Silk Purse From a Sow's Ear! Building the Maquette Ka-60 from the Duke

Thank you to all who stopped in to comment. I appreciate it.

FLTMEDIC wrote:

Welcome to the world of Maquette.  Nice recovery! I have the KA-32 Rescue in 1/72 that I have not started yet. I keep going back and checking the box but it doesn't get any better no matter how long I leave it on the shelf.

Thank you. I appreciate it very much.

Yeah, unfortunately, aging any Maquette kit doesn't make it any better either! LOL! Good luck on that KA-32, and make sure you have tons of time for cleanup of the parts.

Avus wrote:

I don't know how the kit was before the cure, but it sure looks good now!

Thanks Avus. Here is an idea of what I went through in building this kit:

*This kit was so filled with flash that half the time, you couldn't tell the part from the flash and had to guess.

*The interior bulkheads and floors were all molded way too wide so that the fuselage couldn't close. It took me two days of sanding and carving alone before I could get the fuselage to close properly.

*Even when it did close, I spent several more days applying half a bottle of gap-filling CA glue to the seams and sanding them down to invisibility. With all the sanding I did, I'm rather shocked that this still looks like a helicopter! Most of the parts; even after cleanup, still had to be carved, sanded and shaped before they would fit where they were supposed to go.

*I was surprised and relieved that the front windscreen fit so well over the front of the model. All the other windows required trimming or the spaces widening before they would fit. That was a four day job putting in the windows alone, since I had to wait for previous installations to dry before installing the rest.

*I had to guess on the assembly of the landing gear since the instruction sheet was so poor that there was no way to interpret how they went. I had to go online to look at the real thing, and even then it took several rounds of cleaning, reshaping, and test fitting of the three parts each before they came out.


*Whew!* That was the most intense 'wrestling match' I've ever engaged in with a model. That's exactly how it felt too!! The easiest things to do were painting and applying the decals which went on extremely well without any problems. Now you have an idea of how this model was before being built.

DURR wrote:

well your choice of the post title  really is true

Thank you DUUR. I am honored by your compliment. Your comments are most welcome.

well your choice of the post title  really is true

I don't know how the kit was before the cure, but it sure looks good now!

Very nice.

Welcome to the world of Maquette.  Nice recovery! I have the KA-32 Rescue in 1/72 that I have not started yet. I keep going back and checking the box but it doesn't get any better no matter how long I leave it on the shelf.