Michel built the late Fire Bomber variant from the Sanger vacform kit of the maritime patrol aircraft. The Be-12P-200 was succesfully operated as fire bomber from 1996 to 1998 in the Irkoutsk and Khabarovsk areas. It also served as testbed for the jet powered Be-200 flying boat.

The Sanger kit provides white metal parts for the undercarriage, but choice was made to represent it retracted for esthetic reasons. The prop spinners were shaped up from aluminium parts. The only problems occured when working on windows and transparencies.

 http://www.airliners.net  was the main reference source for painting and decalling.

My thanks to Michel for sharing such an interesting subject.