Amodel 1/72
Ilyushin Il-76 Candid

Background

The Ilyushin bureau designed the Il-76 in 1967 to meet a freighter requirement for a jet transport capable of quickly carrying a payload of 88,000lb over a range of 2,700 nautical miles and be able to operate out of short and unprepared airstrips under the worst weather conditions common in Siberia and the Soviet Union's arctic regions. The Il-76 first flew in March 1971 and is still in service and production to this date. In 1974 the Candid entered service for the Soviet Air Force.

The similarity to the C-141 Starlifter is remarkable but the Il-76 can carry more cargo and has more powerful engines.

Since 1971, more than 700 Il-76 aircraft (including all variants) have been produced.

The Kit

The Candid is a subject that I thought I would never see in kit form.

I preordered my copy of it the moment it was announced at www.lindenhillimports.com. The model was in my hands soon after the soccer tournament was over and our friends at Amodel got back to work!

What do we get? Lots and lots of parts. Fiberglass for the fuselage and wings, vacform walls to dress the cargo bay interior and plastic for the rest of the parts. Also there is a small photoetch fret and a small plastic net to cut and use in the cargo area.

Observations. The fiberglass in my kit is nicely done. Clean and sharp with very well defined panel lines. I test fitted the main fuselage to the front fuselage plug and it appears to fit pretty good. The main fuselage engraving is very busy and it appears that no panel lines have been skipped. The molding process has left a ridge that is visible in the rear lower portions of the main fuselage and it will require your coarse sanding sticks to be used since fiberglass is pretty hard.

The plastic is good and maybe a little better molded than in the previous monster size kits from Amodel. Lots of parts are provided for the cockpit and I will be very curious to see if anything shows through the clear plastic in the end. The modeler will need to slide the completed cockpit and bulkhead into the front fuselage which has its left and right sides already preassembled. If the modeler wants to take things a bit further there are options to pose the crew doors open so you can get a better glimpse of the interior.

Similarly the modeler will have to stuff the vac cargo bay walls and plastic components from the back of the main fuselage in a fashion familiar to those that built the An-22 by Amodel.

The turbofans look good and the fan blades are cleanly molded.

The landing gear looks accurate and the wheels are nicely molded.

The clear parts are very transparent and free of major distortions but I still will Future them because this is the thing that all modelers have to do all around the planet!

The instructions are clear and should be easy to follow.

There are three decal options for modern schemes but no red star options for the USSR fans.

One thing that I wish Amodel would have provided would be the inclusion of separate flaps. They did it for the very complex An-22 but not the Il-76.

Conclusion

This is going to be an amazingly impressive model once completed!

Maybe Amodel can start thinking about making some USAF subjects as well. A C-124, C-133, C-141 series of heavies would be very nice and there really is a market for such models. It is just that the Western modeling industry has pretty much abandoned such subjects.

The Il-76 is very much recommended to experienced modelers.