Fakestok (2): Building a fake spaceship!

For more on the fake Vostok the Mil will carry, I did some research. I found a bad, quite pixelated low-res copy of this model of the Vostok, but after looking in the nooks and crannies of the interweb, and of course, some doubt of the legality of this kit rose.

Some further diving into information on this model turned out that this originally is a Maly Modelarz kit, and it indeed is from 1961. The one I encountered was a really bad copy and I had no intentions to use it anyway because of its quality Would I have used it, I would have cost me enormous amounts of time to clean it up and enhance the quality so I could just as well use an already existing and better designed model as a template. I only needed some ideas for the ring part. I was planning to use either Lars folmann's version or Leo Charkashyn's one anyway.

The Mil Mi-6 helicopter I am going to add is legally bought at Ecardmodels. I really was glad I could find an actual Mil Mi-6. And this seems to be a very nice model. But I have to start that one yet and let's not get too far ahead of things.

 The original one of Maly Modelarz from 1961. What is that thing in the back?

Small disclaimer: In spite of the fact I didn't use any of the actual Maly parts and there even is a lot of scratchbuilding involved in this model I make, there still might be some people who think this too might be piracy because I looked at the parts of the Maly kit. Now is just looking at a low quality unscaled screenshot for reference for a scratch build also piracy? I don't think so. However, this here is my own blog and here I can show you what I want.

I started with the fake Vostok. I used a lot of Cherkashyn Vostok parts and a lot of scratchbuilding, too. I first changed the model to 1/100 and put some lettering on the sides. It is actual cyryllic, so no "BOCTOK" but I really typed "WOSTOK".
Now, the main section of the shroud was made using the fairing and escape hatch opening from Leo Cherkashyn's Vostok rocket model. The only thing shown of the capsule itself was what was seen through this opening. I made the Sharik part from a piece of aluminium foil I shaped around a bead. I edge-glued it to the hatch rim.

It reads "Vostok", but them Ruskies use some other alphabet Borscht!

 

The "Sharik" in place. Note the semi- ball shape in the hatch opening

The rest was pretty straightforward, actually. Cone, third stage parts All from Cherkashyn's model, but a little simplified. The stabilization part was fun to do. Small wings with the four smaller ones carrying these cylindrical parts. In an early French publication I found they assumed this were retrograde rockets:

There weren't any clues of where and why the French came up with the conical end section, I couldn't see it in the video anyway. So I decided the rear end should be as it actually was, the engine section of the Vostok third stage. I also took that from Leo Charkashyn's kit.

The ring was a full scratchbuild. Four strips of doubled-up paper, 7 millimetres wide, and with some trial and error - and of course some eyeballing and even actual straightforward measuring I got them all just right and tight fitting it took me about three tries to get it right. The curve was made using a knitting needle. It sure looks like the original Fakestok.
The metallic ring over the 2nd stage was made from metallic paper I carved laterally for some ribbed texture.

Now I have been busy with my not so Papery Kosmonauty life, too, so I had very little time the past few weeks to really get some good modelling time. I did, however, make the base.

A slightly bigger frame than usual, in which I placed a piece of sandpaper which I painted and scratched some lines in the surface to act as seams between the concrete slabs. A bit of grass on the side as a finishing touch. I tried to give the surface a sense of speed to act with the soon-to-be-flying helicopter overhead.

So now it's on to the Mil Mi-6 heli. It's a biggie, even in 1/144, in which this diorama will be. It will compete with a shuttle in the same scale (the real helicopter being a little over 33 meters and the shuttle just over 37 meters long).

However, there will be some very tiny parts coming up, I am very curious whether I am able to get this all done. the original model size is 1/48 so I build this one at 33.3% of the original scale.

Oh the bells!

Will I make it? Will this diorama be finished? perhaps next time I can show you some progress.