1/144 scale Tupolev Tu-160 Blackjack

[Hawkmoon]

We are on the turn here and heading for the home straight me thinks, nice recovery at beechers and looking good

[Kevthemodeller]

It's a real beast, great to see the paint now going on

[RangerNeil]

Flipped her over today to do the underside aaaaand - I've run out of paint halfway though!!! Going to have to order a new can from eModels today....

So I am starting on the undercarriage whilst I wait. First issue - how to finish painting the 12 wheels for the main undercarriage? For some reason Zvezda moulded the two nose wheels complete - but the 12 main wheels were moulded in two halves so 24 pieces. I part painted them on the sprue but once joined and the joints sanded they needed finishing - and wheels in 1/144 scale aren't exactly big! So I'm, sat staring at the box all my modelling bits are in pending getting a proper work bench trying to think of a good way of holding these wheels to paint them and let them dry and I noticed the missus has dumped some plastic forks in there. BRAINWAVE!!
Take plastic fork, trim two tines to fit the hole in the wheel and two tines short and they make good wheel holders....
Just got to let the black dry and then re-do the centres and thats one set of 6 done....

[Donkeywalloper]

What a fabulous Brainwave chap, really lovely build, just read through and what a great job you're doing.
DW

[RangerNeil]

Progress is delayed - I guess understandably the promised delivery date by Humbrol for the new paint has been and gone with no sign of an actual date. So I think tomorrow I will have to remove the Maskol from the glazing as I recall reading somewhere if you leave it on too long it becomes a bitch to get off.

In the mean time there have been two other areas to carry on with - the Landing Gear and what I call the "in-fill sections" for the variable geometry wings.
I have the landing gear done as far as I can now without actually fitting it into the bays as there are some parts that can only be correctly aligned with the gear installed. Here you see the three sections of the gear plus the 6 Kh-55 cruise missiles and the carousels for the bomb bays. The missiles are awaiting a coat of gloss - which is in the same order as the replacement gloss white.....



Now - those infill sections - with the wings swept forwards its obvious on the instructions as to where they attach. With the wings swept back, much less so. This is the part of the instruction manual that refers to this parts placement. You see on the top diagram that the section for the extended wings attach's to the wing roots. However the lower diagram for the swept wings is much less clear - does it go on the wing? Or on the fuselage/engine pack?? I am inclined towards the wing right now....



This is the only photo I can find of a Tu-160 in flight with the wings swept back and looking at those sections I am none the wiser!!

[RangerNeil]

DPD delivered the paint today so I can press on!! First thing was the gloss coat on the Kh-55's. First snag was laid loose the aerosol just blasted them everywhere. Solution was two strips of double sided tape laid parallel and the missiles laid across these. Worked excellently - credit to the wife for this idea!



Whilst the gloss coat is drying the second job was to replace the missing (lost) aerials from the top and bottom of the fuselage. A piece of scrap sprue was gripped in a pair of moles and held over a gas jet being repeatedly squeezed between smooth jawed pliers as it softened. Once the required thickness was achieved the two aerials were sketched out and cut out then sanded down to smooth of both the surfaces and the edges. Finally they got a preliminary coat of paint and, once dry to the touch, stuck in place using CA.







Next step once the glass coat has dried on the missiles will be to finish the white on the fuselage.

[RangerNeil]

Coming to the conclusion that Maskol may not be the best solution for masking the canopy windows - especially not small ones.
This is as far as I've go in removing it after an hours work - and these are the two big front screens. I have to try and find the smaller upper windows yet....



As a reminder of where the other windows are:

[digger303]

Coming to the conclusion that Maskol may not be the best solution for masking the canopy windows - especially not small ones.
This is as far as I've go in removing it after an hours work - and these are the two big front screens. I have to try and find the smaller upper windows yet....



As a reminder of where the other windows are:

I found maskol to be too thick and very hard to remove. I have since moved to VMS product and that comes off easlily and is thin enough to just put a dob in the middle and then push around with a tooth pick into the corners. There is also a variety that is available as a pen by Molotow, but I don't know how that performs.

[RangerNeil]

2+ hours work today and its back to this state. I'm not happy with it at all - - it looks bl$%dy awful.

I could have got a better finish by hand brush in all honesty. Not sure how I go on from here - whether to try and tidy it a bit more or whether to contact Zvezda and try and get a replacement clear sprue or what???

Seriously contemplating screaming and getting the dartboard out at the moment - which is a shame as the rest of the Plane looks nice and clean...

[Hawkmoon]

All looking good on the rest of the beast its just your glazing problem that needs sorting. You could remove all the maskol and get the edges of the windows sorted out. I am thinking that little if anything of the cockpit is visible through the glass so you could just paint them black not an ideal solution but it tidys things up and should look better than now.

[RangerNeil]

All looking good on the rest of the beast its just your glazing problem that needs sorting. You could remove all the maskol and get the edges of the windows sorted out. I am thinking that little if anything of the cockpit is visible through the glass so you could just paint them black not an ideal solution but it tidys things up and should look better than now.

I am thinking I need to get a pot of Gloss White acrylic to be brushed on then give the cockpit sections a days polishing with the tooth paste treatment to smooth back the existing paint and reveal the edges of the windows - then replace the paint as needed using a fine brush.

Meantime the kit refuses to play nice with me. All through the build I carefully checked the balance to see if the nose section needed any weight added and it was always nose heavy - and I was extremely careful to work out where the main gear was and thus the point of balance. I put the undercarriage on last night to test fit it and guess what - its tail heavy!!
Now - how to try and weight the nose down when there is no access....

[digger303]

All looking good on the rest of the beast its just your glazing problem that needs sorting. You could remove all the maskol and get the edges of the windows sorted out. I am thinking that little if anything of the cockpit is visible through the glass so you could just paint them black not an ideal solution but it tidys things up and should look better than now.

I am thinking I need to get a pot of Gloss White acrylic to be brushed on then give the cockpit sections a days polishing with the tooth paste treatment to smooth back the existing paint and reveal the edges of the windows - then replace the paint as needed using a fine brush.

Meantime the kit refuses to play nice with me. All through the build I carefully checked the balance to see if the nose section needed any weight added and it was always nose heavy - and I was extremely careful to work out where the main gear was and thus the point of balance. I put the undercarriage on last night to test fit it and guess what - its tail heavy!!
Now - how to try and weight the nose down when there is no access....

could you drill a small hole to inject some glue and feed in some lead pellets ?

[Hawkmoon]

All looking good on the rest of the beast its just your glazing problem that needs sorting. You could remove all the maskol and get the edges of the windows sorted out. I am thinking that little if anything of the cockpit is visible through the glass so you could just paint them black not an ideal solution but it tidys things up and should look better than now.

I am thinking I need to get a pot of Gloss White acrylic to be brushed on then give the cockpit sections a days polishing with the tooth paste treatment to smooth back the existing paint and reveal the edges of the windows - then replace the paint as needed using a fine brush.

Meantime the kit refuses to play nice with me. All through the build I carefully checked the balance to see if the nose section needed any weight added and it was always nose heavy - and I was extremely careful to work out where the main gear was and thus the point of balance. I put the undercarriage on last night to test fit it and guess what - its tail heavy!!
Now - how to try and weight the nose down when there is no access....

could you drill a small hole to inject some glue and feed in some lead pellets ?

Digger has got the same solution I would have come up with, it may take a fair amount to do it though.

[digger303]

I am thinking I need to get a pot of Gloss White acrylic to be brushed on then give the cockpit sections a days polishing with the tooth paste treatment to smooth back the existing paint and reveal the edges of the windows - then replace the paint as needed using a fine brush.

Meantime the kit refuses to play nice with me. All through the build I carefully checked the balance to see if the nose section needed any weight added and it was always nose heavy - and I was extremely careful to work out where the main gear was and thus the point of balance. I put the undercarriage on last night to test fit it and guess what - its tail heavy!!
Now - how to try and weight the nose down when there is no access....

could you drill a small hole to inject some glue and feed in some lead pellets ?

Digger has got the same solution I would have come up with, it may take a fair amount to do it though.

Saw another build of this plane today with the wings swept forward and seemed to be sitting as it should. The balance point is definitely further forward than where this one is. I realize those wings aren't going to move now, but possibly where the error crept in and to be honest I don't know if the other guy added weight or not.

[RangerNeil]

Wings forward would definitely shift the balance further forwards. I opted for swept due to a lack of space for the finished Item!
Right now the bomb bay carousels, wing fairings bomb bay & undercarriage bay doors need to be fitted - some will bring weight forwards, a few will push it back.
So - the hole and pellet idea does seem best - thanks guys. But I reckon I need to complete the build first so that all the weight is in place then see how much weight is needed to push the nose down.
I seem to recall saying MANY years ago it would be nice if manufacturers actually said on the instructions "add xx grammes of weight here to sit on undercarriage correctly"

[digger303]

I seem to recall saying MANY years ago it would be nice if manufacturers actually said on the instructions "add xx grammes of weight here to sit on undercarriage correctly"

I remember that !

[AirCadet424]

Hi Neil,

Am I misinterpreting the photo or have you yet to fit the main undercarriage legs?! It looks like you just have the nose leg fitted, by the way that the main wing tips and tail are touching your workbench?

Kev.

[RangerNeil]

Hi Neil,

Am I misinterpreting the photo or have you yet to fit the main undercarriage legs?! It looks like you just have the nose leg fitted, by the way that the main wing tips and tail are touching your workbench?

Kev.

Main gear is on - albeit temporarily at the moment, The wingtips are touching the table because the plane is sitting on its tail. The nose wheel is off the table by a good half inch.....

[RangerNeil]

OK - nose weight issues having a proposed solution we carry on redistributing the weight. After a bit of faffing about getting the carrier supports in - and having to drill out to the carrier axle holes because the moulding's were too small the the two carousels are now installed with the Kh-55's mounted. Main undercarriage assemblies are completed, Nose gear strut is installed and just needs the bracing to be added once it has set.

[Hawkmoon]

Coming together quite nicely Neil and great work

[digger303]

I wondering about the tail siting problem is it going to be solved...hoping so

[RangerNeil]

I wondering about the tail siting problem is it going to be solved...hoping so

Once all the parts are on so that I know were the weight is actually going to be positioned I am going to try the "drill a hole in the nose" route and then add some lead shot till the nose wheel sits correctly and then pump in some CA to lock it into place. I think this is the only viable way of doing it.

[RangerNeil]

Had a rough spell with the missus last couple of days - she was OK whilst she was on the Chemo- and Radio-therapy but since its stopped we are getting spells of very bad side effects. Oncology Dept say this is normal so we just plug on.. Anyways - its meant I've had no time to spend on the Blackjack.
Today was a good day though so a bit more is done. We had some fridge magnets - letters of the alphabet from when our daughter was a kid many many years ago that weight in at around 2 to 3 grammes each. 4 of these balanced on the nose brought the nose wheel down and when I popped them on the kitchen scales it came out at 10 grammes so that's how much weight I need to pop into the nose. I saw on eBay some lead weighted cord for the bottom of curtains and I am thinking maybe a length of that fed in through an appropriate sized hole will do the job. Failing that the smallest dia fishing weights I can find.

Mean time the undercarriage is all in place, the engines are painted as per the instructions (just got the thrust nozzles to add) and the wing fillets are in the supersonic flight position (see photos).





Just got to add the bomb bay and undercarriage doors. Nose wheel doors carry the fleet number - the decal sheet carry's the markings for:
Fleet No. 03 "Pavel Taran" (or "Павел Таран")
Fleet No. 04 "Ivan Yargin" (or"Иван Ярыгин")
Fleet No. 06 "Ilya Morumets" (or "Илья Муромец")

I think I will use the markings for Fleet Number 03 as Pavel Taran was a bomber pilot - hero of the Soviet Union twice - so it seems fitting to use this on a bomber...

Oh yes - whilst fitting the wing fillets I managed to knock the bottom aerial fin off - again!. This time though I managed to save it from the carpet monster and refitted it after the fillets were in place.

[digger303]

If you can go down to the local garage and get a couple of old wheel weights of them. you could then slice them to your needs. I was originally think of shot gun pellets...........you wouldn't need a license to buy those.

[RangerNeil]

If you can go down to the local garage and get a couple of old wheel weights of them. you could then slice them to your needs. I was originally think of shot gun pellets...........you wouldn't need a license to buy those.

Hmmm - interesting thought. I have a set of Series Landie wheels in the garden that need new tubes and tubeless tyre's (long & expensive story...) - means all the balance weights will be redundant so I could nick one of those....

For now though the final parts are - slowly - going on so I will know exactly were the balance point is and how much weight I need to get the nose wheel down. Right now main gear doors are on:


And the first of the decals - the fleet number on the nosewheel doors - are on. Just got to let these dry and apply a coat of gloss varnish then they can be fitted followed by the bomb bay doors and that will be it for the assembly phase:

[Hawkmoon]

Starting to look the part now and nice work

[Kevthemodeller]

Lovely clean paintwork oh yes

[RangerNeil]

Another partial step forwards - most - not all - of the decals are on now - I opted for Fleet number 03, the "Павел Таран". I am still trying to sort the canopy windows out - I have had to resort to the black paint route tonight so once dry I can mask the frame up and repair the white framing. Once that is done I can get the rest of the decals on, apply a gloss coat over them and the job is done.

And the balance of the model is slowly trending forwards with the bay doors on and wing fillets on. It will be interesting to see how she sits with the node wheel doors and the refuelling probe in place.

[Hawkmoon]

Really starting to look the part now Neil and nice work

[Kevthemodeller]

I don't know how you manage to battle these kits lovely work mate

[RangerNeil]

Really starting to look the part now Neil and nice work

I don't know how you manage to battle these kits lovely work mate

Thank you both gentlemen. The kind words and encouragement are both appreciated and needed right now I am fighting to salvage something from the mess the canopy turned into. There is an incredibly annoying thing bugging the hell out of me right now - I got an e-mail from Arma Models in Moscow announcing a fresh delivery of "KV Models" paint masks and flicking through looking for the various helicopters I found, buried in the 16 pages of masking kits, one for the 1/144 Tu-160. I REALLY wish I had seen that before I started!!!

As to why I battle the kits - simples - I HATE to lose!! Something the Army drilled into me!!

[Donkeywalloper]

Don#t be to hard on yourself chap as HM says, little of insides will be shown.
Sterling job on a rare bird.

DW

[digger303]

[Hawkmoon]

Sods law with the masks bur still looking good and getting there

[RangerNeil]

OK - the Tu-160 is now upstairs in the impromptu spray booth where its been given a coat of gloss varnish. It can dry overnight then it will get flipped over tomorrow and be given a coat on the underside. It will then be complete. I got the canopy as good as I can with the resources available - it definitely highlights the fact that spraying over pre-cut masks is a LOT better than using a brush on home fudged ones from masking tape for cars.

[RangerNeil]

OK - I am calling this one done now. I've given the whole plane a coat of gloss varnish (rattle can) to seal the decals and added the last few little bits - pictures are in the reveal section.
If you like fast jet bombers I would recommend this kit to you. Not too large as to make storage awkward but large enough to give the correct impression of the белый лебедь. Sitting on the shelf there is the beauty to its form (not usually associated with bombers) and, as in real life, it contrasts well to the US B1 Lancer. Normally US designs "flow" from one surface to the other whereas Russian designs are more angular. In this case that is reversed and the curves together with the simplicity of markings holds the eye. Even the wife likes it!!
The kit itself is very good quality as regards moulding and detail. Due to scale limitations you have to choose the wing position almost at the start of the build - I opted for fully swept to minimise the storage space required. In the low speed configuration the width of the model doubles.... For anyone thinking of getting one the lessons I've learnt - FWIW - are these:

• You absolutely MUST get a precut mask for the canopy. Maskol is useless and trying to cut the individual shapes is a night mare as they are so small. Doesn't matter if you are airbrushing or hand brushing - get a masking kit.
• You will need to add some 5 grammes of weight into the nose section to get it to sit on the undercarriage properly - it doesn't mention this in the instructions.
• Follow the assembly sequence in the instructions rigidly - you will save yourself a world of hurt if you do. I made the mistake of building the engines and intakes out of sequence and then fitting them out of sequence nad had a nightmare of a job getting things to line up.

Despite all the challenges and trials I've enjoyed building this one - so much so I am tempted to get another one once we move and build it in the low speed configuration. Mind you - I also want to get the Trumpeter 1/72 scale version ....

[digger303]

Applying the precut masks I have found to be a bit hit and miss. To get them in the exact right place is a problem for me.
Good to be finished though and 5 gm wasn't much at all. I thought you might have to stick a whole lot more than that.

[RangerNeil]

Applying the precut masks I have found to be a bit hit and miss. To get them in the exact right place is a problem for me.
Good to be finished though and 5 gm wasn't much at all. I thought you might have to stick a whole lot more than that.

Thanks for the kind words Digger. I found once the remaining parts of the nose-wheel gear, the bay doors and the refuelling probe went on it brought the nose down a bit more.