1/72 Victory (Победа) 357 Hawk

[frank2056]

This kit started out as a science fiction/alternate history design by Andrej Troha:



His Art Station portfolio has several other vehicles in the same vein, like this beast:



https://www.artstation.com/artwork/8exlnE

AMP came out with a kit of the 357 a few years ago and it's been in my stash ever since:



I don't love the design, although it does have a 1950's heavy Soviet metal look to it. The kit has decals, a small PE fret and masks for the windows. The fit isn't great but not terrible, with burrs and flash in inconvenient areas. The interior is well detailed, but the small, not very transparent windows are going to hide most of it:

The Instrument panel is pretty nice, but will be invisible. It was just held in place for this picture. Some of the crap on the firewall is dust and some are plastic defects. Doesn't matter - no one will be able to see any of it:



I added seat belts from tape:





Despite extensive dry fitting and sanding down the cockpit edges, the two fuselage halves took some effort to join. I had to tack them together with superglue, then run a bead of plastic cement along the seams and squeeze until a bead a plastic appeared.

I'm not sure how far I'm going to deviate from the design. The jet engines on the side pods look ridiculous, so they may go. Since this vehicle uses a long debunked form of "ant-gravity", the jets are only for forward motion.

The front is not great either; I'm thinking of ways to make it look less like a flying locomotive.

[Rick Lowe]

If you curved the top of the front down, starting immediately in front of the cockpit, you could use a smaller grille and it would change the look a lot.

IMPO, if I can't see the cockpit details, I'll leave them out and use them somewhere else - but that's me.

It's a pity they did that, as the interior looks really cool.
If you made the cockpit side windows bigger, or extended them back, you'd see more of the interior.
But you'd need to find more transparencies too...

FWIW

Keep at it please, this is looking really good.

[zenrat]

How tall is that grille in the front?  It'd look great on a Hot Rod model especially as it'd confuse the heck out of onlookers trying to work out what car it came from.

[Mossie]

Very nice, I've been tempted by this kit but not enough to buy it.

How tall is that grille in the front?  It'd look great on a Hot Rod model especially as it'd confuse the heck out of onlookers trying to work out what car it came from.

 There's a nice clear pic of it on Super Hobby with a ruler, seems to be around 2.5cm high by 1.8cm wide. I'm sure Frank can give you more accurate measurements.

[Dizzyfugu]

Hmmm, that brings me to think about something for the Polar Wars GB. So sad that the kit is so expensive, though.

[NARSES2]

I remember seeing that kit when it came out and wondered if I'd see one built. Now I will 

[zenrat]

How tall is that grille in the front?  It'd look great on a Hot Rod model especially as it'd confuse the heck out of onlookers trying to work out what car it came from.

 There's a nice clear pic of it on Super Hobby with a ruler, seems to be around 2.5cm high by 1.8cm wide. I'm sure Frank can give you more accurate measurements.

Thanks mate.  That's a bit small for a 1/25 Rod.

[Mossie]

How tall is that grille in the front?  It'd look great on a Hot Rod model especially as it'd confuse the heck out of onlookers trying to work out what car it came from.

 There's a nice clear pic of it on Super Hobby with a ruler, seems to be around 2.5cm high by 1.8cm wide. I'm sure Frank can give you more accurate measurements.

Thanks mate.  That's a bit small for a 1/25 Rod.

No probs.    Forgot to give the link:
https://www.super-hobby.co.uk/products/Victory-357-Hawk.html

[Old Wombat]

How tall is that grille in the front?  It'd look great on a Hot Rod model especially as it'd confuse the heck out of onlookers trying to work out what car it came from.

 There's a nice clear pic of it on Super Hobby with a ruler, seems to be around 2.5cm high by 1.8cm wide. I'm sure Frank can give you more accurate measurements.

Thanks mate.  That's a bit small for a 1/25 Rod.

Actually, it looks to be closer to 35mm high by 30mm wide (using a ruler held up to the screen to get the measurements & holding them up to the scale down the bottom of the image).

[Mossie]

Yeah, now I look at it a second time I think your right.  I get a measurement of 27mm x 35mm, either way a fair bit larger than I first mentioned. Sorry 'bout that.

[frank2056]

I measured the grill and forgot the exact numbers but I think  Mossie and Guy are about right.

I looked up the current price of the kit and it's about $5 more than I paid for it. Expensive plastic for a somewhat mediocre kit.

If anyone builds this kit, ignore the instructions and install the windows before closing the fuselage. It seems like common sense, but I didn't have any that day and decided to follow the instructions. Installing the side windows after the fuselage was closed was not fun. After trimming both the openings and the windows, I managed to install all six, but it would have been much easier with access from both sides. The results don't look great and I may remove the vinyl masks and just sand them flush. It's not like they're very clear.

The instructions also tell you to build the wing structure before attaching to the fuselage. The lower wing/fuselage section requires a great deal of trimming and flash removal before it even fits. The upper wing sections can then trimmed until they snap into place.

I've been thinking of adding landing gear, but not convinced that they look good:



I've also thought about the nose grill. Years ago, an enterprising Czech company repackaged some of the sprues from a 1/150 scale Tarantula missile boat as a science fiction space ship. They were a great source of parts. The radar dome from that kit fits well:



It reminds me of one of the radar installations on the Lavochkin La-200 (Zenrat's version and Wombat's)

I also scribed a couple of hatches over the pilot and copilot positions.

The jet in the rear will need an intake; there would still be a lot of room left in the nose, but an intake in the rear might make more sense (less FOD):

[Rick Lowe]

Is this the right time to mention the craft now looks like it has a ball-gag?  
Or even the right forum??

[NARSES2]

The BOOK has a new name in it 

[frank2056]

Chris, I'm sure Rick is just using the NATO name for this version of the vehicle.

[NARSES2]