Tu-22M2 Backfire B, Ukraine AF red 07

Sprues were flash-free, panel lines finely engraved (but not so accurate, which became evident as the build progressed).

Back in the day the Tu-22M2 was incorrectly identified by US intelligence as Tu-26.

Bare-bones cockpit with no bulkheads - nothing, really, but who cares, it's all hidden under the canopy, isn't it? But look at all that nice detail in the reference pic!

The Trumpeter 1/72 kit has a nicely detailed cockpit so I used that as reference......

That looks better!

Under the canopy that's enough detail for my display cabinet but we can see the instrument cowling is needed,

When I dry-fitted the wings I found they required reversing (think I read that in an online review during my research) to sit correctly.

I also removed the locating pins and fabricated new ones from sprue.

Which were superglued in place.

Then back to the cockpit; time for some Blu-tac moulding of the cowl and rear bulkhead filler.

Looking much better.

The wings required considerable sanding to fit and rotate nicely.

Back to the fuselage to remove the refueling probe, which the UkAF aircraft don't have.

Also opened up the system operator windows a bit.

Considerable filling and filing/sanding was necessary around the air intake joins.

The tailplanes are attached by locating tabs, whereas they should have pins to allow rotating.

So I filled the tab holes....

And also removed the final points of the fuselage fairing.

Removed the tabs , sanded flat and drilled out each tailplane.

Quite a lot of recontouring of the lower rear fuselage to correct the profile.

Then drill for the pivot pins

Searched in my hardware stash and found suitably sized nails to adapt as the pivot pins.

Drilled out the afterburner cooling intakes.....

And attached.

Undercarriage attached, quite well detailed

I tried rescribing the supplementary engine air bleed doors but wasn't happy with the result and also saw they weren't correctly positioned....

So sanded both sides smooth and decided to create decals for them.

I also needed to rescribe the canopy door openings

Getting there!

After a final sand then wipe with alcohol it was time for the primer coat

A repair was required for one of the TWELVE maingear wheels

The decal sheet, including engine auxiliary air intake doors - I wasn't happy with the colours of the rondels, so ordered a couple of sets of UkAF isignia from Modelmex.

I sprayed the undersides Insignia White 71-279 and topsides RuAF Grey n.8, clearcoated after 2 days with Klear/Pledge and applied decals.

Another coat of Klear/Pledge then weathered with AK oil pencils then Satin Varnish 26-519 topcoat. However this was too glossy to my eye, so I eventually applied a final coat of AV Matt Acrylic Varnish 26-518. Much better!