Woodrow Anselen, Corona, California
In its day, Aeroflot’s Tu-114 intercontinental airliner cruised at more than 500 mph as it covered some of the longest routes in the business. Woodrow writes, “This is an old 1/100 scale Tu-114 VEB (East German) kit from the early 1980s or perhaps earlier. I built it over several years, and it fought me every step of the way; poor fit, missing parts, and unusable decals. Every marking on the kit is painted on, either by hand or through a series of intricate masks. An enormous amount of gap-filling was required, especially as the nacelles, which came in three separate parts, were all of different dimensions! Still, it came out OK and is representative of the aircraft. I built different assemblies in nearly every state of the country throughout my business travels. It about wore me out!”