SEARCH FINESCALE.COM

Enter keywords or a search phrase below:

TU-4

957 views
2 replies
1 rating 2 rating 3 rating 4 rating 5 rating
  • Member since
    November 2005
TU-4
Posted by Anonymous on Wednesday, October 22, 2003 9:10 PM
Hi all !!!!!!

Has anyone evermodeled the TU-4?????? You know, the russian copy of the B-29??

Isaw a show on it on Discovery the other night, and it peeked my interest...

I'm assuming you can use a B-29 kit and just use russian colors and markings???


thanks.......Big Smile [:D]
  • Member since
    December 2002
  • From: Pominville, NY
Posted by BlackWolf3945 on Thursday, October 23, 2003 2:54 AM
The aircraft wasn't an exact copy of the B-29 but many, if not most, of the differences would not be apparent on a model. So unless you want to get down to the nitty gritty, yeah you could take a B-29 kit and make an early Tu-4.

The Russkies reverse-engineered the Tu-4 from two of the three B-29's that landed more or less intact in the USSR. They had to convert alotta stuff to the metric system such as nuts, bolts and the like, but most of this is not much of an issue when building a model. Another thing they had trouble with which also wouldn't be apparent on a model was the fuel tanks.

Some of the more distinguishable differences that would have to be represented on a model would be the engines (Shvetsov ASh-73TK's) and the defensive armament. (23mm cannon) Other than these things, I can't think of much that would be a whole lot different, visually.

Although, they also had trouble manufacturing the wheels and tires and sent some folks to the US to acquire spares. But I dunno how they eventually worked it all out or if they were able to successfully copy these things. And if they were able to do so, I dunno how much different they were from the originals. They had to have come up with a satisfactory solution, though. After all, they built around 1200 of these birds!

Anyhoo, go here for more detailed info on the story of the Tu-4.

Here's some more interesting and/or useful links:

Monino Bull - 3 Photos (From Bubbamoosecat's website, I believe)

Tu-4 Bull

Tu-4 Threat to the US (Interesting although of no value to the modeler!)

Chinese AEW Bull Walkaround (This isn't representative of the inital Soviet aircraft; there's many differences as can be seen. Especially the engines. But it's an interesting study, nonetheless.)

There's alot more out there, much of it repetitious. Just do a search on any search engine like Google, Yahoo, Jeeves etc.


Fade to Black...
  • Member since
    November 2005
Posted by Anonymous on Thursday, October 23, 2003 6:40 AM
According to the observèrs book of soviet aircraft (very old), the first tu4's were carbon copies of the captured b29's- the hosts stuck the crews in a POW camp.
When they appeared at the annual Moscow airshow the allied air attaches noticed some holes drilled in the wings, which later turned out to be holes caused by fire from the intercepting Raidens that the Russians copied onto the TU4.
JOIN OUR COMMUNITY!

Our community is FREE to join. To participate you must either login or register for an account.

SEARCH FORUMS
FREE NEWSLETTER
By signing up you may also receive reader surveys and occasional special offers. We do not sell, rent or trade our email lists. View our Privacy Policy.