Tupolev tu95 1:10

[nickhenderson]

Phil and Karl, you would be very surprised what you can get "off the shelf" in French supermarkets.
As with most supermarkets there is a DIY section, but the French seem to have a penchant for a chemicals section as well.
Ammonia, acetone, cellulose thinners, hydrogen peroxide (MEKP), denatured alcohol,hydrochloric acid, its all there for the taking. Rather nicely some of it is even kept in a glass fronted fume cupboard. All products are always above toddler height, i would say 4 1/2 foot min to top shelf so no issues there.
Was certainly an eye opener when i first saw the selection.

[Karl mander]

The nacelles have been sheeted, and then test fitted back into the wing, all nacelles fit snugly into place with no movement( it's a good feeling when something you've built fits properly)
I can't secure the nacelles to the wing permanently until I've fitted the fuselage central section.

So now it's onto the fuselage as I've done all I can currently on the wing. I think I've figured out a way to fit the central section in one piece.

[Serj Odin]

Great project! Karl, I take my hat respectfully.
Aircraft Tupolev design is very difficult!

[Karl mander]

Thanks for your comment Serj.

I've now started on the fuselage in between painting the house.

The first issue is that it's long! I will be building the centre and rear of the fus first as I can't fit it complete onto my building board.
I've scarfed the balsa and spruce longerons and started the internal strengthening in the fuselage.

(The kit has a multitude of spare formers, I probably have enough to do two sets of four nacelles and half a fuselage, I think belair had some spare wood he wanted to get rid of)

[Karl mander]

Work has started on the fus.

It's in three sections and is joined together by a ply tongue that is secured into a ply pocket .
Pictures show it in action.

Due to the curvature of the fus I will use my normal technique of slotting all the formers to take 1/8 hard balsa stringers.

[Karl mander]

As the photos show stringers/sheeting has commenced. I was pleased to be able to separate the rear from the centre section.
As well as the ply tongues joining the fuselage I've also connected the longerons to give added strength.

[Karl mander]

A TALL BEAR!

[David Brown]

Do you ever sleep, now that's big.

Dave

[DAVE JOHNSON]

Karl---keep it up---you will be ready for test flights at East Kirkby

[Karl mander]

Fuselage structure complete , however before I sheet the centre section I have to be sure that I can get it onto the centre section if the wing.
It's all coming together , the kit box just has the tail feathers remaining.

[Karl mander]

If only I'd known this was on eBay for a mere $5000000 I wouldn't of bothered making the model. The attached picture is a screenshot from eBay placed on the 07/03/14 auctioning a Ukrainian tu95. It is a genuine sale , however was taken down when Putin got his knickers in a twist and decided to invade.

[Karl mander]

Work on the fus structure - stringers and sheeting almost complete.
This allowed the central section of the fuselage to be positioned on the central wing section.
A couple of happy hours were spent cursing and sweating trying to get it into position, thoroughly as awkward as I expected it to be.
Once onto the centre of the wing the outer panels/ rear of the fuselage were reattached , everything lined up then centre wing/fuselage section fibre glassed into position.
The photo doesn't do justice to the washout in the wing.

Anyway enough with this project for the time being, I'm returning to work on my Do335. I had the rear engine running by itself for approx 10 minutes in the rear garden yesterday, with no overheating problems, most chuffed .

[Steve Kasch]

Some great shots of your hornet at Carton

http://www.largemodelassociation.com/ga ... arty-2014/

[stuart knowles 1611]

Great to meet you at East Kirkby (Admired the Hornet) and much looking forward to seeing this one come together.
regards
Stu Knowles

[Karl mander]

Hi Stuart , thanks for your comments much appreciated .

Work has resumed on the bear after a short break to maintain my other models.

As I've now finished sheeting the fus I can secure the nacelles into the wing. All the work previously done has paid off as they " clicked " into place.

Unfortunately the centre section is now so big that I have to support the bench overhang to prevent it falling off.

[Karl mander]

The bear continues- construction work on the wing / centre section is complete prior to the contouring/ balsa bashing .
The next stage is to get back onto the front fuselage section where I need to complete building the nose up to look like a tu95ms, it has a chin like structure to house the radar. The plans offer limited detail on the nacelle / nose detail so I'm using a plastic model to help .

I've also shown some of the hinges that I've made. I'm not a fan of multiple small hinges (I've had one break) preferring 2 or 3 large hinges , as this model is over 20 kg there needs to be a minimum of 3 , they're also a lot easier to install and pin secure.

[Karl mander]

This is the first update in over 2 months in which a lot has been completed.

The tail plane was constructed at the end of May , it had an over 20kg inspection at the beginning ofJune which tied in with the work on the empennage . I decided to make the tail plane removable else I'd never get the rear section out of the workshop.

The tail plane is made as per the main wing with a cross spar keyed into the spars.

The fin has the normal central spar running through it into which I've keyed in two 1" x 1/2" spars which extend out of the tail plane to connect it to the rear section. These slide into boxes in the fuselage.

[Karl mander]

With the tail plane completed this finished the construction work and so commenced the daunting task of filling and balsa bashing a 20 ft wingspan model with a 15 ft long fuselage.

I use ronseal floor varnish/ glass cloth to cover the model , it may not be bullet proof but I like its ease of use.

Before I painted I decided to strengthen the fuselage joining system by adding aluminium tabs tabs that are keyed into the longerons and so bolted together when joining(4 at the front section and 5 at the rear).It may be completely superfluous however it makes me feel better as it gives me extra confidence in the airframe.

Next came the paint, utilising the fantastic weather I managed to paint in my garden. Working like a man possessed I managed to complete the task in a few days.

[Karl mander]

And after clouding staffordshire in a fog of cellulose spray this is the result.

[stuart knowles 1611]

I've been wondering how you were getting along with this.............. now that I've seen......


WOW !!

amazing progress

stu k