Tu-134UBL "Black Pearl"
Here we go. For some deranged reason, I thought this would be a straightforward build :\. Shows my experience with Amodel/SovaM kits. I'm currently between two paint schemes, the Black Pearl scheme or a royal blue wave scheme.
There are no aligning pins, holes, or anything to tell you where the hell you're supposed to glue pieces together
Trying to line up the fuselage. The center section is about 2 mm too short. In order to line up all the panel lines, the bottom fuselage section will need to be cut in half
Adding the cabin dividers. The rear one will be used to hide all of the wiring.
This former will sit just in front of the wings, and will ensure that the interior floor doesn’t sag. I still need to cut out holes to allow wiring to pass through.
Back cabin wall with the floor in place
Mock-up of the floor with additional formers under the back cabin wall. It’s looking pretty good. There is a door way to (I assume) electrical equipment and other onboard systems. That needs to be cut out. There won’t be any lighting in this back part
Rear floor support with a cutout for wiring
Central former, cutouts to be added
Interior view from cockpit
List of steps until the interior is fully buttoned up
Window holes are cleaned up. Luckily they perfectly fit a 1/4” drill bit
Interior is built. Lights need to be mounted to the structure and the walls need some putty
Interior is primed, there are definitely a few issues that will need to be sanded down
It’s crazy how hard it was for me to sand down the problem areas instead of just starting to paint, but I’m really glad I did it. The result is so much smoother than the first pass
I used a mix of ammo mig Russian blue and cyan 5:1 to get a pretty good analog of the cockpit blue
Getting started on the wingtip position lights
I’ve gone back and cut some grooves into the floor to mimic the paneling that exists in the original
Of course I buy a big set of new paints, but I don’t have an analogue for the cockpit green. I got this color by mixing ammo mig light medium green and deep green 5:2.
Lower interior and window wells have been painted with xf -74 OD.
Floors have been repainted with x2-85 rubber black. Floor lines will be traced with a diluted light gray to accent the tracks
Remaining cockpit items are ready for priming
While I’m waiting for extras to arrive, I got started with the wing assemblies. Each wing will have a wingtip position light, and a taxi light which is mounted on the inner area of the main gear bays
The gear bay light will have to hang loose until the gear bay is painted
I used my usual trick for the position lights: a bit of fiber optic cable connecting some clear plastic and the led
Most of the light bleed has been removed by painting the connecting fiber and surrounding plastic with Bart black paint
And let this be a lesson to me, PATIENCE
The halves of this wing are glued together with the optical fiber connecting the LED and clear plastic
This half that i'm working on has the LED sitting inside of the clear plastic. Obviously, it is much brighter, but actually it is easier to install too
With a bit of paint, I’ve managed to get the brightness to be pretty close to the red position light
Both wings are closed up. I still need to paint and close up the landing gear bays
Adding some small details to the main gear bays even though these will probably never be seen once the bay is closed up
Engine components primed, but I forgot to sand the inner engine housings
Gear bays are going to be a medium gray
I wanted to highlight the “panel lines”, but wasn’t as accurate as I’d hoped, so I’ll need to go back over with a thin layer of black
I tried using splatters to emulate the interior of a museum TU-134. It’s not what I was looking for, but it’ll do
A huge milestone for this project, the interior lighting is wired, soldered, and glued in place, and there are no short circuits
Everything except the cockpit is fully painted. The usual clear coat, shading, and flat coat before I can finally close this all up
I couldn't help myself, so i mocked it up
The only possible issue, is that some of the cables from the light fixture poke out above the styrene rod. Worst case, there is a bit of light bleed, but it will be fairly difficult to see any kind of gap between the light fixture and the top of the inner fuselage
I ended up panel lining right over the decal. Would not recommend doing, it was pretty stressful
ITS ASSEMBLY DAY
Unfortunately while removing one of the inner canopy masks, i pulled off some paint as well. The panel liner on the window will get cleaned off as well
Instrument panel is in. This was probably one of the trickiest things to fit in right, and it still isn't 100% square.
Canopy area is all assembled. I will add cockpit LEDS to the roof once the cockpit section is all ready to be closed up
A peak through the cabin into the cockpit. I'm fairly happy with the result, although most of the cockpit will be covered up and not visible anymore.
Intake fans and exhaust ducts are assembled.
All 5 nose LEDs are wired (2 cockpit lights, 2 taxi lights, 1 anti collision light). It’s pretty tight, the strobe light took up more space than expected
Getting these two LEDs seated was more challenging than the instrument panel.
Nose is fully assembled. The taxi light LEDs are sticking out an extra inch currently, but I couldn't think of a better way to keep the LED/ light structure from breaking while everything gets sanded
Left fuselage attached. I had to do some pretty serious bending with heat to get both halves aligned to each other and to the nose section. I’ve added a wire the full length of the fuselage to connect the nose lights, the lower anti collision light (to be added), the interior lighting, and the taxi and position lights in the wings. I’ll also be adding a quick connector so I can easily connect and disconnect the circuit
I’m not happy with this seam, but at this point I’m willing to accept this fault
Top anti collision light is almost fully seated
Strobe lights are seated. Luckily, the duty cycle on one of the strobes is several milliseconds shorter than the other, so they naturally alternate without any additional changes by me.
Currently, they’re just sitting at the end of a hole drilled into the fuselage halves. I’m considering filling that hole with fiber or clear sprue, and then gluing the kit pieces on top of the fiber
The wiring isn’t too bad in the back. All that is missing is the quick connector, which I will likely add last during or after I connect the wings
And both halves are fully sealed up. Lots of sanding and putty will be needed
Power connector is glued into the last “cap” that will get added once the wings are glued and wired together
Putty putty putty
Sanding sanding sanding
Fuselage is fully sanded up to 2000 grit. Another round of priming to make sure everything is smooth, and then I will polish up the windows and start attaching the vertical stabilizer and engines
Panel lines have been rescribed
Engines are on. These should provide a good frame of reference when attaching the vertical stabilizer and wings
I couldn’t help mocking it all up
Not sure why everything looks off, but I made sure the wings and engines are all square to each other. Perhaps it is the stump where the vertical stabilizer will be attached that is making things look off
I think I will keep the vertical stabilizer separate while everything gets painted. This will allow easier access to paint the engines. The overall wing assemblies still need a bunch of putty and sanding, but I wanted to get the model fully sealed, as lots of sanding dust was getting inside the cabin.
Wiring the wings, main fuselage, and quick connector together
And the interior is essentially sealed up. I will cover the opening by the vertical stabilizer while sanding or painting
Recently, I've found some new photos showing some kind of light on the leading edve of the vertical stabilizer. I haven't been able to find any reference material that explains what it is for or when it is in use, so for the time being, I think I'm going to leave the vertical stabilizer as it is.
Second horizontal stabilizer attached
I spent a bunch of time making sure everything is all square, and I think I was mostly successful.
IM TIRED OF SANDING
The wing root will need to be smoothed out further
I sanded the antennae
Round 1 of sanding wings and joints done
There’s only a few small areas left to add some more putty to, so I’ve started describing panel lines. The left wing is mostly done
After a break and more filling/sanding, window masks are on
I’ve added 1.5mm fiber optic cable for the anti collision lights. The parts that came with the kit were incorrectly shaped, and I lost one of them.
A few spots to touch up, but otherwise all primed and ready for a coat of aluminum or steel
Some small spots to fix on the horizontal stabilizers
Just a few more holes left on the joint between the wings and the main fuselage. There are also a bunch of mistakes I made while describing which are getting touch ups
Metallic coat down. I used a mix of aluminum and steel
I’m pretty happy with how the joints between wings and fuselage turned out, even with minor flaws
I’m not sure how I managed to miss these scribing mistakes. There are additional ones further along the fuselage as well
Getting started on the final color of the aircraft. The directions for the Zvezda 1:144 kit say to use XF-24 (medium to dark gray) for the main color. After trying it out on one of the horizontal stabilizers, it was way too light, so I started making a custom mix of X-3 Royal blue, XF-24, and XF-85 rubber black. I have no idea what ratio it’s mixed at, so I will have to do some test mixes to re-create the shade
I’m pretty happy with the color result. It’s nice and dark, but next to pure black, there is a clear difference in hue.
Annoyingly, I didn’t count out the ratios when I mixed the shading color, so I’ve had to try to recreate it. The color I’ve ended with has a stronger sheen to it, and it is a bit darker. I’m going to take the day and think about the color; and whether I want to try another mixture.
After 7 hours, the base shading is done.
Getting started on the main coat, I ended up using a mixture of XF-24, X-3, and XF-85 at a ratio of 4:1:3. Up close, and under bright light, the sheen of the base shading shows through the over coat. I’m hoping that after a coat or two of clear gloss, that won’t be as much of a factor
The upper half of the aircraft is painted. I’m not sure how, but I didn’t mix the correct ratios, so thr paint is a much lighter color. Unfortunately I didn’t notice until I was cleaning up, so I will need to go back over everything with a darker color
The color is too blue and too light, especially under bright light
I slightly adjusted the mixture to have a bit more of the rubber black. It didn’t end up being noticeably darker, so I think I’m just going to accept this color as it is
Unsurprisingly, I ended up with a bunch of overspray. I will paint the red wingtips, and then go back and re-paint.
Wingtips painted. I’m going to add a light coat of gloss over the metallic so that it doesn’t get pulled off by masking
Working on the landing gear. Nose gear, antennas, and landing lights are left. The landing lights will be tricky, and are what I’m most concerned about. The difficult part will be to build and install them without damaging the LEDs, otherwise the whole thing will be pointless
The wheels lack a good amount of detail, so I decided to buy an aftermarket set
After a bunch of thought around how to best build the landing lights, I decided to have the main piece 3d printed. Once the LED is seated in the little recessed area, I plan to use UV resin to create the clear "lens"
Landing gear, doors, and landing lights primed. I’m not sure whether I want to attach the tail assembly before the landing gear or after.
Doing this as a test fit. The LED is covered with some UV resin, which seals and seats the LED nicely.
Imagine if things actually worked every once in a while. Luckily, there is extra wire I can use to splice the test LED in.
Main gear landing lights are installed, and the wires are nicely hidden within the landing gear bays.
FINALLY got the last LED working.
Getting these lights attached and set was a big source of worry on this project, and I am glad that it is done.
Horizontal stabilizer attached
I tried adding some gray Tamiya weathering powder to accent some of the details on the tires, but I think I overdid it a bit.
I added some thin rigging line to the gear to emulate hydraulic lines.
Wheels assembled, I was planning to attach them to the landing gear before attaching it to the fuselage, but I’ve decided I will add the landing gear first since getting it into place will be tricky
Main gear is loosely positioned. It appears that the wheels won't be level or square, but at this point, I’m willing to accept that.
2/3 of the nose gear assembly is in
All 10 wheels and gear in place.
I'm very happy with how the nose gear turned out. Since I didn't follow the build instructions, it was pretty difficult to attach the nose gear.
I'm very dissapointed with how the main gear turned out, especially the left set. Despite shortening the strut, the wheels are still not horizontal. Now this set isn't level or square, and I'm honestly not too sure about how strong the superglue bond is and whether it will hold the model up.
A few beauty shots of the project in its current state before it gets put on hold.
Decals have arrived. Unfortunately, they look terrible, although I don’t think the person doing the work is to blame :/
Luckily, some of the original decals will be usable, so I should be able to mix and mash the decals needed
Comments
54 11 January 2023, 17:50
Reaper_leadI'm already complaining it's gonna be a difficult build, so here I go making it harder 😉. I'm going to add some lighting to this kit. The most difficult part will be adding the position lights in the wing tips. The plan is to add interior lighting in the "passenger" section of the fuselage, as well as two overhead lights in the cockpit. Taxi lights should be simple to add as well, given there will be plenty of space to hide the wires away. I will add uper and lower red strobe anti collision lights, and as mentioned, the wing tip position lights. I can't find any anti collision lights on the tail so far, so no plan to add them either
airplane-pictures.ne..y-tupolev-tu-134ubl/
12 January 2023, 21:07
CuajeteGreat project.
"Black Pearl" can be a very interesting scheme 👌
Following!
13 January 2023, 19:16
Reaper_leadInterior is fully sanded. LEDs should be arriving tomorrow, but in the meantime, I will begin painting the interior. I'm not sure how I will replicate the texture of the walls shown in this walkthrough. My best guess right now is many different layers of random lines with different shades of beige. The other option, in addition to the varying paints, is to score the interior with a panel line engraver or something similar to actually provide depth to the plastic.
17 January 2023, 13:43
Łukasz GlińskiJoining the party and wondering whether their standard 134 kit is any better 🙂
18 January 2023, 08:58
Reaper_leadThanks everyone! This project is at a bit of a roadblock. I'm waiting for a mask set to arrive before I can finish up the interior since I've added the windows. The light structure that will sit along the top of the cabin is also stuck as some of the LEDs I ordered were not according to specification, so I'm working with the shop to resolve that issue.
28 January 2023, 00:54
Casey RupleyGreat start! Nice to see the challenge of adding lights. Are you going to control them with something like an arduino micro controller so they can flash?
31 January 2023, 15:40
Reaper_leadThank you! I have some LEDs that came with built in repeaters, so they strobe on their own without any kind of controller. That does mean that the upper and lower strobing anti collision lights might flash at the same time, but I'm not too concerned about that
2 February 2023, 03:16
Reaper_leadThey're great. evandesigns.com/prod..ck-burst-stobe-flash
I get all of my LEDs from this store.
3 February 2023, 15:23
Reaper_leadThank you! Everything is clear coated and ready for some weathering. I decided to try future/pledge/klear as a gloss coat, since I've been curious about it for a while. There are definitely some areas where I sprayed a bit too much, but overall it looks to have been a success. I'm interested to see how it turns out, particularly because some people have experienced yellowing with it
19 February 2023, 04:32
Reaper_leadCockpit is 3/4 assembled. I need to wire the nose taxi lights, cockpit lights, and red strobe anti collision lights before I close the cockpit up. The next future hurdle will be decals, as this kit does not come with the right decals for the black pearl scheme. While researching how to get around this, I discovered that the flag depicted on the aircraft actually represents the commander in chief of the Russian Navy. This obviously changes the purpose of the aircraft from "trainer" to transporting VIPs. The cabin as it stands isn't necessarily the most luxurious interior, as there aren't even any chairs. depending on how long the wiring takes, as well as lining up the fuselage sections, I may add some interior details. Back to the decals. I am getting a set of decals for the Zvezda 1:144 black pearl kit shipped. I will then need to scale them and re-print them (something I haven't ever done either). Lots of challenges, but these will be a good learning experience to tackle.
20 February 2023, 18:34
Alexander GrivonevI really like when modelers have the know how to do illuminated stuff. It adds so much realism and just looks so cool 👍
20 February 2023, 21:28
Reaper_leadLots of putty and sanding today. There's a bit of sanding left to do on the second layer. The windows are very cloudy from sanding, but are all flush with the fuselage now
28 February 2023, 02:56
Łukasz GlińskiTrue A-Model indeed 👍 My hint: check the geometry, just in case
28 February 2023, 18:40
Andy BallI keep looking at that fuselage and the windows and see a freshwater pike! The ambition on the build is superb!
28 February 2023, 20:24
Reaper_leadIt definitely isn't 100% symmetric @Lukasz, but at this point I'm ok with that. I think the lesson here is to spend more time prepping and bending the fuselage halves.
1 March 2023, 03:09
Carlos MartinThat looks perfectly aligned from here. Beautiful plane and great work so far.
2 March 2023, 09:39
Reaper_leadThank you Carlos and Cuajete. I'm having difficulty rescribing tight curves, anyone have any suggestions?
17 March 2023, 22:51
A.J. MadisonIn increasing order of "fuss factor": I have a fairly stiff sheet of brass that I got from the 'hobby brass' display at the hardware store. It is well used, and has a permanent curve to it. But it's only good for modestly curved shapes, but you hold it down tight along the line you want to scribe, and you're done. If you can find it, Dymo Label tape is a great, but is a expendable solution for tight curves and perverse shapes. Snip off a section, remove backing film, and apply adhesive side directly to the model. If you can't find Dymo, you can cut a strip of scrap 20 thou (.5 mm?) and with some tape, stick it to the model. I've also resorted to applying transparent tape to the model, drawing the line I want to scribe to the tape. Remove tape, apply it to scrap sheet styrene, then freehand or use a french curve to first scribe, then cut (or scribe & snap) along the line to create a custom scribing template.
18 March 2023, 06:47
Carlos MartinReaper, I use scribbling tape. It used to be difficult to get and expensive, and the replacements as dyno tape are not as good,, but it's easy to get now, at least in the UK. Ammo is selling one version. Every mistake I make scribing now is because I'm lazy and I skip using the tape.
18 March 2023, 07:36
Reaper_leadThank you, I'll have to take a look at both of those, although the idea of using some bent brass is a great one, since I have a bunch of spare sheets lying around
18 March 2023, 13:25
SkyhikerI often use a zip tie with some double stick tape on the back as a general guide. Or on really curved areas I sometimes layer thin strips of styrene with double stick tape. They're not the perfect solutions but they work.
19 March 2023, 14:09
Maciej BellosThis one needs some real estate in the shelf or the cabinet in order to be displayed. I hope you have some available.
Looking good by the way!
6 April 2023, 20:39
Reaper_leadI think it's going to be relegated to the top of my display shelf next to my A-400M. After some serious thinking about the describing problem, I remembered that I had a set of Tamiya scribing guides, which worked (mostly) perfectly for what was needed.
6 April 2023, 23:22
Dominik Weitzermate. i like that plane a lot. has a very nice styling. it looks like a lot of work on the kit itself (without your lightning) and i'm thinking about buing or not.
I'll watching till your result :-D
3 May 2023, 07:25
Harald BesoldWhen the model is finished, it will be a real gem in the showcase. Very good work.
16 May 2023, 18:56
Reaper_leadThank you for all the kind comments, they keep me continuing on this slow build. I have covered all of the overspray with a slightly darker shade of the main color, and finished it off with a gloss coat. The APU exhaust, thrust reversers, and nose gear bay will be painted next (with hopefully no overspray)
22 May 2023, 02:55
Reaper_leadAfter quite a long break from modelling, the landing and taxi lights are finally in place. Next, I will focus on getting the landing gear attached, and then the horizontal stabilizer assembly will get attached.
25 July 2023, 17:18
Reaper_leadThanks @cuajete! The gear is in place: it might be the worst gear I've assembled in the last several years or longer. The engine nacelles need a coat of metal protector. There are several areas on the model that need a touch up on the main body color. The gear bay doors need this main body color as do all of the various antennae. After all of that, another gloss clear coat. The next tricky step will be to take the decals I received from the 1:144 Zvezda kit and adapt them to 1:72.
31 July 2023, 14:40
Reaper_leadI started looking into modifying the Zvezda 1:144 decals, but I pretty quickly realized I was way out of my league given I have 0 experience printing decals. I'm having an expert create the larger decals, but I don't know how long that will take. I have sealed all the remaining items in a ziploc bag and semi-sealed the aircraft in order to minimize dust.
11 August 2023, 16:02
CuajeteYou do well to protect the parts and the model in bags to avoid dust during the time without working. I also have mine like this until I can take them back.
I love the result that this Tu-144 is having. I hope I can hold the break until you can resume it with the arrival of the decals 👍
16 August 2023, 20:20
Album info
I don't know which of the pictured aircraft I will replicate. Either the "Black Pearl" scheme or the other "Blue Wave" or whatever it might be called.
