KIT: Anigrand Craftworks 1/72 A-40 KT
KIT #: AA-2045
PRICE: $54.00 MSRP from Nostalgic Plastic
(Includes free US shipping)
DECALS: One option
REVIEWER: Scott Van Aken
NOTES: Resin kit

HISTORY

Allow me to quote from the Instruction Sheet:

"In 1932, the Soviet high command requested many new concepts of the airborne warfare for aerial close-support to the army. That was included dropping an armored vehicle from the sky to support the parachute troops. The original concept was converting the 32 tons tank, T-34 into a glider and towed by a pair of Ant-20bis as tugs. In 1939, Soviet airborne force considered to try the light-weighted tank, T-60 for the experiment, and selected Antonov OKB for the glider design. The prototype was started in 1941, and was given designation A-40, KT which meant "Kryl'ya Tanka" (winged tank). The tank was lightened for flight test by removing the armament, the signal light and the tracks fenders. The first and only flight was made by tow from TB-3 in 1942. The test was judged successful with smooth landing, but the test pilot (who also performed as the tank driver) doubted that it would be lack of control if fly by the full loaded tank. As the real need was to fly in the heavier T-34, and also due to the shortage of the tow aircraft, the KT project was cancelled."

 

THE KIT

Molded in Anigrand's usual tan resin, the molding is better than on a few of the previous kits with only a few air bubbles and rough edges on the trailing edges of the two huge resin wings. In fact, the wings are the majority of the kit with the rest being taken up by the glider-like open fuselage and various struts. Though it may seem as if these resin struts are not strong enough to hold up the wings, I can vouch that on biplanes, once the various struts and rigging are in place, the overall construct is extremely sturdy. Rigging on this isn't that bad with actually less than on a standard single-bay WWI biplane. Rigging information is provided on the instruction sheet so you may want to drill the wings for the wires prior to construction.

The other part of the kit is the tank, which almost looks like a T-26, but I'm sure you armor fans out there can provide more info in that area. There is a solid hull with the suspension molded in place. The upper surface is one piece as is the turret into which you glue the small barrel. All of the road wheels, idler, sprocket and return rollers are separate. The tracks are a combination of long lengths with single pieces for the parts around the curvy bits!. These last pieces are in a resin wafer so there will be considerable time spent cleaning up these parts prior to construction.

Instructions are quite standard with a single folded sheet of paper onto which is printed a history, photo, parts list and exploded view on one side. The other is for the painting and decal guide. The glider is green upper and light blue undersides with the tank in an overall green. A sheet of Red Stars is included. I'd like to apologize for pinching the parts layout from the Anigrand web site. My camera decided to go on strike and the kit was too large for the scanner. While the kit does look very much like the image, it isn't quite as neat and tidy!

CONCLUSIONS

When you want unusual, then Anigrand is the place to go. They offer some of the neatest flying machines around and their future plans include even more wonderful stuff!

My thanks to Nostalgic Plastic for the review copy. Buy direct and get free US shipping via Priority Mail.

If you would like your product reviewed fairly and quickly by a site that has over 300,000 visitors a month, please contact me or see other details in the Note to Contributors.

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