BluesModeller

Hi Jabba! There is Hobbycraft on Winwick road not too far from the town centre. Terrible at keeping sundries stocked but they’ve improved their stock of kits. Great little model shop in Widnes that I go to often called Widnes Model Centre. Good staff and always well stocked. Check Google for opening times. Pretty sure they’re shut Sunday and Monday and 10 or 11 till 4 the rest of the week. Both well within your 20 mile zone I think.

Watching with interest! Nearly picked up the Revell Mayflower kit when it was on offer in Aldi (Or Lidl) last year but got the Victory kit instead. will get hold of it one day, so good to see the Revell kit seems good so far.

No WIP I’m afraid. I have a few ideas for another build of this kit so will do one then.

Great work on this kit so far! Nearing the end of my British Gas build and whilst the kit isn’t perfect - though generally fairly good - it’s a great base for all sorts of wonderful and imaginative builds, as you are proving. I’ll be getting another kit to do something with when I find one going cheap. Anyways, looking forward to seeing how this turns out.

I don’t believe that was a real Mike, Mike. Mike

You’re turning it into a little gem Mike!

Absolute stunner Andy!

Stunning models!

Just finishing the Airfix 1/32 mini and the wheels are similar to the DBR9 (which I’ll probably start sometime this year). Nice kits overall but the wheels are a major letdown and a pain to make look decent. Nice to see 3D printing opening up a new world of possibilities for accuracy and quality.

This is a great looking model! May I suggest you change the thread title to reflect the name of the model in question. I think you will get more views and it deserves more views!

Looks great Andy! Looks a great little kit and you’ve done it justice

Same, although I’d like to scale it up to 1/144. Already wondering how hard it would be to convert the 747-8 I have in my stash! Ah, @Turbofan has done a fine job of converting one. Something to look into down the line.

Excellent result! Chrome looks good, especially on the wheels. Lovely shine to it too. Will have to get some of that Tamiya compound!

Thanks Alex! There’s a few on eBay right now. They’re asking £60 to £70 which is just insane! Occasionally these kits start at a low price and rarely make more than £10 which still feels overpriced considering how bad the decal sheet is (regardless of age). the Revell Air Canada kit is good value and has a really nice decal sheet. I’ll build that one again one day. Shame there no other options as far as decals go.

Just used the Tamiya French Blue on a recent project. Lovely paint. Dries very quick and smooth.

Really starting to take shape now Mike. I’ll get started on mine one of these days but I really need to finish all the other kits I’ve started with good intentions! What colour will you be using for the main body? I’ve found the Mr Color metallics - at least the chrome silver - needs thinning about 50/50 with their levelling thinner and a few drops of flow improver before brushing. It does brush pretty well when thinned though. I still struggle to get decent results brush painting with a lot of the Tamiya paints. Doesn’t seem to matter what thinner and what ratio. Others have had better luck so I’m not sure what I’m doing wrong. Both brands spray wonderfully though, and are very forgiving, thankfully, as I need a lot of forgiveness! Looking forward to seeing this completed. It’ll be a little cracker!

Just counted the parts on the 747. 23 parts. I’m still scratching my head wondering why it took so long and was so difficult at times, even though I know for the most part! You mentioned ‘mojo’ in your thread and that’s a big part of it I think. I spent days thinking about what needed doing on the build. How Iwas going to get past certain issues. Stuff that was tedious and might not work or make things worse. In the end days turned into weeks as I put it off and got on with other builds. The M7 has fought you but it looks like you’re winning!

I think some of these kit designers have a real sadistic streak and just want to torment us! Looking like a little gem despite the issues you’ve had. Will you be creating a base?

She looks great to me Ray! Reading through this WIP I had some strong Déjà vu regarding my own build. But we’re always our own harshest critics. Hard not to be when the old Mk 1’s have been staring at the same thing for hours and hours. The end result really is worth it though. Any issues seem minor when looking at the whole. (I need to remind myself of that!). Look forward to seeing the CC2

Thanks Ray, itching to do a 1/144 version now!

Cheers Troy! There’s something very satisfying about overcoming an issue with a build. Doesn’t feel like it when an issue first presents itself, particularly a self inflicted problem, but learning new skills or passing on tips makes it worth it. I have a few 1/72 aircraft to test the talc / SG mix on.

Really like the livery on the Air India planes. The window surrounds are an amusing but nice touch. Shame so many planes are dull, white tubes! I really need to try the superglue method you mentioned. Is there a specific ratio of glue to talc?

Last but not least in my Matchbox airliner double bill…. This is the Matchbox Boeing 747-200 in British Airways ‘Landor’ livery. I built the Revell Air Canada version a while back and as soon as I realised there was a BA version available I had to have it. Only issue is that this kit commands high prices on eBay. However, with perseverance it can be had for under a tenner with p&p. There is quite a backstory to the real aircraft this is based on. The condensed version is that it was sadly destroyed at Kuwait International Airport during the Iraq War in 1990. You can read the whole story here: Destruction Of Flight 149 August 1990 (Wiki) This was not a simple build to be frank. Poor fit of parts and a useless decal sheet caused no end of issues. In the end I used inkjet decals for most of the build except for the red stripe which was masked and sprayed due to the limitations of inkjet printed decals. The full story can be found in this WIP thread: Nearly went in the bin a few times but I wasn’t going to give in. In the end I’m pleased with the result. Many thanks to @JOCKNEY and @Rabbit Leader for this excellent Group Build!

Flickr uploading is being temperamental so I’ll start with the second of two builds. This is the Matchbox Boeing 727-223 in the American Airlines livery and is one of four airliner kits Matchbox produced around 1990. The registration for this aircraft is N844AA. According to Wikipedia the aircraft was produced by Boeing in 1975 and was in service with AA for 25 years until around 2000 or so. From then on it’s story becomes more murky… According to Wikipedia: “On 25 May 2003, a Boeing 727, registered N844AA, was stolen at Quatro de Fevereiro Airport, Luanda, Angola,[1] prompting a worldwide search by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). No trace of the aircraft has since been found.” This build wasn’t too bad and the decals worked fine except for the stripe around the nose cone. I had to resort to inkjet printed decals and still had a bit of trouble. But other than that a fairly pleasant build with a fair bit of filling and sanding to get very thing lined up and smooth, but nothing excessive or difficult. Any other issues I had were of my own creation and not a fault of the kit. WIP PK-802 Boeing 727 American Airlines Build Thread

Thanks chaps! She’s earned herself a nice spot on the shelf with my other, larger aircraft. Hopefully I can add the other two from the range in the future but….. No rush! Not the end of the Matchbox builds. I have a Bugatti Type 59 waiting to be built. Fell in love with the kit when I saw another build thread on here but took a while to score one on eBay. Should be ready to build it for the 60th anniversary group build!