The L-410 was designed for the short take-off and landing requirements of the then-Soviet Aeroflot and filled the need for a rugged aircraft capable of operating from unpaved runways in frigid temperatures. It was to replace the obsolete AN-2. The L-410 has one of the worst safety records of any aircraft ever built, but that’s because it operates where other aircraft cannot, in extreme cold, rugged mountains, and jungles.
The Eduard Heavy Retro 1/72 scale Turbolet L-410UVP plastic model kit is an older molding enhanced by photo-etched and resin parts. There are six pages of instructions and five pages of beautiful full-color illustrations for painting and decal placement. The two decal sheets contain five different aircraft versions, one for Germany, two for Czechoslovakia, and two for the Czech Republic.
Construction starts with the passenger compartment and cockpit. A pre-painted instrument panel and side panels are included, along with regular decals for the 14 seat belts for the seats. There are red diagrams to show you what to cut off if you want to build the model with wheels down.
This version needs the nose cut off, which I did with an Exato knife (step E), carefully cutting along the panel line, then sanding. The fuselage halves have no locating pins, nor do any other parts, so be careful to check alignments before gluing. The cockpit window is in one piece and fits well without trimming. The passenger windows fit nicely, aside from huge sink holes, which I tried filling with window glue and Future floor polish, which didn’t work as well as I hoped. So be prepared to fix the windows before gluing.
The propellers are five-piece units, and the kit supplies two different types. I recommend using the resin ones for this version. The wings go together with no problems, other than light sanding, but pay close attention to the alignment. On the nacelles, part 32 needed to be trimmed before fastening the halves together.
Next, I cemented the nacelles to the wings, then the wings to the fuselage, and finally, the wheel plants to the fuselage. These steps require a lot of fitting and filling with Tamiya putty and need a lot of patience and time, so have plenty of refreshments on hand.
The landing gear is sturdy, but the nose gear door is really delicate, so I cemented this last. The photo-etched parts on fret PE8 are so small that I couldn’t attach them correctly (pg 7). I left them off since these details can be drawn with a pencil. The supplied masking worked well, but I wasn’t sure what some of the colors on the masking sheet were for.
All in all, this Eduard Heavy Retro 1/72 scale Turbolet L-410UVP plastic model kit is not a quick build and is not for the inexperienced, but the subject is great, even though it needs better moldings. It’s refreshing to build a civilian aircraft with some history attached.