A first look...........

It arrives in a HUGE stout cardboard box – 23.5in x 14in, with a nice painting on the front of a Russian AF Tu-95MS Bear-H landing at an air base with snow-covered mountains in the background.

Inside, there are five plastic bags containing the grey coloured sprues plus a sixth holding the clear parts.

The decal sheet is fairly simple, providing markings for two machines – with just six red stars, four Ukrainian roundels plus two Ukrainian ‘Trident’ fin flashes, two curling Russian flags for the nose and code numbers 36 for the Russian example and 33 for the Ukrainian machine.

The instructions are contained in a 12-page booklet with a sprue layout chart and a step-by-step guide to construction. Painting instructions are indicated throughout the assembly sequence with ‘generic’ colours being named – ‘Black gray’, ‘Burnt iron’, ‘Light blue’ etc – although the colour side profiles showing the overall colours do actually quote paint numbers from the Gunze Mr Color range.

The kit is moulded in medium grey plastic with superb engraved panel detail.

The largest sprue – A, contains the left and right fuselage halves, with are split into front and rear halves – with the joint occurring near the tail – just behind the weapons bay. It remains to be seen how much of a problem that join will prove to be. The fin is moulded with the rear fuselage – the rudder is separate.

There is a large, deep, wing-shaped recess in each fuselage half – into which the completed wing assembly slots – I just hope it proves to positive enough without any kind of spar. Interior cockpit detail is very sparse – just a floor, two seats, two control columns, trim wheels and an instrument panel. There is no detail in the rear gunner’s compartment, although not much is visible through the small windows anyway.

Sprue B contains the huge engine nacelles – each one split vertically. The inner engines have opening for the wheel bays and are complete, front to rear. The outer engines are just the front sections of the nacelle – the undersides of these nacelles being moulded integrally with the lower wings. The two-part rudder is contained on this sprue

The wings are on sprues C and D – upper and lower halves with internal ribbing for strength. The ailerons are separate – as are flaps. Internal guides for the flaps are provided – and it looks as though the flaps can be made to operate – although I haven’t actually tried them out yet. The instructions show these flap guides – but there is no other reference to the fact that they might actually work!

Sprue E is doubled up and contains the huge propellers – moulded integrally with their hubs – the wheels with good hub detail and numerous other smaller components.

Sprue G contains the tailplanes – with separate ailerons, the main undercarriage legs and various smaller items.

Sprue G has those flaps and their guides, while sprue H is the clear components – fuselage windows, tail gunner’s windows and the cockpit glazing.

The complex undercarriage is well depicted and each wheel well is a separate component that can be fitted into the forward fuselage and inner engine nacelles as appropriate.

All the various ‘lumps and bumps’ in the form of antenna and aerials are catered for and on the whole this looks like a magnificent kit of an important cold-war bomber.

Placing the kit parts over the best available drawings – those provided in 1:72 scale in the Russian publication ‘Tupolev Tu-95’ by Archive Press – show that Trumpeter kit is totally accurate in all major respects.

I still have my doubts about the wing profile shape though – Trumpeter have moulded a very blunt shape to the wing leading edge – evident by those large recesses in the fuselage. The drawings in Archive Press show a much gentler curve at the wing root leading edge. This of course assumes that the drawings are correct!

Apart from that slight niggle, this release by Trumpeter is superb – and although rather expensive (it retails for 63.95 Pounds in the UK) it looks like it will provide excellent value for money.

I know what I will be doing over the festive season.

The Archive Press book btw, contains loads of b&w photos of the Tu-95 with some good close-ups of the Tu-95MS – including one where the flaps are being fitted. The text is in Ukrainian – but there is a 3-page summary in English at the back of the book. The back page has four colour photos of the crew compartment with shows that the walls and floor are duck-egg blue, the panels are bright blue-green and the instruments faces are black.

For some photos of a made-up model, plus some shots of the sprues, check out Trumpeters website.

Ken Duffey
December 2002.