Tu-95MS Bear II in 1/200 scale

[Old Dog]

Obligatory start up photos

This will be the third one in this series that I've done and unlike the past two this one has no cockpit other than a floor which I think just serves as a bulkhead so no micro parts to deal with. The props look like they might be a challenge to clean up and the biggest challenge will be the paint job, natural metal upper surfaces, lots of ray domes and other panels to be masked and painted white. It should be interesting.

 

[ij001]

One of these came to the IAT a few years back, never forget the scream of the engines on its approach...

Brave choice matey, looking forward seeing this 'happen'.



Ian.

 

[Flyingbabydoc]

That is a great choice. This plane is in my bucket list. I wish I had seen one "live".

Looking Forward to your Progress.

Cheers

Alex

 

[razordws]

Tu-95MS Bear II in 1/200 scale

Cool!

 

[SA Dave]

Tu-95MS Bear II in 1/200 scale

Oh my thats awesome

 

[ij001]

Tu-95MS Bear II in 1/200 scale

From the BBC this weekend:

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-north-east-orkney-shetland-51789577


Maybe they were headed over to check on your progress, matey ?



Ian.

 

[sharkman]

Tu-95MS Bear II in 1/200 scale

Cool! Looks like a good kit!

 

[Old Dog]

Tu-95MS Bear II in 1/200 scale

Well the month is two thirds gone so I guess I'd better get cracking ! I'm not impressed with kit so far, fit is not nearly as good as the two previous kits I built in this series. The instructions are pretty lame as well especially the painting diagrams.

That said step 1 looks easy, drill out a couple holes, insert the cockpit floor/nose gear bay and glue the fuselage together...but wait, there is that weight icon pointing to the nose and no hint at how much it takes so that means I need to clean up the wings, tail planes and anything else aft the center of gravity. Unfortunately neither the wings or tail planes are a snug fit in the mounting slots so everything needed to be taped together. This thing is a real tail sitter, no way enough weight could be inserted where shown on the instructions, this is what I ended up with

The gnarly stuff in the nose is a mix of steel and copper clippings and white glue, behind the cockpit is four pinewood derby weights. if need be I can add more in the cockpit later.

Fuselage and wings assembled, the forward engine cowlings were poor fitting requiring sanding and filling. The wing roots look like they will fit well in spite of the sloppy mounting tabs and slots but one of them will need modified a bit for alignment and I will need to check a front profile to get the alignment of the wings correct.

The fuselage had some nasty sink marks around the bottom side of the forward ray dome.

The props are a real pita to clean up, each one was attached to the sprue with sizeable gates, one on each blade. The blades themselves are delicate as they have a narrow neck where the prop meets the hub. doesn't help the plastic is soft and the blades have a rough surface as well.

Next update should see things ready for painting to begin, thanks for looking !

 

[lupanzer]

Very nice!...

Luiz.

 

[moon puppy]

Whip it!

 

[sharkman]

Ooo Gary, those props look like they'll be a challenge to clean up!

Good thing it is in good hands!

 

[Heavens Eagle]

Wow Gary, looks like you are fighting some of the things I have been with my build. The white glue to hold the weights is a good idea. I used epoxy and fishing weights on mine.

Keep going, it should be an interesting looking plane when done.

 

[Duke Maddog]

Wow, that's some commendable work on that difficult build. Way to go man!

 

[Old Dog]

Well, not going to make the deadline. I was on track for a photo finish just before midnight then the excrement hit the rotating air deflector blades. Unmasking was in progress, I had used some Micro-mask on the area of the nose where tape didn't want to work. When I tried to peel it off, it didn't want to oblige. Finally got under an edge and ACK, the paint under it came off with it. That was lacquer base paint over primer that had 24 hours to dry before masking, never seen the like. The bottle of masker was deposited in the circular file. I fill need to strip and repaint and allow to cure before clear coating and doing decals, so completion is now probably three days away. Any way here is where I am at... First a look at the nose disaster

Overview

Props and gear ready to go on

And the bottom to show why masking was such a pita

The decals are by Cartograph so I have high hopes they won't be any trouble, hopefully the next time you see it, it will be done. Thanks for looking !

 

[rob hart]

Bummer about the masking fail, but the excellent work that you did painting the tiny props and wheels leads me to think this will be a show stopper when you get it done.

 

[Heavens Eagle]

Yeah that liquid mask can be a problem Gary. I bought a bunch of light tack masking tape at lowes. (Purple stuff) It seems to work OK, but will tend to lift on the edges. I had several pieces that I would pull off and reuse for doing weathering. It worked quite well in that it didn't stick too hard and peeled off well leaving no residue. I was also using the Tamiya tape and they were about the same though the purple stuff is a bit thinner and will conform a bit easier to odd curves. On those I just would cut strips and pieces. Once the outline was done, fill it up. Doesn't have to look nice just has to work.

Look forward to seeing the finished work!

:drinks

 

[Old Dog]

OK, done at last. as I mentioned previously the painting diagram was woefully inadequate but Wiki provided a nice high definition photo of an aircraft from the same (group/squadron or what ever the Russians use) and I decided to use it as my guide. Close examination of the photo will show many differences between the kit and reality but at least I had a color reference. In the end I found my NMF looked a little to shiny to me and a final flat coat brought to closer to the photo.

There are a lot of warts but most don't show and in this scale they are hard to see and hard to fix.

And for size comparison here it is next to a KC-135

Reminder to self: next time don't wait till the middle of the month to start If nothing else this kit sparked my interest in this ugly pig and I have acquired a 1/72 scale kit of it that I hope I can see to detail. As always, thanks for looking.

 

[errains]

Great Job with that mean ol Bear!!

 

[moon puppy]

I'll move this out to Wesendorf Field Gary, need to retire this forum. Nice job, you know that TU95 is as old as the B52 but I think they have twice as many variants. I can't imagine tyring to add all those ports and blisters to the build you have.

Nice job!

 

[sharkman]

Beautiful job Gary!!