Tupolev Tu-16K-10-26 Badger C mod

by Lukasz Kedzierski

Trumpeter's 1/72 scale Tu-16 Badger C is available online from Squadron.com

Trumpeter has released 3 boxings of their excellent Tu-16 Badger in 1/72 scale. I acquired two of them – Tu-16K-10 Badger C and Tu-16K-26 Badger G. Because the badger C contains AS-6 Kingfish and AS-2 Kipper missiles it is possible to make Tu-16K-10-26 Badger C mod, which was able to carry both types of missiles and featured a huge radar in the aircraft’s forward section.

Trumpeter's Badger C in the Box

All the parts feature nicely engraved panel lines, however, some of them tend to disappear, especially those on the wings.

The clear parts are of the highest quality and there is also a small photo-etched fret included in the kit.

This contains a plethora of small details, most of which are going to be invisible on the finished model.

The only letdown of the kit (IMHO) is the tiny decal sheet with markings for just one aircraft, but I suppose there is not that many options for this aircraft available anyway, but some stencilling would be nice.

I decided to build the kit straight from the box focusing on the natural metal paint scheme as the main focusl.

The kit did not go smoothly together and needed some work, but nothing major. As I already mentioned some panel lines required rescribing and the cockpit floor sits too low and needs to be moved a little bit upwards (none of the details in the cockpit can be seen through the canopy so it was a pointless exercise).

My example featured warped tail section of the fuselage, which required some treatment with hot water to straighten it up.

In general the fit is good, but I struggled a bit with the nose section, which did not fit perfectly with the main fuselage. The wing-engine nacelle and nacelle-fuselage joints required a smear of putty and the excess of putty was removed using a cotton bud soaked in a nail polish remover. That was done in order to minimise sanding, which would mark the surface of the kit and would necessitate more preparation to get a decent NMF.

It should be noted that there is no intake ducting in the kit. Instead, Trumpeter offers intake covers. However NeOmega released a nice resin set of the intakes for this kit.

All the access panels can be depicted in open position, which is a nice touch especially with all the PE parts that can be used on the insides of the panel covers, however, no interior detail is provided which is going to be visible if the panels are left open. I decided to close them all up, but it turned out that most of the kit covers are too small for the openings, so some scratchbuilding was needed.

The undercarriage is a bit oversimplified and even the PE parts do not help much, but at the end it looks not too bad (Equipage produces a set of wheels for the Badger, which I think are definitely worth having). The instructions want you to leave the main undercarriage covers to be left in the open position, this is incorrect since they were closed when the aircraft was on the ground.

As I said at the beginning I decided to build Tu-16K-10-26 Badger C mod, which could carry one AS-2 missile in the modified bomb bay in the fuselage and two AS-6 missiles on the underwing pylons. It was rather unlikely that the aircraft would be configured for a mission with all of them since it would severely limit its range. Usually only one AS-6 missile was carried. However, I do have a photo of Tu-16 carrying all 3 of them.

The AS-6 missiles are quite nicely done and the PE set contains the back plates for the missile engines, which improve the overall looks considerably. The AS-2 missile is nicely done as well, however, there is a serious problem with its location on the model. On the real aircraft the missile was carried semi-recessed in a modified bomb bay. In the kit the bomb bay has not been modified and the missile is supposed to be inserted in a slot cut in the bomb bay doors and hang under the fuselage. First of all this is incorrect, secondly there is no way the model is going to stand on its undercarriage since the main legs are going to be too short.

There are two ways to circumvent the problem

1. cut out the opening in the fuselage and insert the missile there or

2. cut the missile so it follows the contours of the fuselage and appears to be semi-recessed when attached.

I decided the go with the former option and cut the opening based on scale drawings and the kit’s missile itself. If done correctly the fit is going to be quite tight and there will be no gaps around the missile.

This was my first attempt at using Alclad II paints (I only used Alclad aluminium on this kit) and I must say I am very pleased with the final result and subsequently switched entirely to Alclad for my natural metal finishes.

I think I went a bit overboard with the surface preparation, but at least I could be sure it was going to be nice and smooth. The entire kit was firstly sanded with wet and dry 1200 grade paper and polished with the Tamiya polishing paste. Then I applied a glossy black undercoat and polished it up with different grades of Micromesh polishing clothes and applied another coat of gloss black.

This was followed by a coat of Alclad aluminium (the entire bottle was used!), which settled smoothly on the kit, although a few areas required some polishing with Micromesh and reapplication of Alclad.

Different panels were done with Testor's Metalizers and Humbrol polished Aluminium.

The radome and tip of the fin were painted Humbrol 66.

Decals were applied directly on Alclad and did not show any silvering and the entire kit was sealed with Testors Metalizer Sealer.

I do not think it’s absolutely necessary to seal Alclads, but I had some Testors paints on the kit and they have a tendency to stick to the fingers.

Finishing touches included the addition of the wire antenna and some weathering around engine exhausts.

This is a fantastic kit and I really enjoyed building it. There is only one serious problem – where the hell am I going to put another one of those, not to mention Tu-95, An-12…………

 

Click the thumbnails below to view larger images:

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Model, Images and Text Copyright © 2003 by Lukasz Kedzierski
Page Created 29 May, 2003
Last Updated 17 March, 2004

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