build pictures

Melf Boyens
Very interesting project, I like that swan! Watching it excitedly. Would you consider this kit very different from the ZVEZDA kit? I have that in 1:144 from Zvezda and found it rather nice with exception of some overlays on some parts of the sprues.

Scott Dutton
Beautiful bird, look forward to progress. built a few years back myself after seeing in Russia. Amazing.

Bart Goesaert
it's looks different than the Zvezda offering (just looked for a build of the latter). Zvezda offers ans opened up bombbay, main hull consists of 4 parts (here 2), and offers some weapons as a load out. With Trumpeter the bombbays are closed due to the mechanism for the folding wings... also it looks like the trumpeter wheelbays are more detailed, while the Zvezda front landing gear seems more accurate on the picture...

@Scott:it's a beautifull bird... I totally agree on that, and would love to see this one in reality...

Denis Kuleshov
My favorite airplane. I'm following.

Björn Leichsenring
Yes, i have this kit in my stash and i´m interesting, what do you do.

Bart Goesaert
upper and lower hull are assembled, main gear needs to be placed before, so I hope it doesn't break while handling the aircraft. Upper hull seems a bit to wide at the front, so sanding sticks will be necessary in this region

Wesley De Braekeleir
Nice model and a great start!

Clifford Keesler
Interesting project.

Bart Goesaert
rescribing finished, ready for degreasing and primer...

Bart Goesaert
White is on... now on to the details... the preshade failed a bit in the end, any ideas of how to recreate different shades in the panels?

Clifford Keesler
Try using varying shades of white or light gray. Tamiya "Smoke" is good for post shading on panel lines. Hope that helps. Looking very nice so far.

Bart Goesaert
thx, I will give it a try.
Trumpeter painting instructions differ in a lot of ways from the original aircraft (even between their instructions for the 1:72 and 1:144, these are different...). So they say that the area just before the engine nozzles at the top should be white, but on most aircraft it seems bare metal from black to shiny.

[img1]

Also in some instructions the ribs at the side of the fuselage behind the wings, it seems some parts are in bare metal to... I'm getting a bit confused.
What would be a good way to paint the turning point of the wings?

Clifford Keesler
From the picture the wing pivots look gray to me, and the area in front of the engine nozzels definitely look to be bare metal.

Bart Goesaert
been busy with the decals and handpainting some details. Trumpeter managed to provide two times the same decal (without mirroring it) for the blue yellow markings at the side of the cockpit, so I tried some cut paste as a quick solution. Now it seems ugly, but it's about 4x enlarged.
With regards to the colors, I've added a picture with the comments I've received...

Clifford Keesler
Looking good to me.

Erik Leijdens
Great progress Bart on this impressive Tupolev 👍

Scott Dutton
Looks good, you have some good variation of the white, and the milk white is nice detail addition

Bart Goesaert
thx, dark metallic engine access panels at the top surface painted, all small decals have been placed. Maybe a small how too, because I often read that people don't like doing that. I think I placed them all in 1h.
My trick is that i use a knife and a scribing needle. I use the scribing needle to slide the small decals on the tip of my modelling knife, and when almost in place, I reverse the process and use the needle to slide the decal from the tip to its place...

Arash Zakeri
Wooow

Przemek Przybulewski
Damn, it's huge. And it's looking good.

Bart Goesaert
Started with a wash, what's your opinion? To light, to dark, good, ...

Spanjaard
if i can give a suggestion, some gloss varnish before decal and washing. it improves the result of both decals and washes. but it is looking nice anyway.

Bart Goesaert
I did a layer of tamiya clear, because otherwise the oilpaint for the wash dissolves the varnish. I prefer the alcad varnishes for finishing though.

Spanjaard
sorry, i thought there was some silvering in the decals and i thought it was because the paint was matt. sorry about it.

Bart Goesaert
No need to say sorry. I'm not so satisfied with the Tamiya clear, and I'm looking for a better non-enamel varnish. It's not as smooth as it should be, I think it was because it was rather cold where I was spraying...

Spanjaard
if you find something let me know😉 i will probably use Future in my current model. but getting it from US via ebay is not exactly handy......

Scott Dutton
I have had some trouble with Future, commonly use it for canopies now, my preference is Tamika or Gunze Aqueous now. Alcad is good for final coat to matt or satin.

Spanjaard
i have the alclads too, but did not get the results i was looking for. but probably that was with my old (cheap) airbrush, i have to give them a try again....

Bart Goesaert
engines painted... from top to bottom
- jet exhaust and gunmetal
- a small aluminium border
- aluminium + dark grey
- gun metal
- gun metal + aluminium

Clifford Keesler
Looking good Bart.