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Well it had to happen....with the big Bucc crawling along at a snails pace, (due to me not the model) and the EB-66C Destroyer being laid up in the repair hangar due to an unfortunate landing accident I thought I'd finally commit to getting this beast finished as it's been languishing in the stash for over eight years, having been partially started and then stalled due to other commitments. As many of you know I'm a huge fan of these Soviet monsters and along with the TU-22 Blinder and TU-128 Fiddler find the Bison family awe inspiring designs from the early Cold War period. The Bison looks pretty ungainly on the ground but once airborne extremely graceful. Never fulfilling its range requirement of 7,450 miles due to inefficient engines it still served in good numbers firstly as a nuclear bomber and later more successfully as a tanker aircraft right up until 1994 when the last Bisons were put out to pasture, (or in the case of the bombers cut up as part of the SALT agreements of the time). Starting life as the M-4 Molet (hammer) the aircraft evolved into the 3M series culminating in the more streamlined 3MD missile carrier variant. The missile system was never perfected and cancelled quite early in the program, 1960, by which time nine aircraft had been built and served well as standard bombers and unit commanders personal 'hacks'.....not a bad way of getting about ! Early aircraft used the underpowered Mikulin AM-3A engines of which there were stockpiles however due to disappointing performance figures later aircraft were fitted with the more powerful and fuel efficient Dobrynin VD-7 turbofans, (unfortunately these had reliability issues of their own but more on them later).... This Amodel kit was number 8 in the Amonster series utilizing a mix of resin impregnated fibre glass for the main components and short run, soft IM plastic for the detail sets, of which there are a LOT. I've always loved the Amodel stuff as whilst not being the easiest kits to build, being somewhere between a vac form and short run model, they are extremely accurate, well detailed and usually featuring unique subjects and for me that's the important part. That's not to say that a lot of extra detailing can't be added because in this case it certainly will be. I'm lucky in that space isn't an issue so these huge kits are an easy choice and I'm lucky to have a few connections to get them at sensible prices too as they are rather pricey due to the materials and processes used in their manufacture. Amodel make nearly all versions of the Bison, except for the M-4, including the 3-MS/N, 3-MD and Atlant with it's various payloads. I chose the 3-M variant, (mainly coz it was the only one out at the time), though it can be built as a 3-MS-2 or N-2 tanker version too, (only involves different bomb doors really). The S stands for early engines and the N for the later VD-7's. Hopefully it'll make a good companion for my M-50 Bounder, TU-16K and TU-22 M3 as well as my modified TU-22 Blinder KPD that I'm also doing at the moment............. The real thing, lack of IFR probe and smooth bomb bay doors identify this aircraft as a 3MS tanker, Another view of a tanker variant.................. positively prehistoric Ok well firstly the cool box art, Main source of reference comes from Yefim Gordon's excellent Red Star book as well as several other Russian language publications and large number of online photos that I've accumulated. Firstly with apologies to Ken, (Flankerman). hope you don't mind if I show yours but I didn't take any photos of the parts before starting work, although Ken's is the 3-MD variant with its different nose and positionable flaps, it's basically the same kit , A steady hand and sharp saw needed to cut through the extremely tough resin impregnated fibre glass material, Kens a lot neater than mine ! The bomb doors need to be cut out too, excuse the rough cuts, they'll be tidied up later...............surprisingly the fit was near perfect... The fitment of the undercarriage bays are 'interesting' to say the least....you are supposed to half build the 'boxes', slide them into the narrow fuselage and then assemble them inside the fuselage !!!. Like a few others I agree that the best way to get around this is to build the units up first and as they are quite a bit wider than the cut outs then I'll need to remove the sides of the gear bays, slide the assembled units into place and then refit the pieces, fill and make good, (luckily on this version the undersides are all white , which will show any imperfections a lot less than a NMF ! Hear are just a couple of the many sprues carrying the smaller detail parts.....it's amazing just how much detail Amodel has crammed into these kits, The downside, if it can be called that is that the detail is a little soft and all parts need a good clean up but being used to vacform kits that's a minor detail, I started in a strange place...the engine tubes, which fit perfectly on my example, the engine facings need careful fettling as some of the blades were damaged and needed replacing, they were then airbrushed using Alclad dark aluminium and given oil washes, The exhaust shrouds were then made up, again needing a fair bit of sanding and filling to remove all seam lines. These are a royal pain to fit , particularly the inner ones as they are simply too large ! and need either a LOT of trimming or fitting further back up the exhaust 'tube' though this creates another problem in that you then lose the correct shape of the outlet... The rear top engine shrouds are quite well done but details are incorrect. Firstly the outlet baffles are too small and facing the wrong way round blowing air forwards!!, they need removing and replacing with Plasticard strips. I've elected to cut out the whole area and build them all separately using photos as reference, Also Amodel only have the outlets on one side for some reason..they should be on both...no matter, just a few minutes with a rescriber and metal ruler, The other thing that's missing are all the guide vanes in the top cooling slit intakes. They need reaming out too and tidying up and whilst this took a bit of time it was well worth the effort, Strips of card cut to length then slid into place and secured using Gator glue to minimize mess, All done and I think worth the effort, these will be sprayed in dark aluminium to reduce the visual impact, Rear gunners compartment started and the quilted insulation added...lots more detail to go in here I've also trimmed the underside exhaust fairings to fit...took some time but I just don't like using copious amounts of filler on these things when they are going to be airbrushed in natural metal, preferring to get the fit as good as possible first,, Next up the wings, exhaust shrouds fitted, ailerons, tip outriggers, etc, Cheers for now, Melchie...