Tupolev Tu-2S

Another second childhood project, the successor to a VEB Plastikart kit from East Germany. This had the most raised panel lines I’ve ever seen (scaled up, they’d be big enough to stand on), a “heads only” cockpit a la late 50s Airfix, However, it was a Tu-2, which made it amazingly exotic. Being the early 80s, it ended up painted in green and brown (accurate Russian colors had yet to reach the West, the cockpit was opened up, with floor and seats, although my limited budget for scratchbuilding materials meant I’d had to choose between buying plastic card and rod. So while I did a bearable cockpit, the undercarriage ended up being enhanced using that modeling staple, spaghetti. Uncooked, of course. It was fragile, but it was better than the kit parts and, as I’ve said, it was sheet or rod, not both.

This’ll be so much nicer, although the lack of aftermarket decals is disappointing.