IPMS/USA Kit Review: Trumpeter 1/144 Tu-16K-10 Badger C

Trumpeter

1/144 Tu-16K-10 Badger C

Kit Number: 03908

Reviewed by Jim Pearsall, IPMS# 2209

MSRP: $41.95
Distributor's website: www.stevenshobby.com

The Aircraft

The Tu-16 is an old aircraft that first entered service in 1954. As the license-manufactured Xian H-6 of the PLAAF, it remains in service today. This makes it almost as long-lived as the B-52.

If you don’t want to use the USSR markings, the Tu-16 was used by Azerbaijan, Belarus, the People’s Republic of China, Egypt, Georgia, Indonesia, Iraq, Russia, the Soviet Union and Ukraine. Be aware, however, that the Badger has gone through a number of variants: for conventional bombing, nuclear strike, maritime, refueling and reconnaissance. This model is the maritime version, with the BIG air-to-surface missiles.

The Badger C can carry one K-10 (AS-2 Kipper) anti-ship missile and two KSR-2 or KSR-5 anti-ship missiles. The K-10 missile is approximately the same size (length and span) as an F-86. It’s the "Mistel" of the 1960s!

The Kit

The sturdy Trumpeter box holds four flash-free grey sprues, one clear sprue and the decal sheet. As I began Step 1, I fell in love with this kit. An interior, in 1/144 scale! It’s a scale-down of the 1/72 kit’s interior, but it’s a lot more than you get in most 1/144 kits. I even went so far as to print a decal for the instrument panel. Of course you can’t see it with the canopy in position, but I know it’s there.

The kit is very modular, with a nose section, a fuselage center/wing section and a tail section. The nose and center section have the parts split horizontally, so you have a seam at the side of the fuselage. The tail splits vertically, so the seam’s at the top and bottom. This will allow Trumpeter to produce other versions without making a whole new set of molds. Another clue that this may happen is that there is a clear part for the nose included, and the Badger C has a solid nose. I suspect this is for the other recently-released Trumpeter Badger G.

The assembly instructions are well drawn, with a logical and useful assembly procedure. If you follow all the steps in order, you can be successful. Even if you skip around, like I did, you can easily pick up where you left off and not miss anything critical.

Assembly

After having fun doing the interior, I put it into the front section. I added weight to the nose, just in case. I’m not sure it’s needed, but I’m also not taking chances with a tail sitter. It would probably be possible to add birdshot to the nose section through the open hole for the navigator’s blister, just behind the canopy, if you had to.

There were no real fit issues with the nose and tail sections but, on the center section, there is an area just in front of the intakes that required some finesse. These sections are slightly raised, then a recessed area with a rounded concave shape, and I had difficulty getting rid of the small but unsightly gap there. Too much putty loses the concave section, too little leaves the gap. Too much force with the sandpaper takes the lip off. In spite of the fact that the leading and trailing edges of the wing are where the parts connect, I needed no putty or filling. The wings are nicely molded, and don’t require major clamping to get the wing tips and roots to hold together. Well done, Trumpeter. The tail is also straight and the parts meet like old friends.

Once the sub-assemblies are completed, the nose, center and tail fit together fairly nicely. I needed some putty where those assemblies met, but the joints are well designed and strong enough to remove any doubt about durability.

It was now time to paint. There are no color or painting instructions. So if you’re going to buy and build this kit, go out and get Squadron/Signal number 108, Tu-16 Badger in Action. I used Floquil’s Old Silver, because no maritime patrol aircraft is going to have a bright, shiny finish. Maybe when it’s brand new, but salt air has its way with paint or aluminum, and it’s not shiny for long. I used Testors Russian Topside Green for the radomes, fin top antenna and the missiles. These colors seem to match the colors on the box top pretty closely. I used Dark Ghost Grey for the missile nose cones and gun turrets, and caboose red for the trim tabs.

Then a quick application of Future, and I’m ready for decals. There is no help in the instructions for decal placement. Once again, Squadron’s book gives good guidance. The decals came off the paper nicely, responded well to Micro Sol ® and Micro Set ® and could be adjusted to get the stars straight. Once the decals had a chance to set overnight, I put on a coat of acrylic flat, to really make sure there was no gloss.

I had painted the wheels and gear legs way back in the process, while waiting for the putty to set on the fuselage sections. The wheels are nicely molded, and there is no fit problem getting them onto the gear legs. Some may say that the tabs provided on the gear doors are oversized. I will not argue that they’re probably too big in scale, but they’re sure handy when you’re trying to install those small doors in a fairly closed in area, and have to wear glasses under the headband magnifier to see anything. Sorry, function trumps form in this case. The method for mounting the main gear is simple and strong. There is a pocket inside the gear well, and the gear legs fit tight, but no bind or adjustment needed.

Next for the glass. The canopy is a chore to paint, and the frames probably are too high above the clear parts, but for painting, they’re small, and they’re fine. Again, function over form. I had a definite fit problem with the tail gunner’s glass. It required shaving off about Ľ mm of the top to get the part to fit between the guns and the radar antenna. And we all remember that nice interior? Well, I had to cut off part of the instrument panel to get the canopy to set down onto the fuselage.

And lastly, those missiles. Another reviewer, on another website noted that the 1/72 kit has a problem with the AS-2 missile, which sits under the fuselage. As the kit was set up, there wasn’t room for the missile to fit under there. If you put the missile under there as Trumpeter designed it, the wheels wouldn’t touch all the way around. Well, that’s not true on this kit. The "Kipper" fits into the slot provided, and the gear sits proudly on all 10 wheels. I am still working on finding out if the missile actually hangs like that or if it’s semi-recessed. Meanwhile, it’s in place with white glue, so if I change my mind, or have it changed for me, it’s fixable with minimal trouble. The wing-mounted missiles fit on the pylons neatly, but the curve of the top of the pylons doesn’t match the curve of the bottom of the wing, leaving a gap. Sigh. Just when you’re in that last rush to finish the kit, it’s time to stop and fix one more thing.

Overall Evaluation

OK, it’s a scale-down of their 1/72 kit. But this means that they’ve already figured out how to fix a lot of problems. It also means that there are a few new ones to jump up and bite you.

For the most part, the plastic parts fit very well. If they didn’t put an interior in the cockpit, the canopy wouldn’t have a fit problem. But which can you deal with better, a) scratch building a 1/144 cockpit, or b) trimming a little to get the canopy to fit? I go with option b.

I give Trumpeter high marks for engineering. The parts are cleanly molded, the large parts fit and it’s not a chore to clean up the seams. The assembly instructions are error-free, it’s easy to figure out which part fits where, and there are no "gotchas".

The lack of color and marking instruction is fixed admirably by the Squadron book’s info. It appears that Squadron no longer stocks this book, but I found used ones reasonably priced at Amazon.com. Finishing this kit without this book or one like it would be more difficult, but not impossible.

I recommend this kit. If you’ve got a 1/144 collection, you really need this kit, or one of the releases to follow. My thanks to Mike Bass and Stevens International for the review kit.