AModel 1/72 AN-26 RR/RT/Z

WThe Antonov An-26 (NATO reporting name: Curl) is a twin-engined turboprop civilian and military transport aircraft, designed and produced in the Soviet Union from 1969 to 1986. It is the third member of the Antonov An-24 family, coming after the An-24 and An-30, while preceding the An-32 and cancelled An-132. The An-26 was eventually license-produced in China as the Xi'an Y-7, which eventually evolved into the Xi'an MA60 airliner.

 This particular kit allows the modeler to build either the An-26RR/RT Soviet/Russian Electronic Intelligence version or the An-26Z, which is a Czech ELINT variant. Some of the Russian RT aircraft were modified as battlefield radio relay aircraft. It also looks as if one could build the standard transport version as the parts seem to be there. For the ELINT birds, there are distinctive antenna suites for each of the variants.

The kit provides a fairly complete cockpit that includes both a navigator and radio operator position, though how much of the latter will actually be visible is yet to be seen (pun intended). There is also a full cabin with fold down jump seats, though I would think that the ELINT aircraft would have operator positions back there, but what do I know. All of the small cockpit and cabin windows have to be inserted from the inside so one would be wise to prepaint those areas of the fuselage.

The rear ramp can be modeled raised or lowered. If doing the former, then you could probably skimp on installing some, if not all of the cabin pieces. Many will want the ramp down so that a lot of nose weight will not be needed. No indication of how much nose weight is required, but I'd think it would be quite a fair amount. There does look to be room under the cockpit for what's needed.

One then builds up the landing gear and the propellers. The props have individual blades and it doesn't appear that they are keyed so care needs to be taken to get them at the proper angle. Looking at photos of the plane on the ground, it doesn't appear that the blades automatically feather when the engines are shut off as is the case with some current turboprops. There is no detail in the gear wells as the main gear doors are closed on the ground. One does need to install the gear when the engine nacelles are closed.

Tailplanes are then built along with the wings. There is a separate center section that fits atop the fuselage that have small lower pieces. Then the engines are attached and then the quite long outer pieces. These are all a butt join so perhaps it would be a good idea to make some stubs out of plastic sheet to help keep these all together. The final steps are for the different versions and consist of what is needed to install all the various antennas and housings. None of the antenna placement areas are predrilled or marked so the instructions provide distance measurements from panel lines and other features.

Instructions are quite well drawn and provide Humbrol paint references along with generic names. Most of these are an overall light grey, though some are camouflaged. There are four Russian and one Ukrainian RT, one Russian RR, and a Czech Z. The exhaust area on all of them have a polished steel panel with the outer aft section of each nacelle in black.  For some reason, I got two sets of decals. The decals are matte and should work without issues. If you want something different, I am sure there is an aftermarket sheet out there.

This one will probably be added to the stack of 'big airplane kits that I may well never build'. It would be a shame as while it should be treated like a short run kit, from what I've seen on the 'net, it builds into a very nice model. Only time will tell.

 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antonov_An-26

January 2026

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