1/144 Welsh Models Tupolev Tu-114 |
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Gallery Article by Alex Bigey
on July 28 2003 |
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The Tu-114 was the world's
biggest airplane when it first flew on 3 October 1957 (a few days before
the first "Sputnik" launch) as a civil airliner derivative of the
Tu-95 strategic bomber, using basically the same airfoil and engines.
Entering into
service in 1961 with an accommodation of 120 to 220 passengers on medium to long
haul operations, its fantastic 15,000 hp Kuznetsov NK-12 turboprops (nothing
that range in the western so far) were allowing a 480 mph (770 km/h - Mach 0.7)
cruise speed, and several direct Moscow - Cuba flights have been
performed via the North Pole during its service years.
Before withdrawal in
1975, only one serious accident occurred in service when taking off at night in
bad weather, not involving a technical malfunction.
Click on
images below to see larger images
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The Welsh Models kit is
vacformed with metal parts for props and landing gear. A nice decal sheet is
provided, allowing the livery featured here.
The windows can be cut down to be
filled with Crystal Clear, which is acceptable for side and cockpit, but not for
the nose. However, no decals are provided for windows, so I chosed to
scrathchbuild the nose and cockpit ones and used 2 Liveries Unlimited
Stratocruiser sheets for the side windows.
Except the roof antennas and
aerial, the rest of this model is straight from the box, with a lot of work
needed for the wing and engine nacelles, unless you can get a pair of Revell
Tu-95 Bear wings and engines, as Jeff Thomsen did on its own Tu-114 featured in Hyperscale.
Alex Bigey
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