One of the things that got me fired up to do the 1960’s Soviet aircraft this weekend, was the arrival in the post on Friday of a package from Tumbling Dice, which included a Tu-22M ‚Backfire‘ bomber and some very nice English Electric Lightnings. I couldn’t resist the temptation to assemble the Tu-22 as it is an impressive multi-part model, complete with separate swing wings and twin engines. The sculpting is very nice and it does look the part, even if there are some minor non-symmetrical bits here and there.

It needed some filler at the fuselage joints and the wings don’t actually swing, in fact they have to be deployed in the sub-sonic ’swung out‘ configuration, but it went together very cleanly and with minimal fuss. It is a big aircraft and, although a bit too late for my other Soviet stuff, it will go very nicely alongside the two MiG-25’s that I’ve already put together and will definitely make a good interception objective for the RAF Lightnings. Tally Ho!