John R Posted March 16, 2012 Share Posted March 16, 2012 (edited) Tu128 right front by johnrieley, on Flickr Tu128 underside by johnrieley, on Flickr At the beginning of last year in view of my advancing years and the number of models in my stash I made a resolution – MUST NOT BUY ANY MORE MODELS! This lasted until the first air display of the year when I was sucked into a passing tent full of brightly coloured boxes with pictures of aircraft on them and came out with a lighter wallet, a feeling that I might need psychiatric help and an A-model Tu 128. I knew what I was getting into because I had seen and read the General’s thread but I just had to have one because it’s an aircraft that I have always regarded as a ‘business’ aircraft. A serious a/c to do a serious job – not one in which you fling around in the sky having fun. I decided to build a model of the prototype instead of the version supplied thinking that it would involve just a few changes like the serial on the nose and making one of the cockpit windows triangular instead of round. WRONG ! Whilst checking a minor detail on the missile pylons I discovered that the wing fences were in a different position to the production versions. This checking turned up a few more changes. The prototype carried a huge pannier under the belly which housed all the test equipment and there were two ventral fins. Building was beset by the usual A-model ‘features’ - beautifully detailed parts which didn’t fit by a mile, poor alignment of the mould halves and the small parts had so much flash that it was hard to distinguish the part from the flash. Luckily it didn’t seem to suffer from any warping problems that have caused anguish to other builders. A couple of last minute hitches put its completion in jeopardy. I went to paint the nosewheel leg and it was not with all the other u/c bits. After a desperate search of the house it was found on the garage floor near my paint bench - in two pieces that could not be glued together so a rebuild using brass rod was required. Then when I got out the decals the Red Stars were the wrong size. This necessitated a raid on one of the Russian kits in my stash. The model is finished in Alclad Aluminium to which was added some Polished Aluminium to make it a bit lighter. Finally the model is still ‘incomplete’ as there are a few matters which I have been unable to resolve. 1. The bit sticking up above the rear cockpit - It looks as if it might be some form of periscope which would be useless on the prototype as I don’t think that it had the transparency seen on production versions. Should it be removed? 2. The ‘odd rods’ antenna. The prototype had it below the nose, where there is now ‘something else’, at one stage then later on in front of the cockpit. Does anyone know when it was changed and what the ‘something else’ is? 3. The kit and all the drawings I have seen, say that there is a transparent bubble on the spine of the a/c some way in front of the dorsal intake. The General does not appear to have fitted it to his version. What is it and should it have a black background indicating that it covers a cavity of some kind? 4. There was a correction kit for the engine nozzles made by Matterhorn Circle but it is now out of production. Does anyone know of the existence of any unused ones? I started this kit soon after I bought it but after spending the whole of an evening trying, and failing, to get the lower panel of one wing to fit with the upper I decided to put it aside as a winter project. Somehow that time was hijacked by my P1081 and Lavochkin 176 projects but I eventually got around to it and found it to be not as bad as expected. After the problems with the 1081 and 176 anything might have been easier than expected. The problem now is that it really requires an Avro Arrow for company… John PS. A big thank you to General Melchett for his advice an encouragement. Additional. I thought that you might be interested in how the pannier was added. I made a guess at the profile and cut a piece of sheet to that shape and glued it to the belly. The outline of the edge was made from strips of sheet and glued in place Formers were cut roughly to shape and then a sanding block was used to fair them in. Strips of plastic rod were then fitted to form the skin. I used rod because I had a packet of it spare and it saved cutting strips of sheet! I also thought that it might form a better key for the filler I kept adding rod until all gaps were filled When all the gaps were filled the whole thing was covered in Milliput and then sanded to shape. This last bit is harder than it sounds as the plastic tends to stand proud of the Milliput and you have to be very careful. Tu128 underside pannier 2 by johnrieley, on Flickr Tu128 underside pannier 1 by johnrieley, on Flickr John Edited July 26, 2017 by John R Images moved to FlickR 9 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
InFlames Posted March 16, 2012 Share Posted March 16, 2012 wow you don't see many of these built! ever since I saw one I wanted to build a model, but reading horror stories about this kit made me change my mind everytime I got tempted. You've done a mighty fine job! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Val_Ukraine Posted March 16, 2012 Share Posted March 16, 2012 Nice job! It's quite a big aircraft and you've done a lot of work! I don't know if there is a periscope on the second canope but something is really there! I hope this pictures will be usefull for you. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flankerman Posted March 16, 2012 Share Posted March 16, 2012 Nice one John - great finish and interesting that you did one of the prototypes Apparently when NATO experts saw that belly pannier - they thought it was a radar dish. I did mine years ago - and found it to be one of the worst Amodel kits I ever made (and I've done dozens of them!!)......... I didn't get as good a finish as yours - and just to show that I'm a sucker for anything Soviet - I went and did the 'Pelican' as well........ .... and by this time the original moulds were worse - and the new nose was a b*gger to fit...... If you wanted to be really perverse, you could take the square-tipped fin from the Pelican release - and combine it with the 'fighter' kit - to make a late-model Tu-128M Ken 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
general melchett Posted March 16, 2012 Share Posted March 16, 2012 (edited) Great stuff John, really nice to see another one of these beasts built..looks really crisp. As Ken points out it's one of there worst, but thank God they did it, coz I can't see anyone else having a go! Glad I could be of help during the build, in answer to your questions, These shots aren't great quality as they are photos of photos, (still got to get my scanner fixed!!), but I think that they show what you want, 1. regarding the bit sticking up at the rear of the canopy fairing, apparently it was an instrument fairing containing cameras for test and only fitted to the prototype,(there's another one fitted between the cockpit canopies), later production aircraft had a large oblong dark green panel here, (not glazed), presumably to do with avionics suite, a whip aerial was carried here too. 2. the antenna below the nose, as you say the SRZO-2M 'odd rods' was fitted below the nose on the prototype and moved up to just ahead of the windscreen on production aircraft and a black small 'boomerang' style aerial of the early RSIU VHF radio fitted mid way between nose and nose gear bay . this was changed later to the RSIU-5, standard aerial as fitted to TU 22 Blinder and TU 95 Bears. This replaced the earlier long 'towel rail' aerial as seen on the prototype and eraly production machines. It seems that these mods were fitted quite early on in the protoypes career, a lot of the mods were done around 1966/7, including removing the test pannier and ventral strakes and re arranging the wing fences. The something aerial is this, not sure of its purpose but it was fitted to the prototype in 1966/67 as part of the update package. 3. The 'bubble' is more of a small fairing offset to port set on a long oblong flush panel, with a small triangular aerial behind. It's to do with the avionics again but function unknown. I didn't fit it to mine as it wasn't clear if my aircraft carried it or not..(a lot of late airframes had an updated fit that just consisted of a flush dielectric panel). Not the greatest shot but this shows the one fitted to the prototype, Hope this helps a little John, Cheers, Andy Edited March 16, 2012 by general melchett Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sebastien Posted March 16, 2012 Share Posted March 16, 2012 Niiiiiice! I want one in 1:48! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jabba Posted March 16, 2012 Share Posted March 16, 2012 Very nice job of finishing this one. Like Flankerman I too have made the 3 seater trainer finding it a bit of an awkward fit, and do have one of these upstairs in the loft. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike DeTorrice Posted March 17, 2012 Share Posted March 17, 2012 Wow, an outstanding build of this very impressive Russian long-range interceptor ! It looks excellent and must be amazing on display. Mike Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wallyinoz Posted March 17, 2012 Share Posted March 17, 2012 ooooh I like that ALOT! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John R Posted March 17, 2012 Author Share Posted March 17, 2012 (edited) Thank you all for the kind words. I have just edited the main post to show how the pannier was made. Val Ukraine - Thank you for the pictures. Unfortunately for me these appear to represent the production version but I am sure they will be a great help to anybody else thinking of building one. Sebastien - If you want one in 1/48 you must have a big house and workbench! In 1/72 it's about 350mm long. Andy - the thing behind the cockpit was not that in your pictures. I was referring to the little triangular bit on top of the forward edge of the rear canopy and is not visible in your picture. I have just noticed that it does not appear in the side views of the prototype and early versions in 'Soviet Heavy Interceptors' (Should have looked earlier!) Ken and Jabba - One thing that I always think about kits like these is that first you need to build one to find out how to do it properly but after finishing the first there is no way that you would want to do another. So Ken I salute you. John Edited March 17, 2012 by John R Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vitor Costa Posted March 17, 2012 Share Posted March 17, 2012 Great work John Regards Vitor Costa Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John R Posted July 26, 2017 Author Share Posted July 26, 2017 Just edited to use images from FlickR before I got bombed by PB! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Radleigh Posted August 11, 2017 Share Posted August 11, 2017 That is superb John. Would love to build mine, but I've far to much to get on with! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kevin Callahan Posted August 11, 2017 Share Posted August 11, 2017 The AModel Tu-128 always had lousy distribution in the US. I have no idea why. So I never bought one. Since Trumpeter announced a new 1:72 version, I'm probably lucky to have avoided the kit, though some of Trumpeter's 1:72 pricing decisions lately have been eye-watering. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ryan Hothersall Posted August 11, 2017 Share Posted August 11, 2017 Good to see these built. Have one in the stash, but not holding any hopes of seeming the Trumpeter one released any time soon. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
general melchett Posted August 11, 2017 Share Posted August 11, 2017 While the quality and fit certainly isn't uber great it's accurate shape wise, (something that's more important to me personally)...though it has to be a lot easier to build we'll have to wait and see how accurate the Trumpeter kit will be, hopefully it'll be one of their better offerings...hopefully Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now