Miles Aerovan

[PR19_Kit]

While languishing in wet and windy Norfolk (no fun in going out viewing the Broads in THAT lot  ) I decided it would be rude NOT to start on the Mikr Mir Aerovan I bought earlier in the week from Big H. Of course I hadn't got any of my tools or glue with me so a trip to the Bure Valley Railway shop sorted that out and I started on the kit.



The obligatory 'before' pic, and the box is HUGE for an aircraft the size of a 1/72 Aerovan, it's 9" front to back and the kit bits rattle around inside it, but all my new tools fit in there as well. 



Here's all the bits, and I've already assembled the main wing parts as you can see bottom left. You'll note the kit comes with a masking set for the clear parts (that's the blue bit) a very good idea as the canopy is VAST! That funny looking box thing bottom right is a funny looking box thing that you have to assemble from 7 parts, and it's meant to align the wings properly with the fuselage, but the wings have no spars to fit into the spaces for them in funny looking box thing. 

It has decals for loads of different aircraft, including an IDF version and one of two that the RNZAF had, but mine won't be any of them. It'll either be a Whiffed RAF one, or just possibly the 'light freighter' that Tom Cutter flew out to the Middle East in Neville Shute's 'Round the Bend', one of my fave aviation themed novels.

[JayBee]

Yummy! 

Now all we need is some enterprising company to produce a conversion kit for the HDM 105.

[PR19_Kit]

Yummy! 

Now all we need is some enterprising company to produce a conversion kit for the HDM 105.

The hell with 'an enterprising company', I'm likely to do it myself with another Aerovan kit. Perhaps with the wings from a 1/48 sailplane?

This one may end up with turbo-props after reading Robert's link that shows a 'van with a mockup for a Mamba engine. 

[Tophe]

I'm likely to do it myself with another Aerovan kit.

With 2 Aerovan kits, you could build a twin-boom Aerovan, lovely I am sure!

[PR19_Kit]

I'm likely to do it myself with another Aerovan kit.

With 2 Aerovan kits, you could build a twin-boom Aerovan, lovely I am sure!

I was SURE you would say that Tophe. 

[Weaver]

I'm likely to do it myself with another Aerovan kit.

With 2 Aerovan kits, you could build a twin-boom Aerovan, lovely I am sure!

I was SURE you would sat that Tophe. 

He's just trying to make it more French: the Noratlas's little daughter.

You could call it the Nordione, since Dione was one of Atlas's daughters....

[PR19_Kit]

I'm likely to do it myself with another Aerovan kit.

With 2 Aerovan kits, you could build a twin-boom Aerovan, lovely I am sure!

I was SURE you would sat that Tophe. 

He's just trying to make it more French: the Noratlas's little daughter.

You could call it the Nordione, since Dione was one of Atlas's daughters....

Hat? Coat? 

[PR19_Kit]

This kit's certainly 'Eastern Bloc' alright, a fair amount of flash (and it's new on the market....) the trailing edges are a scale 6" thick and some of the parts just don't fit, anywhere.

I've found a hilarious kit review of the Aerovan here :- https://wingsofintent.blogspot.com/2017/08/miles-aerovan-mikro-mir-172nd-scale.html which mentions almost all the problems I've found, and some I haven't got to yet I expect.

[loupgarou]

A pretty little thing.
From the boxtop drawing, the tail boom seems asymmetrical.

[The Wooksta!]

There's a build thread on Britmodeller that may be of some use highlighting the kit's flws and foibles.

[king of men]

And it does indeed have some fit issues. Many are due to my own impatience, and cures will be determined by the more methodical modellers out there. Mine, on the other hand, will be a monument to the use of putty in modelling... Wings and tail are on mine and I'm currently working on the engine nacelles.

[NARSES2]

From the boxtop drawing, the tail boom seems asymmetrical.

It does indeed

[PR19_Kit]

Unmitigated DISASTER!  

I mentioned that the Aerovan box was so big that I could get all my new bought tools inside it along with the kit, which I did to drive home today. The glue I bought was a bottle of Humbrol Liquid Poly, never my fave glue as it dries too fast and the brush that's in the bottle's lid is FAR too big. It's also meant to have a sealed lid when it's screwed down properly, which mine was, but when I got home there was a very weird smell coming from the car's luggage compartment. I tracked it down to the Aerovan box and found this....



Those parts aren't just laying on top of one another, they're BONDED together, all in one piece! 

I'm not at all sure if it's recoverable yet, I guess I could probably scratchbuild a new tailplane/fins assembly (it may actually be better than the kit parts.... ) but I doubt I could make a new fuselage half, let alone the other bits that are now all one.

Needless to say the 'sealed cap' of the glue bottle didn't, and about 1/3 of the bottle's contents have leaked all over the inside of the box. Terrific............

[Old Wombat]

Oh dear ...

[Tophe]

This disaster may be an opportunity to invent Something incredible! Remember that you are a what-if modeller!