1/72 Victory (Победа) 357 Hawk

[Frank3k]

This kit started out as a science fiction/alternate history design by Andrej Troha:



Art Station

 His portfolio has several other vehicles in the same vein, like this beast:



https://www.artstation.com/artwork/8exlnE

AMP came out with a kit of the 357 a few years ago and it's been in my stash ever since:



I don't love the design, although it does have a 1950's heavy Soviet metal look to it. The kit has decals, a small PE fret and masks for the windows. The fit isn't bad, but not great, with burrs and flash in inconvenient areas. The interior is well detailed, but the small, not very transparent windows are going to hide most of it:

The Instrument panel is pretty nice, but will be invisible. It was just held in place for this picture. Some of the crap on the firewall is dust and some are plastic defects. Doesn't matter - no one will be able to see any of it:



I added seat belts from tape:





Despite extensive dry fitting and sanding down the cockpit edges, the two fuselage halves took some effort to join. I had to tack them together with superglue, then run a bead of plastic cement along the seams and squeeze until a bead a plastic appeared.

I'm not sure how far I'm going to deviate from the design. The jet engines on the side pods look ridiculous, so they may go. Since this vehicle uses a long debunked form of "ant-gravity", the jets are only for forward motion.

The front is not great either; I'm thinking of ways to make it look less like a flying locomotive.

[Jeffry Fontaine]

Interesting concept and it reminds me ever so slightly of the Eliminator hot rod that was in a couple of the ZZ Top music videos.  Paint it red?  :smilley:

[Buzzbomb]

The word Spartan struck me for the cockpit.

I like this style of design, pretty pleased you are doing a build of this

[finsrin]

Way cool pictures and build 

[Kerick]

Add a sunroof. Then you could see I’ll the interior. Although then I would have to replace the wooden bench seat with something more comfortable looking.

[Old Wombat]

It's Soviet! The People demand simple functionality, not decadent luxury!

[Frank3k]

I looked up the current price of the kit and it's about $5 more than I paid for it. Expensive plastic for a somewhat mediocre kit.

If anyone builds this kit, ignore the instructions and install the windows before closing the fuselage. It seems like common sense, but I didn't have any that day and decided to follow the instructions. Installing the side windows after the fuselage was closed was not fun. After trimming both the openings and the windows, I managed to install all six, but it would have been much easier with access from both sides. The results don't look great and I may remove the vinyl masks and just sand them flush. It's not like they're very clear.

The instructions also tell you to build the wing structure before attaching to the fuselage. The lower wing/fuselage section requires a great deal of trimming and flash removal before it even fits. The upper wing sections can then trimmed until they snap into place.

I've been thinking of adding landing gear, but not convinced that they look good:



I've also thought about the nose grill. Years ago, an enterprising Czech company repackaged some of the sprues from a 1/150 scale Tarantula missile boat as a science fiction space ship. They were a great source of parts. The radar dome from that kit fits well:



It reminds me of one of the radar installations on the Lavochkin La-200 (Wombat reworked an LA-200 here)

Ken's suggestion for a sunroof is good, but too much work now. The suggestion inspired me to scribe a couple of hatches over the pilot and copilot positions. I may be tempted to drill large holes for small windows.

The jet in the rear will need an intake; there would still be a lot of room left in the nose, but an intake in the rear might make more sense (less FOD):

[Kerick]

This whole thing is quite an interesting design. It makes me think of a Russian design for the Galileo shuttle from ST. I can't quite get over the ladder going up the side like some kind of camper. Your radome idea looks pretty good. The grill has its attraction like a large car from the 1930's. I'd like to get one of these and fool around with it for a while. Small gull wings to go above the floats? Something to go with the tail set up. I'm just tossing around ideas so don't take this seriously. Plus it's getting late.

[Frank3k]

"Звёздный путь" (Star Trek) The voyages of the CCCP Pravda. Its five year plan, to spread socialist brotherhood to the stars. Led by Hero of The Space Union, Yakov Tserkov...

The design is a bit goofy and it seems heavily shielded, although the Biefeld–Brown effect is electrostatic. Maybe the ladder is to insulate technicians working on the ship when powered up?

[apophenia]

Good call on the radome, Frank! That makes much more sense of that gaping maw (funny though that chrome grill was).

Interested to see where you go with this beast 

[Frank3k]

Finished this last night. Over at What-if,someone said that the radar dome (which I 3D printed) looked like a ball gag. So I guess that the NATO reporting name.

I painted an anti-glare panel on the nose in olive drab. I added a pitot tube on the front windscreen, an intake for the jet and an antenna at the rear:


It's a pretty big vehicle, compared to the 1/72 figure. 2411 is the year and month I finished this:


The aluminum is mostly Mig Atom aluminum, with some areas with a mix of Atom aluminum and steel. Some Tamiya panel line accent color helped a bit. The end bits on the pods are from the AMT 1/200 rocket set:


Big radar:



I liked the vehicle's 3D render when I saw it, but the 3D physical object... not so much. Ugly and unrealistic.

[Kerick]

It’s definitely a fig newton of the conflagration.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=AXf74mRvtoU

[Old Wombat]

I suppose it comes down to just how enamoured you are with Soviet-style chonkiness.


I'm not but I think you've done a great job with this kit, Frank!




(Not really keen on the ball-gag, though ... Guess it's just not my kind of thing. )

[Kerick]

It does have a little bit of 50’s locomotive look. A flying locomotive. What would the train cars look like?

[Dr. YoKai]

It does have a little bit of 50’s locomotive look. A flying locomotive. What would the train cars look like?

Some might look like these... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z1kDU9hbRpA

It is a an odd design. I like the concept, and that it was made at all, but I decided against picking one up. Given the overall design, I would expect someone to put a set of oversize tires and flared fenders to bring it all the way round to its inspirational roots. (Or routes, if you like. )

Aesthetic quibbles aside, it's a beautiful build as always, Frank.

[Old Wombat]

OK, that was weird!