Takom- DON-2N "Pill Box" Ballistic Missile Defense Radar

You can find the first look review of this kit, with photographs of the sprues and instructions at the following link:  https://www.amps-armor.org/SiteReviews/ReviewCrew/EditReviewNew.aspx?id=15284.

For the purposes of this review, I will only cover DON-2N "Pill Box" Ballistic Missile Defense Radar.  The construction of the “Pill Box” building are covered in Steps 2-5 in the instructions.  The kit also includes a “bonus” A-235 anti-ballistic missile and transport vehicle.  I will add the construction of this “bonus” kit to this review later.

While this kit is in 1/350 scale, the “Pill Box” building is quite large.  It measures 16” square, so it will take up a lot of space in your display case.

Step 2:  In this step you construct four small buildings, which are positioned at the corners of the “Pill Box” building.  Each of these small buildings is made up of five pieces and a photo etched ladder.  Construction of these small buildings is straight forward; however, there were some gaps in fit of the sides and roof which required  some filling with Mr. Dissolved Putty.

 I purchased an RP Toolz mini rolling set at AMPS 2024, not knowing I’d be putting it to use for this project.

There is a photoetched ladder which goes on each building.  In 1/350 scale, they are very small and require some circular bending.  The mini roller set was the perfect tool for this job.

Step 3:  Each side of the “Pill Box” consists of two pieces.  The fit was very good; however, I did lay each assembled side on a flat surface to dry to minimize any bowing of the sides.

 Step 4:  In this set you assemble the four small and four large towers.  These towers are each made of three photo etched parts.  In addition, each small tower has a photo etched warning marker standard which are very small and delicate.  I was unable to get these standards off the photo etched fret without seriously deforming their shape.  I elected to use a piece of brass wire to simulate each standard.

My Small Shop photo-etched bending tool and RP Toolz mini rolling set really helped in the construction of the towers.  I started with the four small towers.  The photo-etched brass was relatively easy to bend and shape.  I used CA glue to secure the parts.

Construction of the four larger towers was more problematic.  The bending and shaping of the parts presented no problems.  However, I could not get the ladder cage to secure to the ladder with CA glue.  Then I came up with the bright idea to solder these parts.  While this worked OK on the ladder cages it didn’t work out very well on the railing around the tower platform.  I should have stuck with using CA glue for this assembly as I really buggered up the tower platforms.  So much for trying to be smart.

Step 5:  In this step you assemble the sides and roof structure of the ”Pill Box” building, add the small buildings to each corner of the “Pill Box,” add the towers and the antenna.

Due to its size, the assembly of the “Pill Box” sides and roof was a bit like wrestling an octopus.  I started by gluing one side to the roof structure.  OK, so far.  The next side went together OK, but there was an open seam where the two sides met.  As I pushed on, I ran into the same problem on each side.  In addition, there were visible open seams between the roof structure and the sides.  Rats!!!!! 

The side seams were handled with liberal applications of Mr. Dissolved Putty and the roof seams with Evergreen Plastic .030 ¼ round.

Once all the seam issues were addressed, I glued the small towers to the mounting points on the small buildings and the large towers to the mounting points on the roof.  NOTE:  The ladder cages face to the center of the roof on each large tower.  I did not glue the smaller building to the roof until after painting and weathering the model.

Painting and Weathering:  As I indicated in my first look review, I thought this model would present some great opportunities for weathering.

I started by applying Tamiya grey primer to the entire model.  This revealed the need for a few touch ups on some of the filled areas.  The grey primer also provided a good base coat for an overall grey color structure.

I next applied Mission Models worn black tire grey (MMP105) as a pre-shading to various areas of the model.  I also applied this color to the entire roof of the “Pill Box” and each small building.

The next step was to apply a mist of Mission Models medium grey (MMP 072) to the sides of the “Pill Box” and small buildings.  This step was fun as it allowed me to apply heavier or lighter mists as I was trying different weathering patterns on the structures.  Note:  This is a big model and uses a lot of paint.  When I was satisfied with the finished product, I applied Vallejo Model Air Hemp (71023) to the radar disks on each side of the “Pill Box.”

Finally, I mixed up several washes of 502 Abteilung Industrial Earth oil paint.  I liberally applied these washes over the entire model to obtain various weathering effects.

The final steps were to glue the small buildings to each corner of the “Pill Box” and string the antenna wires.  The kit provides a length of monofilament fishing line to be used as the antenna wires.  I ran into problems trying to get the fishing line tight between the corner towers.  I addressed this issue by replacing the fishing line with Evergreen Plastic .020 round.  I tried to make sure you cut each length correctly.  I was incredibly lucky as I had no problems with this step.

Reference:

РЛС ПРО [ABM radar] (in Russian). RTI Mints. n.d. Archived from the original on 2012-01-23. Retrieved 2012-02-18.

 "Valdai Club 3: Touring the Don-2N Radar Facility". Russian Military Reform. 2011-06-02. Archived from the original on 2011-08-09. Retrieved 2012-02-19.

Bret Lortie, "A Do It Yourself SIOP," Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, July/August, 57/4, (2001): p 29, http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.2968/057004008 Archived 2020-11-11 at the Wayback Machine.

Conclusion:

The molding is clean and crisp.  TAKOM is utilizing slide molding to good advantage on many critical parts.  I had some fit issues with both the sides and roof of the “Pill Box” and the small buildings.  As anticipated, the small and delicate photo-etched parts presented some challenges.  Likewise, I had to develop a workaround for the antenna wires as the monofilament line provided with the kit didn’t work very well.  For these reasons I don’t believe this kit should be tackled by a basic skill level modeler.

This kit offered some great opportunities for the application of some weathering techniques.  I had a lot of fun applying the various shades of grey paint to replicate weathering.

Recommended for Intermediate to Advanced skill level builders.

Thanks goes out to TAKOM for this review kit.

Reviewed by Mike Petty

AMPS, Central Virginia

AMPS President

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