SPA Modeler

I am on a holiday and finally have some time for modelling. I have taken this Zvezda boxing of the Berkut 1/72 Tupolev ANT-5 along with me. The prototype is BMF with no markings so that should speed things up. The box also has parts for the production types , the I-4 and I-4Z.
As a side note, although from the Tupolev design bureau Pavel Sukhoi was the actual head designer of the ANT-5.

I have hollowed out the exhausts and added a few details to the cockpit.

https://postimg.cc/gallery/20eduuawq/

Attempt two:

You’re off to a fine start...

Your building projects are almost always very special ones! Definitely no mainstream objects!

Nice harness build ( and tiny !)

- Kari

Looking great so far. Excellent!

The fuselage opening was almost covered with flash so I hade to open it. The plastic is very soft so the glue made this bead line (is that the correct word?). That looks bad but is in fact very easy to clean up.

Looking good so far Borg. Yes, bead line is the correct word. Just like in a welding bead, which is what that essentially is. And those do make seam clean up easy, because you rarely require filler if you have those bead lines.

Stikpusher wrote:Looking good so far Borg. Yes, bead line is the correct word. Just like in a welding bead, which is what that essentially is. And those do make seam clean up easy, because you rarely require filler if you have those bead lines.

I must’ve missed that concept when I started out with modeling.

I went after it differently. I tried gluing the fuselage halves together as neatly as possible without getting that bead line, because I thought the cleanup would be ugly. That served me fine with my Emils because they’re supposed to have that seam. But not other projects.

With my latest Corsair build I just bit the bullet and got the Tamiya Extra Thin in there, section by section and ended up with that same bead line. I told myself it was okay, and began gently getting after it with my sanding sticks. After I was done using the finest, softest one I’ve got on it, I was delighted that the seam was lovely and as smooth as if the plastic had been molded that way. And NO FILLS were necessary.

So yup. For planes that aren’t Emils, a nice bead line is the way to go. It says “Hey bro, just sand me down and polish me a bit, and be gentle, and this fuselage is gonna look lovely!”

Good bead lines give me warm and fuzzy feelings now.

Enjoy you holiday and your modeling, and I can’t wait to see what you do with this interesting and very cool subject.

Great subject, Borg. I agree completely with Kari that your choices are always interesting for subjects as well as short run kits!

That is the exact prototype I am going to build! The engine is quite exposed so I am adding some details to that as well. (Pics to follow). I also added for small “louvres” begin the engine (the white plastic).
The holes for bombs where filled with sprue, the picture is half way trough the process.


The fit of both the wings and the gear was quite fiddly. Main reason was the lack of locator pins on the lower wings. This kit should be treated as short run, a lot of pieces need to be trimmed and the exact postition is not clearly indicated .