Manufacturer: Aircraft in Miniature Ltd., 19 Watling St., Nuneaton, Warwickshire, CV11 6JJ, England, 44-2476-375737.
Kit: No. TW02-007
Scale: 1/72
Price: £48.75 (about $70) plus shipping
Comments: Mixed media, 128 parts (10 vacuum-formed plastic, 10 resin, 78 cast metal, 30 photoetched), decals.
Pros: Long-awaited subject, good shape representation.
Cons: Poor surface detail, misshapen props, poor fit, difficult assembly, Soviet star decals misshapen.
Perhaps there is no greater symbol of Soviet military airpower during the Cold War than the Tupolev Tu-95 Bear bomber. For nearly 50 years it has been the Soviet Air Force's mainstay intercontinental bomber, undergoing a myriad of modifications and mission changes.
Aircraft in Miniature Ltd. has introduced a multimedia Tu-95 Bear in its Transport Wings 1/72 scale collection. AIM planned to revamp the old Contrail kit, but decided it would be better to start from scratch. The kit includes a mixture of vacuum-formed plastic, resin, white metal, and photoetched-brass parts all stuffed into a long plastic bag. The model accurately captures the shape and enormous size of the Bear. That's the good news.
I was disappointed in the level of detail. The recessed panel lines in the vacuum-formed fuselage, wings, and tail parts are soft and inconsistent, producing a pillowy appearance to the surface. This can be improved somewhat with sanding. On the other hand, the surface detail of the resin engine nacelles is good.
Except for the cockpit, interior detail is non-existent, but that's fine since you can't see anything through the small windows. Optional parts allow you to make any one of the early bomber variants or a maritime reconnaissance version of the Soviet Air Force. Resin and photoetched parts for an Aeroflot Tu-116 Airliner are also included.
The kits instructions consist of a four-page layout of parts placement, decal placement, and paint schemes. There is also a brief 12-step written guide that lists points to consider when assembling the model, but I devised my own assembly plan and built the model in subassemblies.
I started on the white metal propellers and hub assemblies. I cleaned, filled, and sanded the large pits and seam lines in the white-metal prop blades and spinners. The blades have the wrong shape for a Tu-95, so I spent a lot of time reshaping them.
The resin used for the huge engine nacelles is a hard, soapy material that requires more effort to clean up than typical resin. Each white-metal main gear unit consists of 10 parts and is molded well.
Sanding the edges of the large vacuum-formed fuselage and wing halves required long sandpaper. I used a 2'-long, 10"-wide sheet of 320-grit wet-or-dry tacked to my workbench. Since these parts arrive precut (from the sheet plastic they were molded in), there wasn't a lot of sanding needed to prepare the parts for assembly.
But be careful; you could sand too much, and there are no indicators to show how much is too much. If sanded properly, the wing halves mate pretty well. Test-fitting the nacelles to the wings revealed large gaps at the joints. I filled them with Milliput epoxy putty and gap-filling super glue. It's best to leave the outer nacelles off until the wings are attached to the fuselage to ensure correct alignment.
Fitting the fuselage halves presents some interesting problems. You must cut an opening for the canopy, nose transparency, and nose gear well. Test-fitting is important here; if you sand the edges of the fuselage too much, the canopy and nose transparency will be too wide. The upper and lower gun turrets are cast in white metal and need cleanup as well. Making the protruding bottom turret fit wasn't a problem, but care was needed when cutting out the hole for the flush-mounted upper turret.
The cockpit includes white-metal and photoetched parts, but you can't see much of it through the tiny windows. Once I got the fuselage together, I sanded its exterior to smooth out irregularities before mounting the wings. I used a lot of gap-filling super glue and sandpaper. After a dip in Future floor polish, the clear parts were added and faired into the fuselage.
Each wing was inserted into a pocket molded into the side of the fuselage, but the fit here wasn't good. I recommend adapting a brass tube as a spar to add strength to the assembly and help keep the wings in line while the glue sets.
With the wings firmly attached, I glued the resin horizontal stabilizers and all the white-metal and photoetched accessories to the fuselage. Some of the white-metal moldings were too big for the scale.
Once all the parts were glued, I polished the entire surface of the model to prepare it for a natural metal finish and white paint scheme. My favorite part of the project was the silver canopy frame decal. This eliminated the need to locate, mask, and successfully paint the tiny cockpit windows.
The decal's representation of the red Soviet stars were scrawny - each point of the star was too slender in proportion to its size - so I substituted ones from an old Scale-Master sheet. The kit numbers went on well and reacted favorably to Solvaset.
Whew! This was a lot of work, and my sanding arm is now overdeveloped (maybe I'll get an anchor tattoo!). The finished model measures 26" long and more than 27" wide. This model consumed better than 60 hours and two small bottles of super glue. It compares well with the dimensions in Yefim Gordon and Vladimir Rigmant's Tupolev Tu-95/-142 Bear.
AIM's Bear is definitely not for beginners - even experienced modelers will find it challenging. It sure looks nifty (if you don't look too closely) sitting next to its Tupolev bomber brothers, Esci's Tu-22 Blinder and the Tu-22M-2 Backfire. I think I'm ready to start building a vacuum-formed Tu-16 Badger - after a short vacation. I never learn.
David P. Anderson