1/72 Antonov AN-10

[RayS]

Not usually a fan of Eastern European subjects but it has 4 engines so how could I resist!

Here's the Modelsvit Anotonov AN-10 boxing of the of Roden An-12 moulds. A passenger vesrion of the Antonov-12.


It has 4 nice marking options, with prototype and early production versions.


It's the first good look I have had at the kit since getting it and I was impressed with the decals sheet and the fact masks are supplied for the clear parts.


The sprues are bundled up snugly, what I do know is that the Amodel and Roden break down of the these larger kits is different, with lots of smaller sub-assemblies eventually coming together to make up the fuselage, wings, tail group, etc. How do I know? I started an An-26 some time ago (which I have not touched for some time) which is in the sub-assembly phase at the moment.

There is a lot of plastic there



Making a start with my An-10, it is basically the Roden -12 with new parts made by Modelsvit (MS). Looks like I will have lots of spares left over after this one.

I sprayed the cabin black as the standard airlifter interior is used


I started painting the cockpit parts


Next was to removed the rear under carriage sponson sections on both sides and replace with MS parts



And then came the new tail group, there are 2 sets of vertical stabs and 2 tail plane configs (all MS tooling). The MS tail section plastic is thicker than the Roden forward section so I had the carve a lip into the rear section so it aligned better, So I am gluing the forward and rear halves earlier in the build to avoid a lip and lots of filling


And both sponsons replaced and glue drying


The cockpit is has been painted, I might add some dry brushing to give it a worn look.


I may also add seat belts If I feel the need.


I noticed the instrument panel decal was a little oversized and had to fold the bottom of it back under the panel part and secure with decal set. My decal sheet also had two identical panel decals.

The next thing was to decide on one of four schemes, so I went for this one with the fancy vertical stabs on the tail plane tips




I have assembled one of the props and engines, these were Modesvit sprues and every part needed some sort of clean up or squaring up, after all that I had two rounds of filling anyway. Some sanding with finer grades of paper to follow along with some rescribing.


Finally the both fuselage sides are together, again even with adjusting the Modelsvit rear sections there was remedial sanding and filling required. The kit comes with masks, there are a lot of round ones, but not enough for all the cabin windows, they might be for the wheels? I will have to punch out my own cabin window masks to make up the shortfall. More investigation required.


For a size comparison I put the taped up An-10 next to my C-130J-30, about the same size.


I was not going to add the cabin floor but it seems I need it if I want somewhere to attach the undercarriage.

So I started to add the internals and found I need to persuade some of the parts to stay in place.




Cabin windows to go in next and then I can button it up.

[VH-WAL]

Like and want!

[RayS]

Windows installed and then I realised I have one left over. I was supposed to drill out a hole for the last one


The window is in and glossed up with some future


Then some final preparation to seal it up, added some lead sheet under the floor. The instructions called for 140 grams all up in two locations. I ended up using abut 150 grams here


and finally glue added to the seams, lower half at least and more clamping


When these set I will attend to the upper fuselage

[Graeme H]

Targeting your inner commie are you, we know about you Scandinavian moles

Interesting kit construction, you are making a good job of it though

[RayS]

Thanks Graeme

So here is my progress, lots of filling and sanding and some engine and prop assembly






And the main clear parts dipped in future and ready to attach

[Uros]

Comming along nicely Ray!

[Graeme H]

This is a kit that looks to fight you all the way, you are now getting on top of it by the looks

[RayS]

Not yet Graeme, another 3 engines to do, they are taking about an hour each to clean up, test fit, clean up, etc and finally assemble

[RayS]

I now have the engines assembled and filled but am yet to put them on the wings. Apparently the rear sections are too deep and need a couple of mm of materiel removed to bring them flush with the front section of the nacelle.

I did some tidying up, I managed to lose one of the control horns from the cockpit which had been bugging me. I eventually found a replacement which was large enough (slightly too big actually) from an Airfix C-130. I bit of reshaping with a file made it acceptable. I also finished adding some shelves I forgot to put in the forward nose section and attached the transparency ready for masking.


And the cockpit transparency also went on


The tail bits went one after the horizontal stab tips were removed


I like to add the under carriage to my builds before paint to get a good solid glue bond. When I was cutting out and cleaning up components I became concerned that they may not take the weight of the fuselage with 150gs of extra weight in it. To add to that there are no solid locating pins for a lot of it and the instructions are a tad vague with how the parts actually meet up. I think I managed to sort it out in the end though.

One more strut to go on the mains



and finished


And yes, it holds the weight....phew!

[RayS]

I have been tardy with updates on this one, so here we go....

I decided to plonk the engines on, not the best fit and there will be a few putty, sand, putty, sand.... sessions ahead I think


I finally did some more masking


Applying the masks was quick and worked quite well, not sure why I put it off.


Then I had some filling


and that was sanded along with the engines and other seams which were primed



The priming revealed some areas that were over zealously sanded and requiring more filling.