1/48 THK- 4 Glider

by Tamer Ozkan

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  Turkey Republic Day  2005

 

Our modeler and flight instructor friend Mr Ferdi Duman had been lost on an glider crash at a very young age.  A special award has been announced at the Turkish Aviation Museum and I had decided to build something different. I have decided to scratch build the THK-4  ex Russian Glider called the US-4 by the information on the rare book “Scientific and Technological Glider” which was published in 1935 by the  THK (Turkish Air League).

The US-4 is a design of the Antonov.  In1935, eleven US-4 sailplanes were manufactured under the USSR licence by the KTF plant at Kayseri.  The THK plant also built the same sailplane which was called THK-4 and built 40 units.  They remained in service until 1965  

I started by the arranging the drawings in the correct scale and I carved the wing from the hornbeam wood and cut the keel, all stabilizators, aerilons etc.

I sanded the  wing and made the rib details with copper wires, taped the frame end with a masking tape.

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I made the rib details with fishing line at the all other parts.

I used linden wood for the cabinet and I gave all of the orginals to make the molds at the www.tersanemodel.com for the cast resin.  I used Amati 0.4mm plywood for the  cabin top, nose and the styrene sheet for the sides.

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I used the styrene strips for the rest of the construction and painted the rigging in advanced . The overall colour is  the “unripe almond green”

The model won the special award.  I would like to Thank Mr Mehmet Sekercioglu from PM models for his idea, book and drawings, Mr Tuncay Deniz for his book Turkish Aircraft Production, Mr Tolga Ozbek for his efforts for the award, prizes, friendship, Cpt. Selim Etger, Mr Ufuk Aydiner, Mr Tayfun Gerdan for the rarest photographs.

Tamer

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Photos and text © by Tamer