Fantastic work, Aleks - keep the updates coming.

I like the NeoMega pit! I have one for the Airfix Viggen and it is also nice, but your seats look much busier! I noticed the console between the rear seaters on the real plane. Some kind of gunship grey strategically dribbled down the side of the console! Yours looks great all painted up, I just wish they would put it out in 1/48. (And a Blinder!)

I think the resin cockpit pieces are the coolest, most complete resin parts I have ever seen in 1/72. I want to build this model just so I can use those parts. Must be a lot of fun working and finishing those parts. really make all that detail just pop. Cockpit will look so busy just like a real aircraft!

Hello friends,

Front segment of the Tupolev bomber fuselage is assembled by now and work on seams and surface details begun.

As the main landing gear bays from the previous post drew focus toward the rear, work has progressed on the armament, which in this case will consists solely of missiles. Of the two long-range cruise missiles carried under the wing, Kh-22 “Buria”, one will be mounted on the pylon, with the other still waiting on the trolley. I used the separate Amodel kit of this missile and the trolley, as it is far more accurate than the pair offered by Trumpeter, and for the other missile I chopped the pair from the box into one that resembled the example by Amodel. I also decided to configure them slightly differently to one another, as this would add more interest to the model and can be actually seen on some archival photos.

Additionally, the central weapons bay will be loaded with six hypersonic missiles Kh-15, on a revolving launcher, but more on this next time…

Cheers,
Aleks

25 attached images. Click to enlarge.

Un. Believable. This is a beautiful piece of modeling, Aleks. Just fantastic. I love the detail, the paintwork, the whole nine yards.

Wow Aleks...
I don't know what impresses me more: The scope of the subject, the extra effort going into adding the extra details, or the execution of the construction basics and paint work. All breathtaking! I don't think i have the required amount of focus and discipline to see such a project through from beginning to end.

When i saw the resin cockpit parts i thought o myself, "well, they look impressive, but how hard will they be to paint up?". And then i saw the finished seats. And then i saw the finished cockpit parts. And then i saw the finished cockpit parts in the fuselage.

I had to laugh when you mentioned the "Easter Eggs of Inaccuracies" scattered throughout the kit. With Trumpeter, it seems like when they take on most subjects they get you about 90% of the way there, and then they just take a combination of wacky guesses and shortcuts on the remaining 10%. So frustrating.

I really dig the work you put into the weapons bay. Speaking as someone who just finished a Tomcat for a former VF-32 RIO, all i can say is the Navy took the Backfire Very seriously, and they're glad that they never had to try to knock one down with the Phoenix missile system. The Phoenix has to work every time; A Backfire has to get lucky only once.

I look forward to more 🙂

Greetings all!

If one was ever to question relativity of time, one should do this simple experiment: spend some days laying on a Mediterranean beach under a shade, enjoying the sound of the surf and going for a swim occasionally, drink an iced-coffee and repeat. Make an effort to position your sun-bed in such a fashion that your head and shoulders are in shade, lower body is in the sun and your preferred foot is splashed by waves. Then, spend same number of days as before in front of a monitor, in a hot room with homeopathic ventilation that makes your fingertips stick to the keyboard and computer fans complaining loudly at any effort by the CPU. Do you now agree that the time is relative? No? Then DON’T ever go to the seaside again, as you are clearly a robot and sea salt may damage your circuitry.

Anyways, the summer vacation is over and I am back in the saddle… or in front of the screen as it were… Temperatures are high as a kite with no indications of coming down any time soon. With those beaches now behind me and the mountain slopes with snowy pillows still somewhere beyond the horizon of the winter to come, what am I to do?

Ah, yes there’s that Tu-22m3 skulking on my desk, waiting for attention. Well then, if I am sweating, let’s make it count! Inspired by the heatwave, I decided to tackle the hot end of the airplane - the huge jet-exhausts of the Tupolev. Equipped with photo-etched set from Armory, some tools, burnishing fluid and a lot of patience I went to work…

Cheers,
Aleks

19 attached images. Click to enlarge.

Ok - mojo officially evaporated into stardust when I saw what you did with those exhausts. Simply phenomenal! And the ordnance work - beautiful too. I can't wait to see the whole package - no more vacations until you're done!