MM Aviation Be-4
 

As promised, here's my build thread for the Dec, 1974 MM kit of the Russian seaplane, the Beriev Be-4.

History (from Wikepedia);
The Beriev Be-4 (originally designated KOR-2) was a reconnaissance flying boat built to operate from Soviet warships during World War II. Its development was a direct result of the failure of the Beriev Be-2 design. The Be-4 was an elegant, parasol-winged monoplane with a slight inverse-gull wing. The large radial engine was mounted in a nacelle above the fuselage. This aircraft had none of the vices of the Be-2 and was quickly put into production. However, not many had been completed before the fall of Sevastopol and the over-running of the Beriev factory. Production was resumed in 1943 at Krasnoyarsk, which is where most of the roughly 100 examples were constructed.

The kit;
Attachment 26035
The nice thing about this one is that there must be more ink in this single kit than in any five other MM kits I've seen. The printing is very heavy and even throughout with only minor printing blemishes. The Russian red star actually looks red in this kit!
Attachment 26036
There are seven pages, including formers. The kit has no interior, but I plan to add one. This won't be all that easy as there are a number of internal formers and the hull/fuselage doesn't look like that simple a form to get right. I should mention that this is a Bohdan Wasiak design. My last Wasiak kit, the Shinden, was a real joy to build but it was the exception among the lot.
The paper is the old woodchip/pulp stuff, so a scan and print is in order. I only hope that the solid printing of this one allows my limited computer skills to do a decent copy of the kit.
There are plenty of diagrams spread over six pages, so I'm hopeful that I'll be able to find where all of the pieces go.
Attachment 26037
The wing is also an inverted gull-wing, so there are plenty of places along the way for me to get this one wrong. In my mind, I'm telling myself that this model is just another Stuka wing deal!;)
Wish me luck!
Chris

good luck, keep the pen ready and the blade sharp.

Already having problems with my scans. For some reason, no matter what I do, my scans turn green to brown and I don't seem to be able to shift them back to where they belong. Grr. Gotta sort this one out right away!
Chris

Best of luck; will watch with interest.

Sorting the green/brown out now. It won't be exactly the same, but it will be green instead of brown!
Chris

This looks like a really interesting plane - I haven't seen it before. I'll be watching the build.

REQUEST: Anyone with any info on the interior (both the cockpit and observers cab), PLEASE send it my way. I'm having a really hard time finding reference for this plane other than overview sort of stuff. Thanks.
Chris

Scans , re-colouring! - a real card modeller would have used the originals

LOL - and cut out the parts with his flint knife...

I've left those days behind me, boys. But in my youth, I was wont to chew the pieces of a kit out with my teeth and glue them together with a mixture of spit and my own blood! I had a huge collection of red models....