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Tupolev Tu-160 White Swan (NATO Reporting name Blackjack). Pictures taken by Dave Haskell at The Poltava Museum of Long-Range and Strategic Aviation in The Ukraine.

Hello, After purchasing this yesterday I've decided to use this kit as a boost/kick up the backside for the mojo, I'm aware my track record of starting builds but not finishing them isn't good but this is a kit I have wanted for a while now.. IMG_9082 by John Rooney, on Flickr IMG_9084 by John Rooney, on Flickr IMG_9086 by John Rooney, on Flickr IMG_9088 by John Rooney, on Flickr IMG_9091 by John Rooney, on Flickr IMG_9092 by John Rooney, on Flickr IMG_9094 by John Rooney, on Flickr IMG_9096 by John Rooney, on Flickr Thanks for Looking! John

Hi all, Our local model shop had their birthday sale recently and many of us were there hoovering up bargains. Amongst other things I picked up Trumpeter's 1/144 scale Tu-160 for the equivalent of ten quid. I like Russian stuff but have never attempted to build any of it, although I do have a Forger and a Flanker in the stash. I had a poke around in the box when I got home, verified that the fuselage halves fit together nicely, and couldn't resist clipping out the wings to see what it looked like. And one thing led to another and it's now halfway done. I've just finished gluing and clothes-pinning the fuselage, and my camera battery has run out, but I do have some pictures of the interior bits I painted today. There's a really nice flight deck with maybe 16 parts, which is going to be almost entirely invisible. The layout is roughly right although I think the seats are a bit underscale. The IP has dials, which I filled in with AK engine oil to get some gloss, though I don't think we'll be able to see it through the windows. I even painted the dear little crew toilet (and opened the boarding hatch since the plane is going to be on the ground) The other bits I've done are the insides of the U/C doors, and the faces of the bays. The colours are based on a walkaround of the main gear and main gear bay on scalemodels.ru, although it's a bit hard to piece together so I'm not claiming everything is in the right place. My read on the insides of the bays is that they're mostly bare metal, with brown and white discolouration on the lower parts and doors, which makes me think maybe aluminium?. There are plenty of painted (avionics?) boxes on one side of each bay though. I sprayed everything with Alclad II Dull Aluminium and oversprayed with both Pale Burnt Metal and a little flat light grey. The details are brush painted with Games Workshop paints, and I used some Cold and Brown MIG washes plus sponged paint to discolour things. Next job is either the sanding and filling (probably almost none) on the airframe. I also need to detail the slightly soggy nose gear strut, and add some pivots for the tailplane and rudder (which I sawed off already). So far this is one of the nicest plane kits I've attempted to build. Everything fits! It appears to be reasonably accurate as well, although I haven't checked it against plans or anything... Cheers, Will