Amodel 1/72 An-71 Madcap AWACS Kit First Look

By Fotios Rouch

First Look

The An-71 was the answer to a requirement in 1982 for an AEW aircraft that could operate from the Soviet carrier Admiral Kuznetsov. The An-71 Madcap was derived by a modification to the An-72. The modifications included an AEW radome on the forward swept tail, a greatly extended wingspan (almost six meters more than the An-72), more powerful turbofans and an auxiliary turbojet engine installed under the rear fuselage to augment carrier take-off capabilities. Three aircraft were built altogether before the An-71 was cancelled with the fall of the Soviet Union . The first prototype flew on 12 July 1985.

The kit will appear familiar to some as the TOKO An-72/74 kit.

The Amodel kit comes with raised panel lines on all the parts that came from the TOKO kit and with engraved panel lines on all the fiberglass parts that were made by Amodel.

As with all of the Amodel kits the fiberglass parts are epoxy glued together at the factory. In this case the fuselage comes treated in this manner as well as the AEW radome. The rest of the parts are standard AN-72 TOKO parts. They are fine and of good quality with open engine panels, silver plastic landing gear details, rubber wheels and reasonably good clear parts. I intend to rescribe the wings and the forward fuselage to match the fiberglass parts. A quick test fit seems to indicate that the forward nose plug should be ok and match reasonably well with the fiberglass body.

This is a very interesting model and I am looking forward to building it.