This is a 30-year old kit from the East German company VEB Plasticart. It’s more a conversation piece/curiosity than a serious scale model; I would expect that recent releases from Trumpeter are far superior. Nevertheless, I enjoy building old, low-tech kits and seeing what I can make of them. Hope you enjoy this result!
Hello!
Maybe it isn’t high-tech, but once upon a time it was the only model of this machine, and back then it was as good a kit as you could get if you were living in Poland in the eighties…
Good luck with your builds and have a nice day
Paweł
Nice work on a crude, basic kit. I like the tonal variations on the panels.
Interestingly, these kits made it as far afield as Australia. I have one that I picked up locally in the mid-80’s, along with the 1/72 SU-7.
I take it, from the big nose bulge, that this was sort of a Soviet version of AWACs.
You did a fantastic job resurrecting an old school kit! Superb!
Toshi
Nice result. I’ve seen some of those VEB Plasticart kits, you put serious skills and elbow grease in to this one!
Very nice job on that kit!
Mike
WOW!!! [:|]
Now that’s a nice job turning a mangy sow’s ear into an expensive designer’s purse!!! [:D[
No offense to Pawel or any of the other fine folk of Poland intended but those kits are well… awful… and what you’ve done is simply amazing! Love the NM finish!
I went and looked it up. The big radar is for the Tu-95MS. Cruise missile launching version of the Tu-95. The missile it launched was the Kh-55 (AS-15 “KENT”).
No offence taken, it just goes to show you how poor the state of the hobby was back then. Shortage of EVERYTHING in the shops, we rarely had any models to buy at all, and most of the time it was “ZTS PLASTYK” model kits made in Poland. Getting East German VEB Plasticart model or NOVO copy of an old Frog model made in the USSR was a big reason for joy! Not to mention the models made in the west - A worker had to spend all the money he earned in a month to get one of those. Modelmaking-wise it’s so much better now!
By the way - that Tu-95 turned out really fine! Congratulations!
Paweł
Old nasty kits are great for showing off great building skills.
[][][][][*]
Thank you Pawel! I do enjoy building the older kits, and there are plenty from this country - Pyro and Lindberg come to mind - that similarly may not look promising coming out of the box but often yield a pleasing result with some effort.
By the way, I also build paper models, and I’ve built several from Poland - JSC, Fly Model, and Maly Modelarz kits. [:)]
What a treat!
Back in 1979 I was finishing architecture school. My batchelor thesis was on the Bauhaus, I spent two weeks in East Germany in Dessau and Weimar. Somewhere I picked up this same kit, with Aeroflot decals.
Lost to time, wish I still had it.
Hello Paul!
Cool! From time to time I build paper models too! It was exactly the shortage of plastic kits that has made Poland so strong in the paper model department. Just yesterday I have bought a 1:33 P-47M from “Kartonowy Arsenał”. Just check out those babies: http://www.halinski.com.pl/ - they are very detailed!
Good luck with your builds and have a nice day
Paweł
Thanks Pawel!
And thanks Paul for pointing out there are some horrible kits from the US too. I suppose even Japan has produced some stinkers somewhere along the line.
Thanks! I have Halinski’s USS Spadefish submarine I need to build sometime. [:)]
Beautiful finish on that old warhorse of a kit! I still have mine (unbuilt) sent to me by a Czech pen-pal in the 1980’s. We exchanged kits for a 10 year period. I still have some other Veb Plastikart kits back in the stash.