Taking a look “Under the skirt” Eduard Tu-2 Undercarriage 1/48 review

For his second Eduard Photo Etch review this week on the Tupelov Tu-2 Gary Gets down – “way on down” as Elvis would say, to look at how they have improved on the Xutong kit’s undercarriage.. 

Eduard Tu-2 Undercarriage 1/48
Kit No: 48778
Designed for: Xuntong Models Tu-2 kit
1/48 scale
Photo Etch parts: 1 frets
Available from: Eduard directly & most model shops

This photo etch detail set from Eduard provides an enhancement set for undercarriage bays/doors of the Tupolev Tu-2 kit by Xuntong (pronounced Shun Ton) Models. The set contains one large PE fret in traditional plain brass

The main wheel bays on the Xutong kit are fairly sparse and whilst most WWII aircraft did not have complex wheel bays with extensive plumbing like most modern aircraft, they did have internal ribbing, spars and panel detail.

The set includes a complete set of side and top panel details for the main wells. It also provides details for the undercarriage strut (hydraulic lines etc).

Very little modifications will be needed to the kit parts to use this photo etch set as it is designed to attach directly over top of the kit plastic parts. Where it is necessary to remove plastic details from the kit parts Eduard clearly identifies these in red on the instructions.

Some assembly of smaller sub-sections is required as you build up the mounting points for the undercarriage strut in the roof of each bay.

This set requires you to attach some fairly large sections of PE to kit parts with tricky curves (like the interior side walls of the wheel bay). To allow some wiggle room as the glue dries to get the position spot on I’d suggest using slow drying (Gel) super glue or you may find accurately positioning the PE parts a challenging and frustrating exercise.

  

The Eduard instructions do not indicate that any thinning or reduction of the kit parts is required prior to attachment of the PE parts. I always like to double check that this won’t cause fit problems later on by dry fitting first anyway.

Eduard provide parts to represent the hydraulic lines for the brakes. I am not a big fan of using PE to model circular pipes or rods as it does not look convincing, better to use copper or lead wire in my experience.

This is quite a large fret and care will need to be taken when working with it avoid accidental warping or bending. In fact it may be sensible to cut the fret in half before you start to work on it to minimize this risk.

Once again Eduard have done their homework and provided us with a simple yet effective set to enhance the Xutong model. As PE sets go this one is not complex and I’d think it’s a great choice for modellers looking to cut their teeth on incorporating PE into their models for the first time.

Gary Wickham

Thanks to Eduard for sending these for review..