Finally completed what began as a last-fall-2020 project of building a pair of 727s; it stretched into winter, and finished last spring. This was a first for me…building two models at once. Proved to be quite a challenge that was not only time consuming, but pushed the limits on space! My workbench just isn’t large enough for more than one-at-a-time, so new rule…just one…finish it…start another. No more “two-fers.” Here’s some history and photos posed in the bright sun and “in the hangar.”
First is the somewhat historic Northwest Airlines 727-51 (-100), N467US, that became infamous during the only unsolved incident in aviation history…the D.B.Cooper hijacking on 24 November 1971. After jumping from the deployed rear air stairs of the airplane, Cooper was never seen or heard from again. Only remnants of the $200,000USD was ever recovered, found by a small boy buried in a river bank nearly completely deteriorated, but still clear enough to read the traceable serial numbers as the bills from the ransom. The incident led to a new mandated installation of the “Cooper Device,” a small vane that attaches to the rear fuselage, activated by airflow from the slipstream preventing the rear air stairs from being deployed in flight.
The Airfix 727-100 is completed in the original livery as she rolled out in 1965. During the years leading up to the hijacking in 1971, she went through the paint shop at least twice as Northwest changed and updated the livery. She was sold to Piedmont Airlines in 1978; then in 1982 she went to United Technologies Flight Dynamics testing navigational equipment. In 1984 she was sold to Key Airlines for which she operated daily charter flights from Nellis Air Force Base to Tonapah Test Range, northwest of Las Vegas. She was retired and stored in Greenwood, Mississippi in 1985 then finally scrapped in 1996.
The Minicraft 727-200 is of N272US, an airplane that really has no “distinct” or famous career. She served at Northwest first following her delivery in 1969. She was leased to Pan Am in 1988, returned to Northwest in 1989, then retired and stored in 2007 at Smyrna, Tennessee, where she still stands on her own gear as a parted out hull to this day.
Both 727s were primed with Tamiya gray primer, painted with Tamiya TS-26 white and Alclad black base and polished airframe aluminum. Tamiya XF-8 dark blue was used for the cheat line on the -100, and Tamiya TS-49 bright red was used for both tails. Corogard on both models is an airbrushed mixture of Testors Modelmaster Metalizer Non Buffing aluminum and Testors Modelmaster Flat Light Ghost Gray. Wings, wing fairings, and horizontal stabilizers were airbrushed with MRP Boeing gray. Livery decals on the -100 are from Microscale; on the -200 are from Draw and 26. Windows on both are from Authentic Airliners with details from Nazca. Nose gear on the -100 is from Authentic Airliners, while the main gear is SAC metal struts, Authentic Airliners wheels, and scratch made doors. Nose gear on the -200 is from the kit; main gear are modified from the Airfix kit, with Brengun wheels and scratch made doors. Both airplanes received a brushed on clear coat of Future to finish.
Hope you enjoy!
