JASDF E-767 AWACS

WOW, you did the conversion set because you wanted one?  Holy cow, the level of finish is like a kit from one of the big boys!  Well done!  I had a look at your build and I agree a PE set for the antenna farm would be helpful.

I hope my kit turns out as well as yours.  One thing I was thinking of trying is to use a mask and paint in the faint window marks.  The way I cut the fuselage disrupted the position of the windows, so I'm going to fill them in and sand the fuselage smooth.  I'll use a slightly lightened base color.

Hi!

You're right, I'm really from Russian Federation.

I'm glad to see someone building this kit. If interested, here is my build thread 

Also, rotodome was designed in 3D, like all other parts.

Hmm I feel like that's a pretty important feature of the cockpit!

I'm sure whatever You come up with will look great on this kit. I've seen a lot of 1/144 airliners lately, kinda getting the itch to do one myself. 

I have seen airliner window decals with people in them, and they look pretty effective.  The pilots can look weird if you look at more than one window pane at a time though.

Being lazy, I might just make a fake instrument shroud and “popsicle stick” seats.  I have a resin one piece cockpit for the Zvezda 787, and aside from no control yokes, it’s nice.

Hey G, given that you're working in 1/144 scale, could you just fake the cockpit with a decal, or paint what you have a dark color? I know a lot of those kits have issues in the cockpit area. 

Excelent, G 

I lopped off the kit's tail cone and test fit the resin replacement.  Heh-heh, I KNOW that most resin inserts exhibit some shrinkage, but I cut pretty much up to the recommended cut line and... dun-dun-dun...the resin part is a skootch smaller all around.

It's not insurmountable though - the fuselage could be shimmed and tucked.  Or a sheet plastic spacer could be added to the cut face of the fuselage.

I only now realized the fuelage around the cockpit area is not circular.  Nuts, now I have to fake a bulkhead and floor.  I should have taken a contour gauge to the fuselage prior to closing up the nose!

I glued in the windows to fill the openings and added some plastic strip to help secure the cut sections of fuselage.

For some odd reason the fuselage cuts on the second half fared worse than the first.  I could have sworn the guide line tapes were straight.  Well afterwards, I swore when I saw they weren't.

Not a huge deal, some strip filler will fix it.  Still have to replace the kit's tail cone and decide what to do about the empty cockpit.

Chop chop!

Ooh, I made some crooked cuts!  No peeking until I have them patched up.

BTW Armornut, the C-141 decal sheet is sold out, but I would be more than happy to give you the markings for the NASA version.  I can also scan you the instructions.  LMK if you want them!

Armornut,

More info on EE kit:

https://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/235054978-eastern-express-boeing-747sp/page/2/#comments

And there are decals too!

 Yessir it is, the telescope is mounted inside the fusalage aft of the wings with a roll up type door. I figured the hardest part would be re-creating the pressure dome forward of the telescope....mmmm, might talk to ya about the other project.

   With as much as I think I know about airplanes, thete is so much more I don't know lol. Thanks for the info, I will hold short for an actual SP.

Cool project

Armornut,

Is SOFIA based on a 747SP?  If so, hold that knife!  Eastern Express announced an injection molded SP in 1/144.  IIRC the FSM article that converted a standard 747 to the SP version was quite involved (simplified flaps and larger stabilizers among other things)  Can you source an aftermarket decal sheet?  That sounds like a cool project!

And to fulfill my role as the Model Devil, NASA also operated a C-141A with a telescope.  And Caracal Decals has markings for it!  You have to shorten and modify the Roden kit, which is a stretched "B" model, and make the sliding cover and fairing, but hey you'll have a unique model!  ...aaaand if the decal sheet is OOS, I have one that I can give you. 

Ha-ha.  A-ha-ha-ha.  Mwu-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!

Nothing alittle putty, glue , and elbow grease won't fix

     I have a mind to put one of my 747s under the knife to create SOFIA a NASA research aircraft that carries a telescope to very high altitudes for cosmic research. I got to work on a throttle quadrant from one awhile back so technically.....I worked for NASA. I plan on using a 1/200 747-200, it has a shorter bump on top.

I was a little down this weekend (went to a model estate sale of a club member), so I wanted to cut some plastic.  I tracked down a Zvezda 767 from Latvia of all places, but for $24 it was the best deal around.

Man, I really have to practice my razor saw-fu.  The other side will be neater.  Pinkie promise.

Zey are flom Russia.  (And you have to read that, like in Russian!)

I think the rotodome was copied from the Minicraft E-3 kit, as the halves are very thin and have locator pins and sockets.  If someone were to make aftermarket decals for the E-767, you could do the conversion using the Minicraft kit.  But it would be more expensive, and you’d have to make your own tailcone mods, air scoop and wingtip antennae!

BTW, my Wiki-Fu tells me that only 4 aircraft were procured by the JASDF, so an aftermarket decal company could do all of them on one sheet.

I don’t know about everyone else, but I have always thought JASDF aircraft to be attractive.  Maybe because they keep them so clean; something embedded in the cultural mindset maybe. I was made in the USA with parts from Japan, so I got this drilled into me while growing up!

I've never heard of CtA. I'd like to see how this turns out.

Wasn't aware of CtA. That looks pretty neat.

And has the US decided to go with the 767 for their next gen tanker?  Maybe the next US AWACS will be based on the 767 as well, given advances in compact electronics and automation.

And speaking of the 737, there is no injected plastic 1/144 P-8 Poseidon yet.

That looks pretty cool. When you've finished that, you can build a "baby brother" 737 based Wedgetail to display beside it.