arnobiz Posted January 18, 2012 Share Posted January 18, 2012 Today a great surprise waited for me at home: the Bear I was given during the December ARC raffle. A massive thanks to Mike C., lots of modelling happiness coming my way :) Along with the kit (Trumpeter 1/72) came a LindenHill sheet for Ukrainian/Russian Bears as well as a copy of Combat Aircraft dedicated to this monster. As I find NMF schemes quite boring on such a massive aircraft I might try a what-if camo scheme. This would be my firsr, as weel as my first props for the last 15 years at least: I might need quite a bit of advice. Arnaud Quote Link to post Share on other sites
blunce Posted January 18, 2012 Share Posted January 18, 2012 That was on my "list", but someone got to it before I could! Looks like lots of fun! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Flankerman Posted January 18, 2012 Share Posted January 18, 2012 As I find NMF schemes quite boring on such a massive aircraft I might try a what-if camo scheme. A few Tu-95MS's have appeared in an all-grey paint scheme..... including 'Veliky Novgorod'... Although - with its multi-shaded NMF finish, I think it is quite colourful..... Have fun .... whatever you do... Ken Quote Link to post Share on other sites
arnobiz Posted January 18, 2012 Author Share Posted January 18, 2012 Thanks Ken ;) I included the all grey in the "boring" section, I am actually thinking of something radically different, like an adversary Bear in splinter camo. What I am not decided about yet is blue or brown splinter :) All thoughts welcome! Arnaud Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Jennings Posted January 19, 2012 Share Posted January 19, 2012 (edited) That's a fine looking Bear, Ken! It still boggles my mind that we have a superb injection molded Tu-95MS kit. In 1986 I'd have had you committed to a padded room for suggesting such a thing - especially if you'd said the kit would come from the PRC!! :) Edited January 19, 2012 by Jennings Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Hajo L. Posted January 19, 2012 Share Posted January 19, 2012 I want a "in progress" report! HAJO Quote Link to post Share on other sites
arnobiz Posted January 20, 2012 Author Share Posted January 20, 2012 Here is a quick dry assembly, just to be sure this model is as enormous as I thought... Next to it is a 1/72 (same scale) Tomcat, not a particularly small aircraft on its own but definitely not in the same league! Arnaud Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Flankerman Posted January 20, 2012 Share Posted January 20, 2012 Size comparison....... Bear, Badger Blackjack & Backfire (Tu-95MS, Tu-16, Tu-160, Tu-22M2)...... Ken Quote Link to post Share on other sites
arnobiz Posted January 20, 2012 Author Share Posted January 20, 2012 Bear wins :) Quote Link to post Share on other sites
arnobiz Posted February 13, 2012 Author Share Posted February 13, 2012 The first thing I worked on was figuring out a way to have the possibility to disassemble the wings if needed. In order to achieve this I glued bits of aluminium pipe on the upper wings and bits of brass rod in the fuselage. It took a while to get the position right but not I can put the wings on and off in exactly the same position each time. The base is in thick plasticard, then the tube was glued with rapid epoxy and finally the whol assebly was strengthend with Milliput epoxy putty. This will later allow me to work on the fit without worrying too much about the next time I take them off. More on that later but here is how the top part of the wings look like: I was quite worried about the general stiffness and strength of the wings so I added a few bits of plasticard here and there, similar to what I had seen on another Bear build. This will significantly increase the gluing surface: Note that I glued the outer motors in position before the lower wing halves were in place, in order to optimize fit in the most visible places :) The link there is also strengthened with epoxy glue (Rapid Araldite) Arnaud Quote Link to post Share on other sites
arnobiz Posted February 18, 2012 Author Share Posted February 18, 2012 (edited) Some progress this week, the wings are nearly done. It did take a while to get it right: if I have a piece of advice for those planning on building this kit it is DRY FIT! In particular the wing is too thin for the inner engines. I thus made it thicker from the inside by adding bits of plasticard until the thickness was right (See the white bits in the picture below). Tedious but it means much less sanding/rescribing on the inner engines at the end of the day :) Hopefully the whole wings will be ready by the end of the week end :) Arnaud Edited February 18, 2012 by arnobiz Quote Link to post Share on other sites
arnobiz Posted May 3, 2012 Author Share Posted May 3, 2012 Wow, can't believe I did not do anything in 2 months... This week end I had some time and made some progress on the cockpit. The kit stuff is extremely basic 9i.e. two seats and the instruments panel). I thus set to make it look a bit less empty: not much is visible once the canopy is in position but still engough to notice if you don't do anything... Most documentation came from Scalemodels.ru, a fantastic website with loads of russian Walkarounds. All white stuff is plasticard, the seats are slightly modified F-14A/B seats that will be sufficient for the purpose. The pilots seats as well as the ceiling are still missing. Cheers, Arnaud Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Learstang Posted May 3, 2012 Share Posted May 3, 2012 Nice start, Arnaud! If you're going with a "what-if", I say go with the blue scheme and the Ukrainian markings. Regards, Jason Quote Link to post Share on other sites
arnobiz Posted May 4, 2012 Author Share Posted May 4, 2012 Nice start, Arnaud! If you're going with a "what-if", I say go with the blue scheme and the Ukrainian markings. Jason Thanks Jason. My wife said the same for the scheme so blue flanker it shall be! ;) Quote Link to post Share on other sites
MIG Mikkel Posted May 4, 2012 Share Posted May 4, 2012 NICE! The scratch building in the cockpit is very nice I got the same kit, man it's huge!! Regards, Mikkel Quote Link to post Share on other sites
arnobiz Posted May 28, 2012 Author Share Posted May 28, 2012 Here is the finished cockpit. The pilots are made from bits of Revell's RAF set for the legs and ESCI's NATO set for the upper bodies and heads. I know they are wrong but I've decided to give myself a chance to have a completed build rather than an exact one ;) Plus it's a what if so anything can happen! :) And the inner fuselage, with a few bits added to ease alignement as well as the curtains that hang behind the pilots seats And what remains to be seen once assembled, not much (and that's with flash...) :( The canopy windows are tiny so even less will be visible once closed. Well, I'll know it's there... Cheers, Arnaud Quote Link to post Share on other sites
old_Tonto Posted May 28, 2012 Share Posted May 28, 2012 The pilots look great sitting in that big office. Keep the images coming as this is an unusual build - I know I won't be doing one any time soon. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Charlie Cheetah Posted May 28, 2012 Share Posted May 28, 2012 Not sure about a splinter scheme, would seem counter productive on such a large airframe. Maybe a ghost scheme like a Polish Viper, or a muted (very pale) varigated camo. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
arnobiz Posted May 28, 2012 Author Share Posted May 28, 2012 What's a varigated camo? The reason for the splinter scheme was that it looks pretty :) I was actually thinking of adding dayglo stripes, similar to the NB-52A. Unfortunately I miss the skills to make a 3D representation of this on the computer, like the aircraft simulator guys often do. That would be awesome to get an idea of what it looks like before actually starting to spray because, as you said, it might look weird... Arnaud Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Charlie Cheetah Posted May 29, 2012 Share Posted May 29, 2012 Varigated camo is i wrap around camoflage, usually 3 colors, like those found on USAF adversary aircraft, and a few others. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
duck Posted May 30, 2012 Share Posted May 30, 2012 arnobiz, Are those zip ties your using to hold the fusalage halves together? If so, what type? I have a partialy assemled Bear that was given to me. I'm leaning towards disassembly and stripping the poorish paint job and re-building it, if I can find props for it that is. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
arnobiz Posted May 30, 2012 Author Share Posted May 30, 2012 Hello, Yes they are zip ties I got a while ago. The only particular thing about them is that they can be re-opened. There are aftermarket props for the Bear family. They look pretty good but I will not need them as I will do fake spinning blades with clear disks. Arnaud Quote Link to post Share on other sites
duck Posted May 30, 2012 Share Posted May 30, 2012 (edited) ...And the domain is available for purchase. Curses! Edited May 30, 2012 by duck Quote Link to post Share on other sites
arnobiz Posted June 2, 2012 Author Share Posted June 2, 2012 Bad luck Duck, I hope you find a solution. Now on for the tail. The kit parts are pretty basic although there is not much to see anyway. I simply removed the excess material that closes the rear window (no idea why Trumpeter closed it), see below: left the original part right the other side with the window open I then added a bulkhead to hide the emptiness of the fuselage, now that the window in open it is visible :). In order to make it no too obvious I painted a transition from interior green to black with the airbrush: when the two halves are closed it is difficult to see that the bulkhead exists at all, the transition is quite natural. And finally this little guy is going to wave from the right (larger) window. I saw this in a Bear picture found on the web and I quite liked the idea. Cheers, Arnaud Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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