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IT Lahtinen
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OKB Chelomey 16X Priboy, The first Soviet Cruise missile (1/48, Brengun)

November 26, 2017 · in Aviation · · 12 · 2.4K

The first cruise missile:
Soviet pulse jet research got a big push in 1944 when they got a present from England - parts from V-1 missiles. Engineer Vladimir Chelomey was appointed the Director and Chief Designer of Plant N51 to design the first Soviet cruise missile. Missiles 10X, 14X and 16X were first design types. 16X was double engine (max speed 1000 km/h), designed to be autonomic (1952). They managed to get the accuracy much better, explosives up to 900 kg and the radio/radar control managed to change to autonomic, but the customer was not fully satisfied and 16X was the last product of the Chelomey Plant 51. Chelomey and the team continued to design bigger missile projects and different guidance systems.


: OKB Chelomey 16X Priboy
The model is high quality and simple to build. There are no decals. Painting instructions are for black or green missile, but I noticed more interesting red-white test painting in reference interweb (b/w) photos. So in spontaneous mental disorder I decided to try that bright color chessboard painting … so some patience needed for taping duty.
Airbrushed using Ultimate Primer (= Badger Stynylrez) first, then Akan ”Russian white”, Vallejo red acrylic and metallic engines. After thin Humbrol gloss clear some minimal oil weathering and final clear. Intention was to mimic a museum replica kind of ”almost good condition” type of missile.

The gentleman figure is there only to show the size of the missile. (I have to confess that my first idea was to produce a bigger diorama of a museum room with a German lawyer tourist thinking the possibility to sue Soviet officials about V-1 missile copyright stealing issues ...)

Reader reactions:
10  Awesome

6 additional images. Click to enlarge.


12 responses

  1. The red and white checkers look very striking.

  2. Don't think I've ever seen one of these - much less a model of it - sorta puts me in mind of the German V-1 "Buzz Bomb" with dual engines.

  3. Great build, unusual subject.

  4. Very neat build and presentation, IT. I wonder how they launched this thing?

  5. I can definitely see the statement of claim taking form in the look of this German lawyer.
    If only not his brother in law had been responsible for the design after he was offered a job in the SU.

  6. Very nice! An unusual subject done well.

  7. Thank you all for positive feedback. This was a happy build.

  8. One I wasn't aware of, and real different looking!

  9. Wow! Never heard of these. Great checkerboard painting!

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