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Prop & Jet 1/72nd Nikitin NV-1

By Matt Bittner

History

The following is a translation of the history from the instructions. My thanks to Prop & Jet for allowing me to provide this translation:

The NV-1 airplane was created and built by Vasily Vasilivich Nikitin, without any instruction. V. V. Nikitin, not a well-educated designer but already with much experience working in other design bureaus, independently created 10 designs between 1933 and 1940.

The NV-1 was quickly built as a small sport aircraft with high speed and maneuverability. The maximum speed achieved by the NV-1 was 230km/h. It was one of the best small Soviet aircraft equipped with the M-11 engine.

By using struts on the wings and stabilizer, the minimal overall dimensions of 4.25 x 1.8 meters were achieved. Dozens of flights were made by V. P. Chkalov.

The aircraft required strict pilot control due to the small dimensions and intertia moment. The wing, fuselage, and stabilizer of the NV-1 was afterwards used in the biplane NV-6 in 1939, which possessed exceptional flying characteristics and was given homage much later by the world-reknown American Pitts-Special.

The Kit

I can state, without a doubt, this is the best resin kit I have ever seen. I have seen kits by Ardpol, Choroszy, etc., and I have yet to see one molded to the finesse that this kit is molded to. Amazing. My kit consists of 21 resin parts in gray, and one clear film containing two windscreens and two instrument panels. Two is a good thing, "just in case". There are no decals, as the finish on this was plain - overall aluminum dope with natural metal cowl and landing gear spats.

While there isn't much provided for the interior, it is definitely sufficient. The cockpit opening is small, and there doesn't appear to be anything published showing exactly what was contained in the cockpit. Construction starts with adding the seat to the middle of the wing followed by adding the instrument panel to the fuselage. Here's where it's interesting. Do you use the resin instrument panel, or figure out how to mount the clear film? You could thin the back of the resin piece until it's thin enough and mount the instrument panel behind it, after drilling out all holes for the instruments. Or not worry about the physical "structure" of the instrument panel and glue the film to a piece of white plastic. Doing it this way there is no indiciation of bezels, or anything like that. Personally, I'm still on the fence how I'm going to accomplish this piece. I'm currently opting for thinning out the resin piece and drilling all those small holes. There is also a control stick provided to add.

There are no construction steps spelled out on the instruction sheet, so construction can lead in any direction. You'll need to attach the single-piece wing, and while a decent, snug fit appears to exist at the roots, you'll have some filling to do at the backside where the wing meets the fuselage. A perfect area to use the "filler/nail polish remove" technique.

Each of the five cylinders are molded separately which are attached to the crankcase. Although not shown in the instructions, the exhausts are also added to the crankcase, behind the cylinders. Like I mentioned in the first paragraph the molding is superb and the cylinders are themselves works of art.

Now construction can finish. I'm going to try and get the fit perfect on the spats prior to adding them to the model as I would like to paint those separate from the model, along with the cowl since they're left natural metal - as well as burnished (the translated instructions say "fish scales"). Once painting is finished, then it's down to adding the final pieces - cowl, spats, wheels and tail skid. In addition, you have to create some parts: the struts leading from the wing to the fuselage as well as the little bit of rigging. Finish it all off with the painted prop, and you now have a unique aircraft to add to your collection.

Conclusion

This is an awesome little kit. And I do mean little. It's the smallest aircraft model I own. I've said it before and I'll say it again - this is the best resin kit I have ever seen, and that's saying alot since I own some of the best produced resins in the world (like Ardpol and Choroszy). I obtained my P&J NV-1 from Linden Hill Imports.

Attached is the translated instructions. My thanks to Prop & Jet for allowing me to provide the translated instructions, and to Chris Banyai-Riepl for translating them. (Note: the original size of the instructions image is quite large.) The second, smaller instructions are ammended to show how the two exhausts are to be attached to the cowl. This was left off my copy of the instructions, and my thanks to Anton for sending this image.

There is very little reference material on the type, and the instructions provide the most comprehensive research available.