My Flying Aircraft Carrier- Zveno 7

[Lucien Harpress]

Being the masochist modeler that I am, I can rarely settle to build something OOB, or normal. I always want to try something different, something I've never seen before. My next project is no different.

For the unacquainted, the Zveno projects between the world wars were a series of flights and tests to get one thing- a viable mothership/parasite aircraft combination. The final result (Zveno SPB) was actually used in combat, so far the only use of parasite aircraft in combat ever. Of course I couldn't resist trying to model at least one of these projects.

I chose Zveno 7. A Tupolev TB-3 was used as the mothership and was rigged up with two trapezes under the wings just outboard of the engines no. 1 and 4. These would swing down to receive the parasites, two Polikarpov I-16s. This configuration was to be the ultimate expression of the Zveno project, a system which would allow the I-16s to decouple and re-attach at will. Ultimately, however, re-attaching was deemed too difficult even for experienced pilots under the best of circumstances, so the project was abandoned.

I picked up ICM's TB-3 kit a while ago, and my two I-16s (also from ICM) just arrived in the mail today. I still need to get some PE for the TB-3, but I still had enough to start construction on my mothership.

For a complete rundown of what's in the box, check it out here:

http://www.arcforums.com/forums/air/index....&hl=tupolev

Breaking with tradition (as with this kit you have to), I did not start on the cockpit, but instead the wing. This is made up of about 26 parts, as opposed to the normal four (top, bottom, left, right). Most of which are two spars and multiple ribs. Take a look:

Lining these up correctly is ESSENTIAL for a trouble-free build down the road. So far I think I've done okay, although I've needed to bend some (most) of the parts to fit. Thankfully they are all relatively flat and only need to be bent on one axis. The result after all this finagleing is this:

A relatively nice-looking wing bottom. Unfortunately, one cannot sand any of this. Here's why:

There is fine courrigation detail over every piece of the wing and fuselage. If done right, what you get is a beautifully correct model of the TB-3. If not, instead you get a nightmare. So far it's been more of the former and less of the latter. In the future, however..... we'll see.

Thanks for looking!

Edited April 14, 2009 by Lucien Harpress

[ChernayaAkula]

Very interesting subject! Will be following this one closely! :thubsup:

[B-17 guy]

I agree, very interesting subject. I have a pic in one of a/c books of this set up your talking about, I'll stay tuned to this one.

[David Walker]

After seeing the parts breakdown I can't wait to see your work on the fuselage! Looks great so far.

[Sebastijan]

Zveno was such a cool project aswell as TB-3 bomber... Can't wait to see more of your progress... I guess you're gonna scratchbuild the I-16 attachment points...

[mbittner]

I can't see the pics from here, at work, but be careful of the type of Zveno you're building. Seeing as you're using the ICM I-16s that could be wrong, as most of the Zvenos flew with I-16 Type 5s. There may have been a Zveno with a Type 10, but again, you're not going to get those Types with the ICM kit. You'll have to move to the Amodel kit and deal with the fit issues.

[Aigore]

Kewl!!! now that´s interesting!!

(anybody played chrimson skies?

[Flankerman]

I can't see the pics from here, at work, but be careful of the type of Zveno you're building. Seeing as you're using the ICM I-16s that could be wrong, as most of the Zvenos flew with I-16 Type 5s. There may have been a Zveno with a Type 10, but again, you're not going to get those Types with the ICM kit. You'll have to move to the Amodel kit and deal with the fit issues. :D

According to the Armada 'booklet' - Istrebitel I-16 by Mikhail Maslov, the Zveno-6 I-16 was, indeed, a Type 5....

Ken (who wouldn't know the difference between a 'Typ 5' and 'Typ 10' if it bit him on the bum.......)

[Lucien Harpress]

I told you I was a masochist, right? :P I bought the ICM kits (type 18, actually) with FULL KNOWLEDGE I would have to backdate them. Yes, that's right, I passed up a kit of the correct version with NO MODIFICATIONS to instead subject myself to more work. Yeah, buddy. ^_^

Looking over the differences, I think that I backdating won't be too difficult, at least to the non-rivet counters. The number of exhausts needs to be changed, but only on the bottom (four instead of three). The canopy needs to be switched, but I was never going to use the kit canopy anyway- it's horrible. Finally, the spinner needs to be reshaped- I may alter the kit part, or I may sand down my own, not sure which.

What sold me on the ICM kit was the quality. I've built one before...

...and compared to what I saw with the Amodel kit, the decision was easy.

There's also this niggly mention of rescribing ailerons, but who know what to make of THAT... :wub:

[mbittner]

You're leaving off the most important difference between the Type 18 and Type 5. The wings were completely different.

Look here: http://vvs.hobbyvista.com/Modeling/Polikar...rison/index.php

Edited May 17, 2008 by mbittner

[Lucien Harpress]

Ah HA!... I KNEW there was something about the wings....

Thankfully the shape is as close to the same as will make me happy. The surface detail (outer ribs and lengthened aileron) is the main difference, and is something I can probably deal with.

Thanks for the link, though. I can definitely use that for my backdate, and feel much more comfortable about doing so.

[Aggressor Supporter]

Very neat! Looking forward to this build.

[parche]

This should be awesome to see in the end. I have stumbled across pictures of these test flight arrangements and always thought they would make a neat modeling subject. Keep it up. Can't wait to see more.

Cheers,

Dave

[Lucien Harpress]

After a bunch of work and a bit of swearing, the wing for this beast is pretty much finished.

Small underwing 'dustbin' turrets are included in the kit. As awesome as these look, the Zveno Tupolev was unarmed. More than likely these turrets were removed, so I did likewise.

There were a few problem areas in getting this together. The upper wing panels were all too flat and needed to be bent and clamped to get them to fit. The mulit-part ailerons went in without too much fuss, but several courrigated parts had sink marks. Thankfully these areas are small. The wingtips needed to be filled and sanded on the undersides, but these parts are smooth.

The two main problems were the seperate leading a trailing edges. The trailing edges did not fit with ANY precision at all, and seams needed to be filled that ran across the grain of the courrigations. My efforts at fixing this were moderatly successful, but I'll still be monkeying with them for a while, I think. I may cover up some imperfections with weathering. These WERE old airframes, after all!

The leading edges went in nicely enough, but even with sims one of them was too narrow than the wing parts leading up to it, creating a small but noticeable step between pieces. Also, the leading edge between engines isn't straight- there's a small kink.

I've noticed this problem on other TB-3 builds, so it's not exclusive to me. Seeing how to solve it, though, I'm at a loss. You win some, you lose some.

Construction has stopped here for a while. I don't want to begin construction of the fuselage before the Eduard PE set arrives, so I'm taking a bit of a breather. To tide everyone over, though, here's a comparison shot of (hopefully) what's to come....

Stay tuned!

[Flankerman]

Great work so far - on a p*g of a kit....

Are you going to make a working underwing trapeze ??

I did on my 'Aviamatka'.........

If not working, then one up and 'stowed', the other down and ready for release ???

Keep it coming.

Ken

[Lucien Harpress]

Working? Yes. In addition, I plan to make the link between the I-16s and TB-3 functional as well, to allow me to remove them at will. I have a thing about models being symmetrical and I have a strong aversion to "in-flight" displays, for some reason.... So, unless it's a special display, it's going to be shown on its legs, with fighters retracted.

God forbid if I ever decide to take it to a contest, I'll probably try to rig something up to show one up, one down.

The only thing I need to sacrifice if I do this are the control lines used to extend and retract the trapezes. It's too late to do something about this on the interior of the wing, but I'm sure most people won't miss the lines if I leave them out.

[Lucien Harpress]

After WAAAAAAYYY too much waiting, my PE set for the TB-3 has FINALLY arrived. Overall I'm stoked. I'll be able to use everything save one or two things for the guns, but I'm not regretting this decision.

What does this mean for you guys? It means that I'm able to continue work after a long hiatus. The main fuselage interiors which I just painted are drying as we speak, actually.....

Stay tuned for updates sooner than later!

(What makes ALL of this interesting is that this is the first time I've ordered a PE set for ANYTHING.... Good stuff. I hope.)

[Aigore]

WHOHOO :)

[Lucien Harpress]

It's official. I LOVE PHOTOETCH!

Before this, my exposure to PE was rather limited, due to my small budget and lack of incentive. When the situation arose that "forced" me to buy a set, namely this build, I was, at most, interested. When the set actually arrived and I started working with it? I'm officially hooked.

Since the last update I've been able to get a lot of work done in a short period of time. The only question is where to begin.... HHmmmm...... let's try...

The Cockpit

As you can see, the cockpit is nowhere near finished. The parts total, however, is already more than the entire Polikarpov I-1 I just finished. All parts so far fit together without any problems, PE set included. The small box under the starboard jumpseat in the bombardier compartment needed to be scratchbuild, as I somehow lost the kit part. This was the only problem to speak of here.

Next on our little journey shall be a breif stop a the...

Rear Fuselage

Rather straightforward here. Not too many details here, as the stripped down Zveno mothership would probably lack most of the equipment back here. For the myriad flat parts given in the kit, this complex-looking framework went together rather painlessly.

Alrighty then. How 'bout a sub-assembly consisting of nothing but PE pieces?

Service Platform

What you see here is a mini-kit made of five seperate photoetch parts. I built this first, as I was unsure I would be able to. Apart from the spoked wheels this is a highlight of the PE set, and I'm really, really, REALLY happy I was able to get it together.

The two-part platform actually folds up into the wing and forms the leading edge of a small section right next to the engine. There's actually eight of these (one on each side of each engine), but Eduard only gives you one. Just as well, I guess. Building any more than one would probably drive me crazy.

Well, that's the end of the update. There's just one last thing to do- a parting shot of the componenets I've completed so far. The result is a sort of skeletal TB-3 (which actually looks impressive by itself... but I digress). Hopefully my next update will be after the cockpit is completed and at least partially boxed in. I hope this is enough to tide you over until then....

[Aigore]

Mmm..looking real good!! Good work with the PE BTW

That´s going to be one odd looking crow!

Cheers!

[Aggressor Supporter]

That is looking good, especially that last pic.

[Lucien Harpress]

I'm trying something a bit different for this update... mainly, a new camera!

A bit of back story first. All of my photos on these forums are from the same camera, a Kodak Easyshare DX6490. It's a solid camera, but only a 4 megapixel and almost no macro to speak of. The photos of the cockpit are about as close as I can get and still have an image. In the meantime, my mom just bought a better camera, a Kodak Easyshare M1033. It's a 10 megapixel camera that can get quite a bit closer than the other one. So, just to see how it works, I tried it on a few detail shots. Later on, I'll yet you be the judge.

But cameras are not why you came here, right? ON TO THE BUILD!

The rear fuselage is closed up. All that's left is the tail surfaces and upper decking. However, I'm waiting until the front and rear fuselage are attached to the wing to add the top pieces, ensuring I get an accurate fit.

This door was cut out to recieve a PE replacement later on. It should add interest to an otherwise bland area.

The cockpit is coming along nicely. A lot has been stuffed in here, but there's still quite a bit to do. Notable in this photo are the windows- there IS clear plastic in there. The kit windows are all oversize, and are extremely distorted. I had some clear acetate lying around, so it was a no brainer to replace them. It's not too difficult to do, and the results are worth it.

I'm dreading a certain PE part- throttle quadrents. Six TINY levers attached to a base about a quarter the size of my pinkey nail. God give me strength.....

All of the previous photos are from my old camera. Here's my mom's (better) one.

Now that's nice... Although now you can see my goof-ups that much better...

My first (and so far ONLY) kit with actual instrument dials.... I still need to do something about the bulkheads where the paint lifted. It won't be too visible when the front is closed up, but I can still address it.

Well, that's the update for now. Hopefully soon I will be getting a camera of my own, one which will be as good (if not better) than my mom's. It's for a college photography class. I'm just waiting until I get paid next.

If anyone's watching my build article over on Matt Swann's site (www.swannysmodels.com), the next update should be after I attach and close the fuselage up over the wing. After I do this (which should be soon), I'll start on the actual Zveno aspect of this build- the underwing trapezes...... stay tuned.....

[Clare]

Very nice project Lucien. I have the same kit and have initiated some of the first steps. I lost my nerve for now but am regaining it seeing your model. Keep up the good work. Who makes the PE sheet that you used?

Clare

[Lucien Harpress]

Eduard does, and it's really worth getting, if not only for the wheel spokes. It REALLY helps the cockpit, which is rare in that it's a side-by-side open bomber cockpit. Translation- it's big, crowded with stuff, and very visible.

There's lots of parts for the guns that I'm not going to use, but if they ARE used it makes the guns look amazing.

The service platform is just cool.

[Lucien Harpress]

Got one of the messiest steps done today- joining the wing to the fuselage. Or would that be fuselage to wing? Hm..... in any case, here's the fruits of my labors.

The worst part of this addition? Combining the two halves (front and rear) of the fuselage. They didn't really match up, and I managed to break one side of the front part. Thankfully, though, I was able to patch everything up, and while it's not as perfect as it was, it looks good enough. I can always clean it up later.

Next, some photos of the nice looking 'pit.

The photoetch made this area look awesome, and the replacement windows allows one to see it all. I'm really happy with it.

Here you can see a distinctive feature of Tupolev aircraft of this era- the massively thick wing. Remember that this it a bit larger than a B-17- but check out the wing thickness.

Take a good look at the interior, because it's the last you will see it. I've already begun buttoning up the top, hiding most of this. Next up will be the tail and finalization of the fuselage. Just gotta remember to get the service platform out of the area I'm storing it in before I close it up.....