general melchett Posted April 4, 2010 Author Share Posted April 4, 2010 Some more work done on this one, masking followed by pre shading ..These machines got pretty grubby in service as the Soviets weren't too fussy about nice shiny aeroplanes as long as they worked!, unless there was a parade, airshow or general inspection taking place.. Hopefully havethe top coat on this week, between a few other builds ready for Cosford.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
keefr22 Posted April 4, 2010 Share Posted April 4, 2010 Looking good Andy, the 'pits are looking very nice indeed! K Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
James G Posted April 6, 2010 Share Posted April 6, 2010 A great build of a great kit, more please! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smuts Posted April 6, 2010 Share Posted April 6, 2010 General Sir, stunning work & the pit is the dog dangles strange how Trump always seem to make a daft mistake along the line, if its ready for Cosford what table will it be on? be interesting to see it next to the Valkyrie. Andy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
general melchett Posted April 6, 2010 Author Share Posted April 6, 2010 Thanks guys, Andy, not too sure if it'll be ready for Cossy as it still needs the VVS grey to be applied followed by a gazillion decals and Pro Mod wash If it is then it'll be on the Cold War table...if not then it'll hopefully be Hinckley but it's not one to rush so I'm not really sure. Don't know why Trumpy keep making these glaring errors, the only answer must be poor reference material...things like the windshield and wheels are baffling as the net has plenty of walk arounds to use...............still makes our job more interesting eh!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Uncle Uncool Posted April 7, 2010 Share Posted April 7, 2010 The easiest way of doing this would be masking the clear plastic and over spraying the area but I didn't think that would look too great so using Plasticard I built up the area and then carefully sanded the canopy to shape. Noise work, Sssshhhheneral...!!! Say, Andy, matey, yeh; did ya mean ya had to sand the clear part of the canopy to shape or was it just the plasticard addition to it? If ya meant the clear part, which part of the canopy was, exactly? Thanks, chap! Unc² Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
general melchett Posted April 8, 2010 Author Share Posted April 8, 2010 Unc, the kit part is squared off for some weird reason, below you can see the part on the left with its squared off shape.. and this is how the real deal looks, notice how the front edge wraps around as well...this is wrongly marked out on the kit part!! Vive la difference .So I sanded the bottom rear edge of the piece at 45 degrees and used Plasticard to make up the insert...very straightforward. Just one tip if you're going to do this though make sure you use a thicker piece of card than the fuselage side as there is a marked curve which must be snaded away to fit the fuselage contour.... Hope this helps, Gen Melch... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Uncle Uncool Posted April 8, 2010 Share Posted April 8, 2010 make sure you use a thicker piece of card than the fuselage side as there is a marked curve which must be snaded away to fit the fuselage contour.... Oh, thanks, Melchie, mate! Yeh, it does help. I'd gotten it wrong; I did get why ya had to sand the bottom rear edge of the canopy - it's just that, as ya said this could have been fixed by simply masking the clear plastic and overspraying the area, I thought ya had to further sand the clear plastic to shape after ya made up and placed the plasticard insert on the fuselage, as though ya needed to still shape the canopy so that it followed the contour of this marked curve ya're talking about on the quote above. I guess all of this misunderstanding sprang from the fact that it'd have been odd to infer ya might have sorted out a squared-off canopy issue by just masking it and then overspraying the area; a fix not proper of the Sssshhheneral, so a more complex, daring and yet successful fix was expected from ya. Sumthin' typical of ya, Andy, mate. Perhaps in future ya'll surprise as all with a whole new vac-form canopy which front edge does wrap around correctly. Cheers, Andy Unc² Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
avro683 Posted April 12, 2010 Share Posted April 12, 2010 Nice General. I picked up an ESCI Backfire B yesterday. It's a nice kit but I'm not sure as to the accuracy of the main gear. Keep up the good work. Tony Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
general melchett Posted April 12, 2010 Author Share Posted April 12, 2010 Thanks Tony...there's a pm on its way to you. The build has come to a temporary halt whilst I get other stuff finished for Cosford and Hinckley but the Melchett-Tupolev production line will re open sometime this coming week... The ESCI kit goes together well but unfortunately it's way off beam accuracy wise. Like their Blinder it was made well before anyone had any decent close up pictures and plans of the real thing so a lot of it was pure speculation. I've sent you a link to Ken Duffeys site that show s just how much work is needed to bring it up to scratch. Having said that it's a nice build oob, it's just that when you sit it next to the Trumpy kit it's obvious where the errors lie, (the biggest problems are the intakes, on the M3, the length and the undercarriage arrangement. Sorry to sound negative ...thing is if you're happy with the build out of the box then you'll have no problems with it at all. Andy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TRUSKY1965 Posted April 13, 2010 Share Posted April 13, 2010 Show must go on, General! I think this is one of your most complete works. The little details make this build almost perfect. The cockpit is fantastic and the undercarriage and weaponery are fascinating, with a subtle weathering that show the plane in operational condition. This russian bird is one more piece of art in your collection! Congratulations! Best regards, TRUSKY1965. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
general melchett Posted April 13, 2010 Author Share Posted April 13, 2010 Thanks you Trusky, nice of you to say so. It certainly is a complex build! with many sub assemblies .......the next thing to tackle will be the air brakes,flaps and slats which are really quite complex. The underside is now painted and I'm just in the process of mixing the correct VVS grey upper surface colours. There were two schemes used by operational Backfires, (air force and navy) , one being a darker grey than the other. The lighter grey tended to get weathered very quickly and this is the one I will probably go for.I just have a few reviews to type up and I'll be back on the case .. More pictures soon. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cooldudehenry Posted April 14, 2010 Share Posted April 14, 2010 Looking forward to seeing this one finished, it looks awesome so far! Got to admit, I have a thing for Soviet stuff. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
general melchett Posted April 19, 2010 Author Share Posted April 19, 2010 A bit more work done on this bird..the inner flaps caused much head scratching and deep delving into the wonderful World Wide Web! .Finally found some piccies of the inner flap arrangement when deployed which proved very useful in working out the geometry of the surfaces.. And this is the work so far.....the slots look narrower in the piccies due to the shallow angle of the photographs. The flaps just slotted into place to check clearance..... the model is still in white primer at the moment as it needs much handling whilst check fitting all the wing parts. Next up will be the outer flaps and airbrakes, again over simplified in the kit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
general melchett Posted August 8, 2010 Author Share Posted August 8, 2010 Recently decided to revive the Tupolev Bureau production line here at Melchett Towers. After a lot of nagging from various quarters I've decided to finish this one ASAP!, (Blinder KPD to follow).....it will feature in a future issue of Model Aviation World so I'd better not bugger it up Paint has now been applied and the incredibly tedious job of masking and spraying all the myriad white and aluminium bits has been finished, Next a light rub down with Micro Mesh then onto a Klear coat and decalling.....and that could well take a while as there are a couple of million tiny stencils to add all over the thing!!...then starts the fun bit, the weathering which will be quite heavy on this one.With all those panel lines and rivets It should really come alive with an oil/ white spirit and Promodeller dirty wash. I'm really quite pleased with the smoked pre shading and various grey toned panels on this one, it gives the thing a nice aged look that's not too heavy, though little can be seen here as the flash and sunlight has unfortunately bleached it all out. Anyway pics of work to date,I hope it meets with party approval.... A lot of the white and silver bits are included on the decal sheet but I prefer to airbrush them on as they take on a deeper more realistic finish, even though it's a lot easier to slap the decals on!!!. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TRUSKY1965 Posted August 8, 2010 Share Posted August 8, 2010 The beast is coming to life! You are a master in this kind of planes of the cold war! I can't wait to see the finish of this one! Regards, TRUSKY1965. (And congratulations for the prize in Coventry Show!! ) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
daz greenwood Posted August 8, 2010 Share Posted August 8, 2010 Looking good there Andy. Looking forwards to seeing the decals on the beast. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Seamus Posted August 8, 2010 Share Posted August 8, 2010 Excellent work Andy I've nearly caught you up after some marathon spray sessions this weekend- well over two hours spraying and shading the grey this morning Elected to spray the white and aluminium areas as well, so plenty more masking ahead of me. Shouldn't be long now though... Keep up the good work, looking forward to seeing this beast finished Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
general melchett Posted August 8, 2010 Author Share Posted August 8, 2010 (edited) Thanks fellas, appreciated as always. Trusky, just my thing ..I love these Soviet monsters so it's not difficult to get enthusistic about them. Shaun, we must be leading parallel lives at the moment mate, glad to hear you've managed to crack on, good luck with the white and ali bits...there's a lot of em, I've just found a couple more that I missed!! Just finished the inner flap areas, these were left bare metal, (as they were the moving parts of the inner swing wing sections and therefore got a wee bit dirty!), And the complex flap arrangement... Edited August 8, 2010 by general melchett Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David H Posted August 8, 2010 Share Posted August 8, 2010 Hi Melchie, Its been a while since i last saw the mighty "Backfire". Looks very good, although no doubt the model is getting a bit ponderous as you rapidly approach completion. Just saw the stencils. All i can say is, AAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRGGGHHHH!! Hope to have more pics of my Crusader up soon. cheers, david Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
general melchett Posted August 8, 2010 Author Share Posted August 8, 2010 Dave, good to hear from you, yes it's a bit of a handful being rather large and unwieldly , not unlike the Memsahib. This one took a bit of a backseat while I cracked on with the TSR and Aurora, but it's def on the 'to finish' list ,(well for now anyway !!). I'm going to finish all the decalling as the model stands then stick everything together later as there's an awful lot of bits just crying out to be snapped off and devoured by the dread carpet monster!! and yes LOL....... that was my first reaction upon seeing the stencil set!! Please bring on the Cruz,, looking very tasty indeed !!............that's an order from the top............BAAAAGH... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
keefr22 Posted August 8, 2010 Share Posted August 8, 2010 yes it's a bit of a handful being rather large and unwieldly , not unlike the Memsahib. SWMBO is going to read one of these comments one day Melchett - then you'll be for it..... Good to see this one back on the bench Andy - finished for Telford??!! Keef Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
F111Fan Posted August 9, 2010 Share Posted August 9, 2010 Looking very nice, General sah! Have you ever considered doing Trumpy's 1/72 Blackjack? I had one, and it's HUGE! Anyway, great progress, and as keefr22 said-will it be done for Telford? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
general melchett Posted August 9, 2010 Author Share Posted August 9, 2010 Cheers chaps, Keef, she's got the hide of a rhinoceros, (not the only feature she has in common with theseo Odd-toed ungulates!!! ), actually if I thought she was even capable of turning the PC on I would have to don my steel hat and run for the nearest Anderson shelter!! Hopefully it'll be finished within the next couple of weeks and be ready for the Newark show in October. It'll certainly be at Telford either way. F-111, I certainly have thought about it (especially when I saw one going for £40), but to be perfectly honest it's not really my favorite Soviet bomber, I've got an Amodel 3MN Bison on the go which is a real beast and will take up a table on its own, as well as the Blinder and TU-16K Badger C. One model I am tempted by though is the Amodel TU-126 Moss AWACS aircraft...............running seriously low on space now though A bit of a sneak preview, the Bison along side a MIG 21...it's BIG!!, and no it won't be ready for Telford..... 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Graham T Posted August 9, 2010 Share Posted August 9, 2010 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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