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aModel Lear Jet 60XR

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  • Member since
    November 2003
  • From: Virginia
Posted by Mike F6F on Saturday, April 22, 2017 10:50 AM

Thanks everyone for overlooking the flaws.

I posted the photos hoping to show an attempt to overcome the built-in construction problems of a short-run kit.

I'm still ponderin' another go at it.

Mike

 

"Grumman on a Navy Airplane is like Sterling on Silver."

  • Member since
    March 2015
  • From: Streetsboro, Ohio
Posted by Toshi on Saturday, April 15, 2017 10:20 AM

You did a great job on the Lear Jet, a very unique subject.  Not something you see everyday.  Painting the windows really blend well with the rest of the fuselage.

Toshi

On The Bench: Revell 1/48 B-25 Mitchell

 

Married to the most caring, loving, understanding, and beautiful wife in the world.  Mrs. Toshi

 

 

  • Member since
    May 2008
  • From: Ypsilanti, MI
Posted by MIflyer on Thursday, April 13, 2017 1:42 AM

I didn't know there was a Lear 60 kit on the market! Yours looks very nice!

Kevin Johnson    Ypsilanti, Michigan USA

On the bench: 1/72 Fujimi Ki-36 J-BAAR

  • Member since
    December 2002
  • From: Northern California
Posted by jeaton01 on Sunday, April 9, 2017 7:52 PM

I'm with you on the wish for more mainline civil models. 

Your Lear looks good to me.

John

To see build logs for my models:  http://goldeneramodel.com/mymodels/mymodels.html

 

  • Member since
    January 2015
Posted by PFJN on Sunday, April 9, 2017 3:13 PM

Hi,

That looks great, especially in that satiny black finish.

Pat

1st Group BuildSP

  • Member since
    November 2003
  • From: Virginia
aModel Lear Jet 60XR
Posted by Mike F6F on Saturday, April 8, 2017 3:08 PM

Wanting a change of pace from building military a/c, and having never tried a short-run kit, I thought I'd give the 1/72nd scale aModel Lear 60XR a try.

Certainly an attractive bird, the modern Lear Jets with their rear delta fins, can stand out among the various biz-jets flying today.

The kit box gives fair warning with a notice that the kit is "for experienced modelers only." It certainly gave me some experience!

The kit has no alignment pins for the horizontal stabilizers, engine pylons, delta fins or winglets. The only available pins are for mounting the engines to the pylons. (A good thing too since the engines are mounted with the thrust reversers at an angle.)  Most of the kits parts are molded on the sprues with their attaching surfaces to the sprues.  As you sand the part you damage the parts shape and can create gaps when the parts are assembled.

There's no cabin interior detail, so painting the cabin windows black seemed a good plan. I glued a piece of strip inside the fuselege halves as an extra surface to hold the windows.  The clear windows were molded just a bit too small for the openings.  They couldn't fit flush and several dried crooked in their openings. The kit did supply extra cabin windows though.

The cockpit has decals for instruments, but windshield distortion renders the use worthless.  Prefitting the single windscreen made me think there wouldn't be much of a gap to overcome where the clear fuselege section mated to the rest of the plane.  After assembly and painting though, the joint had a bigger gap. Attaching it prior to painting didn't appeal to me.  Sanding along the side windows would have removed the frame detail.  Finishing the model though made me rethink it. If I had it to do over, I'd have mounted the clear piece and sanded it flush all around.

Initial painting went fine using Acryl acrylics.  Masking for the bare metal leading edges started out OK but I pulled some paint from the wings and vertical stablizer afterwords.  Repairing the paint damage didn't go well.  Then trying to mask the metal to repair the black, pulled the metal paint up too.  But this wasn't the kit's fault.

The vertical stabilizer and the wings had gaps the required using stock strips to help fill.  With no alignment pins for the delta fins, I added a stock strip underneath on each side to increase the gluing surface.

I didn't go with the kit's paint scheme but used the kit decals for some of the stripes and cabin window and door frames. The decals were very thin and difficult to keep square as the frames were a single decal each with no clear decal to fill the space between the frames.  Each one seemed to prefer being a trapazoid shape instead of fitting around the cabin windows.

Antenna and small detail parts were not molded with the fuselege curve taken into account so they didn't mount flush.  Using a round file helped some, but trying to match the curve on the small and fragile parts was limited at best.

I bought some aftermarket slanted letters and numbers from Draw Decal for the registration numbers.  My choice of letters reflects my disappointment with my work on the model.

Trying to build the kit again would yield better results, I'm sure, but it is a shame that commercial biz-jets aren't seen by the major kit manufacturers as a viable market.

They are attractive aircraft.

 

Mike

 

"Grumman on a Navy Airplane is like Sterling on Silver."

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