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1/72 Antonov An-26RT


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Hi guys!

This is my first contribution to a group build here and my first WIP too. The subject is a Antonov An-26RT, an ELINT-variant of this well-known Russian transport aircraft.

Here are some pics of the real thing:

Pic 1

Pic 2

Pic 3

And here is the box content:

An-26RT.jpg

Since the kit (which is a rebox of the Amodel tooling) depicts a different variant I’ll have to scratch all the little antennas which give this version its unique appearance.

Ok, let’s begin with the cockp...no, not this time. Here we start with the fuselage. Because Amodel decided to split the fuselage parts into a forward and aft part I elected to ensure alignment of the fuselage halves before starting with the interior.

First of all I had to remove some flash from the fuselage to ensure a good fit. If you do this a gap free joint is your reward.

An-26RT_2.jpg

The next step was to temporary fit the right forward fuselage in order to align the tail portion with the rest of the fuselage parts.

A piece of the vertical fin is moulded to the left fuselage and I experienced that this will prevent a good alignment of the right aft fuselage to its counterparts.

Therefore I decided to remove it and to glue it directly to the vertical fin.

An-26RT_3.jpg

An-26RT_4.jpg

Now the aft fuselage could be offered to the rest of the assembly.

An-26RT_6.jpg

And while I was at it I also test fitted the upper wing to fuselage joint.

Again, heavy use of sandpaper, the hobby knife and endless test fitting was necessary but this resulted in an almost gap free joint which will require only a small amount of filler.

An-26RT_7.jpg

That’s it for today. Comments and critiques are welcome.

Markus

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Thanks for the warm welcome and your comments guys.

Where did you get this kit from?

I got this kit at a model show here in Vienna last year. I think it is mainly aimed at the domestic (Czech) market since the An-26Z was a Czech one-off prototype. Amodel offers the same variant but OKit includes way better decals and the Extratech interior & exterior set for basically the same price.

Markus

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Hi all.

Not so much time for modelling this week but I could achieve a milestone by completing the wing assembly.

Please forgive me the picture quality but it's already quite late on this side of the globe :cheers:.

Amodel split the wings into 7 individual parts. The instructions tell you to simply butt join the individual parts together which in reality will result in a quite flimsy assembly which will break by just looking at it.

To give the whole wing more stability and to ensure a slight anhedral of the outer wings (as seen on photographs of the real thing) I inserted a spar made from thick plastic card. To avoid big gaps to the fuselage I began to build the wing from the inner to the outer side.

Here is my assembly sequence (for sure not the only way to do it but it worked fine for me):

1) Attach the upper center wing temporary to the fuselage and glue the lower center wing parts to the upper wing (ensure good fit to the fuselage sides)

2) Insert the spar into the center wing assy

3) Glue lower outer wings to the center wing assy (ensure proper anhedral of the outer wings)

4) Glue upper outer wings to the already assembled wing

5) Make cuts into the fuselage and the engine nacelles to ensure clearance for the wing spar.

An-26RT_8.jpg

An-26RT_9.jpg

An-26RT_10.jpg

An-26RT_11.jpg

An-26RT_12.jpg

Final check if the anhedral is similar on both sides…close enough for government work.

An-26RT_13.jpg

Next time we’ll see the final assembly of the engine nacelles and hopefully some paint on the interior bits.

As usual critiques and comments are welcome.

Markus

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