AZ Model Tupolev Tu-134 kit in 1/144

[richellis]

AZmodel Tupolev Tu-134 kit in 1/144 scale

Injection moulded kit with decals and photo-etch parts

The Tupolev Tu-134 jet airliner is similar to the BAC 1-11, or Dc-9 with two engines on the rear fuselage. The Tu-124A prototype first flew on 29 July 1963, and after some design changes including bigger engines, and a bigger tail-plane in November 1963, the new airliner was officially designated Tu-134. The Tu-134 has seen a long service life in both civil and military service, with many aircraft used in VIP roles. The AZmodel kit alows you the option to build a TU-134 or a Tu-134A.

The kit

The kit comes in a colourful end opening box with a nice picture of an Interflug aircraft on a wet runwany. On the back of the box are the painting and decal placement instructions.

The parts!

all the parts are on one sprue, and they are very nice, with some nice engraved detail. there is some flash on some of the smaller parts, but this looks easy to deal with, and not as bad as some kits I have opened! The fuselage is moulded as the Tu-134, and you will need to remove the nose, replace with a separate part that is included, and remove the small dome under the nose. It should be an easy job, just cut along the panel lines. The fuselage is solid with no clear parts, but as most of the time the windows are filled and decals are used I dont see a problem with this.

There is a small photo-etch sheet that has the wing fences, some fuselage strakes, and antenna on.

The instructions are a double side A4 sheet folded in half. it is printed in black and white with some infomation on the aircraft, parts plan and building instructions. It is built in 8 steps and is easy to read and follow.

Decals

The decals have 2 options, OK Jet, or Interflug. All windows and doors are done twice so if you have a set to go in the spares box for another day! the decals are very nicely done, with sharp detail and crisp colours.

Conclusion

A very nice kit from AZmodel. Looking at photos the shapes look spot on to my eye, and AZmodel have done a cracking job of this aircraft and it will be of interesst to both civvy and military modelers. I hope to see more from AZmodel and I dare say that there will be some more decal options cropping up soon.

this will be a nice addition to my Russian airliner collection.

Review sample courtesy of

Edited August 27, 2010 by richellis

[kev67]

If it was 1/72 I would be interested but prefer my airliners to be biggish 1/72 scale

[Mike]

It's a cool airliner, and I have to say, looks right on the sprues. The inclusion of some PE for the wing fences is good too... I had to do that myself on the old resin one I'm part way through

[Micha]

which version do you wanna build? Czechoslovak or East-German?

I guess, you know what I prefer

[richellis]

Oh, Id never guess.........

BTW Ill be doing the interflug first!

[FalkeEins]

..thanks for the presentation. Looks neat - I'm quite tempted. Doesn't seem to be any clear parts though.....(been a while since I built an airliner....)

Edited August 28, 2010 by FalkeEins

[richellis]

No clear bits, all windows are on the decal sheet!

[Micha]

I'm already building my Tu-134 ... glued the fuselage, the wings and tail parts.

Still no problem by putting together the pieces. Everything looks fine so far

[Micha]

Breaking News for all who are building that Tu-134 now or want to do this soon!

The manual of the kit is wrong! The piece #11 is twice to see. But that's wrong!

(you'll find a larger version of this picture on my online-gallery)

Actually, you don't need that piece if you wanna build the Interflug version. The DDR-SCF is a Tu-134 ... w/o "A".

Here's a picture of that plane.

On page 3 of the manual you can see the bigger picture 8 with two smaller pictures on the upper right side. There is the instruction for piece #11. For the Interflug version you can ignore this.

But there's another piece #11 ... on page 2 in picture 4 as part of the engines. But that's impossible because there's only one piece #11 on the cast.

There's nothing else to use as #11 inside the engines on the cast. Sorry, guys

I guess, I'll take some hard paper for the engines.

That's all, my friends

oh ... btw ... here's the original photo of that Tu-134 on the kit!

But that's a different one!

Edited August 30, 2010 by Micha

[Jennings Heilig]

So where would one buy this kit??? I've searched high and low with no joy...

J

[Micha]

So where would one buy this kit??? I've searched high and low with no joy...

www.modelimex.com

That's a czech shop in Teplice, CZ. I know these guys. They sell their stuff to the whole world. I bought my kit there too.

[Micha]

I got another bad news...

some of the decals don't fit to the model

They are a bit too small.

There's a picture of my model in the Airliner GB section.

Edited September 2, 2010 by Micha

[Micha]

finished.

Edited September 21, 2010 by Micha

[172flogger]

If it was 1/72 I would be interested but prefer my airliners to be biggish 1/72 scale

1/72 Tu-134A will be from HpH Models, fiberglass fuselage with resin details. 1/72 Tu-154 and Il-62 are already on the market.