Amodel 1/72 Ilyushin Il-18 Coot Kit First Look

By Fotios Rouch

First Look

The Il-18 Coot NATO code name first flew in July of 1957 and deliveries started in 1959. The aircraft was a great success and set twenty five performance world records. During its long career as a civilian airliner it received many upgrades and added passenger capacity. The last version of the Il-18 was the Il-18D was built from 1965 to 1969 and could carry up to 122 passengers.

There were over 800 Il-18s built of all variant types and the aircraft was mass manufactured for twelve years. Seventeen countries operated the Il-18 and the aircraft is still in service with Cuba, Siberia, and countries of the Middle East.

The Amodel kit is the standard fair of a combination of glass fiber parts for the wings and fuselage and injected plastic for all the remaining parts. The quality of the glass fiber part is pretty good but it will need clean up and maybe a bit of rescribing.

The front of the fuselage has fiberglass that needs to be removed and its only purpose was to aid with the molding and demolding process.

The nose of the model comes in two plastic pieces and it includes a full cockpit. I did a test fit and the plastic front fuselage fits the fiberglass pretty good but I have the suspicion that it is a bit misaligned and when I looked at it from the front it looked like the fuselage seam was maybe a degree off from the tail. Stand by on this until I start assembly and verify it.

There are numerous sprues with all the parts for the cockpit, engines and landing gear . The clear parts are pretty good and lots of tinny clear parts are provided for all the navigation and landing lights. Some plastic parts do have sink marks which will need to be filled. Amodel has improved their quality a lot but there are still areas where they can improve further. The decals include Aeroflot livery for one aircraft.

This is a pretty interesting model of an aircraft that has been a real civil aviation workhorse and it will fill a gap in any modeler's collection of Russian aircraft and civilian airliners. I wish more decals would be made by aftermarket companies for this aircraft. It will take some work on the modeler's part but I do not think it is very likely that any other company would do one.

I purchased my sample from Linden Hill Imports and it can also be purchased for less money from Hobbyterra at for $137.50 which includes shipping. The model can also be purchased at Linden Hill Imports for $185 or from Squadron for $168.69.