Airbus A320 Etihad - Revell 1:144. Review Build

[Viking]

Airbus A320 Etihad

Review Build

This kit has been around for 20 years or so, and released in various different boxings & airline liveries. The latest release is in the new Etihad livery and was recently received at Britmodeller for Review

It is a fairly simple kit to build, so I thought I would take it out of the box and and use it to show a few techniques that I like to use on airliners. The lovely decal sheet by DACO just calls out to be used!

I like to keep the cockpit windows clear if I can. Here is how.

1. Glazing glued in. Note the schoolboy error of a gluey finger mark on it.No worries, though, the following processes will eliminate it.
The A320 kit is a bit awkward to fit the glazing, the aperture needs clearing of flash, and you need to fit it in carefully or it can crack. I leave the wing off so that I can get fingers to the inside of the glazing as well, and help push it into position. Fit it off centre so that one side is on the inside of the fuselage and the other outside, so that you are sliding it from left to right in the cockpit 'slot' to get it into position. Once located run a bit of Tamiya extra thin cement around to secure it. But watch it, if you keep fiddling with it you are likely to smear gluey finger marks on it!

2. Once dried overnight, start to sand it down to blend it in better.

3. The fit isn't perfect, so it will need filler to blend it in properly. White Milliput used here, and left for 24 hours to harden.

4. Further sanding, and the Milliput is mostly off the glazing now, and filling the gaps, particularly on the centrer 'crown' .

5. Using Micromesh polishing cloths, the glazing is restored to being crystal clear.

6. Masks are now needed. It is a straightforward job to get an A320 decal sheet with a 'solid' glazing decal on, lay a sheet of clear plastic over, add some Kabuki tape on top. Cut with a new blade following the glazing pattern beneath, remove the excess tape, and you have a set of home made window masks!

7. Add them to the model.Use thin strips to adjust any edges. Here the central pillar wasn't right, so a couple of this strips corrected it.

8. The wing on this kit needs a little fettling to get it to sit flush in its opening. I find that trimming, test fit, trim, test fit etc in these areas will help to get the wing fitting snugly without the integral lower fuselage section standing proud.

9. Talking of the wing, the kit winglets are too small. 15 minutes can make a new pair from 20 thou plasicard.

Above, the replacement pair. Below, the kit (too small) kit pair.

10. The wings have the extra flap tracks of the A321 version, which need to be removed. A chisel type blade is ideal for this. Shave off most, and finish off by sanding. The engraved split flap lines also need filling in.

11. While the plasicard is out, I replaced some of the lumps and bumps I had cut off the fuselage, With them in place it makes it hard to sand and smooth the fuslege. So I usually shave them off, and make new ones later like this;

12. Primed up with Halfords rattle can 'Plastic primer'.

I hope this helps anyone contemplating building an airliner in general, and the Revell A320 (or A319 & A321) in particular.

More to follow as I move on to painting it with nail varnish, for that Etihad pearlescent look!

John

[phildagreek]

Looks good.

[niki]

You make it look easy, John!

Great step-by-step and looking forward to see this 'little' Etihad finished. Mulberry Street nail polish looks a bit of out of production and nowhere to be found, but I just might be tempted to also give this A320 a go.

Cheers,

Niki

[MikeW]

Oh, I am enjoying this. As Niki said, you are making it look so easy - and we know it is not. Isn't this one of the kits where the nose wheel is is applied, like in Step 2, giving one ample opportunities to knock it off?

Cheers,

Mike

[Conflats]

Very nice build, good instructions there and great tip on making your own masks.

Looking forward to this build with fantastic looking decals

[Romeo Alpha Yankee]

Nice tute John.

I have a few A320s in the stash but have not built any yet. Might have to crack one open for the Airliner GB. Or then again I may not wait that long

[Gimme Shelter]

nice to see this kit on your bench - I do love it and have enjoyed making it a few times myself - both the 319 and 320

Just like Blue Peter always did, here's one I made earlier !

Good luck with the rest of your build

Very nice - I love the Revel 319 and 320 kits - here's one I made earlier

good luck with the rest of your build

[Viking]

Oh, I am enjoying this. As Niki said, you are making it look so easy - and we know it is not. Isn't this one of the kits where the nose wheel is is applied, like in Step 2, giving one ample opportunities to knock it off?

Cheers,

Mike

Spot on Mike, so I left mine off for now. I found that you can wiggle it in later, after painting.

And nice A319 'Gimme Shelter', I like the base and in flight display.

I've got the wings painted this week, and will mask them off to paint the fuselage next.

There is a lot talked about what is 'Airbus grey' but I use Tamiya XF-80 Royal light grey. Others have different opinions but I like this option.

Then masking off to do the coroguard areas, which is my own mix. Coroguard varies considerably in tone, so I looked at various A320 photos on Airliners.net, and made my own interpretation from Tamiya greys.

Followed bt more masking to do the silver leading edges

At last, wings and tailplanes painted, engines assembled and primed.

Now is the time to carefully peel off the window masks, and polish the area with a fine micromesh cloth. This tales off the 'lip' than can develop where the primer meets the mask edges. The white bits show where some 'lip' has been smoothed off.

The masks are the carefully put back in place.

Next job is to mask off the complete wings, and start painting the fuselage. I ordered another bottle of 'NYC Mulberry Street' nail varnish which arrived yesterday, so can start on it now.

It is unusual to use ladies nail varnish to paint models, but this is perfect for the Etihad slightly pearlescent finish and worked well on my Boeing 777 in the previous Etihad livery.

Thanks for looking

John

[mcdonnell]

Hello,John - My full compliments to you as usual for another fine looking build in the making.The finishing work is so critical with any subject but in many ways even more so with airliners.You've got these off to a fine art! All the very best,Paul.

[Mike]

Not only did you do the quickest turn-around ever on a review kit, but you're also working on the fastest review build! Very nice work as always John

[pinky coffeeboat]

Nice work so far John. I was hoping you'd give the suggested colour mix a go and we could all see how accurate it is. It's such a tricky colour to match.

I love the wings, the corrogard looks really good. My recent attempts have been much too dark sometimes approaching gunship grey or darker!! For my Airbus grey, I use either Xtracolor , Humbrol 147 or RailMatch silver grey 244.

My local hardware shop had a couple recently delivered and I was very tempted but resisted...only just. I will get one later sometime. Like them or loathe them, Etihad and their new colours is a bit different from the current run of the mill "white fuselage and coloured band at the back" brigade.

Keep up the good work,

Jeff

[Viking]

Thanks chaps,
Given the nice weather I cracked on with some spraying today. I'll be using a sand coloured base coat of Citadel 'Ushabti bone' thinned with warm water, and later some NYC 'Mulberry street' nail varnish thinned with cellulose thinners, and sprayed via airbrush.

First up, masked off the wings;

Then a few coats of Ushabti bone. It is best to build up several light coats It dries very quickly so can be done in a single spraying session.

I left it for 4 hours, and then got on with the 'Mulberry street' nail varnish. Thinned about 50/50 with Wiko's cellulose thinners and applied in several light coats, again in 1 session. This stuff dries rapidly and tends to leave a gritty, grainy finish because it is almost drying as it flies through the air from airbrush to model. No worries though, I got a few grainy patches but it comes up lovely and smooth after a bit of polishing with the finest micromesh cloth.

I'm pleased with this, it has a lovely subtle pearlescent finish, just what I was after. Hopefully it looks as good in the photo as it does in real life.

The engines need the pylons painting now, and the silver intake rings doing. The cockpit glazing came out well too, who needs cockpit decals!

Thanks for looking,

John

[Mike]

Nail polish, by gosh! First time I've seen that on a model!

[stringbag]

Glad you decided to go for the nail varnish option again John. It would have been difficult not to compare directly with the Tripple Seven and given the success with the Boeing I think anything less would have been a disappointment.

Another beauty in the making by the look of things.

Chris.

[infofrog]

Nice job

Rick

[Viking]

A short update. All major components are assembled, painted and ready for assembly and decalling.

I have been in decision making turmoil though. The kit only comes with the CFM 56 engines that were only fitted to 1 of Etihads A320's (Registered A6-EIZ), whereas all the others have the V2500 engine. This is not a problem in itself, I have already built the CFM 56's for it. The problem arises when I can find no evidence that A6-EIZ has yet been painted in this new scheme. It is still active in the Etihad fleet, so may be wearing it, or due to be repainted.

Therfore should I build the review kit 'as it comes' out of the box, or should I modify it with V2500's and register it as one of those known to be wearing this scheme?

I have decided to go for the V2500 / new reg options, as plenty of registrations are provided on the decal sheet. Revells A319 in the 'British Airways' box provides both types of engines, so I have sourced a pair of V2500's from one in my stash. You can see in the photos below how different they are.

This raises a second issue, in that many of the Etihad 'new colours' A320's are now sporting extended wingtip sharklets as seen on A6-EJA

So I have selected A6-EIC seen HERE

But just when you think you are out of the woods, this gives another minor problem. Of all the multiple reg letters supplied on the decal sheet, there isn't a 'C'! reckon I can modify the 'G' though.

(A6-EJA is on the sheet, but then I would need sharklet wingtips and its a bit late for that now. Those of you waiting to start this kit could go that way though).

Alternatively wait and see if A6-EIZ appears in this new scheme!

Here is where I am at now. Note the 2 types of engine.....

...and how different they are. I;ve only just started assembling the V2500's and have yet to paint them.

I hope this helps clear up some of the options around this kit for those of you wanting to build one,

Cheers

John

[Viking]

Extremely short update. Some major decals on, and windows filled with Kristal Kleer.

Those decals are just superb. Being designed by Danny of Daco, they fit like a glove. I am really impressed with them, it is a complex scheme in many parts, but damn near perfect fit.

Thanks for looking,

John

[infofrog]

That looks good

Rick

[MikeW]

Beautiful result - as someone who does not use an airbrush, I am nervous to try this ( especially taking a jar of nail polish into the hardware store and saying " match this" )

[delis]

wow...what a nice model. great work there.

i really like it

[wanthony]

Am I seeing things or are those wipers installed under the cockpit windows?

[Viking]

Am I seeing things or are those wipers installed under the cockpit windows?

Wow, you must have 20/20 vision! There are indeed a pair of wipers. They are decals supplied on the kit sheet.

Cheers

John

[wanthony]

Nice touch! That's gotta be the best/most accurate cockpit I've seen made of the Revell A320 family.

[Viking]

More progress to show! I am finishing this as A6-EIC as references show it in this scheme with the little wingtip fences.

I was able to create the 'C' for the registration by modifying the 'G', cutting the horizontal stroke off it.

Strangely though, I found that the decal sheet contains all the nose door repeater letters, including the 'IC' that I needed.

Then it was back to the engines. I've finished the V2500's taken from the BA A319 kit, they are on the left with the CFM 56's to the right. Note she is now wearing the A6-EIC reg.

One last shot to show the big differences between the V2500's (Top) and CFM 56's (Bottom)

And the oddities continue. I thought I would need the pylon decals for the V2500's from the BA A319 kit, No's 63 and 64 (outlined in blue). But no, the Etihad kit has them on the decal sheet, no's 52 and 53 (outlined in red). But the Etihad kit does not have the pylon decals for the CFM 56's, although it only supplied those engines. So 'in the box' you have incompatible engines and pylon decals. Strange.

Comparison shot to show how the CFM 56's look dry fitted to the model.

And then the V2500's glued in place.

Thus we have some confusion with what is supplied in the box with this kit. But if you have another A230 or A319 kit containing both engines you can use the V2500's from it. Even if you have another kit that only has V2500's, you can swap them for the CFM 56's from here.
Confused? Yes it would have been better if Revell had not deleted the V2500's. Having said that, it is easily resolved if you have another kit with them in.

Nearly finished now, just a few more decals to go.

Cheers

John

[RNoAF Aerobatic Team]

Outstanding work