Photo Review: KP KPM0435 72nd Scale Let L-410UVP-E "Turbolet"

We shall find out but the detail is LIGHT YEARS ahead of what was in any of the kits!
Box:

3D Printed Parts:

Resin Cast Parts:

PE & Masks too? Count me in!

Before adding the engine nacelles, I jumped to step 21 to see the fit of the upper wing (modified from the Gavia kit to be one piece to which the lower halves are added). Note that the wingtips have a cutout for the navigation lights which was missing on the Gavia kit (and the Eduard re-release) as well as the AZ Models release. This means that my earlier statement of KP Models incorporating the AZ Models clear parts sprue is incorrect as it too has been modified.

There is a lot of flash and, once the seam areas are squared away, the fit of the wing is actually very good to the fuselage. Obviously, the fuselage is only taped in one area here:

Just compare the actual nose wheel bay, in red square, to the drawing on the instructions!

The cockpit interior is confusing! In Step 14, we are to attach the rear cargo bay bulkhead (Part 10) to the carbo bay floor (marked E but is Part 6) and then to the cockpit bulkhead (Part 9). Now the cockpit floor (Part 18 but marked E again, perhaps Step 3?) is correctly shown long to which the instrument panel (Part 17) is attached to the very end. This is wrong! There are locators scribed on the floor and on the fuselage sides to locate it as the coaming needs to be centered under the cockpit windscreen opening. Step 15 then shows a short cockpit floor?

This is the correct configuration of the cargo bay floor at the BOTTOM of the cockpit floor onto which the cockpit bulkhead was added. This raised the cockpit correctly.

Never being one to leave good enough alone, I ripped out the cockpit bulkhead and removed the 'doors' as these would either be open or have curtains.

Let's start with some background on my interest of this particular aircraft. If you are looking for a history on the aircraft, then click here for Wikipedia.

Back in the 80s and 90s, I had a lot of pen-pals some of which were in Eastern Europe. A GDR (German Democratic Republic aka East Germany) pen-pal offered me this book as soon as it hit the press back in 1989. I accepted and still have it along with the MTH magazines sent. Yes, I read German. If you go to German booksellers, the used copies are about €10 but Amazon has then for $160USD!

This is not my example but click to see inside the book from a bookseller:


On the top right of the cover you see an aircraft which turned out to be the Let L-410. Inside some color profiles, cutaways, interior and exterior photos, and information about the various types which included ground equipment. The variant used by the GDR was the Let L-410UVP and in five pages one sees the cargo interior (set up for pilot training), the cockpit, a cutaway and color profile. I did express my admiration of the clean lines of this aircraft and, a few months later, this pen-pal sent me a 1/100th scale kit from VEB Plasticart. not a great kit! It is from the times of Ogonek (for those that built Russian 1:30th scale armor) and extremely simplified.

Here are some more views of the subject in this book from my sample:

Background Drama (skip if not interested)
For whatever reason, releases from Gavia Models & A-model passed me by. AZ Models re-released the Gavia Models kit and I was unaware of the 100% newly tooled clear parts but did know surgery was needed for the resin correction nose. So, when AZ Models appeared under KP Models and they announced a new kit, it did interest me as KP had access to the Gavia molds and what AZ Models did. However, there is controversy.

It seems that a model company has the Intellectual Property (IP) rights to their design. The mold cutter seems to have ownership of the molds and rights are needed to produce from said molds. So, Gavia allowed AZ Models to use their IP and had rights to produce kits from the mold owner. However, Eduard came in and now has the exclusive rights to produce from said molds at the time KP Models released their product! Soap Opera drama explained here!

Now to the KP Models kit. Did they make any changes to the Gavia Models molds? They incorporated the correction from the AZ Models resin. The upper wing is now a one-piece avoiding the dreaded sagging due to Gavia Models butt joints with a small alignment slot. Since the cockpit is actually higher than the cabin, it was separated although the assembly instructions are confusing.

Then, some rather strange changes such as leaving out the interior seating and roof for the cabin! Shortening the front nose gear bay (although the instructions show the full length as in the Gavia kit. The exhausts are squared openings molded solid just like the Gavia kit! Why couldn't they rotated them to be able to mold them open? No detail improvement was made to the landing gear and the propellers are still molded rather thick.

Eduard did release the Gavia kit under their Heavy Retro line with a newly added clear polystyrene nose, PE detail set, resin wheels, landing gear legs, exhausts, propellers and spinners. The only thing 'missing' was a new instrument panel which they released under their 'Space' 3D decal line. While the PE detail set is unavailable, the clear parts are available under Eduard's Overtrees, the resin as a Brass-In set, and the 'Space' instrument panel is still on the market.

The evolution of the clear parts...

Gavia clear sprue tree runner:

Eduard updated it to include a clear nose to be used in conjunction with their PE set:

AZ Models Clear Sprue Tree added the bulged windows on the sides.

It is obviously different from the KP clear sprue:

The KP Kit, at last!
Phew, with that out of the way, what do we have here?

First off, in Step 1, for the L-420 (& L-410NG) it is mentioned to use a decal for the 'glass' instruments. They are not on the sheet but the decal for the earlier variants is on there. Step 2 fooled me in that the supports (thin tubes in real life) were hollow. I can replace them but they won't be seen unless I cut open the starboard access door. Step 3 has me curious as to why Eduard offered replacement control yokes so I looked at the kit and saw the asymmetry, not a big deal to bend them to match. Step 4, one should used the 5 bladed propellers for the kit included markings. Step 5, parts 43 are simply blanking plates with absolutely no details, not even an incorrect mesh patters. There is a duct there which was an opportunity for KP Models to add another change as well as the aforementioned solidly molded exhausts. Solid air inlets in Step 6 is another place KP Models could have improved the mold. The outer main gear wheels in Step 7 do have nice details but lack tread and the legs are extremely basic shapes. There is nothing to comment or improve upon in Steps 8 & 9.

To be updated with detail photographs and continued since I did jump around the steps to see how much would be visible in the end.

All of the included decal schemes use the five bladed propeller option but KP only provides six (6!) Avia decals for the blades when ten are needed.


The cockpit entry door is correctly positioned on the fuselage but the interior has a bulkhead butt against it and the cockpit floor is higher than the lower level of the door... Yes, don't ask why, but I looked it up!

By simply cutting off these doors, the bulkhead would not only be more accurate, but save all the trimming, filing, and sanding done to get the fuselage halves to meet:

The doors are not on the real deal and certainly not on the medevac version here:

Or this one configured as the Emergency Medical Services (aka Dexter's Kill Tent):

There is an air ambulance configuration as well:

I will remove the starboard side door from the bulkhead but the port door is solidly fused now.

This brings me to another quirk of the kit. Tamiya and Gunze Hobby cements tickled the plastic so I had to resort to the super hot SCI Grip Weldon #4. Even then the plastic resisted for a few seconds before bonding!


Still liking the kit... just perturbed! Yes, photos of plastic will follow but I have a heavy work week... I did look at the Gavia builds on YouTube (since it had the interior) and noticed that AZ Models offered a correction set of a resin nose and clear plastic parts. The latter are IDENTICAL to the KP clear parts sprue tree runner! When AZ Models offered the kit, their correction set was included. So, when KP released their newly tooled kit, it obviously relied on the Gavia kit with the AZ Models correction in place.

Last...Oy! If thisis true, it does mean that all the AM for the Gavia kit is a perfect fit to the KP. Quick summary, Gavia's designers own the Intellectual Property (IP - design), Pavel owns the molds, Eduard bought the rights to produce from said molds from Gavia's owners and Pavel. It seems AZ Models got their hands on the Gavia molds and produced a replacement resin correction nose and a completely new clear styrene sprue tree runner and KP Models decided to incorporate the changed contours of the nose, and include the new clear sprue tree runner with their release. so, essentially, the KP Models Turbolets are the 27 year old Gavia kits with the resin nose incorporated as well as the improved clear parts. There are some other minor changes too.
Eduard Info about Gavia and KP Let -410 Turbolet

The instructions are confusing as they are not clear. Also, the print layout makes it worse so I photocopied and printed each page separately so they could be larger and follow a proper sequence.

To save you the trouble, here they are in the proper order:

Fit is better than on their SIAI SF-260D 1/48th scale kits. The Italian aircraft felt rushed but this one wasn't since the molds of the previous kit (re-boxed by Eduard) made it into their stable under the AZ Models. The Gavia kit did have an actual interior with seats and but this one's cargo area is empty. Be ready to cut and file but the parts will fit and line up properly.

For an airliner, I would have to replicate the seats provided for the cockpit 19 more times. Five single seats against the port fuselage wall and seven pairs on the starboard side. There is a boarding door on the port side, hence the two 'missing' seats.

Of course, one of the Gavia releases had this scheme included:

Scheme 1 - Czech Air Force Let L.410EVP-E20D number 2710:

Scheme 2 - Czech Let L.410UVP-E20D Tubolet Registered as OK-BYF:

A good view of the open door...

Scheme 3 - Czech Air Ostrava Air Line Let L.410UVP-E17 Turbolet Registered OK-SDA:
Help with the lighting...

Scheme 4 - Polish Let L.410UVPE-16 Turbolet registered as SP-TXB:
Notice the lack of the red crosses...

Now, it also has AHEJ on it under the horizontal stabilizers...