1/72 Pepelatz

Pin · September 25, 2019

You may have heard about Pepelatz models - a resin kit marque, spin-off from Prop&Jet producing finest "WhatIf" and "<you name it>46" subjects

https://www.scalemates.com/brands/pepelatz--10002

But what is "Pepelatz"? Although you would not find the word "Пепелац" in any dictionary of Russian language every Russian speaker knows the meaning of it.

Pepelatz (from Georgian "პეპელა", pronounced "Pepela", meaning Butterfly) is a fictional spacecraft from 1986 Soviet movie "Kin-Dza-Dza!", a dystopian comedy that immediately gained a cult status.

Despite Sci-Fi setting - space travel, alien races, teleportation, time travel etc. etc. etc. this is rather a philosophical parable than 'proper' SciFi or starwarsesque space opera. The closest English language analog is probably "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" meets "Mad Max" with satire of the first and decline of the later but much gloomier. Two protagonists - modern time earthlings - suddenly find themselves on a distant planet Pluk in the galaxy of Kin-Dza-Dza where inhabitants have obtained the ability to read each other's minds so they begun to "think lies" that eventually lead to dire consequences. Pepelatz (it is a word for a spacecraft, not a proper noun) initially belongs to two travelling musicians who encounter earthlings on Pluk.

In modern Russian slang the word "pepelatz" means any unorthodox, strange flying machine, so it is no wonder that Musa has chosen it for his line of Luft/USAAF/VVS-46 kits.

I wanted to build a pepelatz for many years, there are a couple of paper models but eventually a resin kit in 1/72 was issued by Armata models

The kit is very basic, the spaceship itself consists of just five parts, so the main challenge would be not to glue several pieces of resin to each other but to paint them properly.

The pepelatz in the movie is highly worn and rusty. Besides, the kit includes two figures of "aliens", pepelatz owners, beautifully sculpted and very well cast. Painting 1/72 figures to preserve the portrait resemblance to famous Soviet/Russian actors Yevgeny Leonov and Yury Yakovlev will be a very complex endeavour.

This guy has done a terrific paint job - something I will try to come close to

More

http://sculptandpaint.com/threads/pepelac-1-72.4657/

But knowing my abilities this is going to be a very challenging task.

Some more movie screenshots to give you idea of the atmosphere of Kin-Dza-Dza world

whitestar12chris · September 25, 2019

Definitely an interesting subject, the painting is always the challenge.

All the best Chris

Corsairfoxfouruncle · September 25, 2019

Definitely not one id heard of but looks like it might be something worth watching just to see it. Welcome aboard I'm looking forward to your build.

Dennis

Pin · October 21, 2019

The kit, as was mentioned before, is very basic, just five parts. The body shows artifacts of both 3D printing and casting that must be smoothed.

I also drilled out round windows to make them transparent.

I'm now studying AK and MiG videos on heavy weathering. Pepelatz was rusty, I mean RUSTY Titanic on the ocean floor is not that rusty.

Here is an interesting photo that shows the extent of required weatherin - the "real" Pepelatz is being taken from a trailer during the shooting

Pin · October 25, 2019

Trying various runsting techniques

Pin · October 25, 2019

I'm thinking, maybe I should do a conversion.

In the movie the protagonists run out of "Lutz", the fuel for Pepelatz, that is made of water (that is the reason why the whole planet of Pluk turned into a desert - all the seas and oceans were processed into fuel).

Vladimir Nikolayevich (one of the earthlings, a construction engineer) did a field modification by attaching four struts with wheels to the bottom of the craft so it could be pushed to the nearest "Lutz Station"

The "real" Pepelats for the shooting was made of Tu-104 tail section that was found on aviation graveyard, the wheels were from the same source, to me they look like the wheels from MiG-21 or MiG-23. If I find something similar in my spare box I will do this conversion.