airliner virgin in need of advice.

[S5 modeller]

Hi.

I'm currently building the recent airfix reboxing of the ancient 707-436 in the air india scheme.

This is my first foray into the world of airliners, and I'm finding it rather therapeutic, a nice break from worrying over cockpit building and canopies.

So far I've built it up, primed and painted the gloss white on the fuselage.

The next step has got me puzzled. I need to paint the underbelly silver. The instructions would have me paint it humbrol 56 aluminium metallic. I've looked at photos online and I'm now confused.

Most of the photos show the a variety of finishes from matt aluminium to high gloss polished aluminium.

Any advice on the best way to go?

I'm thinking that the humbrol won't look right, and I'm thinking alclad polished aluminium may be the way forward.

Any suggestions?

Thanks for looking.

Matt

Edited May 19, 2016 by S5 modeller

[GreenDragon]

The last one I did had Humbrol 11 Silver Fox on the underside, slightly dirtied with a grey wash, I think Aluminium turns out too dark. Looked OK to me! Mine was BA from the red tipped flag tail era. Looked at your build thread yesterday( doing great by the way!) and liked the loosening of the locating holes, they converted it to a snap fit kit and made the fit worse! The cockpit window part never was the right size.

Paul Harrison

[Romeo Alpha Yankee]

Matt,

Go with what you think looks best, I think the polished Aluminium will look good.

When it come to metallic colours on airliners I will use whet ever I have, I loosely follow the instructions but most of the time use the colours I have available.

[S5 modeller]

Thanks for the advice chaps.

I fancy trying the polished aluminium, as I've heard it's rather nice. The kit did seem to fight me in some places, but I think I have it licked.

Just realised I have to deal with the seams along the top of the wings. I thought they might have been a surface feature, but apparently not.

I'm going to order an authentic airliners cabin decal monday.

Are the airfix decals any good? They look ok to me, but I think getting the widows and cheat line straight may be a problem.

Matt

[Eric Mc]

Up until the 1970s, unpainted aluminium undersides were very common on airliners. From the 70s on, the aluminium began to be painted in various shades of light grey.

Aluminium finishes varied hugely, depending on how often the airlines cleaned and polished their aircraft. I always remember Lufthansa 727s and 737s having quite highly polished undersides whilst the aircraft of other airlines, such as Iberia, tended to be duller.

Aluminum oxidises quite quickly so after only a few weeks it begins to lose its shine.

So, the best course of action is to have a look at some period photographs of the actual aircraft you are using and see what they tended to look like when n service.

[S5 modeller]

Thanks eric.

I've seen various photos that have ranged from a dull white oxidised finish, to photos where you can actually see the runway tarmac reflected in it.

There seems to be a varied choice on google. Personally, I think a high shine finish would look best.

[Alex1978]

I have sometimes the same problems to decide what kind of metallic finish to apply.It really depends on the plane,airline,time and state the aircraft is in.And also on how "new" or "old" you want your model to look.

I usually use aluminium metallic and after applying it i slightly "dust" it with a darker shade like iron or steel.It gives some life to the fuselage and the aluminium looks more realistic imho.

[Jessica]

Take a look at a nice collection of reference photos. It looks as though they were kept pretty clean for the most part. Pretty much any shiny metallic finish which captures your fancy will be correct. It's you who has to be happy with your model at the end of the day

[Flying Badger]

Hi, been following your build, looks great so far....

If you are going to use alclad then there are a few things to bear in mind (and apologies if you already know this)....

Firstly its a sod to mask over and get to stay... I find it tends to lift no matter how low tack you make your masking tape. So if you have to paint the wings and the underside in different colours.... paint the non-alclad bits first and leave the underside Alclad 'til last. That and use a good sealing layer of kleer or some such over it to help stop it sticking to the masking tape so much.

Secondly... if you are going for the polished alu look on your undersides, remember that each panel might be a slightly different shade - and the best way to get that is to mask off panels and pre-shade them with a variety of black, grey and white shades before you apply the layer of alclad. It needs to be quite subtle but it will look far better than a uniform colour, and will be great if you use some grey and other colour washes to dirty up the polished alu (I know there is the whole debate about panel washes etc. on airliners but I'm in the "It gets used it gets dirty so washes are realistic" camp on that one anyway)

I used pre-shading for alclad on my Mirage F1C last year:

I was a bit heavy handed with the Alclad and put too thick a layer on so lost a bit of the variation.... but it still looked good.

FB

Edited January 26, 2022 by Flying Badger
replace lost photobucket images

[Alex1978]

Hi, been following your build, looks great so far....

If you are going to use alclad then there are a few things to bear in mind (and apologies if you already know this)....

Firstly its a sod to mask over and get to stay... I find it tends to lift no matter how low tack you make your masking tape. So if you have to paint the wings and the underside in different colours.... paint the non-alclad bits first and leave the underside Alclad 'til last. That and use a good sealing layer of kleer or some such over it to help stop it sticking to the masking tape so much.

Secondly... if you are going for the polished alu look on your undersides, remember that each panel might be a slightly different shade - and the best way to get that is to mask off panels and pre-shade them with a variety of black, grey and white shades before you apply the layer of alclad. It needs to be quite subtle but it will look far better than a uniform colour, and will be great if you use some grey and other colour washes to dirty up the polished alu (I know there is the whole debate about panel washes etc. on airliners but I'm in the "It get used it gets dirty wo washes are realistic" camp on that one anyway)

I used pre-shading for alclad on my Mirage F1C last year:

I was a bit heavy handed with the Alclad and put too thick a layer on so lost a bit of the variation.... but it still looked good.

FB

That was an interesting explanation about the Alclad use.I always thought on how to make different shades with it.This helps a lot

[S5 modeller]

Thanks for the advice. Would sanding the gloss black base to matt with wet and dry provide tonal variation? If so, I might tape off some square panels and try it.

Also does anyone have any pics of the coroguard layout on the wings? I can't seem to find any decent images.

[Jessica]

The Coroguard was usually applied between the front and rear spars. Here's an image from the Flying Colors decal sheet:

[S5 modeller]

Thanks Jessica, that's perfect.

Alclad primer looks about the right shade of grey too.

[Flying Badger]

Hi Matt,

 

Been away from Britmodeller for a few years.... did you ever finish this model? Is there a RFI thread for it?

 

TFB