[SMF] Antonov An-2 in 1/70 scale

[Sven J]

Dear all,

It seems as if I'm growing fond of designing and building aircraft models...
So here's my latest one: Antonov An-2TP, CCCP-41301, built by PZL Mielec (Poland) in 1965.

The prototype
First flown in 1947 and originally designed as a crop-spraying plane, the Antonov An-2 soon proved itself as a highly versatile aircraft for a wide range of both military and civilian purposes.
The seemingly old-fashioned biplane layout, high-lift devices (automatic leading edge slats) and quick acceleration thanks to its monstrous 1,000 hp radial engine gave the plane phenomenal STOL abilities. In addition to that, the slow-flying qualities are almost legendary, too: The aircraft has no official stall speed, and there are reports of pilots flying the An-2 in full control at only 30 mph.

More than 18,000 An-2 were produced over a period of more than five decades (first in the Soviet Union, later in Poland and China, too) and became widespread over all countries of the former Eastern Bloc. A large number of them still exists today, and many have found a new home in Western countries, where they are used for sightseeing flights or as parachute drop aircraft.

The model
My model of the An-2 is held in 1/70 scale, thus almost matching my Tu-144 (an identical 1/80 scale was impossible to achieve, the An-2 would have become too small to get the proportions right, let alone to replicate any detail). It consists of ca. 370 parts.
The propeller can spin freely; however, I wasn’t able to implement any other movable parts in this small scale.

And just because the sound of the mighty 9-cylinder engine is so awesome:

Instructions for this model are available for free on Rebrickable.

Thanks for stopping by!

Best regards,
Sven

Edited January 15 by Sven J

[Lego Tom]

Holy cow - 30 mph and not stalling? Incredible! Nice build and I like the sound effects on the video.

[EWay]

Fantastic model, I really like the shaping with the tiles and wedges and the little details like the droid arms under the back wings, and the video sound effects are a nice touch :D

Curious about the sand green - are the windows that colour? I guess the colour palette for gold ingots is very limiting.

[Sven J]

Thank you @Lego Tom and @EWay!

2 hours ago, EWay said:

Curious about the sand green - are the windows that colour? I guess the colour palette for gold ingots is very limiting.

The prototype's cockpit windows are more or less colourless, but as you say - the ingot parts don't exist in trans-clear (perhaps they will some day... ).
So I had to choose another colour, and, as a kind of light green is occasionally used for the cockpit windows of wooden desktop models, I decided to use sand green.
Using elements from third-party manufacturers, trans-light blue would be an option...

[Feuer Zug]

Brilliant model. Great attention to the small details and making work at scale. NPU making the wing struts!

[Sven J]

Thank you for your kind words, @Feuer Zug!

And thanks to the admins for my model being frontpaged!

Edited January 16 by Sven J

[LEGO Train 12 Volts]

Wow, what an incredible level of detail for such a scale!
I like the details for the landing gear and minifigure skates used under the wings.
Your talent doesn't lie Sven!

[Sven J]

Thank you very much, Emanuele!

17 hours ago, LEGO Train 12 Volts said:

I like the details for the landing gear

I always wondered why they invented that 65578 part. Finally I found a way how to use it...

[Toastie]

Meine Güte, Sven ...

this is so unbelievable nice - the angle of the wheels on the running gear alone - fantastic. And this is only one of the uncountable details ...

At this scale, true experts of LEGO building show, at least, as far as I am concerned. Sure, at larger scales, master builders can excel, having so incredible knowledge about all the pieces available and how to connect them in crazy ways. At this scale, though, something else is required: Imagination, abstraction, simplification ... and still invoking the "of course, this is an Antonov" - and not only that - it is the "AN-2" in the brains of the viewer.

I am in awe - well, OK, as per usual, when you post - whatever you post.

Thank you very much for sharing. I truly appreciate that you took the time to "show" the AN-2.

All the best,
Thorsten

[Sven J]

@Toastie Thorsten, thank you for your appreciation and your kind words!
Designing airplanes, and designing them to a rather small scale, is a new field of work for me. So I'm very happy that you and others like my little "flying dinosaur" so much!

[Max_Lego]

Very beautiful model of a legendary airplane. Especially for its scale. Great job!

[Sven J]

@Max_Lego Thank you very much!

[Sven J]

Finally, the An-2 has found its place under the ceiling of my study: