2008 Airliner Group Build

Thanks guys for the kind words. I do like the red and white look on airliners. One other thing that was weird is I applied a clear gloss coat of Testors Acrylic Gloss and it didn't really gloss it. It sort of toned it down. Not sure if I didn't thin it enough or applied it in too thin coats?  I should have use Future it would have been glossier.

Now on to the Air India B777 build. (Red and white too)

Neil

cdclukey;

When do we get to see pics of your in progress builds?

Nice work Neil, looks excellent in spite of the problems you've had !

Really like the scheme too.

Neil,

  Outstanding work!     The red & white scheme really makes the airplane stand out, on the ground or in the sky! (and on the shelf too!)       The landing lights came out transparent anyhow, which looks a lot better than a decal.   

Simon,

You can also add strength to the 'soda straw' Slat by first gluing a piece of stretched spru in the bend before the putty, and 'section' the Slat (like they are on the real thing) so it isn't one long piece.

Here's a picture of the spru framework for the Krueger Flaps, before the putty.    (I used spru connectors on it instead of wire)

http://gunsagogo.org/kruegerFlaps.jpg

I'm still waiting on the decals for my Bunny Jet, and so I don't become lulled into starting another build before finishing that one, I'm waiting on them before doing anything else.      But I am working on some 'in-flight' display ideas so I'm staying busy.

Take care,

Frank

Thanks for all the great info, Frank. I'll probably try the straw version sometime during this group build.

Well on the bright side, you have about 92 years to get ready for the next century

Chris 

Chris_in_Japan wrote:

Well on the bright side, you have about 92 years to get ready for the next century Chris

Heh! I may need it! When it comes to business I'm an early adopter of technology, but in my personal life I'm usually a very late adopter. For example, I bought my first cell phone a few days before Christmas in 2006, and if it weren't for the fact that I take long drives through sparsely populated parts of Wisconsin several times a year, I might not have bought it then!

Guys

I picked up a Canon digital camera for my daughter here for about $125 AUD, it's excellent, and I used it for the pics you see of my A319.

Thanks for the suggestion, Simon. I'm deciding whether to go the really inexpensive route (digital Polaroid at about $70 US) or the merely inexpensive route with the lower end of the product line from Canon or another brand that made its name in 35mm. Of course, my wife's at Walmart right now, so she might be buying one and solving my problem for me.

Hi Guys

I was going to claim the A319 finished also, but then looked at these pics again and realised I haven't put the wing walkways on .......

 So here are a couple more progress pics, not happy with the belly panel, it ended up slightly uneven front to back on the left side, oh well I can live with it , it's the first airliner I've built in many years, so I call it an educational anyway. Will post a couple more pics when I finally decal up the wings.

Time to start the B707..............

.......and here is the 707.

I've only joined the fuse halves and faired in the transparency. You can see the F decal BOAC markings, and I think they are going to be impressive.

I used to watch these flying circuits in RAAF livery when I lived near the RAAF base at East Sale, sadly one of my friends was a DISPLAN Flight Commander, and spent a few weeks with a team pulling the wreckage of one of these out of the sea in 1990. Pilot error caused it to spear in near vertical from about 20,000 feet I think. Not much left.

CD

One thing I'd really recommend with camera is getting one that takes rechargeable AA batteries. Then if they go flat , you can always resort to normal AA's in an emergency. My wife and I had a Sony one that had to be charged up and you can guarantee that it would go flat just when we didn't want it too.

We are both avid sports fans, and the camera went flat one day at the Australian Open tennis, just as Lleyton Hewitt came to warm up by himslelf on a deserted court where we were waiting to go inside and see his match. We were by ourselves just with Lleyton, and he said Hi to us etc, BUT WE COULDN'T TAKE ANY PICS !!

I ordered a Canon the next day.

Simon;

Your base for your great model is very sharp! How did you get the smooth white finish on you A319?  Is it clear coated, with what?

I liked your story of the B707.  I have fond memories as a boy of flying Pan Am 707's.  Every few years my dad would take leave and we would travel back to the states from overseas and we would travel around the world stopping in various cities.  I remember refueling stops where the pilots would let us come up to the cockpit and get a tour. Once they took me on a walkaround on the outside. Got to see the landing gear and engines up close. Too bad with today's restrictions it's rare to get close up tours and cockpit tours. Great plane. I have F-Decals too and I found them very thin and worked well with decal setting solutions. Look forward to your progress.

Thanks for the comments Guys

The base is simply an A4 picture frame, with a piece of framing 'matt' card , cut to shape, scored into squares, each square gets masked off and sprayed with various shades of light gray. The grass is model railway grass. Very simple, but looke effective, this one actually belongs to an F16, so I'll have to make up a couple more.........

Neil,

The white finish I use is Tamiya fine base, followed by Tamiya Pure White( about 6 thinly misted coats, letting it dry in between ). You have to let the pure white cure for at least 72 hours so it's nice and hard. I then polish it up with micro mesh polishing cloths ( basically really fine - 3600 - or greater, wet 'n' dry ) sometimes I also use Tamiya polishing compound to get a really good white finish, but I didn't on this build.

Summit wrote:

Is it too late to get in on this GB ? I have a Minicraft 757-200 with "Iron Maidon's Ed-Force 1" AM Decals ?

Sure, you can get in. Looking forward to seeing your build, I'm putting "Ed Force One" on my to-do list even though I'm not a metalhead. It's just too good to pass up.

Guys, I've got a question..

Now that Virgin Atlantic has changed its livery yet again. Are their 747-400's now white, or have some stayed silver with the new tail livery?

Cheers, Chris 

Summit wrote:

Is it too late to get in on this GB ? I have a Minicraft 757-200 with "Iron Maidon's Ed-Force 1" AM Decals ?

Summit,

Who's doing the Ed Force 1 decals? I saw a photo of the plane in the most recent Airliners magazine and it's entered my to do list.

Cheers, 

Aaron, TwoSix decals has it for 8 pounds:

http://www.lycoseshop.co.uk/epages/twosixdecals_co_uk.sf/en_GB/?ObjectPath=/Shops/twosixdecals.co.uk/Products/144-378