History

The Tupolev Tu-2 has a rather interesting origin, being designed by a team of engineers who had run afoul of Stalin’s paranoia. They had been placed in a political prison as “enemies of the state,” and the design work for this aircraft began while the designers were incarcerated. The airplane was designed as a high speed bomber, capable of both level and diving attacks. Originally powered by liquid cooled AM-37 engines, these were later required for the Ilyushin Il-2 Sturmovik program, so Shvetsov Ash-82 radials of 1,850 hp. were used, giving the plane a maximum speed of well over 300 mph. A crew of four was carried, including a pilot, navigator gunner, and two additional gunners. The first flight of the aircraft was in January, 1941, and the type entered service in 1942. Many variants of the Tu-2 appeared, and total numbers exceeded 3,000 before production ended in 1950.

In the mid 1930’s, the nation of Czechoslovakia had one of the most sophisticated military arms manufacturing industries in Europe. Upon the German annexation of the Czech territories known as the Sudetenland in 1938, and the occupation of the entire country in 1939, the Czech armament factories fell into the hands of German forces. Two main tanks originated from these factories, known as the Panzer 35(t) and Panzer 38(t) to the Germans (“t” is short for the German word for Czechoslovakia, “Tschechoslowakei”). The Panzer 38(t) chassis soldiered on throughout World War Two as the basis for a number of tank destroyers and self propelled flak guns, while the Panzer 35(t) had a shorter career.

The Kit

This kit is cleanly molded in the standard multicolored plastic offered by MiniArt. Using the same parts as with the other kits, there are no surprises; all parts are cleanly molded with crisp detail and free of flash.

Construction

Assembly was followed in the same manner as the Townhouse kit, building the corners first and then attaching the walls. Once again, I feel as if this is the preferred method for a better construction. All parts went together without issue on the main structure. Next, it was time to tackle my bane/failure from one of the previous kits…the stairs. I honestly cannot give a whole lot of complements to the stairs due to lack of alignment/attachment points for the entire assembly. I ended up just making the stairs look close to correct and moving on. The manner in which the railings attach on the balcony and stairs is not very sturdy. I found that my cement melted the holes closed in no time.