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Antonov twins double build - An-24T and An-30 - finished


zebra

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I'm going to build two Antonov twins - an An-24T and an An-30 - both 1/72 Amodel kits. There's a lot of commonality between the two kits so I'm going to build both together.

 

I've more or less decided that the An-30 will be in MIAT Mongolian Airlines colours and the An-24T will be in Sudan Airways colours. There are a quite a few good colour schemes for an An-30 but the Mongolian one stood out, whilst there aren't many that stand out for an An-24T - Sudan Airways being the exception. You can see what I have in mind at these links:

Sudan Airways An-24T

MIAT Mongolian Airlines An-30

I'll have to print my own decals for both of these. There are quite a lot of photos of the Mongolian An-30s online - plus several other aircraft in the same colour scheme - so there are some good references to work from for that one. There aren't so many photos of the Sudanese An-24, but it's a fairly simple colour scheme, so should be ok.

 

I won't be using a lot of aftermarket - just Armory resin wheels and KV masks (a mask is essential for the glazed nose of the An-30!).

 

Box and sprue shots (there's a lot of empty space in these boxes!):

Next project part 2 - An-24T

 

Next project part 1 - An-30

 

Can't wait to get started!

Edited by zebra
add finished to title
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On ‎25‎/‎04‎/‎2017 at 3:25 PM, modelling minion said:

What a great choice!

I don't think I've seen an AN-30 built before, I will be watching with interest.

 

Craig.

 

There is one on the Swindon IPMS table now.. (more here - https://radleighbushell.wordpress.com/2017/03/17/the-east-midlands-model-show-hinckley/ ) Needless to say, being a Russian addict I am very much looking forward to this.

 

img_4535.jpg

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Time go get started.

 

Both of these kits have fuselages that are broken down into four parts rather than two. I think this is due to limitations in Amodel's moulding capability (the other two Amodel/Modelsvit kits I've built recently  - the Tu-134 and Be-12 - were similar) but the modular construction also helps them to produce the full range of Antonov twins from An-24 to An-32. The instructions would have you build the front and rear parts of the fuselages and then join them, but I think that's asking for alignment problems - better to assemble two complete fuselage halves, so as to get things nicely aligned early on. So that's where I've started. Once I'd cleaned up the fuselage parts (quite a lot of flash to remove) I got to work attaching the front and rear of each fuselage half together. This turned out to be easier on the An-30, where everything aligned quite nicely, than the An-24T which needed the rear part to be pinched in a bit to line up properly with the front part. But it's done now - this is how it looked before I started cleaning up the joins:

 

Antonov twins part 1

 

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  • 1 month later...

Just noticed how long it's been since I posted an update!

 

There's been some progress since the last post, but it's been a bit slow. My other project - a Trident for the De Havilland GB - hasn't done much for the mojo. But the mojo is back and it's full steam ahead on the Antonovs now.

 

Getting the fuselages together was a bit of a pain - the An-24T in particular was a pretty poor fit, with a mismatch of about 1mm at the nose, and the instrument panel proved to be too big in both kits. Slow and steady work got me through though - I've spent a fair bit of time working on the joints but I'm happy with where it's up to. A fair amount of surface detail has been obliterated along the way though.

 

Main task over the last couple of days has been getting the glazed nose onto the An-30. I'd felt a bit of trepidation about this - It's made up of 5 pieces where many manufacturers might have done it in one or two - and I was expecting it not to align very well. In the end it wasn't so bad - a bit of work with the sanding stick was needed to blend it in, but I think I've done ok. It'll look pretty good with a bit of a polish.

 

I've made a start on some other assemblies. The fin is an odd one - I like that it's designed so there isn't a join at the leading edge of the fillet or the trailing edge of the rudder, but it's been done by putting the joins half way down the fillet and half way across the rudder - a bit of work needed to blend them together.

 

All in all, pretty satisfying build so far and my mojo is back. It's taking its toll on the sanding stick though.

 

An-30 WIPAntonov WIP

 

 

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More progress. Clear bits are on and I've spent a bit of time getting them blended in and polishing them - worth the effort, particularly for the An-30 where the glazed nose is a bit of a focus. I've also assembled the nacelles and attached the tailplanes, and started on wings.

 

Nothing fits desperately well but that's part of the fun of building Amodel kits isn't it? And it's not as if they're unbuildable - just have to take things slowly, test fit everything, and trim and file things to fit.

 

I've also had a bit of a rethink on the An-24T colour scheme since I came across this one - the first An-24T, as it was displayed at the Paris air show in 1969. I quite like the mustard yellow scheme, and there's a decal sheet from Bsmiodelle that includes just about everything I'd need (even though it's for a different An-24). The An-24T in the photo is actually an An-24RT, but there are also photos of this one at Paris in 1967 without the auxiliary jet engine (i.e. as an An-24T) so it'll work. Just have to find a match for the mustard yellow.

 

Here's how things are looking tonight:

 

An-30 WIP

 

Antonov WIP

 

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2 minutes ago, Valkyrie said:

Liking these so far! I do enjoy a double build, twice the work but double the enjoyment when done! Good work

 

Except it doesn't quite feel like twice the work - seems like I'm being fairly efficient, doing 4 nacelles seems like it's taken less time than doing 2 twice would have done, if you see what I mean. I'm enjoying doing two at once, and enjoying these kits - I'm becoming a bit of an Amodel fan.

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Yeah I do know what you mean matey, I suppose you don't really notice doing 4 of something instead of 2... I like a double build, I guess I really mean you get double the satisfaction at the end? Will look great displayed next to each other. I. Doing a double SU-27 blast too, but decided to ditch one at the primer stage as one will be Ukrainian and the other Russian. Your builds are looking great 

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Good to hear that you are enjoying these kits. They don't look like an easy build, but have certainly the potential for some stunning models and you make the most of it :thumbsup:

 

I do like the Paris colour scheme, but note that the number 31 was only placed for the Le Bourget attendance.

 

Cheers, Peter

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1 minute ago, Basilisk said:

I do like the Paris colour scheme, but note that the number 31 was only placed for the Le Bourget attendance.

 

Yes - and there are photos from two years earlier with a different number. I'm going to assume that in between (and before) it flew without the airshow numbers, which will make life a little easier - I think I should be able to get all the markings I need from the Bsmiodelle sheet I've just ordered.

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On 18/06/2017 at 10:02 PM, zebra said:

 

Yes - and there are photos from two years earlier with a different number. I'm going to assume that in between (and before) it flew without the airshow numbers, which will make life a little easier - I think I should be able to get all the markings I need from the Bsmiodelle sheet I've just ordered.

I didn't know that the same aircraft came previously too. I would leave the numbers off as I never liked them on the aircraft at Le Bourget.

 

Cheers, Peter

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This weekend I've been focussing on the wing to fuselage joins, and have also got the tail fins on. As with everything else in these kits, nothing fits very well, so a bit of work was needed to blend the wings in. Think I've got them pretty well blended in.

 

I'm enjoying this. I can see how Amodel kits got their reputation, but it isn't really fair. Sure, nothing fits like it would in a Tamiya or modern Airfix kit. But then nothing fits so badly that you'd call it unreasonably hard to build - these are short run kits after all. It's enough work to make it enjoyable and satisfying, not so much that it grinds me down. 

 

Starting to look like I'm getting somewhere, although I expect fitting the nacelles might be a bit tricky. Going to have to turn my mind to mixing the mustard yellow for the An-24 and designing the decals for the An-30.

 

Antonov twins WIP

 

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A short update tonight. I don't usually get much done during the week, but squeezed in a bit of modelling time this evening. 

 

An interesting feature of the An-24T is a spine running between the fin and the wing. From what I can make out the An-24T is the only version that had it, and it only seems to have been on early aircraft, including CCCP-46280. I've not found any explanation of why it was added, nor why it wasn't used on later aircraft. I assume its purpose was aerodynamic and would have been intended to improve airflow over the fin. Aerodynamically the An-24T seems to be identical to the An-24B it was adapted from, the main difference was the rear cargo hatch - so perhaps opening the cargo hatch in flight caused some aerodynamic problems. 

 

There don't seem to be many photos that show this spine very clearly, in particular I can't tell precisely where it ends although it seems to be somewhere around the rear end of the wing root fillet. A fairly straightforward addition using plastic strip. Here's how it looks - some blending in needed, maybe tomorrow if I have time - apologies for the very poor photograph:

An-24T WIP

 

 

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