Bear-J Red 17, RF34073.....Completed, finally!!
Let the dance begin.........
Found some instruments from an earlier build (can't see them after the canopy is on, but I just can't resist adding cockpit stuff!
Yes, cyano to hold those fishing weights. Just have to keep my fingers crossed.
Should be enough, I suppose.
All that cockpit detail's about to disappear. Lots of dry-fitting of the fuselage halves to minimise gap filling.
Speaking of nacelles, I didn't study the instructions deeply enough otherwise I would have seen the intake mouldings for these ???
One of the absent scoops, should be on each nacelle ?
First attempt at these little intake housings.
.......drilled out some sprue and filed to shape, but in the end I wasn't happy with the result. so removed them all and ordered some Evergreen 1.5 & 2.0mm half round.
Cooler exhaust should be open.
Drilled and filed, looks a bit closer to the real item.
These are the 3 missing cockpit windows. The Trumpeter artists just didn't take note of the differences on the MR variant ?
Windows drilled and filing in progress.
Instrument panel cowl cut from one of my old business cards (knew they'd be useful one day!).
Another area where the MR differs from the other variants - upper rear fuselage doesn't have all those fairings included in the kit.
Cleaning up the fuselage.
There are extra sensor pods for the Radar Warning Receiver system clearly visible on those rear fairings ?
More gizmology - I repurposed a couple of missiles with a small square of brass sheet to reinforce the join.
Top view of the new pods - this is not a competition build, so only I will see what's underneath!
More filling........
Lots of dry fitting before gluing.
Comparison of Tu-95 in 1/200 & Tu-142 in 1/144 scales.
More filling, sanding & rescribing.
Moment of truth - the gravity gluing trick. I use Tamiya Extra Thin cement, sometimes assisted by cyano.
Some careful gap filling, applied as thin bead then smoothed with damp cotton bud - no sanding required if you're good! ?
The next challenge was how to hold it for painting - those wire coat hangers are always useful!
tail glass masked up
I found some more missing sensor holes!
Time to mask up the windows - I'd decided before commencing the build not to use most of the kit windows, just the main cockpit window and the tailgunner station. I use the adhesive foil which comes on soup/gravy flavouring cubes.
Cockpit sanded flush
Nicely detailed undercarriage, also very strong!
Primed and looking good! Shot the Vallejo surface primer with an H&S Evo using the 0,2 needle.
Love that Metal Color!
The underside is starting to look closer to the actual.
Another missing sensor pod ?
A search through the spares boxes and I found a suitable item to recontour.
The kit has decals for the yellow prop tips, but I decided to paint them - less fiddly.
Wheels 'n props looking good.
This is the correct tailgun installation for these aircraft - 2 x twin barrel 23mm Gryazev-Shipunov GSh-23 cannon.
This is the second attempt at the 23mm cannon - tried first using small diameter pins, but they were just too heavy. This time I'm using silver wire.
Step by step.
After painting I decided they will be perfectly OK, considering once the kit is in the display cabinet I'm the only one who sees these details.
This is the decal sheet I made up - lots of grabbing from those hi-res pics using GIMP, trial and error to achieve the correct sizing, then printed onto "Mondo Decal" paper. After trying a couple of other brands I found this is almost as good as many kit decals. The printer is an Epson WF-2630 and I use only genuine Epson ink.
Kit stars, all the others are self-printed.
The nose art came out really well, red is a bit washed out but I see plenty of fading on the actual aircraft!
Ready to seal the decals, just a bit of weathering to go.
Started working with the Evergreen strip yesterday, the 1.5mm half round looks perfect to me for those small air intake fairings on top of the nacelles.
Commenced filing to shape using the basic "hold tightly in left hand" clamp but soon realised this wouldn't do, so improvised a suitable clamping system.
Started using this stuff 30 years ago, I know there are alternatives out there but I'm a bit of a creature of habit!
Cut to length (4mm) and sat in place to see how it looks. Definitely an improvement on the pathetic kit representation!
This is the Trumpeter effort after I drilled a hole to try and improve the appearance, nothing like the real thing plus two are on the wrong side of the nacelle. The 1/72 kit is just as bad!!
Filed to a better profile and held in place with a drop of cyano gel.
After painting, I think it can look OK from a metre (ie, in the display cabinet)?
Like this.......only 3 hours or so to reach this point, with three more
Aerial installation time; after drilling a hole for the front attachment point I asked Patrizia for a couple of her daily discarded hair shafts - I have discovered these to be ideal for this application, much easier to handle than stretched sprue. This pic shows the hair after attachment using cyano.
After a 24 hour wait to ensure the lower anchor point was completely set, time to attach to the upper anchor point.
There is an auxiliary aerial near the lower anchor point, more cyano to attach and also added a couple of droplets top and bottom to represent insulators (at least, that's what I imagine they are on the actual aircraft).
After painting black, the aerial comes to life!
Here it is against the sky, I'm happy with the outcome.
To install the guns I needed to enlarge the slot in the turret.
After installing them and setting at a slight downward angle they looked good.......until the model slipped off the supports backwards onto the guns and also wiped off most of the underside blade aerials 🙁
After sulking for a couple of days as I was sure they weren't repairable I returned to find i was able to reinstall then rather successfully. Wouldn't be OK for an exhibition but definitely good in my display cabinet.
These are the kit pitot tubes, which I left to last as it was obvious they would be very breakable. The sensor tubes are so far out of scale as to be unusable, so I decided a rework was necessary.
After studying my reference pics closely, I first removed the "tubes".......
Then cut short lengths of my trusty silver wire and attached with (guess what) cyano gel.
Attached and painted, they are still a little oversize but look much better then those kit abominations.
Here is the underside, I didn't get too carried away with the weathering as all the pics I have indicate that these aircraft are rather well maintained and are regularly washed.
Front 3/4 shot with a Flanker to give an idea of relative size.
Top view. The upper crew station windows, sensor pod (orange cap), aerial and quadruple tailguns are evident.
Right side view.
Right 3/4.
Right rear 3/4.
Side view with the two Flankers.
Top view.
Comments
14 21 January 2022, 10:27
David R. MeizosoWhat's a huge bird! Great work adding all the missing bits and vents!
21 January 2022, 12:02
Richard ChealsThanks guys! Can't wait to see how the B-52G and Tu-26M2 look alongside it 😉. That russianplanes.net site is a fantastic resource.
21 January 2022, 13:02
Spanjaardnice looking Bear. russianplanes.net is a gold mine 🙂 thanks for the link
21 January 2022, 20:13
Richard ChealsYes, Spanjaard, great resource and you get to practice your Russian language skills 😁
21 January 2022, 20:48
Spanjaardsure, i am fluent already... without google translate would be difficult to even find the ones i want 😄 😄
21 January 2022, 22:26
Album info
33cm of 1/144 scale wonderfulness - this is the Trumpeter Tu-142MR, scaled down from their 1/72 kit. Another one of Vlad's tools to keep the western nations on their toes!
Painted in the current ocean grey scheme complete with fuselage art "Великий Устюг" ("Great Ustyug").
The build is now completed, really enjoyed this one!
Nice kit but not so accurate in the details - those engine fairings, some of the engine panels are engraved in mirror image, various sensor pods not needed or missing, a few cockpit windows missing.
I found plenty of hi-res pics at russianplanes.net/st/Tupolev/Tu-142MK, this is an outstanding resource for modern Russian aircraft.
Made the decals (apart from the kit stars) myself.
Builds up to a really impressive model!
