ICM Tupolev 144 in 1/144

[billn53]

On 3/20/2020 at 8:04 AM, Chief Cohiba said:

Did I say brute force?

 

Only one clamp? I’d call that “gentle persuasion”.

 

[Adam Poultney]

21 minutes ago, TallBlondJohn said:

Look at the real aircraft photos above. A bit skuffed and worn, but no panel line pre-shading effect to be seen. Or on any other in service aircraft I've ever seen. That's all I'm going to say on the subject 🙂

 

Lovely build so far, - makes one realise how good looking the 144 is. Even better than Concorde in places? The canards do let it down a bit though.

I think CCCP-77112 (the one in the photos earlier in the thread) will be significantly cleaner than any of the aircraft were while they were flying, now being a museum piece.

I've certainly seen the panel line effect on phantoms.

Personally I think the Tu144 is actually the better looking of the SSTs and the canards only make it even better. I love Tu144s.

21 minutes ago, Chief Cohiba said:

Beautiful build, and an interesting topic. If these birds wheren't so huge - these are in 1/72, I guess? I know that the Vulcan is available in 1/144 (and on my wishlist), but the Victor and the Valliant? Since "Thunderball" (which I read as a child) a favourite topic of mine...

 

Thanks, yes the Victor is in 1/72. It's the Airfix kit with some aftermarket stuff added to make it into the early B.Mk.2 variant.

All three are available in 1/144, but if you want a Thunderball Vulcan you're out of luck as that is a Vulcan B1a, no kit exists of that variant and it's a rather extensive conversion to do, which of course being me I have done based on the GWH kit

 

11 minutes ago, Chief Cohiba said:

Just googled and found, that Micro Mir have the Victor and Valliant. Oh, dammit...

 

Any experience with these? Please tell me they are unbuildable!

The mikromir kits are pretty typical short run stuff, you need a good amount of patience and there's a few things that you will need to correct. The mikromir Valiant is just wrong, the intakes are wrong, the nose and canopy shape is wrong. I've not built the kit but I'd like to give it a try.

Their Victor is much better, I've built that one. In terms of accuracy it certainly looks like a good Victor Bk.1a, and it's the only decent kit of a Mk1 Victor. The lower airbrake fins are incorrect, but this should be fixable with a bit of modelling. If you want a Mk1 bomber you'll need to modify the leading edge of the wing, something which I missed on mine- annoying as I did the only B1 painted in camo, XA940.

 

[Chief Cohiba]

Thanks guys, for your comment - and for the comment on the Mikro Mir stuff. Right now I just love to get a bit distracted from the Tu, as these sanding and working on again, and some more sanding, and still not looking good... is just a PITA!

 

@Adam Poultney Just briefly; wow! I must admit that's quite a commitment to a specific kit, you see me more than impressed. That's partly an inspiation and partly shying me away, as i will not reach that level of perfection. But I see, the V-Bombers plan slowly is moving on...

 

I don't care for the Bond Vulcan, though, and am quite happy with the B2 - I do love that most-kinky edge, And in the book, which I'm mostly referring to, the plane the evil ones hijacked was one "Villiers Vindicator", so no chance to build that one. But, well, then, maybe, wouldn't that be a great "What-If", combining the most distinct features of the three to one ultimate "Franken-V"? 😄

 

Stop it - back to the Tupolev. I found some images of the Vulcan in anti-flash white, which shows some good weathering. Will use that as well!

[Chief Cohiba]

And, once again, some application of basic physical laws to produce some permanent adhesion...

 

Anyway, here's the current state if it:

 

 

Used CA in the back, then poly in the front - let's wait and see how this turns out tomorrow. I expect need for some more filler, especially at the aft wing roots. 

 

[Chief Cohiba]

And here's how the clamps work did go. First of all: it seems to stay together!

 

 

Then: a few things have to be worked on, as the canopy, or the front joint section:

 

 

 

And a few things need to be covered up, just as I expected:

 

I've expected worse, to be honest. Should be able to cover.

 

Starts to get shape, finally. Looking forward to continue, but not for tonight, I'm afraid.

 

Tune in again on this station, I'll keep you updated...

[Chief Cohiba]

Master Plaster...

 

[Chief Cohiba]

Putty - grinding - painting - cleaning airbrush - repeat...

 

But slowly getting there:

 

 

[Chief Cohiba]

Of course I could go on with this forever, until the body is just paper thin, while I still find some imperfections, but what the... - this is a russian cold war plane, not a polished piece of marble.

 

So, plan is for the preshading today, and difficult decision for the colour. Here's for the options:

 

 

(yes, I do like those Revell colours: one can use them with an airbrush (but there are better, to be honest), but with brush as well, for small corrections, dry painting, I used them for washing in the past as well - but most of all: you get them almost anywhere around here, so if you miss one very colour, you just hop into your car, go to any model store nearby, continue an hour later, and don't have to wait for them to be delivered. )

I don't wan't to overdo the pre washing, as this is supposed to be a desktop model on a stand, and will sit on my desk, but right now this is just too shiny - like from an laundry ad from the seventies... 😉

 

So, me dear followers; what would you point at? (Final white will be done with revell as well, which I use pretty transparent, to be considered)

[Adam Poultney]

If you're using a fairly transparent white I'd say use something like that grey labelled 361 79 for a preshade

[Chief Cohiba]

Finished the preshading, used the Blaugrau 79 for the bottom and the Grau 74 for the upper:

 

 

 

I want this to be only very faintly visible, so I expect a few layers of white on top of that...

[Desk Flyer]

Coming along nicely! Keep it up!

[Chief Cohiba]

Done with the upper side and mounted the nose the last few days. Did I say I wanted only a very subtle shading on these? 😉

 

It's quite difficult to catch this on photos, but I'm pleased with the result in real life. My guess with decals and a final, slight wash in light brown-grey the effect will be just what I'm looking for. 

 

 

 

[Chief Cohiba]

And moving on with the approbriate use of some  kitchen accessories...

 

 

The moment when you should tell your wife that this doesn't belong to the bin:

 

 

Masked...

 

[Adam Poultney]

This is looking good, I'd like to build another in the flying configuration now.....

[Chief Cohiba]

...and I thought about building one with nose down and ears out. 😉

Here's for the bottom painted, which went significantly easier than the white top:

 

On this picture the seam between the wing parts is visible, which by far not that prominent in reality, but can be slightly seen nevertheless. This is one of the flaws of this build; I thought about greating sort of a structure below this part, but didn't. Now I fail to fix this in a proper position. I'ts on the bottom, so not very prominent, but one knows and I'm not too hapy with this. 

 

But the colour on top and bottom turned out good:

 

 

I'll try to fix this gap, and a few more detail work on the upper paint and around the engines:

 

 

Then painting the rear engine area, the clear coat and then ready for the decals...

[Chief Cohiba]

Painted the tail, and dyfitting on the stand.

 

 

 

Some smaller corrections and improvements on some parts to come, before applying clear coat...

[Chief Cohiba]

Clear coated and unmasked...

 

 

 

Now waiting for Alclad to dry, so it will stand the rain of MicroSol.

[Adam Poultney]

This thread is reminding me just now much I love the Tupolev 144, much better off on the ground though. Build is certainly looking good, you seem to have nailed the white. 

 

Last night I got my tu144 off the shelf to compare size to my unfinished Concorde (I have no plans to finish that, I want to get a new one at some point though)- also remembered that I still haven't put on the landing gear doors for my Tupolev... I knocked off a canard, which is unglued as I'd rather they fall off than snap off given how easy it would be to knock them and break them, and it fell under a box on a shelf, I spent ages looking for it at almost 3am.... 

[Chief Cohiba]

18 hours ago, Adam Poultney said:

This thread is reminding me just now much I love the Tupolev 144, much better off on the ground though. Build is certainly looking good, you seem to have nailed the white. 

 

Last night I got my tu144 off the shelf to compare size to my unfinished Concorde (I have no plans to finish that, I want to get a new one at some point though)- also remembered that I still haven't put on the landing gear doors for my Tupolev... I knocked off a canard, which is unglued as I'd rather they fall off than snap off given how easy it would be to knock them and break them, and it fell under a box on a shelf, I spent ages looking for it at almost 3am.... 

Many thanks, Adam, this was a short but sometimes a bit frustrating journey, for whatever reasons. I wouldn't blame this on the kit, though it has some challenges, but nothing that couldn't be handled. At least if you're aware, and with only little experience in modelling one should be, as these areas are obvious, like the joint between upper and lower wings parts.  But it wasn't an entirely happy build, maybe it's because this is far of my usual topic of WWI planes, with unknown challenges, maybe it's these strange times, I don't know.

 

But, before I continue: If you need some parts for your Tupolew, it's possible I still have them, at least for the canards as well as the landing gear doors. Provided mail service is up I could just put them in an envelope and send them to UK, which I gladly would do.

 

So, for the current state.

 

I finished the decals late evening yesterday, but didn't have a chance to make photos yet. It was going ok, but had some challenges. The decals are very thin, which looks good as they lay down easily into the surface structures, what they did. Apart from the red flag, which I didn't manage to nail down, though I used the same amount of MicroSol before and after - but anyway. The long blue strips where of course a challenge, and did break on some places, as they had a tendency not to peel away of the base paper, but stick to it at the back, when you had the front already on the model. Even after minutes of soaking, where it almost starts to swim.

 

Also they didn't 100% fit to the doors and the windows, maybe because they are so thin that they stretched a bit. This leaving some white frame on a few windows, which I will try to cover as well with some blue colour and a very fine brush.

 

Finally, the decals are very glossy, which looks good on a desktop model on a stand, as I want to have it (so I'm fine), but if you want to create a more weathered look it might be difficult.

 

But I seems as I will reach the finish with this and have to sit it on my desk soon. Pics will follow.

[Chief Cohiba]

As promised earlier, here are the pics of the current state. Sorry my bit emotional post earlier, let's call it a monday. 😉

 

It may look sort of finished at first glance, but a few steps are to follow, like the cover up of the windows, the nose probe (will use a guitar string for that) and probably the antenna on the tail as well as the wings, as we have some casualties on this. Also, a proper mount for the stand to make it somewhat stable.

 

But here's for now:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It does look quite pleasing, at least in my eyes, though of some of the flaws it has. Might just be that it will rest a bit before final finishing, so might take a while until I move this to RFI. 😉

[Abandoned Project]

This is very educational for my own Tu-144D build.