Trumpeter 1/72 TU160 '' Blackjack''

After a long wait,I finally got my hands on this kit last weekend, (it only appeared here in the UK about 3/4 weeks ago) and[wow] I take my hat off to the guys at Trumpeter!!!

This is one helleva kit, and one of the best I’ve ever seen in this scale, Trumpeter include a multitude of goodies including etched parts for the instrument panel and cockpit bulkheads, detailed weapons bays with KH-55 cruise missiles - including six examples of the long range version with conformal tanks, seperate flaps and slats, and a white metal undercarriage - encased in plastic parts, to support the weight of the finished model!

The whole model is finely engraved and appears pretty accurate! I’ve picked up a couple of minor errors, the engine cans are I believe slightly short, and the missiles slightly too long, but they are very minor errors and not readily obvious!

The paint guide seems reasonably accurate, although the interior of the engine intakes are black - not white, and I’m dubious about the ‘interior green’ for the weapons bay, the only pics I have show a grey roof and wood colour brown sides, I would strongly recommend the RED STAR Volume 9 Tupolev TU-160 ‘Blackjack’ as a source of reference, I’ve searched the net for additional interior pics of the weapons and undercarriage bays, but come up with very little so far, if anyone can recommend any additional sources of reference I’d love to hear about them.

When this bird is built its gonna be something else, but anyone building it is gonna need plenty of room, the wings are always swept forward when on the ground to stop the aircraft tipping up on its tail, the wings can only be swept back under controlled circumstances when the tail is supported.

It may be me, but I can’t help noticing that virtually all the availiable models of the TU-160 seem pretty accurate, I suspect that manufacturers might have paid a visit to the Ukraine and examined the aircraft in the Poltova aviation museum - providing its still there!

It’s a veritable Blackjack Bonanza this week! I just got (and posted about) the excellent Zvezda 1/144 Tu-160 kit a couple of days ago.

Good review of the Trump Blackjack, Stealthman. Glad to hear it’s a good kit. I wanted to get it, but it’s just too big for my small apartment and even smaller wallet!
Zvezda to the rescue!

If it intrests you, Stealthman, Amodel recently made a set of two KH-55 cruise missiles with ground handling trolleys. The set comes with a very comprehensive decal sheet.

The price, as I recall, was pretty reasonable for Amodel products, and the mouldings looked fairly flash free and with good details.

Could be a nice thing to have around your Blackjack when done.

Cheers my old mate! I’ll look them up and buy some.

Paul

now when will someone build a adequate 1/72 scale TU-22 Backfire bomber.

I’m hoping Trumpeter will come up with a 1/72 TU22M at some point, I’d also like to see them produce a decent 1/72 B1B to the same standard as the 'Blackjack, they’d look great together side by side, its about time someone produced a decent 1/72 kit of the ‘Bone’.

Missiles are way way way way way inaccurate from what i hear. Trumpeter manages to screw something up again and still charge an arm and 2 legs for it… sigh. But still, at least it’s cheaper than the a-model version.

LOL I will shell out 200 bucks for a kit but there is no way I’m shelling out 500 bucks for something that is made of fiberglass and has no known interior detail I can use that 500 dollars to buy me a used car.

I saw a write up about the Trumpeter kits missiles on another forum last week some time, seem the main inaccuracy is the length of them, they are too long. Long enough that they won’t fit in the weapons bay.

Upshot is that the same person compared those missiles to the “Kent” set tha Amodel makes and found they were spot on. they did a side by side comparison of the Trumpeter and Amodel missiles and it looks like you just have to do a bit of shortening on the Trumpeter ones and you’ll be alright. Buy a set of the Amodel missiles and use them as a pattern for your mods to the Trumpeter ones.

I’ll try to dig up that article I mentioned and post a link to it.

The Trumpeter missiles are too long, but certainly not too long that they won’t fit in the weapons bay!! I’ve ordered, and am still waiting for a set of the Amodel missiles, if they are as good as some reckon I’ll probably order some more and use them instead, its very rare for a TU160 to fly with a full weapons load, and I’d rather detail one of the weapons bays and leave it empty, or alternatively load a couple of ‘live’ missiles in one bay, and a couple of training rounds in the other.

I’ve seen the Amodel kit in built and un-built form, the finished kit looks ok if you’re willing to put in all the work on the fibre glass, but it is basic, and doesn’t include all goodies found in the Trumpeter kit such as the seperate flaps and slats etc, ok, so Trumpeter made an error with the missiles, one which with a little work can be rectified.

When all is said and done, the Trumpeter kit, incidentally at a cheaper price, is by far the better of the two!