747-100, *FINISHED!!!!*: Jan. 27th

Bound to be another beautiful project.  Have you thought of joing ing the 144 GB? 

Cant wait for pics. 

Thanks fellas,  :thumbsup:

     I located an overhead shot that illustrate the wing/tailplane appearance to good effect:

     Also noticed there are five window panels covered on each side in front of the fwd doors:

     Progress: 

     It's a real handicap not having my camera to include photo updates, but work continues; I enclosed the interior VC and leading edge flap boxes, as well as installed the interior braces using rods of strtched spru.    Also installed the bulkheads in the wing in front of the TE flaps and the internal flap braces (which is currently drying).    The TE flaps will be attached to these and the flap guide fairings attached to them.

     I had to cut away the wings trailing edge at the fuselage attachment point because it's not there when the flaps are extended, which required widening the inboard flap & slot, which I accomplished by adding additional sections to the already built-up flap section. (better than building a new one)

     Going to assemble the two wing halves after the flap braces dry and go about attaching the TE flaps.     Well, better get back at it!    

     Take care,
     Frank

All this global warming has us being buried in snow this weekend, so it'll be a while longer before I can get my camera back, but here's the latest build report:

I have the wing, TE flaps, and flap guide fairings assembled and painted; going to attach the wing to the fuselage before applying the aluminum foil leading edge.      Next up will be the engines.

Take care,

Frank

Update...

I was able to rangle a camera and make pictures of the wing progress...

Here's the method I used for attaching the TE Flaps...

Work continues on the engines; updates will follow.

Take care,
Frank

Wow, Frank that is awesome work.   Cant wait to see more!

Thanks 9x19mm,

   In between associated Holiday preperations, I have been able to apply the final corroguard and finish carving the Blow-In Doors on the engine nacels, which are dry fitted to the wing for the photo.

   Take care,
   Frank

Back at it here... finished foiling/rubbing the engines and aft pylons (good 6 hours work), sanded away the "lump" at the wings' outer engine position and puttied a new "sharp" fairing, then sanded a slot at the inner engine/wing joint so that it would fit properly against the wing.     I then dipped the intakes and attached the engines, glued the wing to the fuselage and puttied the joint.

Today I will shape & attach the anchor studs to the fuselage interior, and while they're drying, apply the foil to the wings' leading edge.      If that goes well, I will then proceed in building the LE flaps, but that will probably drag into tomorrow.

More to come...
Frank

Wow, thats looking real good Frank.

That is NICE!

Thanks fellas,  

    Here's a photo of the interior with the spru anchor studs in place.    Each stud has a tiny hole drilled through it, which a strand of wire will be threaded through and into the corresponding stud (arrows indicate corresponding studs), rendering twelve mounting points.

    While the studs are curing I got the foil applied to the wings' leading edge to good effect, formed the VC Flaps by sanding the excised kit pieces, and am currently scratchbuilding the eighteen extension/retraction arms for the VC Flaps, which has slowed me down a might!       Once the studs are secure I will trim away the spru tree ;) and attach the fuselage half on the board to finish working it up.

    Take care,
    Frank

Can you get some pics for me of the construction process for the 18 extension/retraction VC flap arms? Lost of photos as well, since I'm kinda using you as a crutch to help me in my 747-400 flapping project. First modification to a model that I've done, and I'm worried a bit. I guess the only way to improve my skills is to try to do new things.

Nothing wrong with stepping out into the unknown, Jonas, and what a better way to do that than with a 1/144 747 flap job!

Here are some photos from the assembly of the VC Flaps; I'm not the type to go running for aftermarket when there's generally all kinds of things you can find laying around the house to use, like the metal screen on the front of an old broke down ceramic heater for instance:

VC Flaps dry fitted into position to check fit.... 

 Also, here's a couple other modifications the old Revell kit needs...
Outboard engine pylon/wing fairing:

...and the fairing at the upper wing root:

Take care.... more to follow

Frank

Greetings, 

   I thought I would include some photos from the LE foil application from the other day, and the VC Flap attachment of today:

LE foil application:

Landing Lights: I used finishing nails for the bulbs, applied a strip of clear decal over the holes, then applied the precut foil over them... turned out nice! 

VC Flap application:  secured with super glue

    I need to make and install the Krüger flaps and engine fans, THEN the fuselage gets attached to the work-up board!   (I know, FINALLY)      Then, the belly foil goes on!  

More to come...
Frank

Oooops.... didn't check my references well enough; the outboard VC Flap has to be removed and re-sized!    Oh well, no rest for the weary! :)

Here are some photos of the restructured outboard VC Flap:

Frank

Took a day off, but back at it again today, finishing up the Kruger Flaps and attaching them....

    .... and building/installing the engine fans....

    Rubbed the wing down with steel wool to prepare it for the Future thus completing the wing construction.     Tomorrow I will attach the fuselage to the wooden board and begin working it up.

Comments and/or questions always welcomed!
Take care,
Frank

Great work. I'm slowly making progress on mine. Just finished filling the holes in the fuselage sides, and have the flaps cut out of the wing. One question, did you close up the inside of the wing? From the trailing edge, the inside of the wing can be seen, and I was thinking about closing this up. Keep the pics coming, and if you want, I'll post some of my progress.

Thanks Jonas,

>>>"...filling the holes in the fuselage sides"   What holes?

    I didn't have a camera to record the interior wing process, but done a drawing that basically shows the process, which was accomplished using sheet styrene....

    If I were you, I would go ahead and start a thread on your build, Jonas; would love seeing it and between us we're liable to come up with pretty cool looking 747's!

    I found an up close & personal reference showing the mechanism on the inside of the Kruger Flap after finishing mine, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q7hcyJ2raAA&feature=related  so it's not exactly right, but it will have to do for this one because I'm not going to tear it back off.     The upcoming BOAC build (the other side of this one) will have it accurate though.

    Updates to come...
    Take care,
    Frank

Finally got the sprue tree separated and attached the fuselage to the work-up board....

Wow Frank that is amazing work.  That will be really nice when finished. 

Thanks "9"! :)

    Just to throw in a little *teaser* here before molding the bolts in place.....

Take care,

Frank

    Here is the process of applying Stove Bolt anchors to the fuselage interior....

.... and the beat goes on
Frank

Some pretty awesome work. Can't wait to see the end result. I updated my 747 build.

Yes, I'm watching your build and enjoying it thoroughly, Jonas!

Spent six hours on the main landing gear for the beast today, using the upper part of the 1971 gear leg and the lower part from the newer 747-400 kit (the one I built the 744SP from), since it was more detailed and taking up space in my spares box.      Extended the Oleo Struts by adding a section of stretched sprue along with various bits & pieces from the spares, and also the wiring was from stretched sprue.

Take care, more to come....
Frank

You are making my eyes and fingers ache just looking at the gear parts, Frank!

No kidding John, I had no less than four magnifying devices in use for their construction!

It's certainly been a fun build so far; there's a lot to it I've discovered, but taking it one step at a time.

I attached the landing gear to the plane along with the gear doors and associated actuator arms; while that's been drying I finished making the decal master so it will be ready when the time comes. Here it is in .jpg format; the one I'm sending to the Printer is in .tif (higher resolution)



I've modified the area of the fuselage where the Stabilizer goes as it will be in the take-off position instead of cruise as the kit is designed for. Going to apply the red cheatline before attaching it though, so off to the workbench I go!

More to come....
Frank

Is that the Boeing test bird?  If so, I've actually been in that plane.  They were flight testing it when my Dad was transferred to Edwards AFB.  They were flight testing it, as well as the C5A at the time.  One thing to note about the flight test 747 is that they did high-speed taxi and over-rotation takeoff tests, and to keep from really messing up the back of the airplane, they have a long piece of what I think was about 12"X10" by about 15-20' long wood (railroad tie?) starting right at the point where the bottom of the fuselage kicked up to the tail section behind the wings.  Of course, all the time spent dragging that wood on the runway did result in a lot of heat being generated, and thus a lot of heat-warped aluminum skin behind the wood skid.  

The passenger deck only had about a dozen seats in it.  The rest of the airplane was just flat decking and instrumentation.  I think there were also a few seats in the 'sky lounge' section, but don't remember.  I do remember our first trip to the base, and Dad drove to the flight test operations building to check in.  The 747 was parked on the ramp, nose to the parking lot.  My Mom asked when they were going to put the rest of the wing on that airplane.  My Dad replied that it had all the wing it was getting.  Mom snapped back that they'd never get her into one of those things then.  ;-)

Keep up the great work.  The detail is awesome!

Gene Beaird,
Pearland, Texas

Very nice to meet you, Gene!      Yes, this is the test bird, which will be built in it's original configuration.     You were indeed fortunate to have walked around on board N7470, and have a Father who could tell you the tales of such a great job!       Yes, I have detected the skid pad on the aft lower fuselage; an excellent point of detail, thank you!       From what I've read and from personal accounts, there were many skeptics when such a large airplane was introduced, but it sure did live up to the dreams of it's creators!        You've probably already seen these, but if not, here's an excellent two-part video documenting the first flight of N7470.....

Part ONE:   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LkWK1-0BAPc

Part TWO:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=obIxSMnWkQA

Also, a 50 minute documentary on the 747 series with commentary from the projects' PM, the late Mal Stamper.      (you may even see your Dad in there somewhere?)

http://www.flightglobal.com/blogs/flightblogger/2009/02/movie-monday---february-9---in.html

I decided to do the foil application to the fuselage before the cheatline because rubbing the foil leaves a dark residue on the plastic, and didn't want to take a chance on goofing it up while removing it.     The foiling went well and only required eight pieces.

Next comes the cheatline and then the Stabilizer application.....

Comments & Questions welcome,
Frank

Just peeled away the cheatline masking and took a couple pictures of the results....

It hasn't been cleaned up yet because I'm going to let the paint settle more, but as you can see it's taking on more of it's personality now. 

Churning along....
Frank