FormaPlane 1/72 vacuform Beriev MBR-2
The Russian MBR-2 was designed by Georgy Mikhailovich Beriev and first flew in 1931, this was his first plane that he designed and put into production. From October 1934 to 1968, he ran the Central Design Office for marine aircraft in Taganrog, where he developed numerous successful, and often unique, amphibious aircraft designs.
The kit is a vacuform made by FormaPlane, released around 1978, kit no. 18. I picked this up cheap on eBay a couple of years ago and wanted to use this for my next step to start building a larger plane from my first two vacuform builds. The kit in itself looks simple but It was a build that needed work. I had to scratch built many little parts (struts, propeller, guns and it's supports) modify the engine cowlings/nacelle to enlarge it, correct the dihedral on the outer wing panels, correct the width of the fuselage to match the canopy width. So I took my time on this build and still managed to enjoy it.
Finding information on this plane was not easy and the photos on the actual plane were pretty rough but in the flight sim world there were some good videos on seeing how it flies, views of its interior and outside helped me out a lot.
For this build I decided to make this with Finnish markings. The actual aircraft I selected to make was a captured Russian Bevier MBR-2 in which originally was painted overall silver. The version on my build is in Finnish Air Force markings from 1942. From what I read they captured about 3 or 4 of these aircraft types. The serial number they put on this was VV-182.
Amazing work done on this challenging kit, Bob @v1pro
Till now I don't have the courage to build a vacuform kit.
Yours looks perfect, especially with all the extra work you had to do.
Well done.
John @johnb, thank you for the kind comments.
You have made some really nice builds, I think if you had to build a vacuform kit it will come out really nice!
A triumph over vac plastic, my friend @v1pro!
Congratulations!
Thank you Spiros @fiveten. ?
Looks great! did two vac kits way back and one conversion vac. kit. recently. They're real challenging.
Thank you Robert @roofrat, these vacuform kits are different. I plan on two conversions in the near future, Airmodels’ Northop F-15 Reporter and the Westland P.12 Tandem "Wing" Lysander. I picked up these two conversion kits from the Airmodel site. A lot cheaper than eBay.
You are a brave man, Bob (@v1pro). I won't even use vac canopies, and here you have built and amazing plane that is all vacuform. Well done.
Thank you George @gblair, I am still learning this media but enjoying it.
Excellent work, Bob. Formaplane made high quality vacs.
John @j-healy, thank you. I found this kit to be more accurate than Eastern Express’ injected mold kit of this same aircraft. I have four FormaPlane kits in my stash, I am looking forward to have them build in the near future.
Nice one Bob, I have only done conversions and canopies so far.
Allan, thank you.
Like many others, I wouldn't touch vac-formed kits with a 10' pole! You did a fantastic job with this one - well done!
Greg @gkittinger, thank you. This vacuform media is different but it is really not that hard. It will take longer, more planning are needed and buckets of patience. It only took me 40 years to finally build one ?. I am still learning this process of building, I plan on building more.
Congratulations. Very nice work for a Vacu Kit.
Thank you Trachsel @ Matra.