Soviet ship-killer

[zebra]

With apologies to everyone in the other two GBs I'm currently involved in (KUTA and Grumman), this is the one I've really been looking forward to since the Airfix GB finished. I think it's because the three builds I've been contemplating - a Neptune MR.1, SAAF Turbo Dakota, and this - are all exactly the models I want to be building right now. So I'm starting with this one and may well get onto one of the other two before this GB ends. In any case, my plan is to do all three within the next 12 months, since they all fit multiple GBs in the next year.

 

Which one to start with was a bit of a dilemma for a while, until I realised that the Tu-22KD fits the bill. I've been wanting to build this kit since I bought it, but also been procrastinating over it, and this GB is the kick I needed. So it's the Tu-22 first.

 

It's not the most obvious maritime patrol aircraft to choose. But the Tu-22KD's main role was anti-shipping warfare - in WWIII its role would have been to attack carrier groups with the Kh-22 (aka AS-4 Kitchen) missile, with either a conventional or nuclear warhead (it occurs to me this could have been a good fit for the proposed armageddon GB) and in the cold war they apparently regularly practiced targeting carrier groups in the North Sea.

 

It also ticks a lot of my boxes - a big, idiosyncratic Soviet design, and also one of those kind of cold war designs that seems to represent a transition between the early jets and modern aviation. 

 

Here's the kit, from Modelsvit in 1/72:

 

It's pretty typical of a modern A Model/Modelsvit kit - quite nicely detailed, some nice surface detail in particular, and most definitely short run (e.g. no locating pins and a fuselage which comes broken down into more pieces than the likes of Airfix would have. But the likes of Airfix would never give us one of these). According to the box top there are 320 parts for the aircraft and 28 for the Kh-22, which I think comes with a trolley to display it separately but mine will be semi-recessed under the fuselage (a bit like a Soviet Blue Steel).

 

And here's the aftermarket stuff I'm going to use - Barracudacast wheels and afterburners, Amigo resin intakes, decals from Authentic Decals (sadly the most interesting markings are for other versions though), and New Ware masks:

 

Can't wait to get into it - roll on tomorrow!

[Robert Stuart]

Oh! that does look interesting.  Are ALL of those plastic bags just for this one kit?

 

Welcome to the build Zebra.

[Romeo Alpha Yankee]

Wow, what mountain of a kit to tackle J. I have the An26 on the part started shelf and know what you are up against assembly wise. Looking forward to this unique (for this GB) build.

[Dazey]

oooh, I like the look of this. Very interesting... I'm looking forward to seeing it take shape.

Regards,

David

[zebra]

Thanks folks. @Robert Stuart yes that's all just one kit! I think this will take a while. Although from what I've seen of others' builds (and there have been some cracking builds of this kit - if mine is half as good as some of them I'll be delighted) it's relatively straightforward.

 

Key thing will be getting the fuselage right - in true Amodel/Modelsvit style it's in 4 pieces, and I'm going to ignore the instructions (which I'm expecting will tell me to assemble the front part and the rear part and then marry them up) and assemble two complete fuselage halves first, then treat it more like a conventional kit. Could be easier said than done - @Romeo Alpha Yankee I haven't built the An-26 but I built the An-24 and An-30 a couple of years ago and getting those fuselages together was a challenge. It's going to be a bit more of a daunting task this time because I'm going to need to give it a natural metal finish so I don't want to be fixing it with a lot of filler and sanding like I did with those two. That said, the Tu-134 (whose fuselage was in 6 pieces!) and the Be-12 were a lot more straightforward so I'm optimistic about this one.

 

1 December just rolled around here. Best get some kip so I can be fresh for this in the morning!

[Robert Stuart]

Zebra ... filling problems.

Can you get Milliput near you?  I can get it in a range of art and craft shops, my LMS, and DIY places round me.
https://www.milliput.com/

 

I generally use the white.

This can be smoothed with water while it is still soft, so avoids the need for sanding later.  I'd generally use a finger dipped in water (not supposed to do this!), or a damp kitchen towel.

It does set very hard.

 

Some people complain doesn't stick to well plastic.  I generally have the opposite problem, but I also make sure I've cleaned any grease off the plastic AND give the Milliput a key to hook into.

 

[zebra]

Thanks @Robert Stuart - yes can get Milliput here. It's good stuff, although my favourite filler at the moment is perfect plastic putty, which I find very easy to work with.

 

I've made a start on the Tu-22. Didn't do a lot today (spent a little time putting some more decals on the Cougar, and a bit of time reading up on a few builds of this kit online) but have got the fuselage halves together. There's a small lap joint between the halves, which is good to have (it's more than the An-24 and Tu-134 had!) but it leaves a bit of a step at the joint. So I followed @Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies's build and scraped some material away from the joint. The result is a much better fit - not perfect, and some filler and sanding will be needed, but not too bad. Here's how the joints look:

 

 

I then test-fitted the whole fuselage, to check everything will line up ok before adding a strip of plastic card inside the joint to strengthen it, and applying some putty. I can see I'm going to have to keep my work space tidy, otherwise I'm going to struggle to find space for this thing!

 

 

 

 

[MarkSH]

That's a whopper!

[JOCKNEY]

11 hours ago, MarkSH said:

That's a whopper!

Wot e sed !

[zebra]

Joints cleaned up. Pretty happy with this, managed to preserve the panel lines, and ended up with a nice smooth join.

 

 

That's as much as I managed to do on the Tu-22 this weekend - I spent a bit of time decalling my other two builds - but I think it's a good start. Next steps will be to work on the fit of the interior parts - others have found them to be a poor fit so this will need a bit of work I think.

 

thanks for looking

Z

[Romeo Alpha Yankee]

Nice work with the seams, onward and upward!

[zebra]

A bit of a slow start so far - mojo has been a bit lacking, the last few months have been hard work and it's catching up with the whole family, so whilst I've had the motivation for modelling I haven't really had the energy. School term finishes on Friday, and I finish work until 8 Jan the same day, so time to get some R&R and hit the workbench.

 

Since getting the seams done I've turned my attention to the interior. As expected this has needed a fair bit of trimming to get it to fit, but it does now fit. There are quite a few parts in the cockpit, and quite a lot of decals, but very little of it is going to be visible so I'm not going to spend a lot of time on it. It's currently in the garage with paint drying, so I'll photograph it tomorrow.

 

Meanwhile I've also built up the seats. These are very nice - 13 parts in each seat - only seat belts are really missing. I'll probably get some paint on them tomorrow and add some basic seatbelts using masking tape. Again, not much will be visible, so not going to town on these. Here they are, unpainted:

 

cheers

Julian

[zebra]

Finally seem to have got the mojo back and had a pretty productive modelling session today. Cockpit and other interior gubbins installed and fuselage joined up.

 

First of all the cockpit assembly had to be completed. Very little will be visible when the fuselage is together and the canopy is on so not worth going to a lot of effort here. I painted the seats in a pale blue that looked like a reasonable approximation for the right colour, cockpit interior is US interior green (not a million miles off), and kit decals used for instruments. Quite a lot of material had to be trimmed off the bulkheads to get the fuselage to close up - I did this pretty crudely using the sprue cutter, but it won't be noticeable. Similarly the bulkhead attached to the wheel well was way too wide, and I dealt with it the same way. This is one of those kits that requires the undercarriage to be attached before the fuselage is assembled (way too common these days!) so I'm going to have to be very careful with it from here on.

 

 

There are a few other interior bits to install before closing the fuselage - the main one is the beam that supports the AS-4 missile. This is retractable - it can be lowered if you want to show the missile being loaded - so I've made sure it's still moveable so that I can get the missile at the right height later on. I've no idea whether nose weight is needed - I suspect it isn't - but I've stuck a couple of bolts in the nose to be on the safe side.

 

Fuselage went together ok. I've used superglue to get a good strong join in a few spots, otherwise it was pretty straightforward. I've put some Mr Surfacer along the joins and will clean it up tomorrow. Fortunately most of the joins are in places that will be painted white rather than natural metal, so whilst I'll be doing my best to get it nice and clean, it isn't as critical to the finish as it could be. Here's how it looks tonight:

 

Should get onto the engine nacelles, including all the nice resin bits, tomorrow.

 

thanks for looking

Z

[zebra]

Clean up of the seams was pretty straightforward. Don't have a photo to share - it wouldn't look all that different from yesterday's!

 

Made a start on the engine parts. Photo below shows all the intake and exhaust bits cut out and cleaned up ready for a coat of primer. The cream coloured resin parts are the very nice Barracuda exhausts. The grey tubes are the Amigo resin intake ducts (the intake rings are separate and aren't in the photo). I was a little surprised to find the Amigo set doesn't include the compressor face, but then the kit part is good enough.

 

 

I had been thinking of assembling the nacelles, intakes and exhausts separately so that I could insert the intakes and exhausts after painting, but it isn't going to work. Instead  I think I'm going to build the nacelles including the internal intake and exhaust components and attach the afterburners and the external intake rings after painting, which should work and should facilitate painting.

 

more tomorrow

Z

[Col.]

There looks to be plenty detail in the engine area now Z 

[zebra]

20 hours ago, Col. said:

There looks to be plenty detail in the engine area now Z 

The Barracuda parts are a thing of beauty! I only hope my painting skills do them justice.

 

More progress today. I've started painting the engine bits - no photos of that yet - and got the fuselage more or less finished by adding the clear parts and the tail piece. As expected, very little is visible through the clear parts - in the right light you can see the pilot's seat and a little of the instrument panel, but nothing can be seen in the other two cockpits. If you make one of these, you really don't need to waste time on the cockpit!

 

Also made a start on the wings and undercarriage fairings. Plus, in the background of the photo, got the wheels on the Argosy!

 

 

cheers

Z

 

Edited December 28, 2018 by zebra
somehow managed to post before I'd finished writing!

[zebra]

Today was all about the nacelles. The Barracuda bits were a perfect fit, the Amigo intakes not so much - had to thin down the plastic quite a lot to fit them in. But they're in and the nacelles are together. I've cleaned up the joints, just got a bit of filler waiting to cure in a couple of spots.

 

Here's the Barracuda exhausts:

 

And the nacelles plus fin test-fitted to the fuselage (taken before I cleaned uptake joins):

 

There's a bit of a gap between the nacelles and the fuselage, a bit of reshaping is needed here to get a cleaner join. On the other hand the fin seems to fit very nicely. I'm in two minds about whether to leave the fin off and paint it separately - it would probably make painting the nacelles easier.

 

thanks for looking

Z

[zebra]

I've been concentrating on the wings the last couple of days. A bit of work was needed here - the fit isn't great. The upper and lower halves don't align perfectly so it's a matter of getting the best alignment possible and then sanding, filling and rescribing. A bit of fettling is then needed to get it to fit the fuselage properly. Then there are various bits to add, the hardest of which was the undercarriage fairing which came in three parts and also didn't fit very well. All doable - it's not horrendously bad, just a bit time consuming. And now it's nearly there and I'm not far from getting some paint on.

 

Oh, and it's big. I knew it was long, but getting a wing on has brought home how much space it'll take up.

 

 

cheers

Z

[Col.]

That is a big beast of a model! Seeing it in relation to known items such as the Tamiya paint jars gives a very real sense of scale to it.

[Romeo Alpha Yankee]

You are powering along with this one Julian, I have missed the interior part as I was away on leave.

 

One thing I note with these Trumpeter Soviet bombers is the amount of detail in the cockpits which is never to be seen once the fuselage is closed up!

 

Those exhausts look very crisp as well.

 

Nice work!

[zebra]

On 1/3/2019 at 8:12 PM, Col. said:

That is a big beast of a model!

Easily the biggest I've made for a while! 

 

11 hours ago, Romeo Alpha Yankee said:

You are powering along with this one Julian, I have missed the interior part as I was away on leave.

 

One thing I note with these Trumpeter Soviet bombers is the amount of detail in the cockpits which is never to be seen once the fuselage is closed up!

 

Those exhausts look very crisp as well.

 

Nice work!

Cheers Ray! There really is very little point in putting much work into the interior of this kit (it's Modelsvit, not Trumpeter by the way!). So little can be seen, the effort to get it to fit really wasn't worth it. 

 

One setback this week - I dropped it a couple of days ago. Broke the nose undercarriage, but it's fixable. A couple of seams reopened themselves, also fixable. And something's come loose inside (I think it's the bolts I stuck in the nose) so it rattles a bit, but the only bits of the interior that are actually visible are still intact. So could have been a lot worse!

 

Once all that was fixed I got the tailplanes, fin and a few detail parts on and have given it a coat of primer.  There are a couple of seams that need a little more work, but not too many. Should be able to start painting tomorrow.

 

The New Ware masks are excellent. I just wish they'd included masks for the wingtip lights and the clear part in the leading edge of the fin.

 

 

cheers

Julian

[JOCKNEY]

Lovely job Julian 

 

This looks huge, is it Valkyrie size ?

 

cheers Pat

[Retired Bob]

8 hours ago, zebra said:

One setback this week - I dropped it a couple of days ago. Broke the nose undercarriage, but it's fixable. A couple of seams reopened themselves, also fixable. And something's come loose inside (I think it's the bolts I stuck in the nose) so it rattles a bit, but the only bits of the interior that are actually visible are still intact. So could have been a lot worse!

 cheers

Julian

Hi Julian

I am not surprised you dropped it, what with juggling a Russian Tu-22, a Grumman Duck and a whistling wheelbarrow!  Joking aside, it's looking very impressive. 👍

Regards.

Bob

[zebra]

3 hours ago, JOCKNEY said:

Lovely job Julian 

 

This looks huge, is it Valkyrie size ?

 

cheers Pat

Cheers Pat. It’s about 60cm long, so probably tiny to anyone building the HK Models Lanc, but a lot bigger than anything I usually go for (although the Mi-10 last year wasn’t small and has to be displayed with a couple of rotor blades removed). Don’t know how I’d handle a Valkyrie, it would be sticking out over the side of the table!

[zebra]

White bits painted and masked, and upper surfaces painted Alclad white aluminium over a gloss black base. I seem to have been very optimistic about how much Alclad this would need - I had enough for the upper surfaces only, the rest will have to wait until I have some more. Not to worry, I can get on with other things in the meantime.