Myasishchev M-52a Bounder........Soviet super bomber

[General Melchet]

Hi gang, this is my modified Anigrand resin model of the M-50 Bounder that has had a complete overhaul to bring it up to production M-52 standard.The M-52 was to be a supersonic missile carrier to compliment the TU-95 Bears able to deliver two heavy missiles against ships, airfields or land based industrial targets. I used drawings and plans from various sources including a couple of Russian sites to try and make it as accurate as possible. Sadly the Anigrand M-50 model is way out shape wise, with the fuselage being too wide, wings having far too much chord and area, engines pods too long and skinny, tailplanes in the wrong place and undercarriage too small, other than that its fine!!!!...but for £70 I'm afraid it's a joke especially when compared to the Amodel 1/72nd scale kit. However it screams out to be used as a basis for something a bit different.
All is not lost though as I always intended to build it as the proposed production version of the Bounder, the M-52. There were many versions drawn up (a,b and c models) but I decided to go for the first, the 'a' as it required the least conversion work, (mainly around the forward fuselage which was widened to accommodate a side by side crew rather than the tandem arrangement of the prototype and new canopy). Major changes to the M-50 were, lengthened fuselage, reshaped wing, shorter, fatter engine pods to house the all new powerful Zoobets afterburning turbofans, new tailplane on top of the tail fin, new beefed up undercarriage to deal with the much higher weight and provision to carry two AS-4 Kitchen or AS-6 Kingfish missiles on special pylons fitted under the fuselage.As the wings were so oversize on the kit it was easy to reprofile them and thin down the trailing edges.The engines were much wider and the easiest thing to do was to adapt them from a spare Trumpeter IL-76 Candid model I had adding new exhaust cans from the spares box. The fuselage was lengthened by 1 inch by inserting a resin plug sanded to shape and a new fin top tailplane added from 2mm Evergreen card and a new full length fairing running along the underside of the fuselage.. The undercarriage was adapted from a Trumpeter TU-95 Bear which was the correct size and had the right diameter wheels and the missile pylons added using 3mm card. The missiles themselves came from a Trumpeter TU-16 kit which conveniently had two AS-6's. The only hard work really were the engines and pylons which need a surprising amount of fettling to get to fit and eliminating the air bubbles!. Airbrushed in Mr Hobby light grey and gloss white with a mix of oils and Promodeller washes the aircraft was finished in a standard VVs heavy bomber finish for the proposed time frame.

It's a large model even in 1/144th being the same length as a 1/48th F4 phantom........

Hope you like it and thanks for looking,  

Andy...


Proof that the thing existed albeit in mock up form.......this is the M-52B version taken in 1957 at the OKB Myasishchev factory at Zhukovsky with the later side by side cockpit arrangement...





Notice the extra set of wheels added between the main sets...interesting to see the thing turning onto the runway  












Onto the model, (finally!   !)

[beowulf]

Hope you like it

you kidding?      thats superb!

[PACOPEPE]

Fantastic!!, congratulations.

Regards
Fran

[AXU]

An amazing machine (M-50) and an amazing build ( M-52)   
Congratulations !
Alex

[buzzbomb]

Wow and Wow.. great model.
Fantastic all around 

[General Melchet]

Thanks guys, Dunc It's been fun..............yep the M-52 really was a monster, shame that the whole project was cancelled before it had a chance to prove itself, some of the proposals have to be seen to be believed, might well have a go at one or two of 'em later. Can't find out if it was to have the same NATO reporting name of Bounder or would have been allocated something else, stand by your beds there's more to come this year......(and yes the HP-100 will be there)

Thanks again,

Andy..

[pedrospe]

That is a great aircraft, not many can build such a detailed soviet bomber, good work.


  regards


Pedro

[lancer]

Dear gods!!! That is serious wet dream material.....Superb job..

[Cobra]

Awesome Job This looks like it came from Thunderbirds!  You said it was an RPIA to Build? Could of Fooled me,You did a Superb Job on it! Keep up the Great Work :cheers:Dan

[John Howling Mouse]

Very nice work resulting in an impressive, clean build.

[Taiidantomcat]

Simply wonderful 

What books did you use for research? Also What paint colors did you use?

Thanks for sharing this, its a beauty 

[General Melchet]

Thanks for the kind comments chaps, Taiidantomcat I used a combination of data from some of the guys from the the 'Secret Projects' Forum, many magazine articles that I've collected over the years and some inside info from a few guys at the Russian Airforce.ru site.
The painting was done using Mr Hobby aqueous acrylics, (light aircraft grey, US gull grey and gloss white), Alclad metallics and Tamiya NATO black finished off with a coat of Vallejo matt varnish acrylic clear sprayed using an Iwata CM-C plus micron airbrush.

Cheers all,  Andy..

[GTX]

Impressive!

Regards,

Greg

[Stargazer]

  What can I say?? Except this is first class modeling!!!    

Allow me to add a couple of pictures on the subject of the M-52... (in case someone else wanted to follow your example...):

[PR19_Kit]

Strewth, that's MIND BLOWING!

How big is it anyway? And do you need some RSJs under your model shelf to support it?