neilg

Beautiful! The blue's a good match, I'm going to have get some of that from Halfords myself! Look who I've just seen fly overhead:

I agree, I think they did a good job with the new design, but it doesn't suit the 787 in my opinion. It makes the 787 look too short and stubby with the titles that large. But also Air France appear to have enlarged the titles on their 787 fleet too. Maybe it's the new fashion?

Thank you, the length was actually one of the first things I noticed when I pulled the fuselage out of the box - it just kept coming and coming and coming, like a clown's hanky-sleeve trick. It's 51 cm long and a bit less in span, at 45 cm. I had to measure it after it was built because for some reason, the nose cone is a separate part, I'm not sure why. This was also a feature of the Concorde in 1:144 and 1:72, the Tu-144 (understandable), and the E-3 AWACS in 1:144. The wing lower surfaces and the wing box are a single piece, which means the model is pretty much full-size and awkward to handle early on in the build process. But, it means the correct dihedral is easy to achieve.

This is likely going to be my last build for a while as I prepare to move back to the UK. I've been in Paris for almost six years, and I've heard UU974 fly overhead nightly from Roissy to Saint-Denis, Île de la Réunion. Even as it sailed south overhead at 10,000 ft, those GE90-115B engines have a very distinctive sound, easily distinguishable from the countless Airbus jets that fly over, and I'm going to miss hearing it. So here is my Zvezda Boeing 777-300ER, with markings from 8A Decs of Mexico, whose decals were, frankly, superb. The decals portray Air Austral colours since their livery change in 2016, in which each aircraft has a scene from Réunion Island painted on its tail. There is only one aircraft depicted, F-ONOU. As far as I know, F-ONOU is no longer in their fleet, and they only operate F-OREU, F-OLRE, and F-OLRD today. I'm sorry, there is no WIP thread on this one; I want to wait until I have a proper workspace to take decent photos of a build. I think this kit is the same as the Revell kit, but I haven't built the Revell version (yet). I have another set of decals for Turkish Airlines (I see TK2 fly over most mornings - when it's clear...), so I will do a WIP topic on the Revell version, hopefully when I'm back in the UK.

To be honest, there are not a huge number of paints for a kit this big. I rarely use the exact colours because I have an enormous supply and if I'm missing a few colours, I'm not going to buy an individual paint. However, if you want to increase the level of detailing, then you can use as many as you like. For the main parts of the ship, I used: Tamiya TS-33 dull red (lower hull) Tamiya TS-55 dark blue (hull above the waterline) Halford's gloss appliance white (superstructure and lifeboats) Humbrol 19 gloss red (funnel) Tamiya AS-16 light grey (forward deck) Humbrol 18 gloss orange (lifeboats). That's about it really - six paints. I used Humbrol 47 gloss sea blue for the pools (the supplied decals only provide markings for the bottom of the pools, and I wanted to paint the sides too). For the glazing, I used Tamiya smoke, to give some contrast, which I think works well. But this was the first time that I used it, and I don't think the shading is as even as it could be. The only painting I have left to do is the wood brown handrails around the railings, stairs, and decks. But I don't have a brush that is fine enough yet. One thing I'd keep in mind while you're building is that there are no windows on this kit, so I used clear plastic sheet cemented to the insides of the cabins, but it's still possible to see right through the ship. Hope you enjoy your build!

Thanks, here's the A320neo up against the other Lufthansa builds I've made over the years. I'm not a Lufthansa fan as such (I've only flown on them once), it just so happens Revell make a fair few kits of theirs in this livery (I have an A359 in Lufthansa colours in the stash...). And below is a new 748 still in the box, with the Draw Decal sheet for the New Lufthansa colours... I may be the only person who actually likes their new livery.... I'm not sure which blue to use yet for the New Lufthansa; I was going to use Humbrol's gloss midnight blue (the same as the other builds above), but photos that I've seen of D-ABYA look like the tail is almost black, or blue-black (for which Tamiya's TS-55 dark blue on my Cunard liners, would be a better match) Hope you like the comparisons.

Thank you. I think there's a tiny yellow square by the front door! That's all they left. To be honest, I think it looks good on the 748, but in my opinion, if they were going to make a change to the tail, they should have also made a change to the front section... If they're giving away the white, I'll take some to replenish my stocks!!

Thanks, but I've just ordered the new livery decals for the 748!

Well the smallest model I have has taken me the longest time to build... I've had lots of distractions with work, but this weekend I was able to finish this A320neo. I left the flight deck windows clear, but the silver window frame decals are a fraction too small (or the clear plastic windows are set incorrectly), so there is a small gap on the bottom of the windows (they could be windscreen wipers if you squint at it, while looking the other way...) However, the model is really small, and while hanging from the ceiling along with my other builds, I don't think anyone is going to be able to see it (nor will they be able to read A320-200 instead of A320neo on the nose, or notice that there are no cranes on the sharklets...), so I apologize now to all of the purists. I'm really pleased with the PAS parts, and I'm glad they fit well. I was a bit hesitant about the price (they were £30 odd, for the tiny pieces). I started painting just before I saw the new Lufthansa livery, but I didn't want to wait even longer for new decals... The grey in the pictures looks more green than it does in real life - looking at it sat on the table now, it doesn't have that green shade. I used Humbrol 128, as a change to the Revell 374 that I used for the Revell A380 build I made years ago. Below is a comparison of the two paints. I'm happy with the smooth finish, especially as I hand-painted it with a brush. The fuselage--as always for my airliners--is painted with Halfords grey primer, followed by appliance gloss white (I think the grey primer gives the finished white more depth, than using white primer).

Here are the engines assembled (I made the kit's engines too for comparison): I painted the kit's engines with Revell 374, and the PAS engines with Humbrol 128. The green ring inside the PAS engines are the unpainted resin:

Ahh thanks, I haven't used any aftermarket parts before. I was trying to work out what material it was while I was cutting through the excess material! I'm sure it says on the box, but my Russian is pretty bad!

Slow progress with this one I'm afraid, because of work projects. This is the tip of the wing that requires removal to install the PAS sharklets; Most of the assembly is now done. It's a very simple build, and is common across the A319, A320, A321, except the wings for the A319 and A320 require the removal of the extra flap actuator fairings on the underside of the wing. It required very little filler all over. I had to use superglue to attach the sharklets, because poly cement wouldn't hold. I'm not sure what material the extra parts are made from. Since I took these photos, I've primed and painted with Halfords appliance gloss white.

Hmm, there are no spare letter Os that I could use on the decal sheet! I could have used the E and the N from Wiesbaden, but there are no Os anywhere. I was surprised too there there isn't a neo that's already been built on here!

I've had this A320 in my stash for a long time now, and I always meant to get around to building it, but something more interesting always got added to my collection that I started first (last weekend I added the Roden C-5B Galaxy, which I stopped myself from starting straight away). I've done a few big, long builds over the last year or so, and I wanted to do something smaller, and the A320 is probably the smallest kit I have. Over Christmas, I bought the neo conversion set from PAS Decals, and the little box costing £33 was just delivered. I know the none of the decal registrations are going to match actual A320neo aircraft in the Lufthansa fleet, but I'm not really concerned about that. I have the choice of: D-AIPB, Heidelberg, D-AIPK,Wiesbaden, D-AIPS, Augsburg, D-AIQF, Halle a. d. Saale, D-AIGN, Laupheim, D-AIQW, Kleve. Something I can crack on with this wet Parisian weekend. Before I begin, I wanted to show you what's in the box from PAS, with the new engines and Sharklets:

Oh yes, I've just had a look through your links - does it have railings in that scale? At 1:400, it was pretty fiddly! I have the shakes when I try to do anything delicate with my fingers, so installing the railings was a nightmare!