all, Comrade.

 

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