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EKRANOPLAN project 903 LUŃ "killer of aircraft carriers" 1/72 from scratch.


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Ekranoplans have always intrigued me. They were surrounded by an aura of mystery, and at the same time their enormity was overwhelming. During the Cold War, neither money nor expensive materials were spared on bold projects. For me, the most beautiful period in the development of aviation and more. The great powers competed in ever newer and bolder projects. It was during this period that a constructor in the USSR, Ruscisław Alekseev, came up with the idea of building a hybrid of an airplane and a ship. The object used the surface tension of the water and moved at a limited height. Alekseev called it a screenplay. All work and trials took place in the city of BAKU on the Caspian Sea.
South CIA headquarters, the director receives photos taken by spy satellites with a huge 100 m long object moving at high speed in the Caspian Sea. Despite efforts for a long time, no one can say what it is. Americans called it the "CASPIAN MONSTER", as it turned out later, it was the largest KM screenplan.
I decided to build not his model. Project 903 lures is much more interesting. It is a bit smaller than KM, but structurally more interesting. Information about KM and ŁUŃ was released only after the collapse of the USSR, until then it was top secret.
ŁUŃ was a rocket screen. With one salvo of six homing missiles, the Moskit could bring down any object on the water, including aircraft carriers. Moreover, the low flight over the water allowed him to remain invisible to radars. What was the fear of the American generals when they learned that the Soviets had boat-like machines speeding at 550 km / h capable of destroying their aircraft carriers. This is one of the reasons why LUŃ gained a nickname in the USA as the "killer of aircraft carriers". The drawback of the 903 design was that it could only operate at low wavelengths. In addition, the screen was plagued by a number of technical faults. The collapse of the USSR ended the adventure with these unique aircraft.
ŁUŃ also scared us with its size. Wingspan 44 m, length 74 m, height 19 m, weight 286 tons, distance 2,000 km without landing. The crew consisted of 15 people. Drive of 8 Kuznetsov NK-87 engines allowing to reach a speed of 550 km / h. Armament 2x P1-23 23mm cannons in two turrets, 6 P-270 Moskit guided missile launchers.
I decided to publish the model in the aviation section, because most of the phenomena accompanying the screenplan's movement are based on aerodynamics, not hydrodynamics.
There is no "Łunia" in 1/72 scale. Anigrand makes 1/144 scale resins, but has a lot of bugs. There are also no plans. Some detailed photos of this screen plan have recently appeared on the net. They are primarily used as documentation. In addition, in one of the foreign forums I found a cardboard model in 1/100 scale, developed by Maxim, a lover of unusual Russian constructions. I decided to use the skeleton as a base after the corrections and scaling to 1/72. Most of the model is made of hippy, and I'm going to cast a few elements out of resin as well. Łun has a terribly complicated bottom body, especially with the retractable fin, which is why it was the most difficult construction stage of the whole body. What I have done so far may not be effective, but it took me half a year. As time permits, I will be uploading photos. greetings

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Wow, a very interesting subject and build. Great progress so for and I like your method of round forming the plasti-card in the jar.

I'll be keeping this build in my sights.

 

Colin

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Oh...my...god. That will be a monster when finished. The Lun, together with the KM are a holy grail in 1/72 for me. I admire your energy to completely scratch it, it must be slightly more than 1m long when finished, right?

You are a maniac indeed, but in a good way :worthy:

 

Cheers

Markus

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Brilliant stuff, these aircraft have always fascinated me and your work so far is excellent. Looking forward to some more on this build! I did always wonder what the turning circle of this monster would be on an attack run. Would they be as maneuverable as a regular large sized aircraft? Keep up the great work!

Bob

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Excellent scratchbuilding. 👍

 

I have always been interested in these monsters but could never take on such a project at such a scale! I am looking forward to the next instalment.

 

Dave

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Awesome !  I've seen some footage of these , and a couple of vids guys have made exploring the sadly derelict hulk by the shore.

Really surprising that this tech has not been developed much further, as it would seem to be most viable for either transport or military purposes ( no doubt I'm missing some very obvious snag here!)

Stellar scratch building there sir 👍

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Wow this is something else, I saw a documentary on this called the Caspian Sea Monster I think or they called it that in the documentary either way this is great, cant wait to see it finished.

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