1/72 Tu-160 Blackjack

Description

This is an injection-plastic jet aircraft model kit.

Oh my. A very nice kit of the “B-1sky”, only I believe the Blackjack is significantly larger than the Bone. Panel lines are fine and recessed, the instrument panels are built up out of photoetch and film (a big improvement over the clear injected plastic and film of earlier releases) and metal inserts for the main gear legs are included. A high level of detail can be found throughout this kit. The crew cabin is fully detailed, although not much of it will be visible after assembly. The landing gear and wells are also beautifully done, as are both bomb bays with their revolving cruise missile launchers (a total 14 missiles of two types are included). Full intake ramp and exhaust detail is included as well! The wings can be swept fore and aft, however due to the complex mechanism of the real plane you really only have a choice of one or the other, as part of the rear wing area folds up at the root when the wings are swept. This is reproduced in the kit, however this area is not movable and forces you to choose swept or unswept wings. All the leading- and trailing-edge flaps are separate pieces, as are the spoilers, and actuator links are included so you can drop the flaps. This looks quite impressive in the box photos. The IFR probe can be built extended as well. Decals are for two aircraft, No. 06 the “Ilya Muromets” pictured on the box top and No. 02 the “Vasiliy Reshetnikov”.