Airbus 319, British Airways

[madaboutmodels]

i do mine nice and clean and all shut up, not dirt and no interior, although im tempted to do the normal revell a380-800 with the revell a380 interior

[Kev1n]

Windows are good - but how do you cut the hold door out so accurately? Is it a piece of plasticard shaped similar or is it just razored out?

you mean me?

Doors are easy - just drill a hole and hack out the plastic, then file it to the shape and size of the door space, and make a new door out of plastic card. Handles etc can be a bit tiny but it's just stretched sprue. Internal detail on most of mine is usually limited to the visible area around the inside of the door area and made out of plastic card cut to the right size and shape

[nigelr32]

you mean me?

Doors are easy - just drill a hole and hack out the plastic, then file it to the shape and size of the door space, and make a new door out of plastic card. Handles etc can be a bit tiny but it's just stretched sprue. Internal detail on most of mine is usually limited to the visible area around the inside of the door area and made out of plastic card cut to the right size and shape

Any chance we could see some pics of your cargo holds?

Nige

[easyAl]

...as it's EZY you won't have long to wait till then eh!

Al (ex-EZY B737s @LPL)

Ha! I'm at LPL too! Normally you'd be right, but as they got the crewing levels right this summer, it now seems everywhere is over crewed and we're seeing hours slashed considerably over the winter (permanent guys are being worked hard, but the Flexi guys (dont get me started) are hardly working. Aaanyway not to stray too far

i do mine nice and clean and all shut up, not dirt and no interior, although im tempted to do the normal revell a380-800 with the revell a380 interior

Be prepared to tear your hair out trying to get it to fit together properly. Although then again I did stuff mine full of lights and electronics.

Any chance we could see some pics of your cargo holds?

Nige

Edited December 18, 2011 by easyAl

[Alan P]

But i also guess the airline try to keep them cleaner as they're face of the company.

Not really, the air friction is what keeps them clean generally as they're in the air most of the day, unlike (US) military aircraft which are usually sitting on the ground getting washed by conscientious crew chiefs. They go in for a paintjob when they really are filthy or the paint and decals are actually flaking off. The only plane i ever saw put down for a cosmetic wash was one which had congealed de-icing fluid running down over all the windows and was actually causing drag, therefore costing us money. Otherwise, no-one ever cleans them cos it costs money and keeps them on the ground, which costs money.

Are you seeing the pattern here?

[nigelr32]

I found a PanAm pic on Google. It shows a chipped and filthy cockpit on a 747.

I read somewhere on here that kev1n's PanAm 747 did not win a competition as it was "Too Weathered". Yeah right!!!!

Nige

Edited December 24, 2011 by nigelr32

[martin77]

Well a quick update to all that have shown interest and support for this project.

all is going well, painting has been done and decalling has began.....

So just landing gear to do and just waiting on window decals coming in post kindly donated by Cuprar who has been a great help with this build, as have all of you.

Really enjoying this and i'm really happy with hows its looking. first of many i hope.

[easyAl]

Wow, don't waste any time do you?

Looking good though!

[Alan P]

Nice start!

Painting a sharp line of dark paint over white is tough, to avoid the tiny bleed edge that scuffs the sharp line it often helps after masking to first paint a clear coat of varnish or Klear polish along the demarcation line. Then when you come to paint the colour, the Klear has already filled the bleed holes along the masking tape so the actual colour doesn't bleed through into the white, leaving a clean, sharp line.

Al

[Kev1n]

your doing fine, so just carry on and enjoy what your doing.

As to the comment about my PA 747, the reason was it was "too dirty for an airliner"...which may be the same thing as being too weathered

"Any chance we could see some pics of your cargo holds?"

Nige

sure...go for a stroll around BM there's a few posted (if the pics arent showing, give me a shout and I'll repost them)

[martin77]

Nice start!

Painting a sharp line of dark paint over white is tough, to avoid the tiny bleed edge that scuffs the sharp line it often helps after masking to first paint a clear coat of varnish or Klear polish along the demarcation line. Then when you come to paint the colour, the Klear has already filled the bleed holes along the masking tape so the actual colour doesn't bleed through into the white, leaving a clean, sharp line.

Al

Oh i'll try that one when i get my next one. But it doesnt look as bad as it does in the pic. the macro setting seems to make it look alot worse. It does look crisp when viewing with the eye....honestly

[martin77]

Thanks kevin, i'm really happy with my first attempt at civil modelling, and i'm really enjoying it, thats why i've moved along so quickly. The decals are great and really detailed, like i said just wait on some window decals.

[Antony Robertson]

That's looking really good, welcome to the airliner corner!

Antony

[Kev1n]

I found this PanAm pic on Google.

I read somewhere on here that kev1n's PanAm 747 did not win a competition as it was "Too Weathered". Yeah right!!!!

Nige

I've seen this pic before and wondered who the captain was.......

(those who have met me will know what I mean)

[martin77]

Well good afternoon everyone.

Hope you all had a great xmas and new year.

anyway, found abit of time to do abit on the Airbus.

All decalled (apart from windows) and engines and tails are on.

So i've started the undercarriage, and the revell instructions say the legs and wheels are aluminium??

Is this right, ive looked at some pictures and they look grey to me, but i want to get it right, can anyone help???

[nigelr32]

Well good afternoon everyone.

Hope you all had a great xmas and new year.

anyway, found abit of time to do abit on the Airbus.

All decalled (apart from windows) and engines and tails are on.

So i've started the undercarriage, and the revell instructions say the legs and wheels are aluminium??

Is this right, ive looked at some pictures and they look grey to me, but i want to get it right, can anyone help???

Hi Martin,

I think you'll have to do the same as i did recently for my A380-900 build.

Just search A319 undercarriage in google images, then make your own mind up.

Nige

[XV571]

Hi Martin,

Yes, the real landing gear is painted aluminium. It's a very dull shade though, so it's a good idea to mix in a little matt light grey to reduce the metallic sheen. Nose wheels can be either painted aluminium or BAC707 grey. Main wheels are either white or BAC707 grey but get very dirty very quickly due to the carbon brake dust!

Jonathan

[martin77]

Hi Martin,

Yes, the real landing gear is painted aluminium. It's a very dull shade though, so it's a good idea to mix in a little matt light grey to reduce the metallic sheen. Nose wheels can be either painted aluminium or BAC707 grey. Main wheels are either white or BAC707 grey but get very dirty very quickly due to the carbon brake dust!

Jonathan

Thanks Jonathan that helps alot. I thought they looked greyish, and ive noticed the main wheels look very dirty so i'll do that too.

Thanks much appreciated.

[garryrussell]

Re airlines cleaning

Some airlines especially in the sixties and before kept the fuselages very clean but did not do the wings to the same extent.

That appears to happen sometimes now.

Trouble since the sixties is reverse thrust on jets that throw soot onto the fuse making is a battle to keep clean. BEA seems to have given up trying in the late sixties as earlier pics of Red Square were clean and byt the time Flying Jack was introduced the fleet was lookjing grubby. BOAC seemed to keep the fleet clean but BA seem to have adopted the later BEA approach.

Short haul aircraft due to shorter sectors, spend longer at lower levels in dirty air on city approaches than long haul and that shows. BOAC would have been easier to keep clean.

Aer Lingus had problems when they introduced the Viscount 700's getting dirty because they spent so much time in dirty air which was really bad in the fifties especially on the Manchester routes and that is why they introduced the green top livery (read from a contempory artical) which for a couple of years or so was only on the Viscounts, but then adopted fleetwise.

The green roof and very very almost black cockpit dome didn't show the dirt as much although the dome was later changed to white

The Viscounts were first treated as they were at that time the pride of the fleet.

The best thing is always to find a pic of the real aircraft and mimic it but even a clean aircraft will often be dirty but an even dirt so only if an area gets cleaned is it realised to whole aircraft is three shade darker

I recently saw this on a FlyBe Dash 8 that looked pristine but someone had replaced or cleaned one engines nacelles covers and the whole aircraft was infact a very light grey as shown by the white on the engine. Other that that it looked OK as there was no sooted areas or dirty patches as such.

Edited January 2, 2012 by garryrussell

[easyAl]

In response to the landing gear question- as people have said it is a dull aluminium colour but can and does get a little mucky.

There aren't any brakes on the nose wheel so it doesn't get quite as dirty as the main gear, but does fairly frequently attract birds and bugs so the main source of dirt are bits picked up that it has hit. The main gear is the same colour and does get black from brake dust very quickly.

Below I have 2 photos of the main gear for comparison. The first is a pretty clean system, and by the looks of it has just had the brake pads changed so must have had a quick scrub when that was done. The second is a fairly typical state of muckiness.

edit: I've also just noticed that the first photo is from the front and the second is from the rear... The cleanliness could be due to flying through a could/rain with the gear extended. Being the first point of contact for water could give it a bit of a clean. I suppose what all this waffling is trying to say is your guess is as good as mine.

As for dirty aircraft, even in the same fleet they vary in states of cleanliness. As a comparison I have a similar shot of two different aircraft in very different states of dirt accumulation. OK so the second one is an A320 and the first an A319, but you get the idea.

Edit:Misread original post

Edited January 3, 2012 by easyAl

[Antony Robertson]

Re airlines cleaning

I recently saw this on a FlyBe Dash 8 that looked pristine but someone had replaced or cleaned one engines nacelles covers and the whole aircraft was infact a very light grey as shown by the white on the engine. Other that that it looked OK as there was no sooted areas or dirty patches as such.

All FlyBe aircraft are scheduled to have a full external wash every 60 days or so but this doesn't always happen due to weather or broken aeroplanes.

The one with the clean engine cowlings more than likely had an oil leak from the engine, or a grease leak from the propeller which had been hastily cleaned up after being fixed.

Antony

[martin77]

In response to the landing gear question- as people have said it is a dull aluminium colour but can and does get a little mucky.

There aren't any brakes on the nose wheel so it doesn't get quite as dirty as the main gear, but does fairly frequently attract birds and bugs so the main source of dirt are bits picked up that it has hit. The main gear is the same colour and does get black from brake dust very quickly.

Below I have 2 photos of the main gear for comparison. The first is a pretty clean system, and by the looks of it has just had the brake pads changed so must have had a quick scrub when that was done. The second is a fairly typical state of muckiness.

edit: I've also just noticed that the first photo is from the front and the second is from the rear... The cleanliness could be due to flying through a could/rain with the gear extended. Being the first point of contact for water could give it a bit of a clean. I suppose what all this waffling is trying to say is your guess is as good as mine.

As for dirty aircraft, even in the same fleet they vary in states of cleanliness. As a comparison I have a similar shot of two different aircraft in very different states of dirt accumulation. OK so the second one is an A320 and the first an A319, but you get the idea.

thanks for all these pictures easyal. They are great and very useful.

Edit:Misread original post

[easyAl]

thanks for all these pictures easyal. They are great and very useful.

No worries. As soon as I get my bottom in gear and sort out the sizes of .zip file to send to the relevant person, there should be several more in the walkaround section. Maybe I'll do that now...

[martin77]

well we're on the home straight at last, should have some photos up by the end of today so keep watching!!

[martin77]

Well its been an interesting journey with this my very first airliner.

Ive pulled my hair out at times, but i've learnt alot which is always good.

I'd also like to thanks everyone for there help and encouragement on this project. All the photos, references, advice, and interest have been great and its made me want to build another.

Also a big big thanks to Chris ( Cuprar) for helping me out with the window decals which look awesome.

So a couple of photos then..........

So there you are, not to the standard as you hardcore airline modellers, but i'm happy with her.

I'll put more over on RFI shortly

Martin