(DONE, pics pg 16/17) NATO Reporting name "Bull." Cuban Tu-4 Heavy Bomber

[TheChronicOne]

Thanks, fellers!!


Yeah I'm not holding out too much hope on the castro figure. Hell, at 1/72 If I could just find a standing pilot figure maybe I could "mangle" it up a bit to creat his signature hat and beard and call it a day.   

[loupgarou]

Thanks, fellers!!


Yeah I'm not holding out too much hope on the castro figure. Hell, at 1/72 If I could just find a standing pilot figure maybe I could "mangle" it up a bit to creat his signature hat and beard and call it a day.   

Maybe it would be easier starting with a soldier in jungle dress or fatigues.

[TheChronicOne]

Thanks, fellers!!


Yeah I'm not holding out too much hope on the castro figure. Hell, at 1/72 If I could just find a standing pilot figure maybe I could "mangle" it up a bit to creat his signature hat and beard and call it a day.   

Maybe it would be easier starting with a soldier in jungle dress or fatigues.

Ahhh, right you are. GOOD thinking. Pilots' attire wouldn't be appropriate now would it? 

When I get back from work I'll take a gander around Ebay.  Might be able to find some old figure lot.  I'd like to have him standing next to the ladder on the outside of the Bomber right where everyone can see him. 

[Gondor]

Thanks, fellers!!


Yeah I'm not holding out too much hope on the castro figure. Hell, at 1/72 If I could just find a standing pilot figure maybe I could "mangle" it up a bit to creat his signature hat and beard and call it a day.   

Maybe it would be easier starting with a soldier in jungle dress or fatigues.

Ahhh, right you are. GOOD thinking. Pilots' attire wouldn't be appropriate now would it? 

When I get back from work I'll take a gander around Ebay.  Might be able to find some old figure lot.  I'd like to have him standing next to the ladder on the outside of the Bomber right where everyone can see him. 

If you get a couple of photographers as well then you can make a little bit of a diorama of Castro having a photo opportunity?

Gondor

[TheChronicOne]

Thanks, fellers!!


Yeah I'm not holding out too much hope on the castro figure. Hell, at 1/72 If I could just find a standing pilot figure maybe I could "mangle" it up a bit to creat his signature hat and beard and call it a day.   

Maybe it would be easier starting with a soldier in jungle dress or fatigues.

Ahhh, right you are. GOOD thinking. Pilots' attire wouldn't be appropriate now would it? 

When I get back from work I'll take a gander around Ebay.  Might be able to find some old figure lot.  I'd like to have him standing next to the ladder on the outside of the Bomber right where everyone can see him. 

If you get a couple of photographers as well then you can make a little bit of a diorama of Castro having a photo opportunity?

Gondor

Ohh, I love it!!  Great idea!  I was also thinking earlier it's about time I made a tarmac base for these models and what better time than for this one.      Might even try to find some 1/72 vehicle to add in as well.

Fun stuff!   

[kerick]

An old Chevy or Buick

[TheChronicOne]

An old Chevy or Buick

Mid to late 50's .. ooh yeah, nice thinking.. better than a jeep!     .. . .  ... I wonder what kind of stuff I can find..   I'm starting to get quite a list of stuff to look for on Ebay. 

[Captain Canada]

Cool. Love all the bombs !

[Old Wombat]

Preiser do a fair range of interesting 1/72 (& other scale) figures.

Preiser: https://www.preiser-figuren.de/searchmass.php?eigenschaft=&subid=&group_id=&massstab=1:72&sort=a.article_number%20asc&seite=1

1:72 Civilian pilots, stewardesses + ground staff, unpainted: https://www.preiser-figuren.de/preiser-72528-1:72-zivile-piloten-stewardessen-+-bodenpersonal-unbemalt-18-st.-preiser-72528,art-18276

1:72 Military Police, Vienna 1945 unpainted: https://www.preiser-figuren.de/preiser-72529-1:72-milit%C3%A4rpolizei-wien-1945-unbemalt-5-st.-preiser-72529,art-18277

[TheChronicOne]

Nice!! I like the looks of the Military Police guys.   

[TheChronicOne]

OK! Back to work. Haven't done anything on this since the last update aside from (terribly) painting yellow stripes on the bombs. I rushed through it and they didn't turn out too great. I separated them in half with one group being the better ones and the other the more butchered ones. The ones that look good will be on the bottom (more visible down there) and will help hide the flaws in the stripes on the bombs above. 

Also, painted the exterior color of the bomb bay doors and also the inside. I'm going to let it dry up a bit then mask and try those blue stripes I mentioned before. Maybe I should toss some future on first to help keep the paint from coming off on my tape but I want to try one without it first to see if I can squeek by without it. If it's not too bad I can just do touch up after and call it good.

Also, I'm beginning painting and construction on the gear. Painted the bomb racks and bomb bay, also. Right now, I'm gluing the bombs onto said painted racks.

Pics later if I get enough done to warrant any.   

[TheChronicOne]

Sitting here watching the local public television when a show w/ a British fellow came on that had him going all around Cuba by rail. As I had already been working on the Cuban heavy, I took it as a sign that today would be a good day for a push to get a lot done. Turned out to be a damn fascinating bit of tele, too.

ANYWAY, a friggin chimp must have casted these wheels. Just terrible!! I'm not doing too much fixing on them but the holes in the center for the hubs are wildy off center. I utilized some pliers to make it all fit then dumped copious amounts of glue along the seams in the middle of the tires. During all the man handling I lost 75% or more of the black paint on the nose wheel and also a fair amount on the main gear. LOL     Never fails. No worries, once the glue has set up a little I'll go back in with more and they'll be fine.

BOMB BAY DOORS... oooh yeah.... went ahead with the floor polish. About to put the second coat on. I think it'll make life easier down the road.

I also took the transfers outside and hit them with a couple coats of clear. I'm going to bring them back in so I can count the strips on the fin flash so I'll know how many I might like to put on the bomb bay doors. I may try, for the first time ever, applying tape to my cutting matt and using an exacto to trim them to the right size as all the stuff I have doesn't appear to be the right width for what I'm trying to accomplish. This is why I need to bring the transfers back inside....  That's coming up next after I hit "post."

Speaking of fin flash, I glued the rudder together after tracing the halves onto paper so I can in turn use them as guides to cut out the fin flash decals themselves. 

Anyway, I'm going to look at the instructions again and see what other bits I can glue together while I do the floor polish and let it dry on the doors...

Pictures are coming, I think....  there for a minute I had a big pile of parts sitting here that would have been nice to see but I didn't feel like "staging" it.  I'll try to get all this mess together in one place soon, though!   

Starting to see the light at the end of this one! 

[DogfighterZen]

You know the saying : "This thread is useless without pics!" don't you?!?

[TheChronicOne]

Hilarious as I crammed it all back in the box earlier when I was done. 

Just not feeling playing "photog" right now. I kept forgetting and this is probably why.

I'll make a point of it when I break it all back out in a day or two.   

Truth be told I'm thinking about doing some more work now.. I was thinking of playing some video games but I just don't know. I get wishy-washy sometimes and can't seem to settle.

[TheChronicOne]

I've hit "Legend of Drunken Modeler" status.

I did indeed stop and play some video games.  Even in that I sometimes hit "Legend of Drunken Flyer" and utilize the "fluid" nature of my relaxed state to rack up copious amounts of kills (flying games of course). Sometimes being a bit trashed has its merits.   

Anyway. . .

I did well on Ace Combat Infinity but now I'm concerned with Cuban affairs. This has been a celebratory weekend and I'm three sheets to the wind but with with this "legend of drunken (xx)"    in mind I decided to get back to work on my Tu-4 to try this working on models whilst plastered stuff.

I've touched up the paint on and glued together all of the gear. I've painted the ailerons the base blue that will be half of the camo. It would be more difficult to paint them later as I do the rest of the camo due to the nature of the surfaces nestled against other surfaces. This way, with the blue painted I can still put the green camo pattern across the top and not have to worry about trying to cram my paint brush into the gaps.

I painted a small patch on the underside of each bottom wing halve so I could in turn glue in the clear piece the instructions call for. I have no idea what they are... lights or something I guess. When I go to prime the bulk of the plane I'll mask this area off and be ahead of the game.


I also glued together both of the halves of the elevators and they are in the clutches of clothes pins pending the glue drying. Like with the rudder, I'll take a metal file to the edges and clean them up once the glue is done.

Just shy of 1 A.M. here now and my "drunken modeler" stuff is at and end. That said, I've found that if one keeps to doing the less tricky stuff that building models while getting "pissed" can be quite fun.   



Still no pics. . ...