Brief
The
T-4 was part of the prolific series of strange soviet bombers designed during
the cold war. Habitually is considered to be the Soviet response to the
supersonic bomber XB-70 North American. The T-4 flew for the first time in
August 1972 in the center of tests Zukhovsky. The first flight was at the
expense of the pilot Vladimir Ilyushin and the navigator Nicolay Alferov. It had
one of the first systems of flight as cable (Fly by Ware) made in the URSS.
During the flights of test 1.28 reached a speed Mach, nevertheless it did not
come at the speed programmed of Mach 3 due to the fact that the finished project
was cancelled in 1974. The T-4 accumulated in his record of flight only 10
hours.
Nevertheless
the design of this impressive plane was obeying an extensive and complex program
of engineering, aerodynamic and metallurgical. The T-4 was constructed in steel
and titanium. His weight to full load was exceeding 100 tons!. It was considered
to equip it with two missiles of great size Kh-45 but this armament never
managed to establish oneself. Another two copies were in process of manufacture
when the works of production were suspended, this was the motive of that were
never finished. The model surviving only one ended his days in the museum Monino,
close to Moscow.
Kit
This
kit is of type short run and it is of mixed manufacture, resin fiberglass and
injected plastic. The wedge is not perfect but here it enters game the patience
of the modelist. The sections of resin are the fuselage and great part of the
wings made of two halves (top and low) those who come assembled from factory.
Part of the tail fin also is of the same material. The rest of the pieces is in
injected plastic. The glue that it is necessary to use is of type cyanocrilato
CA or super glue.
I
used putty Marson (for cars) with an catalyst. It is easier to refill unions and
on having dried, modelling does not contract as the traditional putties of the
category. The putty Tamiya was used for the final finishing touch before the
painting.
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Cockpit:
It
is basic and with a minimum of details in the lateral consoles, panels of
instruments and seats. I replaced the consoles of kit by others more detailed of
another kit, I believe that they were of a F-105 I am not sure much. I replaced
the seats by copies in resin of two K-36 with some modifications. Actually I
eliminated the cylinders side by side of the head pilot and replaced them by
square badges, very similar to the seat that was used in the family of the
Yak-28. I do not know what was the type of seats that the T-4 was using. I
realized an identical work to which Mr Phil Brandt did in the rims of the
accesses to the cabins of his T-4 that he published in the past in Internet. I
added a badge of plasticard inside the cabin to give him more depth. I replaced
three original frontal windows by new made pieces of plate of acetate, equal
method for two lateral windows and the two that are in the lids of revenue to
the cockpit, the final score is much better!
Wings
and tail fin:
On
having been joined to the fuselage only, it is necessary to add to them the rim
of attack (2 pieces), I carry to extremes of the wing (1 piece) and flaps of the
rim of escape (1 piece). I preferred joining the flaps to the rest of the wings
in position below. The leeway is completed joining the rim of attack and the
mobile panels.
Front
fuselage and nose:
After
assembling and painting the interior of the cockpit and two halves of the front
fuselage, I placed an internal piece of plasticard to reinforce the union to the
rest of the pre-assembled fuselage. In this stage it is necessary to align
correctly both sections of the fuselage and to apply enough putty in the union.
The nose is composed of two halves each one with an internal axis. I preferred
the option above or below doing a groove it curls to the sides of the cabin.
Air
duct:
On
having assembled this section, it is necessary to put attention in the aligned
correct one and adjustment in the union to the rest of the fuselage. Here also
putty is applied enough. I did not consider to use protective lids for the air
captures.
Nozzles:
Every
nozzle comes in two halves and one joins the burners in his base. It is
necessary to do a slow but necessary work of cleanliness of excess of plastic in
these 4 pieces. To give him more depth to the burners I did 4 orifices in the
later face of the fuselage.
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Undercarriage:
Every
principal train has eight wheels and two arms hydraulic, the train of nose is
more conventional only it has two wheels but I added two horizontal cylinders
that go to the sides of the axis or vertical arm and that were not included in
kit. In contrast to the unit of nose the adjustment of the axes of the wheels of
the principal train is defective, this problem can be solved ... but I did not
do it. The wells have little depth but the front lids cover this area.
Painting
and decals:
Use
acrylic lacquer of cars applied with airbrush. The aluminium is called
‘Opalescente‘ and I did the differences of tonalities mixing the aluminium
with black, blue, red, white and yellow. Then I retouched with airbrush you
stain of black diluted enough color applied in the rims of the panels of the
fuselage and wings. The bands or strips of the darkest color of the air captures
be re-produced by me with a rigid mask of plasticard. Before placing, you trace
them I applied a layer to all kit of transparent lacquer. You trace Amodel they
are transparent because of it I painted first the stars of tail and wings
directly on the surface in white color. This way you trace them of the tail they
would not have a translucent aspect. Identical procedure I did with the code
yellow 101 in both sides of the front fuselage but making the numbers with role
he traces Testors printed on an inject previous I design in FreeHand 9. Finally
I applied to all kit a final surrounding layer of brilliant lacquer mixed with
matt lacquer.
Conclusion:
I
must say that this kit is only, Amodel is the only company that has edited it in
2004. It does not have the level of details that a kit Hasegawa, Tamiya, Fujimi
or Accurate M. The type of material used in the manufacture of the pieces of
resin fiberglass forces to use special glues (CA) as the cyanocrilato or one of
type bicomponent. Many modelistas will know that Trumpeter announced for 2005
the Tu-160 injected into 1/72, for it I believe that it will not be any surprise
that the Chinese mark also edits in the future Sukhoi T-4 1/72 completely
injectedly!!
Ricardo
Santiago-Chile
www.ipmschile.cl
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