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From East Germany With Love: VEB-Plasticart 1-75 Antonov An-2 Colt

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  • Member since
    March 2003
  • From: Towson MD
From East Germany With Love: VEB-Plasticart 1-75 Antonov An-2 Colt
Posted by gregbale on Sunday, September 8, 2019 7:39 PM

I'll start with a tip of my propeller beanie to Falconmod, whose (much finer) Trumpeter An-2 posted recently inspired me to pull out this old polystyrene coprolite from the height of the Cold War era.

This is the VEB-Plasticart 1/75 An-2, first produced in then-East Germany ca. 1961. As a kit it doesn't have a lot to recommend it: blocky and ill-fitting parts, crude contours and a near-total absence of surface detail (save for an odd geometric waffle grid of prominent rivets which bear no relation to actual lines on the aircraft). On the plus side...it does actually seem to capture the solid truck-like appearance and stork-legged stance of the real thing fairly convincingly. As an added interest, the VEB offering represents a rare configuration of the widely-used and long-serving An-2 design: seven aircraft which the East Germans had modified from agricultural aircraft, fitted with large rectangular fuselage windows for use as light-duty civil transports.

Since that was the version represented in the kit, I opted to go with one of these aircraft operated by 'Interflug,' the DDR's state airline, in the elegant eye-catching livery they wore in (I believe) the early-mid 60's.

I added a basic cockpit and seat-shapes in the cabin from various near-scale leftovers from other builds. Externally the build was OOB, except for half-round 'cylinders' and sprue push-rods added to the flat-bottomed hole in the front of the engine cowling. Rigging and aerial wire are EZ-Line; decals were home-printed except for the DDR flags on the tail (which came from the antiquated kit decal-sheet...but which worked just fine, despite being close to four decades old).

Hardly a sterling replica, but a fun encounter with not-quite-state-of-the-art Eastern-European modeling technology. Hope you enjoy.

Greg

George Lewis:

"Every time you correct me on my grammar I love you a little fewer."
 
  • Member since
    June 2017
  • From: Winter Park, FL
Posted by fotofrank on Sunday, September 8, 2019 7:58 PM

A really well done build. Very nice indeed. Odd looking propeller though.

OK. In the stash: Way too much to build in one lifetime...

  • Member since
    April 2003
  • From: USA
Posted by keavdog on Sunday, September 8, 2019 8:09 PM

Nice.  Great pics too

Thanks,

John

  • Member since
    September 2012
Posted by GMorrison on Sunday, September 8, 2019 8:20 PM

I like that one! Only, when are you gonna show us the model?

I bought a model in East Germany back in 1978. It was an Aeroflot civilian transport version of the TU-95 bomber. Hideous thing, never built it.

 Modeling is an excuse to buy books.

 

  • Member since
    May 2011
  • From: Honolulu, Hawaii
Posted by Real G on Sunday, September 8, 2019 10:05 PM

An excellent finish to a Cold War relic!  It really looks good, both the build and your decals.

I bought the VEB IL-62, but it sure as heck didn’t come out as nice as your An-2!

“Ya ya ya, unicorn papoi!”

  • Member since
    December 2002
  • From: Northern California
Posted by jeaton01 on Monday, September 9, 2019 12:42 AM

I've got some of the VEB Plasticart stuff too, and that is an amazing result.

John

To see build logs for my models:  http://goldeneramodel.com/mymodels/mymodels.html

 

  • Member since
    March 2003
  • From: Towson MD
Posted by gregbale on Monday, September 9, 2019 7:24 AM

Thanks, guys.

The kit falls solidly in that category of "I'm glad I didn't toss it...but I'm equally glad I don't have another one in the stash." I actually think I got it as a 'freebie' included with another item, back in the early days of Ebay (when that was still a common 'bonus.')

fotofrank

A really well done build. Very nice indeed. Odd looking propeller though.

Have to agree on the 'scimitar' style prop. Judging by photographs, it seems to have been either uncommon or short-lived (or both), but one can occasionally turn one up:

Since...going by the 'tourist' cabin widows...whoever made the molds seems probably to have been working from some images of the E. German machines (if not the real thing, in some sense), I suppose it's possible they did actually have that funky propeller design--albeit a little less 'clunky' than the kit version! Big Smile

Greg

George Lewis:

"Every time you correct me on my grammar I love you a little fewer."
 
  • Member since
    September 2011
  • From: Milaca, Minnesota
Posted by falconmod on Monday, September 9, 2019 8:13 AM

It looks great.  Love the detail.

falconmod

On the Bench: 1/72 Ki-67, 1/48 T-38

1/144 AC-130, 1/72 AV-8A Harrier

  • Member since
    November 2009
  • From: Twin Cities of Minnesota
Posted by Don Stauffer on Monday, September 9, 2019 8:52 AM

Looks great!  Love the photography too.

 

Don Stauffer in Minnesota

  • Member since
    March 2008
  • From: West Palm Beach, Florida
Posted by mic53mlb on Monday, September 9, 2019 12:48 PM

Great job !! Nice subject !! You took a lemon and made lemonade !! Big Smile

  • Member since
    May 2009
  • From: Poland
Posted by Pawel on Monday, September 9, 2019 5:24 PM

Hello!

Nice job! And very clean look, too! I've built two or threee of those back in the eighties. I was like nine or ten years old and An-2 was the first aircraft I have actually seen flying after I have built a model of. Many years later it also was the first (and only) aircraft I have jumped out of.

And did you know most of them An-2s were built in Poland? I've read about 11 950 aircraft built at tthe Mielec plant in Poland, that's right, almost 12 thousand of them!

About the prop - it turns out it's the initial propeller for the An-2, designated V-509-D7 and it's got wooden blades. All the An-2s I've seen live had straight, aluminium-bladed props.

An-2 wooden propeller

So thanks for sharing and have a nice day!

Paweł

All comments and critique welcomed. Thanks for your honest opinions!

www.vietnam.net.pl

  • Member since
    May 2011
  • From: Honolulu, Hawaii
Posted by Real G on Monday, September 9, 2019 5:42 PM

Pawel,

That is interesting that the An-2's orginal propeller was curved - it looks like those composite blades modern aircraft use.  Kind of like seeing a Ford Model T with a Tesla battery!

“Ya ya ya, unicorn papoi!”

  • Member since
    June 2014
  • From: New Braunfels , Texas
Posted by Tanker - Builder on Tuesday, October 1, 2019 9:26 AM

Hi; Did you know there some of those still flying ?

  • Member since
    March 2003
  • From: Towson MD
Posted by gregbale on Tuesday, October 1, 2019 9:33 AM

Tanker - Builder

Hi; Did you know there some of those still flying ?

Oddly enough...within literally 3 hours of my posting the pics...I was watching some History Channel program that showed 'generic airplane' footage which (thanks to my earlier project-related photo-trawling) I happened to recognize as a Texas-based AN-2 operated for tourist and skydiving purposes.

Two weeks earlier, and I might not even have noticed what type of a/c it was!

Greg

George Lewis:

"Every time you correct me on my grammar I love you a little fewer."
 
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