An-71 DRLO (AWACS)

Sebastijan Videc
Hey What's the status of this build! I have one An-71 in the stash albeit a smaller scale which should a quicker fun build

Markus
Hi Sebastijan.
I?ve rescribed the wings completely and started to scratch some parts for the cockpit.
But there is not much progress because I have 4 Academy Flankers in the pipeline at the moment. Each one features scratch built modifications to turn them into another version (Su-27SM3, Su-30M2, Su-30SM and Su-34).

Sebastijan Videc
oh my, that's a fine selection of Flankers. And enormous amounts of work to convert the Academy kit - Especially the -34!

Markus
That?s true, but since it is not likely that Academy will do any of these versions in the near future it´s my only choice. I will try to post some pictures of my progress on the Flankers this weekend.

Sebastijan Videc
If I'm not mistaken either Trumpeter or HobbyBoss announced 1:48 Flankers for later this year.

Markus
Hobby Boss had it already announced for 2011/12 so I don´t hold my breath for this year. Given their bad track record on accuracy I only hope it is better than Academy.

Sebastijan Videc
Well if they upscale the 1:72 version or downscale the 1:32 one, it'll still be easier to correct I reckon.

Markus
I really hope they upscale the 1:72 version since it seems to be the most accurate Flanker at the moment.

Sebastijan Videc
yeah I agree... though it has its share of problems, but nothing really major

Mark Ree
Hi Markus.
How's the AN-71 comming along. Have you made any progress? What's the kit like to build, rough and ready or smooth and refined?

Markus
Hi Vic.
I have to admit it is languishing in the box at the moment. Maybe I can make some progress during Christmas.
The kit itself is not too bad. The fiberglass parts are quite nice, fine scribing and nice details. The only thing to do is to clean up the joint line of both halves on the fuselage and rotodome with a bit of filler. Most of the plastic parts (cockpit section, wings, engines, landing gear) are from the Toko kit so they share the same problems the original kit has. The plastic is very hard and brittle (challenging if you want to rescribe them to match the fiberglass parts), the fit of the engines to the wings is not very good and will require modification. The level of detail (cockpit, ?) is very basic and would benefit from further detailing.

I have not used the decals yet but they are known to be stiff, resistant to even quite hot setting solutions and are printed on matt carrier film. I'm also unhappy with the printing quality itself, especially the numerals for the registry look like painted by hand.

Overall I would say that it is a good first kit if you plan to build more of Amodels mixed media kits. If you have a few short run kits under your belt it should pose no real problems. Only the decals are a no-go for me personally.

Cheers Markus

Mark Ree
Hi Markus.
How your Madcap coming along? Another Christmas has flown past! Has it been assigned to the shelf of doom?
Going to make a start on mine. I'm going to use an old half started cheap ebay offering of a AN-74 and using flankerman's instructions.
flankerman.fsnet.co.uk/an-71_modl.htm