Zvezda 1/72 Petlyakov Pe-8 By Matt Bittner

History

I'll let Erik Pilawskii's article talk about any history of the type. In addition you'll want to track down the September 2008 issue of Model Aircraft Monthly as it has a very nice historical piece authored by Mikhail Maslov as well as a build by Ken Duffy of both the Amodel and Zvezda kits.

The Kit

Wow! No, double Wow! After having only the Contrail vac available for years it sure is great having two injected Pe-8s released one right after the other. I'll let a future article talk about the Amodel kit and I'll concentrate on the Zvezda kit for this article..

While the current Amodel kit models the ASh-82, radial, late-war variant, this current release of the Zvezda kit models the earlier AM-38 in-line version. Sorry, this time around I'm not counting the number of parts. Just be aware there are a lot of them and all extremely well molded. There are decals only for one aircraft, "Red 4", No. 42107 from aviation regiment No.746 of far-ranging air force, February, 1943. Again, see Erik's article for more information about this particular scheme.

The instruction booklet is 12 pages and actually starts constructing the engine nacelles. This includes figures to be position in the "gun emplacements" that sat under the nacelles. From there you assemble the wheel wells into the wings and glue the wings together. Once the wings are together then construction moves to adding the nacelles and gun emplacements to the wings. The instructions would move you to add the landing gear as well but I would hold off until closer to the end of construction. However, you could always display the model gear up, at which point I would add the rest of the underside detail prior to painting.

Next up in the instruction sequence is the interior. Nose, turrets, cockpit, etc. Pretty complete out of the box but still with enough room left over to add more if wanted. Hopefully one of aftermarket companies will release something for those wanting a bit more. This is also the time some of the windows/doors are removed from the fuselage pieces as the instructions show. It appears Zvezda is catering to all possible versions by providing the choice of what to cut out based on indentations on the inside of the fuselage halves. Once the cutting is accomplished and those pieces added then the various interior bits are added. Note that Zvezda provides a full crew for this bomber so you can added them if wanted. Nice touch!

Now that the interior pieces, wing braces, etc. are added the fuselage halves can be closed up followed by the rest of the pieces that will make this into a complete kit. An extremely nice touch by Zvezda is the option of an open or closed bomb-bay with the inclusion of a FAB-2000 bomb. (Note that Zvezda includes a FAB-5000 bomb but it's greyed out for the AM-38 version, being only carried by the ASh-82 version.)

Once painting is finished then the rest of the bits are added - antennas, props, etc.

Conclusion

This is an AWESOME kit. I've read the Amodel kit might be a bit more accurate, but not only the cost of the Amodel kit can be daunting, so can building of an Amodel kit. Amodel kits can be quite a chore, although they look great once finished. Thanks to Zvezda we have a more "mainstream" kit of this important (and only) four-engine VVS GPW bomber, one not too difficult to assemble. Extremely nice detail.

It's my opinion that to help build this kit you'll want to track down the Sept. 2008 issue of Model Aircraft Monthly. Not only for Ken Duffy's build of the Zvezda kit, but also the excellent history written by Mikhail Maslov.

Note that Eduard has released a set of masks for this Zvezda kit. Trust me when I say that this set will make modeling this so much easier. Coming up with your own masks would be extremely time consuming.