Revell/ICM Tu-144. "Concordski!

[Caerbannog]

Nice build Steve. I saw her last week in Sinsheim - if you need reference pis let me know.

René

[stevej60]

Beautiful photo's Rene,the more I get done on this build the more I feel it's a shame the success Concorde had was not shared by this aircraft

She really was equally graceful.

[Madhatter]

you've done a great job on this and don't appear to be having any of the issues with yours that I seemed to have. Your making it look do-able and inspiring me to have another crack at mine

I'm really looking forward to seeing this come to life

Si

Edited August 3, 2016 by Madhatter

[stevej60]

Thank,s Si,don't get me wrong it does have it's issues I ran Revell Contacta the full length of the wing/fuselage join which is a recipe for disaster

but I got away with it without doubt this area is the most off putting part of this kit.

[Mike]

Looks good - I quite fancy doing one that's all weathered from years in the open at a museum. Does anyone remember that video of them starting the one I'm thinking about up after years of neglect, and getting the little canards to operate?

[moaning dolphin]

Looking the bees knees now with paint on!

Bob

[TonyTiger66]

I've just caught up with this Steve. It's going really well; nice work .

I hope you don't mind me telling a quick anecdote about the TU-144? I'll edit it out if it's too long.

In February 1974, aged 8, I was on an SAS flight from Copenhagen. I don't know the next airport destination, I was a few days off my 8th birthday and it's hard to recall now.

I was on, perhaps, a DC 9 with my mum and also a young lady dancer from the group 'The Young Generation'. I was a lucky kid and my parents were a bit 'jet-set' for the time

We were headed East.

At a certain point we entered a severe storm. So severe I remember one if the stewardesses running with her hand over her mouth to prevent vomiting in the aisle.

To cut a long story short we had to make an emergency, unplanned landing in Moscow. We were taken from the aircraft by almost military style (blue?) big trucks to a holding room, our passports taken off of us and guards on the door wearing huge fur hats. It was snowing and extremely stormy outside.

People were scared because it was still 'Iron Curtain' days, but to be honest, as a boy I didn't know what all the fuss was about and had found it all quite exciting !

Right next to the soldier/guard in his long coat and fur hat, with his big gun upright, to his right (his back to the door), my left, behind little ropes, was a huge model of Concordski.

I had never seen anything so futuristic apart from on Thunderbirds on TV.

My mum started to panic as I reached to touch the model and the soldier turned his head to the right and down towards me. I'm sure my mum thought I would be shot!

I remember saying:

"But mum, it's a lot better looking than Concorde!" And I simply meant it

The soldier obviously understood because he smiled, leaned down, swivelled the model around, patted me on the head and started showing me all the different bits of the model and telling me the names in Russian of 'engine' and so on

My mum was more or less crying with relief and blushing at the rather dashing soldier/guard at the same time (she was 28).

Needless to say, this act of unintentional schmoozing/diplomacy went down in family folk lore and from then on, whenever I was in a tricky situation verbally, members of the family would chortle at me and ask; "but is it better looking than Concorde?".

I hope my little story isn't inappropriate. Just to show it wasn't all grim between East and West back then; they were very very proud of that plane and what happened at the Paris air show is still, I feel, .... ? Well, very sad.

You're doing this justice Steve and just brought that great memory back to me from 42 years ago. I have a desire to buy the Modelsvit 1/72 one, but fear it could, due to financial issues, sow the seeds of a divorce. Can't see why ?

Best regards

Tony

Edited for spelling; "..what happened in Paris.." Not "...sha..." !

[POTKC]

There are an interesting few paragraphs about Concordski in Joe Sutter's autobiography - he got to fly in it at that fateful Paris airshow, and it seems the great man was very touched personally by the death of the crew...he writes in the aforementioned autobiography extremely fondly about meeting them...

[stevej60]

Great story Tony,glad it's brought back those memories hopefully I can get her finished to the point you saw that model all those years ago!

[TonyTiger66]

You're doing a grand job Steve.

I'm glad you got the fuselage and wing joint all sorted. I'm really enjoying your build and looking forward to seeing the paint scheme

ATB

Tony

[stevej60]

Hi folks, got the table out for the first time in over a week so thought it time to return to this project I have added the U/C bay doors and the large

wing ailerons? and their other things which I have no idea what they are called

It,s been a couple of weeks since I had her out of the box and lots of things are more noticeable that need attending to before the glossing the filler

will need to come out!

[stevej60]

Hi all,sorry about the lack of progress sadly the weather has been awful so can't get her outdoors to spray the Gloss,anyway I now have all the

filler sanded that the first primer coat revealed needing and Nose etc added.

[Romeo Alpha Yankee]

Nice to see your progress Steve.

[Madhatter]

your really making this look easy Steve. I may have to dust mine off and have another crack at it

[stevej60]

your really making this look easy Steve. I may have to dust mine off and have another crack at it

Many thank's.got a nice day today so she looks good under a couple of coats of gloss.

[stevej60]

Glossing complete folk,s hope to pop a photo on later,the Halfords white has gone on beautifully but that might be me finally learning patience

and going easy on the coating and drying times at last,I,m definitely in with another build if I can bring this one in OK.And here she is in

her glossing glory even got the fly off the wing that landed while drying.

Edited August 29, 2016 by stevej60

[stevej60]

Hi folk's now I have often been called Cynical so before I start to paint all those wheels and U/c parts there was no way the build was going further

if the decals were an issue,glad to say so far so good my codes Question has been promptly answered by Alexey(Pin) and I,ve decalled up to

the point you see both sides as I have more painting to do around the engines and rear fuselage.

Edited August 30, 2016 by stevej60

[Mike]

Very nice. It's a shame the crash finished the project really, as the competition may have spurred others to go supersonic

[Pin]

That's not the crash that finished this project, it was pretty much a "prestige" thing, like Concorde - too expensive to operate, but unlike Concorde there were no people who were ready to pay enough extra money to justify the expenses.

Additionally there were serious problems with skin fatigue, I afraid that if PAX operation continued a tragedy would be inevitable

And I'm going mad each time when I hear "concordski" - who on Earth decided that "<whatever>-ski" sounds Russian? It sounds Polish.

[Madhatter]

That really is looking the part Steve. I have been eyeing my one off again every time you post an update and telling myself "it can be done"

[POTKC]

And I'm going mad each time when I hear "concordski" - who on Earth decided that "<whatever>-ski" sounds Russian? It sounds Polish.

<whatever>skiy, with the "y", does sound Russia though. It could also be replace with <whatever>ov, eg. Concordov. The origin of <whatever>ski is the Cold War: it started with "Russki" and went from there.

[Pin]

I know that Still it is like a metal-on-glass-scratching to my Russian ears

[Pin]

BTW - my attempt to build Tu-144. This is ICM's grandfather - BraZ resin kit

http://www.airliner-models.org/main.php?page=gallery&mid=111

[stevej60]

And a superb example too Alexey.

[Pin]

Thanks Steve but this one is far from my finest builds. I'm now thinking about refurbishing it into "WhatIf" scheme, would it be "modern" Aeroflot, Lufthansa, PanAm or even some kind of military weirdness is not yet decided.