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The Model
It was totally unexpected that a model would come of this plane in 1/72 scale, but Amodel from the Ukraine did it. The model is special in a sense that it comes with fiberglass fuselage and main wing. So it has plenty of strength. 

This model is a huge beast and not cheap. I ordered my model with considerable savings directly from the Ukraine (see  www.hobbyterra.com  ) and Yuri of this firm provided excellent service and the model is send free of postage!. 

The Amodel comes in a really HUGE BOX!  A pity for the mail delivery boy....
All parts are carefully packed in separate bags and the main wing is one big part of almost  the whole span! Also, a full interior is provided with vacuform innner side walls and floor and all the flaps are separate. There are over 650 parts in box, with the remainder being short run injection molded white plastic parts on sprue s of reasonable good quality. 

The model is in length 80 cm (32") and  span  84 cm (33")  . 
So before you order check your shelve space to accommodate this bird! 

Preparation
You need to clean up the parts and the model has many of them!. The wing comes with a full set of double slotted flaps.  Start with cleaning up the larger parts, saw out the main gear bay covers from the fiber fuselage (see step 7).

Also spend some time now to fit the wing onto the fuselage; it was required at my model to get rid of  thicknesses of fiber through sanding with a rough sanding file to get a flush fit. Even then, I had to make a fairing at the forward and rear of the wing joint. 
The same was true for the stabilizer fitting (large part #3). 

"fairing" to get a smooth fit of wing and fuselage

Also, drill / open up all fuselage windows. Do all the other rough cutting, sawing and sanding as needed. Do not forget to fill all the small tiny holes in the leading edge of the wing and the upper fuselage. Fiber leaves some small holes sometimes and they can be seen of a white model!. 
After this first preparation, the normal model building can begin as usual. Paint small parts as needed as you go along. 

Construction
Assembly order of the instructions is not so logical, so was changed to: 
7/1/2/3/4/5/6 (except for transparent parts) 
/15/16/17/18/19/20/21 (leave off the wheels) 
/9/10/11/13/14
/12 (except struts) 
/23/24/25/ put on the main wheels 
/26/27/28/29/22/23/12 (struts)

So lets go into detail....

For the nose gear bay it was assured that is was firmly set in place as seen here...

Interior colour varies but I used mostly shades of light grey and light blue/green (typical of soviet transport planes). 

The glass transparent parts were not yet put in place.

15/16/17/18/19/20/21 
The main gear assembly was now to be done. The best way on fitting the bays is to do it BEFORE fitting the vacu interior and parts. Otherwise you can not reach the bay and get it fixed. 
The gear parts are a lot of work and it is difficult to align the doors, the struts etc. But little of it will be seen anyway later on. Leave of the main wheels in step 21 for later, in order to get them touch all of them the ground ...... The wheels themselves need some sanding and filling with putty. Assemble the rest as indicated in the instructions. Be patient but it will be rewarding later on. 
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