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AVIATION USK 1:72 VL MYRSKY II |
Reviewer:
Johan De Wolf (rec.models.scale)
Kit Review submitted:
19 November 2005
Aircraft: V.L. Myrsky
Scale: 1/72
Kit: AV USK #AV-1004 (or CMK resin)
Parts: 30 injection molded + 1 clear vacuformed.
Surface detail: engraved
Decals: 5 options
Accuracy: was this a requirement???
Price: bought for about €5 at a kit show ages ago
With the rise of Hitler and his expansionist intentions becoming apparent, few countries in Europe believed peace would be around much longer. So too Finland, which was looking into modernizing and expanding its airforce. With the possibility of buying something suitable abroad fading fast it was decided that the state aircraft factory, V. L. should start development of an indigenous fighter.
In June 1939 a contract was issued for development of a single-seat fighter and the production of a prototype. V.L. was however fully occupied with the license production of the Blenheim and Fokker D.XXI and C.X. When in November the same year Russia attacked Finland it became obvious that there would be no time to develop and build a new fighter. So several fighter types were bought elsewhere.
In spring 1940 Germany occupied Denmark and Norway, effectively cutting Finland of from the rest of the world. If a modern fighter was to be had the only option left now was building their own design. In December 1940 a new definitive contract was awarded. The resulting design was a conventional aircraft of mixed construction, powered by a Twin Wasp radial. In less than a year the first prototype of what was to become the Myrsky (storm) was ready for flight. It was immediately clear that more development would be necessary as the design had a few serious flaws e.g. a weak tail structure. By mid 1942 the design had progressed far enough to warrant the production of 3 preproduction, series I, machines (MY-2 to -4). These machines incorporated many detail changes compared to MY-1, but also had a larger wing, to reduce wing load. Between these three there where differences in armament, prop and engine cowling. Further testing revealed there where still severe structural and overheating issues. Eventually all three machines crashed.
A redesign program was immediately started, strengthening the tail section as well as the wings. Two series II machines where completed before mass production started to see if the new modifications were sufficient. MY-5 first flew 21 December 1943, followed by MY-6 6 weeks later. These two machines where offered to active units for evaluation, but pilots where reluctant to fly in them because of the reputation the Myrsky now had.
In June 1944 disaster almost struck again when MY-6 lost her port elevator. Through incredible skill pilot E. Halme regained control and managed to land the aircraft safely. Finaly it was clear that elevator flutter at high speeds caused all the structural trouble. On all machines the elevators where immediately replaced by stronger ones.
When the Myrsky finally entered service in mid ’44 it was already outdated compared to western designs. However it was roughly comparable to what the Soviets put up. Fighter squadrons much preferred the Me 109G’s and were anxious to take up the Myrsky. However the reconnaissance units were desperately short of modern equipment, and were more than happy to accept the Myrsky. TLeLv 12 was the first unit to be equipped, and at the time of the September 4 armistice, 20 had been delivered.
Before the truce ended hostilities, the Myrskys managed to damage a Yak-9 and a Lagg-5 in air combat, and carried out a bombing attack on Soviet divisional headquarters in Orusjärvi. Other units also received the Myrsky before September 4th, but it was too late to see action. The last time Myrskys where used in action, came when they where used to find German troops refusing to leave Lapland. Although pilots found it a pleasant aircraft to fly, they considered it too slow and too lightly armed. In service the Myrsky proved to be ill suited to the harsh weather conditions in Finland, and the Plywood/Steel structure rapidly deteriorated.
With 21 of 50 aircraft produced written off in accidents (with 4 fatalities) it was hardly a success. It has to be said though that the Myrsky was born out of a desperate situation using the only material Finland has plenty of….. wood! Also the Myrsky was the only Finnish designed and built aircraft to see combat service in WWII.
With Aviation USK kits being produced by the MPM conglomerate it is hardly surprising to see that this kit is exactly the same as the old CMK resin kit of the Myrsky. Comments made are thus valid for both these kits. Packed in a bag with header card, the kit consists of one sprue with 30 cleanly molded parts. The sparse surface detail (plywood airframe) is finely engraved. As it is a short run kit, some clean up of the parts is required. Part fit is quite reasonable. One clear vacuform canopy is included, no spare. The header card has a construction diagram (exploded view) and a scale drawing. No painting instructions or decal placement guide. For more info, two references are given. My old CMK kit has no instructions or decals. The decals in the USK kit are in register but the white could have been more opaque, also they are prone to ‘silvering’ even on a gloss surface.
Well….. Where to start….. When comparing the scale drawing with the USK to photographs, it is immediately obvious something isn’t right. The drawing looks too.. uhmmm.. how top put it…. Anaemic. When compared to the drawing the kit is even more skinny. Fortunately I have a book on Finnish designed aircraft. It is in Finnish only so I can’t read a word of it, but the drawings and photographs are stunning. I used the drawings in this book as my reference. The kit mostly resembles a series II aircraft, and that’s what the following comments are based on. MY-1 to -4 are very different aircraft and would require even more modifications. So lets start at the front:
- The prop: - diameter is 4mm too small,
- blades are too spindly,
- spinner is too small and of the wrong shape.
- Cowling: - diameter is too small, length is 1,5mm over,
- shape is too straight,
- carb intake has wrong shape,
- gun throughs poorly represented,
- engine too small and simplistic
- exhaust configuration is wrong.
- Fuselage: - shape is too anemic, both in width and in height,
- length is 5 mm short, 1mm missing in front of the cockpit 4mm missing behind it,
- rear fuselage doesn’t taper up enough,
- fin and rudder shape are wrong.
- Canopy: - shape is too ‘flat’.
- Wings: - leading edge angled back too much,
- cord at the tip 1,5mm too small giving the wingtip the wrong shape,
- span of ailerons 3mm too long,
- total wing span about 4mm short.
- Stabilizers: - leading edge angled back too much,
- cord at the root 1 mm too large,
- total span 2mm too large,
- wrong shape at the tip.
- Main gear: - leg about 1mm too long, giving a too much nose up appearance,
- wheels too simplistic, diameter 1mm too small, tire width too small.
To make this kit into a real Myrsky is definitely going to be a challenge. Straight out of the bag it is rubbish!!!
I started by chopping the cowling off the fuselage. Then I put a wedge of 1,5mm at the front of the fuselage that tapers to nothing just in front of the cockpit opening, and glued the halves together. After this had dried I chopped off the tail just behind the cockpit opening. Next I split the front fuselage horizontally and added 2mm before joining the halves again. At the front I now added a 2mm thick blanking plate. The rear end gets a wedge of 4 mm thickness at the bottom and 3 mm at the top, then the tail unit is glued back on. The rear part of the cockpit opening gets two slivers of plastic so the canopy will fit again later.
The cowling was then reduced to 4 quarter sections. Between the top two parts 3mm was added, at each side 1,5mm and finaly at the bottom 1 mm. This moves the guntroughs further from the centerline and makes the cowling slightly oval instead of round. In the end I wasn’t satisfied with the guntroughs and removed them all together. A new cowling front ring was added from the spares box (I think it was from an old Airfix or Hawk dauntless). All the seams were then filled and sanded in to the correct shape. This sounds like a lot of work but with the help of superglue the hacking and rejoining of fuselage parts just took about 2 hours. The rebuilding of the cowling took about 5 hours because of the shape of the carburettor intake (partly embedded), the guntroughs and the exhaust stacks. Lost panel lines where re-engraved in the correct places. Because of the wedge between the fuselage and the tail, the rudder hinge is now slightly tilted forward but as it isn’t that noticeable I decided not to re-engrave it.
Next up are the wings. I reduced the length of the aileron by filling in the hinge line and rescribing a new one 3mm towards the wing tip. The chord problem was solved filing the rear of the wing and tip flat and gluing a piece of plasticard to it, this was then sanded to shape. I also added transparent navigation lights. Span and wing sweep where corrected by adding a wedge between the fuselage and the wing 2mm at the rear 1mm at the front. As the stabilizers are too big, it is easy to simply sand them to the correct shape. Before adding them to the fuselage the shape of the rudder was first corrected.
From the spares box came a new engine to represent the twin-wasp. Some aircraft had a large crank case cover and I scratch built this for my model. From a discarded Novo La-7 came a new prop for my Myrsky. I reshaped the spinner and blades to suit my needs, I also added the extra cooling scoops. The small teardrop fairings over the guns were made from contrail struts sanded to shape, and I added the navigation light to the top of the fin.
© Johan De Wolf 2005
A few bits and pieces where scratch built for the cockpit, the kit parts being too crude for my liking. The interior was painted light grey, with black, brown and metal details. The clear vacu canopy was trimmed and made to fit the modified fuselage. It is in fact a bit too low/flat, but if not looked at in direct profile it isn’t that noticeable. I shortened the landing gear slightly and thinned down the covers.
The Usk drawing suggests the main gear cover consists of 3 parts hinged together, but I could find no photographic evidence for this. MY-1 had a two part cover, but all the later machines had a single plate. Note that the centerline doors and the cover for the secondary strut where not always fitted. The kit wheels where too crude and wrong, so replaced them with something found in the spares box. After fitting the pitot tube and radio mast my Myrsky was ready for painting.
© Johan De Wolf 2005
There are no painting instructions with either kit. A good reference library is therefore needed. All series II Myrskys where painted black and green bands with sharp demarcation on top with light blue undersides. Many profiles show the dark colour as a dark green but it should be really black. Demarcation between the top and bottom colours was wavey (even on the wing leading edge) and varied from aircraft to aircraft. Earlier machines probably had light grey undersides.
I wanted to depict a machine belonging to TLeLv 26 during their short operational combat period. So I needed to add the yellow theatre markings. Note that only the underside of the wing tips was yellow. Some aircraft had the whole front end of the cowling painted yellow but others only had the bottom half painted. The fuselage band varied in position and width, so check your references. The yellow markings where removed in September ’44.
Gear wells were the same colour as the bottom of the fuselage. The prop had varnished wooden blades, and a black spinner. As the Finnish climate was very hard on these aircraft, weathering is hardly subtle. Exhaust staining on Myrskys is quite pronounced, and most aircraft had a dirty and used look. When simulating paint chipping please bear in mind that this aircraft was made of plywood. Only the cowling and front part of the fuselage was metal covered.
The Usk kit comes with markings for no less than 5 machines, MY-5, -19, -21, -22 and 50. All are wartime machines period except one, MY-50, which is a postwar machine. No placement guide is provided so you’ll need to check references to apply them in the correct places. Do not use the tiny roundels that are probably intended for the propblades. I built MY-16 which is an easy adaptation of the decals for MY-19. After I finished my model I found a reference that the large 6 on the tail should be white instead of yellow… Oh well. I couldn’t find photographic proof of the lightning bolt on the cowling used together with the yellow theatre markings, so if this never occurred it is a bit of artistic freedom on my part.
This is certainly not the best kit of Czech origin. To make it into an acceptable replica a lot of work is required. Having said that, I enjoyed putting the extra effort into it. In the end it was easier than I imagined when I started it, and the reward is an unusual model that draws a lot of attention. Doing this conversion also helped me to improve my skills. As is so often the case after finishing a big modeling project, a new kit appeared. The Czech company PH models, that seems to specialize in Finnish subjects, has recently release a very nice resin kit of the Myrsky. This is a complete kit and includes decals. It will make the USK and CMK kits redundant. I have also seen a Myrsky kit advertised under the CMR label, however I haven’t had the chance to check this kit first hand so I’m not sure if it is just the old CMK kit or a completely new molding.
Lentäjän näkökulma, by Jukka Raunio (excellent book on Finnish aircraft designs)
Air Enthusiast #23
Plastic Kits Revue #19
Suomen Ilmavoimien Lentokoneet 1939-72 by Kalevi Keskinen
Interior: light grey, RLM63 Modelmaster MM2077
Camouflage: black. Tamiya XF-1
green, RLM83 Modelmaster MM2092
light blue, RLM65 Modelmaster MM2078
Theatre markings yellow, RLM04 Modelmaster MM2072
Propellor various browns Tamiya XF-52,57,59,64
Landing gear metal Tamiya XF-16
© Johan De Wolf 2005
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