Tupolev Tu-22KDP Blinder

[Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies]

Oh no! Yet another WIP from that opinionated northerner ...

 

When I was a teenager I travelled to the Museum of Flight at East Fortune, east of Edinburgh just off the A1 many times with my dad and for the Air Training Corps' regional level aircraft recognition and model competitions. In the corner of the main hangar (it's all changed now - the main hangar has been redesigned to house their Concorde) was an old fashioned model shop front display with vintage kits in the window etc. In a display cabinet next to it were many built models and one shelf had a number of Soviet bombers including a silver Tu22 Blinder. I had already bought the Esci Tu22M2 Backfire kit from the now long-gone Brian Sherriff model shop in Aberdeen when out shopping with my mother and was fascinated by these big Russian bombers - many of which looked like something straight out of Thunderbirds. At the time there was no internet, only magazines with adverts for companies like Maintrack Models, Contrail, Formaplane etc and my dad and I scoured these for the Blinder kit. We drew a blank, and eventually dad wrote to the museum to ask about the model on display. The museum wrote back to tell us the model had been donated by someone who told them he had scratch built it. Sod. I had built (not very well) several vacuum formed kits including Formaplane's Nimrod but felt scratch building was well beyond me. To be honest I didn't even know where to get drawings to begin.

 

Fast forward a while and I picked up an Italeri Tu-22 from Wonderland Models in Edinburgh. I had largely moved away from 1/72 scale in general and was mostly building 1/48 piston engine aircraft. The kit is still in my stash. I lost any interest in building it when I learned it was beyond redemption accuracy-wise.

 

Much more recently again I happened across Flankerman's WIP and RFI threads for the much newer and much more accurate Modelsvit Tu22 and was impressed. It may sound a bit hypocritical but I'm not very good at buying model stuff online - it's much to easy to see the total in the shopping cart and then close the browser and forget about it. I happened to find one new at Telford last year for just over half the price Hannants want for them, and having seen how nice a model it builds into in the aforementioned thread, I bought it. My clubmate Alistair was browsing with me when I noticed these and is apparently easily led. The seller had two of the Tu22 kits. I bought mine and after a look in the box and a "should I? shouldn't I?" discussion with me, but really with himself, we returned to the seller and Alistair bought the second of them ... I also picked up the Barracuda Studios resin wheels and exhaust cans for it.

 

I haven't much to show for it yet, but have made a start, plagiarising as much as possible from Flankerman's thread.

 

I assembled the 3 ejector seats (16? parts each) and then sprayed them with RLM65 (Merrick and Kiroff light blue RLM65, not Eagle Editions turquoise RLM65) which sort of looked close enough to the photo of the real seat on Flankerman's thread.

 

I need to add some seat belts. I also don't like how dark and yellowed this new phone camera seems to capture everything. I may revert to my old phone for this photographing malarkey.

 

Next, I set about joining the fore and aft fuselage parts. These fit really well - IF you give the lap joint some attention before gluing. I have had a modelling chisel as part of a set which until now I'd never had a use for - but it's ideal for opening out the "female" part of the lapjoint such that the wall thickness remaining to the outside of the fuselage is reduced allowing the male part to fit in without causing the female part to stand proud causing a big filling, sanding and rescribing headache.

The joint was then reinforced with a strip of 10thou. You can see at the bottom of the fuselage I what I mean about opening out the lap joint a bit. This allows the outer diameters of the fore and aft fuselage parts to align very well indeed.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now this will horrify some zealots, but that fit is infinitely better than I have yet to achieve on the much worshipped Tamiya 1/48 Corsair kit's inner and outer wing panel joints.

 

Unfortunately the fuselage bulkheads are indeed too large to fit inside the fuselage, and the degree to which is not something which can be bodged around. I didn't take photographs of that sub assembly yet, but the current task is reworking the internals to fit.

[VG 33]

Hi

 

Here is a build a would be very interested to follow. I am waiting a little to buy one of these kits.

 

Patrick

[Flankerman]

Nice one Jamie

 

Your fuselage joining sollution is much better than my "stick it together and THEN sand down the join" - that join of yours looks almost invisible.

 

Re the seats - if you are going to display them in the down position - note that the front (navigators) seat is slightly different to the other two (this from Gabor Szerekes - ejection seat expert) - I just drilled a couple of holes in the legrests.

 

If they are inside the cockpit, the difference is immaterial.

 

Ken

 

PS - This pic of a Tu-22U shows it well :- https://www.avsimrus.com/file_images/15/img4929_2.jpg

 

This is my pic of the Nav's seat (I think?) - taken at Engels......

 

 

Another photo showing the different footrests :- http://www.airforce.ru/aircraft/miscellaneous/ejectionseats/tu/tu-22_seats_ph_09.jpg

[Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies]

Thanks Ken, that's the photo I remembered seeing

 

Patrick, so far it's a nice kit. I'm already wondering if a second one with the tail guns rather than ECM pod would be a sensible purchase for building an Iraqi machine using the Italeri kit's decals ... hmm. But then there are many nice Russian bombers available now that didn't really exist in kit form when I was a teenager.

 

Yesterday I didn't do any Blinder work. We did assemble our latest Ikea acquisition though - a new modelling table. This is a bigger cleaner workspace for assembly stuff. I'm showing off a bit, but I still have my other little annex room for spraying. You'd think I'd have been keen to get the Blinder out - but instead my wife and I did some ship modelling together (me cutting up expensive kit parts, her making up PE).

[Flankerman]

3 hours ago, Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies said:

a sensible purchase for building an Iraqi machine using the Italeri kit's decals ..

Jamie,

 

You cannot do an Iraqi Blinder from the Modelsvit kit - it has the later, bulged nose radome.

 

'Narrow' radome - as on the Iraqi & LIbyan Tu-22B........

 

 

'Bulged' radome on the later, missile-carrying variant (as per the Modelsvit kit)....

 

 

Ken

[Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies]

Thanks for pointing that out!

 

If that's the only external difference then it's not insurmountable with plasticard and Milliput

 

Would the bomb bay doors be different too? There is some *stuff* visible in that photo of the B model. Hmm. More Some research needed I think!

[Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies]

Forewarned is forearmed and stuff.

 

This is how much needs to come off the rear cockpit bulkhead to fit between the fuselage halves

 

The middle one fits but the front compartment's side panels stick out beyond the bulkhead. To get around this I narrowed the bulkhead mating surfaces where indicated by the tip of the scalpel blade

 

Now the fuselage closes up. The forward cockpit bulkhead is fine. I shall get to painting the interior next

 

 

[exdraken]

Great start!

I really enjoyed the backgroundstory !!

 

Edited February 19, 2019 by exdraken

[Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies]

This model has enjoyed a break, but I've done a little interior painting.

 

[Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies]

I also shamed myself into retrieving this from the shelf of doom

 

It's been there a *long* time and to be honest represents another era of my modelling abilities, but, save for some filler I just applied to the air intakes, it's ready for paint. It's one of those models which I think I should just finish and not fret over any longer.

[Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies]

When we go for long drives Gill likes to play Science TED talks through the car audio. Last year she played this one:

 

If you don't have 11 minutes to watch it he talks about people who are more or less competent at what they do but stuck in a rut. He distinguishes between a "learning zone" and a "performance zone". He tells us it's hard to be creative and learn when we're trying to perform.

 

Like many people I personalise things to make sense of them. As a modeller I often put in a lot of effort into doing a passable job at the cockpit and correcting shape errors, adding bits of resin etc. All that means that I feel quite heavily invested in each model by the time it comes to finishing, so each paint job is relatively high-stakes because if I screw it up I've lost a lot of time, effort and frankly money. To try new things in finishing without feeling the pressure to get it right, I realised that I needed a low-investment model that I could afford to get badly wrong. Until now I haven't made that opportunity for myself.

 

I didn't want to ruin the Modelsvit Tu22 nor my big B-29 etc. This old shelf-of-doom Tu16 however is just the thing.

 

I was sent some samples of International Plamodel Paint acrylic lacquer metallics by Mr Choi who owns both IPP and Infini Model, the latter whom we stock.

 

I wanted to try a natural metal finish using a single colour and a Post-it note for so-called "dynamic masking".

 

The results aren't great - the Halfords primer should have been polished first, I have determined. I think the technique may have a little more milage yet though. I will try again on something else cheap and simple at a later date.

 

 

 

 

[James G]

Nice work Jamie!

[Killingholme]

That TU-16 is definitely worth pressing on with. The tonal variation looks really nice!

 

Anyway, you're only a few red stars and some wheels away from finishing it anyway...

 

Will

[Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies]

57 minutes ago, James G said:

Nice work Jamie!

Thanks James. I think the camera is kind to it thanks to the reflectance!

17 minutes ago, Killingholme said:

That TU-16 is definitely worth pressing on with. The tonal variation looks really nice!

 

Anyway, you're only a few red stars and some wheels away from finishing it anyway...

 

Will

 

My thoughts exactly re. the red stars and wheels. I sprayed the underside white just now.

 

 

It's not easy to photograph well I'm finding.

 

 

 

[Stew Dapple]

That metallic effect looks good to me

 

Cheers,

 

Stew

[Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies]

Just now, Stew Dapple said:

That metallic effect looks good to me

 

Cheers,

 

Stew

It was certainly quite easy - and I found a Post-It note far more agreeable than masking individual panels. I admit I quite like the subtlety of the variations too. When looking at some real NMFs, it's clear that the metal panels aren't necessarily different colours but that the grain of the metal is orientated differently and reflecting light differently.

 

Next time I do this I will polish the primer first, and maybe polish some panels a little smoother than others.

[AdrianMF]

The variable finish for the NMF looks good. It has variation without looking like it's a patchwork.

 

Regards,

Adrian

[Smudge]

Hi Jamie, just catching up with this. Just a thought, could you justify cutting up an old ESCI Blinder and grafting the nose to a Modelsvit one for the Iraqi version? and would it fit anyway?

What's with the post it notes? do you cut out holes in them, or just use the edges as a mask?

 

Sorry for all the questions! 

[Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies]

Hi! I'm not sure the ESCI Blinder's nose is any use anyway? The fuselages are rather different shapes unfortunately. A Russian one is ok by me though

 

As for the post-it note, I just used it the edge for a mask. It doesn't need to be stuck down (and infact it seems better not to) when spraying close in at very low pressures. I noticed when trying to get an even finish with Alclad once that different paint thickness and direction of spray has a fair impact on the reflectivity and apparent tone of the metallic paint. Thus, but using a single airbrush jar load of the metallic paint (in this case IPP Super Fine Aluminium - which is very nice to use by the way, but airbrushable only) I gave the whole thing a once over, then went round various panel lines with the post-it note and gave some panels another shoot, or indeed just shot the exposed surface next to the panel and feathered it out. I was trying to get something that gave an impression of being made of various pieces of the same alloy, rather than (as Adrian says) a patch work of obviously different shades of silver.

 

Some aircraft have exactly that in certain places, of course, but I have gathered quite a few Badger photographs over the years and they generally look to be fairly uniform in colour. Some heavily weathered ones which have turned matt look like they're painted grey. I admit I actually thought this one should be grey on top and indeed Trumpeter would have you paint it so. A lot of the photos I have could be interpreted either way I suppose, although they have a strong diffused glare in places that suggests NMF rather than grey paint, but I have colour photos also of several Tu16Ks on the ground that have anti-flash white bellies but are most definitely NMF on top.

 

As an aside, I seem to have, err, misplaced the sprue(s) with the KSR-5 missiles (Kingfish?) and pylons on. I don't suppose anyone has any knocking about spare?  If not, this one is going to be unarmed

[Smudge]

Cheers for that, Jamie. Interesting technique, and sounds user friendly as I presume you can do it all in one go, so to speak. Just varying the direction of spraying. Rather like laying Metal Foil in different directions to get a differing reflection from the 'grain' of the foil?

 

I agree with your comments on some NMF finishes looking like a uniform grey, especially in old b&w photos. It's not always easy to tell. I've been looking at some old NMF Voodoo's and there certainly doesn't appear to be a great deal of variation in the panels, leading me to question if they weren't actually grey. A subtle technique like that would be the way to go, I feel.

 

Good luck finding your sprues!

[Killingholme]

On 03/01/2018 at 11:59 AM, Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies said:

Hi! I'm not sure the ESCI Blinder's nose is any use anyway? The fuselages are rather different shapes unfortunately. A Russian one is ok by me though

 

As for the post-it note, I just used it the edge for a mask. It doesn't need to be stuck down (and infact it seems better not to) when spraying close in at very low pressures. I noticed when trying to get an even finish with Alclad once that different paint thickness and direction of spray has a fair impact on the reflectivity and apparent tone of the metallic paint. Thus, but using a single airbrush jar load of the metallic paint (in this case IPP Super Fine Aluminium - which is very nice to use by the way, but airbrushable only) I gave the whole thing a once over, then went round various panel lines with the post-it note and gave some panels another shoot, or indeed just shot the exposed surface next to the panel and feathered it out. I was trying to get something that gave an impression of being made of various pieces of the same alloy, rather than (as Adrian says) a patch work of obviously different shades of silver.

 

Some aircraft have exactly that in certain places, of course, but I have gathered quite a few Badger photographs over the years and they generally look to be fairly uniform in colour. Some heavily weathered ones which have turned matt look like they're painted grey. I admit I actually thought this one should be grey on top and indeed Trumpeter would have you paint it so. A lot of the photos I have could be interpreted either way I suppose, although they have a strong diffused glare in places that suggests NMF rather than grey paint, but I have colour photos also of several Tu16Ks on the ground that have anti-flash white bellies but are most definitely NMF on top.

 

As an aside, I seem to have, err, misplaced the sprue(s) with the KSR-5 missiles (Kingfish?) and pylons on. I don't suppose anyone has any knocking about spare?  If not, this one is going to be unarmed

 

Am I right in thinking that Soviet airframes had a clear protective finish over the natural metal? Sure I read that somewhere. Perhaps that accounts for the uniform finish? Certainly, when I spray a clear coat onto a model it tends to flatten down much of the clever colour variations I have achieved!

[Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies]

This one has sat for a while (because I didn't feel like painting black squares in the cockpit) but that's now done and today I tackled the wings. The fit isn't good, but having considered it a few ways I decided the best way forward is to align the tips, details and control surfaces and accept that the root is a bit of a train crash. This however can be sorted with plasticard shims - although "shim" may be understating the magnitude of misalignment.

 

 

 

I tried the big bits together. I'm not really a 1/72 guy but this is quite big - 1/72 Hurricane for comparison

 

[Keith T]

I'm in the process of building this kit myself and also found the halves of the wings troublesome, the left wing in particular !

 

Have you progressed any further since the last update you posted ?

[Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies]

Hi Keith,

 

I have done a little between waiting periods in other projects, but realise I haven't updated anything here in quite a while. I have been working on the fit of some of the parts. I'm trying to get these bits right before moving on. In years past I'd try to make it aeroplane shaped then try to address all the inadequacies. As I have grown fussier and more critical with age and experience I now prefer to address the problems as I find them:

 

The tail fairing fit onto the fuselage isn't very good. My absolute least favourite modelling task is marking out for rescribing panel lines so everything here is geared towards preserving them as best I can whilst getting the quality of fit that I want. The fuselage halves still aren't glued together, but I am doing all this with them taped together to ensure the parts splices aren't banana shaped!

 

And here's how I have addressed the wing problems:

 

[Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies]

This thing has caught my imagination again and I have carried on (sorry HMS Exeter) a bit.

 

This is that tail section join tidied up:

 

In addition, I have established where the slots should be in the wing roots for the stub spars that protrude through the fuselage. With those opened out in the same place as the fuselage slots, the spars fit in quite nicely and hold the wings at the correct angle of anhedral (or at least, equal angles of anhedral!) and the relevant panel lines line up. Looks ok now I think so I need to finish all that cockpit stuff next and join the fuselage halves.