One day, while digging in my stash, I found this little kit, which I purchased probably about 20 years ago. Quite recently I saw it re-released by Eastern Express. I just hope they fixed the molds...
Soon we'll get there. Model kit was packed in tiny box, quite sturdy and attractive for its time.
Inside the box we find really tiny sprues with some tiny parts, and small decals sheet made at the time by Traverse.
There are also included instructions as well.
Hoping to have quick and fun project with unusual subject, I started the assembly...
When I removed fuselage halves from the sprue, I had my first unpleasant surprise...
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| Can you spot the difference? |
This kind of thin I just saw for the first time - fuselage halves with different tail shapes???
So I decided to remove the rudder and make the new one, hoping for better fit of fuselage halves.
Dry fitting fuselage halves revealed quite misalignment:
After seeing such a perfect fit, the kit landed in the darkest drawer for quite a time. But finally I pulled it back out, with strong resolution to finish it this time.
I added wings, which cried for a putty. A lot of it...
I added the rudder, using some part from my spares box, and trimmed it to fit.
Then I switched to bottom part, which was crying out for sand paper and putty.
After few more sanding/filling sessions, I was ready to undercoat this little rocket plane.
Next step was quick paint session with spartan interior,
and pilot got seated
Finally came time for masking and painting.
First, I applied light blue on the lower surfaces
followed by Dark Green and Black Green on the upper surfaces.
Having color on, I sealed model kit with few thin coats of clear gloss finish, to have it prepared for decals.
Once I had aircraft ready, I installed undercarriage skis, and added pitot tube from wire.
When I decided to make little Bereznyak on skis, I knew I would like to place it on frosty and snowy base.
I made the basic shape of base from styrofoam, on which I modeled terrain shape using tiles adhesive. Before it dried, I added barrels and built snow shovel from styrene profiles.
Next, I airbrushed it with white and black primer from Vallejo to create basic shades.
Then I applied frozen snow, made from the mixture of white glue, water, satin lacquer and Woodland Scenic Snow product. Finally I used washes to break the plain look of snow.
As the last step I mounted BI-1 on the base.
Once it's done BI-1 is a nice little plane, which can become unusual addition to your collection.
I just hope that Eastern Express' release is not affected with misalignments I had to deal with.
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