The Build Rear fuselage, satbilizers, cockpit, ballast, rotary dispenser, main fuselage, dry fit - January 11, 2016
I started this session by building the rear fuselage, which includes the vetical and horizontal stabilizers. The aft fuselage will fit into the main fuselage aft of the bomb bay. I gathered the parts and then assembled them, the fuselage first and then the stabilizers. I then painted the entire thing. Later I will come back and add the rear gun turret and the rear canpoy for this area.
At this point I did the cockpit area. There is a large deck and you could really detail this very nicely if desired. But it would involve needing to either make that part of the fuseelage open, or installing lighing...and even then, with the lighting, you simply could not see most of it due to the relative small size of the canopy glass. The pilot area is realtively nice, and for what you will be able to see, it will suffice.
I gathered the parts, painted them and then assembled them. I added ballast at this point to both sides of the forward fuselage. I am using some small black stones and pennies. You need quite a lot because otherwise the center of gravity would be well behind the wing roots and the plane would not want to sit on its gear...the tail would tilt down.
I then added the main wheel well and front landing gear I had assembled earlier.
I then decided to do the scratch built rotary dispenser in the main bomb bay for cruise missiles.. This is set up to hold six smaller, tactical cruise missiles, but I will be adding three of the larger, longer range KH-55 missiles (taking them from my TU-160 Black Jack model.
I used some thick plastic sprue, cut it to length, and then added the six attach points. I also notched the structure provided in the model at the front of the bomb bay, and then added some structure at the back of the bomb bay to hold it in place in the center. I painted the bomb bay and this rotary dispenser accordingly.
I then built and painted the cryuise missiles. Their fins fold nicely at the rear of the missiles to allow them to fit into the bomb bay. These then unfold when in flight...as well as two small wings that spring out in the center of each missile.
Now it was time to put the two parts of the main fuselage together.
With the cockpit, the front gear, the bomb bay, and some of the view ports that were added, you have to be careful to get a good fit, and you have to ensure that you use enough glue to hold it together, and then clamps and rubber bands to hold it in position until the glue dries.
I then carefully painted the entire outer fuselage silver and then painted the forward radar dome white, and a rear access area white underneath, aft of the bomb bay as it is on the aircraft.
Once this was completed, all of the major structural parts of the aircraft wee ready. So, I decided to dry fit them together to see how they would look.
It is looking very, very nice. The TU-95 has such a sleek, menacing look, and those turboprops with the counter-rotating propellers really make the aircraft pop.
In my next session I now have a tremendous number of small details to add. Landing gear doors, rear turret, antennnae, compartment/view hatches, the inflight refueling prope, the canopy, etc. I also hope to add scratch built pylons for more cruise missiles under each wing.
Another session after that will be required for final painting scheme, touch up, and then decals. I have ordered some decals specifically for this aircraft that I may have to wait on arrival before finishing.