neilg

Thanks, I had to redo it because my first attempt was too much. I’m still not sure if it looks ok now, I’m at Heathrow at the moment and the other aircraft seem very clean!

I've completed this pretty simple kit from Revell, which features the British Airways Ethnic Liveries scheme, Chelsea Rose. I actually quite like this particular livery; I think the stylized rose is quite tasteful. Weathering is a skill I don't have, and I tried for the first time on this one, using weathering powders around the door and stains below the cabin windows. It's definitely a skill I need to practice, just to make other models not look like they are fresh out of the paint shop! I think pre-shading would have helped, but I don't like using the airbrush. Paints are Halford's gloss appliance white, Halford's Capri Blue with Humbrol Midnight Blue on some of the engine panels. The wings are Halford's Racking Grey with Humbrol Sea Grey for the coroguard.

I am currently building another A380 in British Airways livery, this time for myself - my parents have the other one that I built! With the awful weather we've had, I've not had much of an opportunity to use the spray paints outside, so progress has been slow. I don't use clear parts for cabin windows. Instead, I leave the windows open, then when I have finished the model, I fill the cabin windows with PVA glue using a cocktail stick. You can also use Clearfix, the results are very similar, but I'd say PVA is quicker and less stringy to apply. If you've already installed the clear window parts, I'm not sure how easy they would be to remove at that stage, depending on the type of glue you used. If you used Revell Clear glue, it might be easy to just pull the windows off. It might be harder if you used poly cement. There are some masking sets that have individual masks for the cabin windows, which would be a test of patience for anyone. https://www.aviationmegastore.com/en/modelling/vinyl-painting-mask-for-windows-boeing-787-8-zvezda-dan-models-dm144107-158971.html Cutting around each window with a long strip of masking tape would be an equal test of patience, I'm sure! Do you have the same kit with the Boeing livery decals? I found those decals fine to apply, the decal sheet indicates where to cut the blue stripe to make it easy to apply.

There's quite a lot of information about markings on the Heritage Concorde website. https://www.heritageconcorde.com/pre-production-external-placards-and-mar Towards the bottom, it says: De ice panels on the wing, these are numbered to identify which panel is iced up, other areas on this aircraft are also painted black to identify ice issues this includes the intakes, winglets as above and camera areas. The white ice would show up clearly on the cameras pointing towrds these panels.

The nose and visor are either up or down. They don't have a mid-position and the visor can't be lowered by itself. I made a short video showing how it works: I'm sure it could be modified to move accurately, but it's way beyond my skillset.

PVA glue also works well, which is what I used for my latest build, but the size of the windows was hidden by the blue cheatline of the Negus livery. It's quicker to apply than Clearfix, and not as messy. I found Clearfix gets quite stringy when you withdraw the toothpick. Because the Chatham dockyard livery has a plane white fuselage, leaving the windows unfilled would make the size of them noticeable, so the decals would look better I think. I've used the decals previously and I think they look great. They're also the correct shape. The moulded window holes are pretty square.

wow that’s going to look good! are you going to use the cut out piece to cover the actuator fairing? I think the Revell kit had a separate piece that was larger and so there was an overlap with the main decal to make sure that there were no white gaps left it’ll be tricky I imagine to get the many lines to all match up over the actuator fairing

Thanks I'm glad you like them. No, I built this kit OOB. I've not done any modifications to the undercarriage on the others - the nosewheel bay would interfere with a bulkhead, and that would need trimming to accommodate the bay. It's too much effort for something barely noticeable, so I've never bothered with it. There is a WIP thread where someone else did a lot of modifications, including moving the nosewheel forward.

I've built five so far! My first one fell over from its stand when I was vacuuming, and smashed when it hit the floor. My Air France one I was never really happy with, mainly because the Heller decals did not adhere very well on the tail, and resulted in bubbles around the tail fin fairings. The decals have now become brittle and are flaking off. I'm using it to cannibalize parts to repair my other builds after they were damaged in storage. I haven't had an issue while building these, and I never really understood the criticism directed at it, despite its inaccuracies. I've enjoyed building them. As soon as the gloss white goes on, it starts to look good. There are another three or four in boxes upstairs! Maybe they will be the ones to tip me over the edge!

Yes! The Landor is my favourite too, I think it's a very elegant combination of the dark blue, red, white, and suits Concorde well.

I've not seen one of these built before! That's a beautiful finish!

Thanks, the Negus livery was my least favourite, but it has started to grow on me! Which livery do you prefer?

I'd say give it a go! I've got an Air France one to build and I'm wondering if I should do a prototype scheme also.

I've not had any issues with the builds, but I don't follow the instructions, which usually results in sections of the fuselage with different diameters. That must have been a beautiful sight! I saw Concorde taking off and landing a few times at RAF Fairford in the 90s at the Air Tattoo, and I still remember the roar!

There are some inaccuracies, but when it's built, I don't notice them, and nor does anyone else who looks at them. A gripe I would have is the amount of filling and sanding required around the wing roots (which is a length of over 30 cm). I mean, this is just because filling and sanding is my least favourite part of modeling in general... If you've got one, I say give it a go. I have an Air France one to build soon, too..