Soviet sentinel

[Col.]

10 hours ago, PeterB said:

...Sorry to go on so, but this is an area I knew virtually nothing about before as it was shrouded in secrecy until quite recently - I am finding it rather interesting!

Better leave Col to get on with his build thread - sorry mate.

Nah, your fine fella, I also find the subject fascinating and always enjoy learning more about it  

 

10 hours ago, PeterB said:

...The Tu-128 also went through considerable "paper" redesign including "strike" versions, delta and swing wings, but this is not a GB that allows that sort of build.

Projected although unbuilt designs are also eligible so long as their purpose was to target enemy aircraft  

[Aardvark]

40 minutes ago, Col. said:

Projected although unbuilt designs are also eligible so long as their purpose was to target enemy aircraft  

Especially if this stack of interceptor blueprints fell in the archive on the head of some secret hunter spy!

😉😁

 

B.R.

Serge 

 

[Col.]

Today's plan was to make a start to this one but sadly work got in the way. What I did, however, was spent some time trying to track down photos of the real machine and in particular confirm the interior colours. Trumpeter is somewhat vague on the subject but would have me paint the cockpit light blue with black panels. The seats I can freestyle it seems  The nose undercarriage bay is silver but the main undercarriage bays and all undercarriage legs are to be the same light blue as the cockpit.

A search around the internet doesn't turn up many photos of the Tu-128 in colour but the ones I did find show silver undercarriage legs so I'll ignore Trumpeter on that point. The cockpit, however, is a different matter. While the colour call-out seems correct the rear cockpit looks rather different in the photos I found to what's provided in the kit. Rather than two consoles the left side has its equipment on the sidewall while the right side is little more than a shelf with plenty going on below it.

If I'm going to display this one with the canopies open there's work to be done in there

Further to this I've also found a few photos showing the crew were equipped with orange immersion suits for certain operations.

 

Sadly there's no figures included within the kit but the spares box may tell a different story...

[Hewy]

Great looking aircraft col,why have the canooy open and spoil its lines ,sorted🤗

[Col.]

21 minutes ago, Hewy said:

Great looking aircraft col, why have the canopy open and spoil its lines ,sorted🤗

That's a good point Glynn  

[Aardvark]

Gray cockpit colour interior may see here on Tu-128UT:

http://forums.airforce.ru/attachments/matchast/46425d1359362872-tu128ut-rschev-zinchuk-11-.jpg/

Iinterior operator cockpit here:

http://forums.airforce.ru/attachments/matchast/46424d1359362741-10.jpg/

Interior pilot cockpit here:

http://forums.airforce.ru/attachments/matchast/46422d1359357727-368-.jpg/

 

List Tu-128 here:

http://forums.airforce.ru/matchast/4961-reestr-tu-128-a/

https://aviaforum.ru/threads/reestr-tu-128.35567/

 

B.R.

Serge

 

[Col.]

4 hours ago, Aardvark said:

Gray cockpit colour interior may see here on Tu-128UT:

http://forums.airforce.ru/attachments/matchast/46425d1359362872-tu128ut-rschev-zinchuk-11-.jpg/

Iinterior operator cockpit here:

http://forums.airforce.ru/attachments/matchast/46424d1359362741-10.jpg/

Interior pilot cockpit here:

http://forums.airforce.ru/attachments/matchast/46422d1359357727-368-.jpg/

 

List Tu-128 here:

http://forums.airforce.ru/matchast/4961-reestr-tu-128-a/

https://aviaforum.ru/threads/reestr-tu-128.35567/

 

B.R.

Serge

Excellent stuff again. Thank you Serge.

[Col.]

Inspired by @Aardvark's links and some photos of the rear cockpit I found online a while back I've decided to correct the rear 'pit. To this end the razor saw was employed and lots of careful measurements made,

 

 

Please excuse the tablecloth but sure you can see where this is going.

[PeterB]

On 11/14/2020 at 6:50 PM, Col. said:

Sadly there's no figures included within the kit but the spares box may tell a different story...

Hi Col,

 

Sometime back in I think the 1990's I bought a Trumpeter Su-24, and as it needed something to hang under the wings and fuselage I also bought one each of their Soviet armaments sets for Air to Air and Air to Ground. They happen to include Soviet "pilot" figures in a seated position and I have never used them. If you still need a crew I will dig them out and take a pic as you will be welcome to have them if you want.

 

Pete

[Col.]

16 minutes ago, PeterB said:

Hi Col,

 

Sometime back in I think the 1990's I bought a Trumpeter Su-24, and as it needed something to hang under the wings and fuselage I also bought one each of their Soviet armaments sets for Air to Air and Air to Ground. They happen to include Soviet "pilot" figures in a seated position and I have never used them. If you still need a crew I will dig them out and take a pic as you will be welcome to have them if you want.

 

Pete

Thank you very much Pete, I'd appreciate that, was thinking of options last night and not getting far without recourse to major modification of the few remaining figures I have.

[PeterB]

Hi Col,

I bought all 3 of the sets but only the air to air one has crew - 2 of them with seperate left arms. If you PM me your address I will post them in the next few days. Incidentally, if there are any  Soviet era weapons you want let me know as I have used a few from the sets but am unlikely to be using any more of them other than Aphids and early Atolls. Unfortunately they do not have AA-3 Anabs for your 128, but the ones with the kit are much more recent as the sets were produced almost 30 years ago - they are listed on Scalemates and are actually Dragon not Trumpeter as I originally thought.

 

Bit of flash but better in real life than the macro pic - as ever.

 

Cheers

 

Pete

Edited November 20, 2020 by PeterB

[Col.]

On 11/20/2020 at 10:18 AM, PeterB said:

Hi Col,

I bought all 3 of the sets but only the air to air one has crew - 2 of them with seperate left arms. If you PM me your address I will post them in the next few days. Incidentally, if there are any  Soviet era weapons you want let me know as I have used a few from the sets but am unlikely to be using any more of them other than Aphids and early Atolls. Unfortunately they do not have AA-3 Anabs for your 128, but the ones with the kit are much more recent as the sets were produced almost 30 years ago - they are listed on Scalemates and are actually Dragon not Trumpeter as I originally thought.

 

Bit of flash but better in real life than the macro pic - as ever.

 

Cheers

 

Pete

Thank you Pete

[PeterB]

Hi Col,

 

No problem as I am building everything "on the ground" these days so don't really need crew. PM me with your address and I will post them next week - I have a box already.

 

Pete

[Col.]

Given that my last update to this project was now over a week ago it's clearly time for another progress report. The cockpit has consumed the majority of my attention during the intervening time and is now well advanced,

 

 

Not much more to be done in there then it'll be time to paint it up.

 

@PeterB kindly sent me a pair of Soviet pilots from his Dragon weapons set as I was harbouring ideas of crewing this model to show their interesting orange flight suits. Sadly the seats are a touch on the big side and as a result a 72nd scale pilot figure looks rather lost in it,

 

 

This revelation does at least, however, explain why I was struggling with the proportions of the cockpit details - because to seats are over-scale the floor is too low and all the detail I've added has been stretched to it the too-deep space. It's also making me question the proportions of the entire forward fuselage now but perhaps the best course of action is to stop fussing and get on with making the model. With that in mind I've assembled the rear fuselage,

 

 

Sadly there's some steps at the joins where I've struggled to fit parts together. These could have been reduced more with a longer fitting and fettling session but foolishly I rushed this a little   Intrusive mould ejection pins and runner attachment points on mating surfaces as can be seen on this upper wing part don't help the fit at all and time is needed to clean everything up to promote better fitting,

 

 

 

[PeterB]

Hi Col,

 

That's a pity - I suppose replacement seats are out of the question? Of course there is no guarantee the figures would fit them either!.

 

Pete

[Col.]

8 hours ago, PeterB said:

Hi Col,

 

That's a pity - I suppose replacement seats are out of the question? Of course there is no guarantee the figures would fit them either!.

 

Pete

Although NeOmega did do a set of suitable aftermarket resin seats I've not found any for sale Pete  I suspect that would also mean having to make some major changes to the cockpit again otherwise they'd sit too low. There is, however, plenty other Soviet/Russian subjects in the stash your boys will fit into  

Edited November 27, 2020 by Col.

[At Sea]

This is worth buying if you haven't got it.

 

The translation is clunky in places but it's a great resource.

 

 

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Soviet-Cold-Fighters-Alexander-Mladenov/dp/178155496X

[Hewy]

Col great work on that pit, it looks good pal,dont drop a pilot in ,so what, enjoy it

[Hewy]

Oh hang on, i just spotted two other pilots on your bench, maybe you could do a transplant similar to that steve martin film the man with two brains, only heads

[Aardvark]

20 hours ago, Col. said:

 

 

Is this three-blade propeller,  on photo, also included in the Tu-128 Trumpeter kit?

For Tu-128TP?

😁

10 hours ago, Col. said:

Although NeOmega did do a set of suitable aftermarket resin seats I've not found any for sale Pete  I suspect that would also mean having to make some major changes to the cockpit again otherwise they'd sit too low. 

Do not be upset about the ejection seats KT-1 from NeOmega, because the A-models Tu-128 also have problems with them. Ejection seats KT-1 from NeOmega also too big for A-model cockpit. This may be due to the fact that NeOmega ejection seats were originally made for the Tu-22M model and were part of its cockpit aftermarket detail set.

 

B.R.

Serge

 

 

[Col.]

9 hours ago, At Sea said:

This is worth buying if you haven't got it.

The translation is clunky in places but it's a great resource.

 

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Soviet-Cold-Fighters-Alexander-Mladenov/dp/178155496X

I almost bought that right away but have far too great a back-log of books to read through at the moment.

 

4 hours ago, Hewy said:

Col great work on that pit, it looks good pal, don't drop a pilot in ,so what, enjoy it

Part of my reasoning to include crew figures was to illustrate the cool orange flight suits. The other part was to avoid making a set of seatbelts  

 

4 hours ago, Hewy said:

Oh hang on, i just spotted two other pilots on your bench, maybe you could do a transplant similar to that steve martin film the man with two brains, only heads

 

4 hours ago, Aardvark said:

Is this three-blade propeller,  on photo, also included in the Tu-128 Trumpeter kit?

For Tu-128TP?

😁

Do not be upset about the ejection seats KT-1 from NeOmega, because the A-models Tu-128 also have problems with them. Ejection seats KT-1 from NeOmega also too big for A-model cockpit. This may be due to the fact that NeOmega ejection seats were originally made for the Tu-22M model and were part of its cockpit aftermarket detail set.

 

B.R.

Serge

That mess of a workbench really does need a major tidy

I need to dig out the part-build Amodel kit I inherited to compare notes but suspect these two kits will be very different in that area.

[Col.]

15 hours ago, Aardvark said:

Do not be upset about the ejection seats KT-1 from NeOmega, because the A-models Tu-128 also have problems with them. Ejection seats KT-1 from NeOmega also too big for A-model cockpit. This may be due to the fact that NeOmega ejection seats were originally made for the Tu-22M model and were part of its cockpit aftermarket detail set.

Late last night I dug out the Amodel kit and compared seats. There's a size difference alright!  So ordered a set of the NeOmega seats in the hope they fill the Trumpeter cockpit better if too big for the Amodel one. If they don't fit I'll have to buy the Tu-22M kit so they don't go to waste  

Thankfully their MiG-23UB conversion was out of stock otherwise it could have become a much more expensive order   

 

In the meantime the wings were fitted  

 

 

Edited November 28, 2020 by Col.

[Hewy]

 A Great shape isn't it? 

[CliffB]

2 hours ago, Col. said:

So ordered a set of the NeOmega seats in the hope they fill the Trumpeter cockpit better if too big for the Amodel one. If they don't fit I'll have to buy the Tu-22M kit so they don't go to waste  

Where do you buy your stuff from Col?  I think I'll buy some shares 

[Col.]

22 minutes ago, Hewy said:

 A Great shape isn't it? 

Oh yes

 

20 minutes ago, CliffB said:

Where do you buy your stuff from Col?  I think I'll buy some shares 

The way I've been spending money on cycling and model-making kit lately my bank manager must think I'm buying shares!