Myasischev M50 ...Nuclear bomber

[general melchett]

Hi there, following on with my Soviet cold war aircraft comes the 1/72nd Amodel M-50 NATO code name 'Bounder' , designed as a long range intercontinental nuclear bomber the M-50 first flew in October of 1959 and was heralded as the new wave of Soviet jet bomber technology.Sadly it never met it's design promise as though the design was sound enough, in fact very cutting edge with all powered control surfaces, all moving tail and satilators, advanced air con system , advanced auto guidance system,huge weapons capability etc, the engines of the time just weren't up to the job and the M50 refused to go supersonic in level flight, ( though it was very close !).The design engines were just round the corner built by the Zubets company and were the most powerful in the world, but due to development problems the M50 ended up with the same engines as the TU-22 Blinder, the Dobrynin VD-7'S and only the inboard pair were fitted with afterburners!! So lots of smoke and indescribable noise was the order of the day. Only one M50 was finished and that now lives at the Monino air museum near Moscow, an amazing sight, still very futuristic , had it had the right engines who knows what might have been !!

The proposed production bomber was to be called the M52 and have a slightly redesigned shape with of course those Zubets engines !!.

Here's a short video on the M50 for anyone that's interested....M50 video

Look at the fun and games the crew had getting in and out !!!!!

The aircraft as stored at Monino in it's 1963 Tushino airshow scheme,

This is the Amodel Amonster series kit that comes in a very big, solid box filled with hundreds of parts, mostly IM plastic though the fuselage and wings are made from resin impregnated fibreglass and are beautifully done with fine recessed detail. The kit is limited edition, just 250 being made and horribly expensive !!, I wont say how much but I paid significantly less by pre ordering from Linden Hill in the US through a friend...

The model has taken about 9 months to build and was finished last week in time for the Cosford show. I have depicted it in it's original scheme as 023 (3+2=5 +0 = 50 ... clever eh , done to confuse and make out more aircraft had been built !!).

Model was preshaded with medium grey and airbrushed in 8 shades of Alclad , finished off with pro Modeller washes and pastel/ chalk post weathering. ( I got through 2 rolls of Tamiya tape and half of my Alclad on this massive model having said that it needed only a tiny bit of Mr Hobby filler and was a joy to build !)

The finished model was very difficult to photograph due to it's huge size . It It seemed to go down well at Cosford drawing a lot of comments mostly along the lines of , 'was that plane in thunderbirds???'

(Need to finish my XB-70 to sit along side it now ... )

One thing i did correct was the sit of the model.I think Amodel moulded the nose gear in the fully extended poition as seen at the museum , but that airframe has no engines, equipment or fuel !!.So I cut the oleo in half and the ouriggers automatically touched the ground...

Hope you like it,

Cheers now,

Andy..

A fair bit of Alclad was used on this one !!

Comparison of size to MIG 21. !!!

Edited April 7, 2009 by general melchett

[Julien]

Holy cold war aspecial Batman!

That thing is HUGE I mean if that is a 1.72 Mig-21. That is one impressive model, must weigh a bit!

Did not fancy scratchbuilding the boarding ladders! I dont blame you.

Looks like it was fun to get in, I dont know about flying it, I bet the overthe nose view on landing was NIL!

Congratualtions on this one!

Julien

ps your vid link does not seem to work

Edited April 6, 2009 by Julien

[Mike]

I saw this gigantic lawn dart on Sunday, and was much impressed. The sheer size of the thing in 1:72 was somewhat stunning... Nice work Andy

[Overkiller]

General, yet another stunner.

I spent the whole day on the Cold War table at Cosford drooling over this "little" beauty, you almost convinced me to hunt one of these down for myself, but the bank manager says NO...

Love the metallic finish, and it sure has some presence, all day people would walk past the display then suddenly do a perfect 180 degree about face and go "What the heck is that?".

Duncan

Edited April 6, 2009 by Overkiller

[Martian]

Lovely model General. Just remind me how many days a week do they let you out? And where the hell do you keep the thing?

Martin

[keefr22]

General, Sir, I salute you!! That is nothing short of MAGNIFICENT Andy!! Absolutely stunning model & superbly photographed! I love the pics with that moody sky background - just brilliant work all round!!

Unfortunately couldn't make it to Cosford, so I hope you've kept a big enough box to take it to Telford.....!!

Great model !!

Keef

[AV O]

Thanks a lot for this giant.

If it could sometimes come out in 1/144th or in 1/200th !!!

Are you waiting for a "Bison" to put side by side when your B-70 is completed ?

[Paul A H]

Very nice job! You've got to love the nose-up attitude of the aircraft on the tarmac. I bet those downward firing ejector seats wouldn't have been popular with crews though... Nice Mig too; Fujimi SMT?

[alrite]

Awesome model of an awesome plane

[general melchett]

Thanks chaps, again as always you're comments are appreciated, sorry about the video link , this happened earlier , then it was OK , I'll have a play with it

No chance of me making those ladders ...!!end up on a psyche ward

Thanks Mike, by the way the doughnuts were delicious ...

Dunc , you know you really want one ....go on be a devil

Martin , I have a day pass, ( not safe at night !!)., It actually sits nicely on my top shelf as its thin and long, unlike the B-36 !! but I am rapidly running out of room

Thanks Keef old fruit , it will be on the R and D table at Telford and then flying across to the Cold War lot on the Sunday..If it survives that long... it's got a few shows to do yet....

[general melchett]

Actually AVO Anigrand do a 1/144th resin one , but sadly it's not terribly accurate, can be carved into shape though !!even in this scale it's quite a size,

[AnonymousFO98]

Crickey Andy you've hit the jackpot again

wowza- half way through the design did they suddenly decide they wanted a hustler?

[Mike]

Thanks Mike, by the way the doughnuts were delicious ...

I'm sure they were, by the amount of lip smacking & finger licking that was going on when I turned up. I'd already had a cheeseburger the size of a dinnerplate from the food van, so extra calories weren't really needed at that point. You greedy bunch of heffers*!

* As one of my many medical conditions, hypocrisy is high on the list

[general melchett]

Paul the seats fired upwards , they only used the hatches for boarding,the strange knobs on top of the canopy are periscopes so that the crew knew what was going on under them

Thanks Alrite.

[JJL567]

Andy,

A truly outstanding build.

I first bought the resin Anigrand M50 kit, but when I saw the A Model version I just had to purchase one.

Looking at this beauty I'm very glad I did.

Fantastic work!

Jon

[general melchett]

Avo the Bison is already on the table, under the knife !!

Mike, you have you're hypocrisy and we have our gluttony, any more deadly sins you want to confess ...

[Paul A H]

Paul the seats fired upwards , they only used the hatches for boarding,the strange knobs on top of the canopy are periscopes so that the crew knew what was going on under them

Really? My mistake then, I thought it used the same seat/system as the Tu-22.

Edited April 7, 2009 by Paul A H

[general melchett]

Cheers Jon .............. enjoy ...... It's a real pleasure to build , but remember to think about lowering the nose oleo if you want it to sit right, oh and watch out for the nose pitot , lost count of the number of times I snapped the thing off ..

Andy

[JJL567]

Copy that.

Cheers.

[Toe]

Not only fine work, but you produce fine work consistently and often, always a pleasure to look at your builds, and looking forward to some more.

Inspirational Sir!

[Veltro]

Beautiful build Andy What a pity this thing never actually became operational eh?

The History Channel (or one of the satellite broadcasters) did a documentary on this and the Bison a few years back. I've got it on video. After its first appearance, the Americans were convinced that the Russians had a fully functioning nuclear-powered bomber in service. They hit the panic buttons at the DoD.

Edited April 6, 2009 by Veltro

[falcon]

One damn fine build there Andy. It certainly got peoples attention at yesterdays model show at Cosford.

[general melchett]

Thank you Steve, I will do my best to bring you some more lighter than air machines from the world of the weird and wacky

Cheers Veltro , quite right the US were convinced it was nuclear powered and very supersonic , the Soviets did nothing to make them think otherwise !!, in fact the Bounder only ever made 19 flights and by the time it was shown at the 1967 Domedodevo air show it ihad been sitting in mothballs for over a year and just wheeled out for the occasion !!

as one spectator at the show said ..''Western observers were impressed by the big, sleek machine -- apparently it made a awesomely thunderous noise even though the flypast wasn't in afterburner -'', would love to have heard it flat out....

[Seamus]

Fantastic Andy, your keen eye for an unusual subject has come up trumps once again, what a beast!

Was a joy to look at in the flesh as it were on Sunday, and was good to meet you too

Cheers

Shaun

[general melchett]

Cheers Chris , It was amusing to see people's reactions to it , most didn't believe it to be real or to have even flown, one old fella was adamant it never existed !! his son insisting that it was ..bloke was getting quite irate

Coventry next ?

Andy