Eastern Express 737-300 - yet another one?

[Ologist]

Perhaps this would be an unwise choice for a first GB entry anyway (and even a first airliner build), but as the experiences of Ryan and Alexander have been documented here only too clearly, perhaps I'm venturing into the realm of the foolhardy.

Anyway, as Creative Models have been selling these at irresistibly low prices, and I failed to resist, it was a question of what to do with the thing if I didn't try to glue the bits together.

The obligatory box shot:

So far so good.

With the Moderators permission, I'm joining the fray with some assembly done. Firstly, the fuselage halves have been stuck together. This statement hides the now well-known observation that the warping of the fuselage halves is such they don't even fulfill the adage of 'they fit where they touch'. They don't. Even getting them to touch involved much boiling water and finger pressure, sometimes both at the same time, which in all honesty, I can't recommend.

As well as both halves curving banana-like away from each other, the upper and lower edges have an interesting wave effect. This would be just annoying if the peaks and troughs correspond on both halves, but of course, they don't.

Then we come to the cockpit windows. At least, we come to the part in the box which claims to be the cockpit windows. It's a clear (?) interloper, and as Ryan found, not only it doesn't fit, it doesn't fit with attitude. In this case, rescue came from Danny Coremans, who dispatched a pair of the clear sprues from his own range with impressive speed. A bit of saw and sanding stick work showed that the Daco window piece fitted surprisingly well, but highlighted the flatness of the upper surfaces of the kit, especially behind the cockpit

So time to break out the Milliput, and a lot of it, followed by the conversion of some of it to a large heap of powder.

This is the current state of play:

Still a fair amount of filling and sanding work required around the cockpit, but the rest of the fuselage looks and feels acceptable. The grey spots in the Milliput areas are Mr Surfacer 500, to rectify some minor flaws. One reason for the late entry to the GB was that I wanted to be reasonably sure that seams would be sortable before committing to posting - in the worst case scenario, this is going to be an exercise in seam filling and sanding.

The sharp eyed among you might notice something non-Eastern Express going on in the wheel wells. Somewhere along the line I'd obtained cheaply the Extratech etched set for the Minicraft 737. The fold up top and sides fit the EE version well, and really help with the alignment of the lower fuselage.

At some point soon the seams and filler will have to be tested with a coat of paint, in the meantime I'll contunue in a mild state of over-optimism.

[zebra]

"In this case, rescue came from Danny Coremans, who dispatched a pair of the clear sprues from his own range with impressive speed."

Getting him to send the rest of the kit might have made life easier, but have to applaud you for doing it the hard way!

[POTKC]

Well, well, what do we have here. Good luck! I'll be back from my holiday by the weekend, and will continue with my worst nightmare EE 737. Are you building yours with kit decals or aftermarket ones?

[Romeo Alpha Yankee]

Nice to see another B737, hope to see this one finished

[Ologist]

Neatly sidestepping Zebra's question as to whether a Skyline 737 might be a much more sensible option, the next problem posed by our Eastern Express friends concerns the grotesquely malformed piece of plastic which is supposed to form the lower part of the main wheel bay:

On the plus side, it does have the right number of holes, but some drastic action will be called for.

I won't be using the kit decals, the scheme is attractive, but I've no idea how the they will behave - I couldn't face the prospect of all that complex masking, then to have the decals disintegrate on contact with water. At the moment, if I get to that point, it will be a predominantly white colour scheme

[The 3rd Placer]

Looks just like mine......well except for mine in is the box awaiting cremation.

I had the same fears about the decals..but there is an aftermarket solution for a -800. You can use the lettering etc from that set is all else fails. That's my plan at least.

Ryan

Edited August 22, 2016 by The 3rd Placer

[The 3rd Placer]

Save yourself another headache and widen the part (Gear opening) with some strip. Cut in two then glue the strip right down the middle...again I was going to do that with mine.

Ryan

[Ologist]

Thanks Ryan

That's precisely what i was doing when you posted!

The outside edges now follow the wing route profile quite well. Just the 1.5mm gap between the two halves to deal with. Its not even parallel with the centre line.

Jon

[POTKC]

Well, just be thankful the damn spindly thing didn't snap in half during dry-fitting. And also...there's a main gear bay part? I couldn't find it...was my kit missing something, or am I very very stupid? Will check the sprues again in five days' time...

[Romeo Alpha Yankee]

...

The sharp eyed among you might notice something non-Eastern Express going on in the wheel wells. Somewhere along the line I'd obtained cheaply the Extratech etched set for the Minicraft 737. The fold up top and sides fit the EE version well, and really help with the alignment of the lower fuselage.

...

Well, just be thankful the damn spindly thing didn't snap in half during dry-fitting. And also...there's a main gear bay part? I couldn't find it...was my kit missing something, or am I very very stupid? Will check the sprues again in five days' time...

Jon had mentioned he used an Extratech wheel bay.

Nice fight Jon, looks like you are winning at this stage...

[POTKC]

Jon had mentioned he used an Extratech wheel bay.

Nice fight Jon, looks like you are winning at this stage...

Ah sorry, must have missed that.

[Ologist]

Can it really be three months since I last posted?

Interest has been maintained, and progress made, but external factors (i.e. work, work, and more work) have conspired to reduce available time to something less than minimal

So we reach the last day of the group build, and is the wee EE beastie complete? Err, no. Is it likely to be completed? An emphatic yes, and hopefully this side of the new year. I'll probably resume this in the main WIP forum.

 

However, a review of where I am now, and some (more) of the foibles of the Eastern Express 737s might still be of interest here.

 

Findings so far:

Fuselage. The two halves are more dissimilar than I first thought. They were certainly not designed by CAD and the creating of a mirror image of one half. As noted by others, the right hand horizontal tail surfaces locating slot is much higher than that on the left - in fact the fuselage is higher here. Not to difficult to partially correct with sanding and enlarging the slot downwards. The top of the fuselage towards the cockpit needs building up, I used Milliput and possibly overdid this, but the picture makes it look worse than it really is. Much sanding wit the indispensable Flexifile frame and medium tapes eventually got rid of all of the seams, and avoided flat spots in obvious areas. The rear underside of the fuselage is too flat in the kit, but I wasn't inclined to try and correct this. Panel lines have been restored, and others added, though the softness of the plastic makes keeping to a constant depth difficult.A coat of Alclad grey primer, and a lot of polishing got to this stage, with just a couple of small areas need further attention:

 

 

 

Horizontal tail surfaces. A bit of scraping to thin the trailing edge of each half is all that was needed. The fit to the fuselage is very good. These won't be attached until the wings are on.

 

Wings. Almost a disaster. The two halves of each wing were so warped as to produce an X-wing fighter effect. I tried to correct the first via the boiling water method, and managed to thoroughly mangle the training edge, and ended up with one of the flap track housings pointing at a 45 degree angle. Experiments with the other wing showed the warp would disappear just by gluing. This was the closet that the whole project got to being scrapped. Much effort was put into rebuilding of the trailing edge, and at the same time thinning both, Generous applications of Mr Cement S and clamping did the trick, though at the expense of a few dents in the surface, and loss of much panel detail. Scriber time again.

 

 

After this, attaching the engine pylons was easy, However the 1mm step between this and the part molded on the wing and the wing was enough to be hilarious.

 

 

 Milliput to the rescue again.The top of the pylon above the upper wing was very blobbish, good clear photos of this region are not quite so easy to find - most people who photograph the wing from the cabin seem more interested in the trailing edge. Some sanding has got these to a more engineeringly sound form. They may not be accurate, but they are closer than they were. The offset tabs on each wing ensure the dihedral is correct, but they do need shortening by a couple of millimetres per wing. Fit of the right wing is very good, the lower left is slightly short shot on the inner side, and will need some filler.

 

Engines. Another interesting engineering approach, and one that could have worked well. The two halves of the engine casing  don't match the profile of the front part, but it's relatively easy to sand down the joining surfaces on the top side, and apply a lot of downwards pressure as the glue sets. Joining the engines to the pylons, and fairing these in is going to be the last major challenge, but if nothing else, this build has increased my confidence in Milliput's ability to be sanded into the shapes that Eastern Express might have intended, but their tool cutters failed to deliver.

 

So, has this all been worth it?

 

Of course not, but it hasn't taken up very much actual hands on time, and the sanding and polishing can be quite relaxing. Would I start another one? Until this is finished, definitely not. If and when it gets finished, then the chances of going through this again might just reach 1 in a 1000........

 

Jon

 

 

 

 

Edited January 10, 2018 by Ologist
spilling priblems

[Romeo Alpha Yankee]

Thanks for the update Jon, hope to see this one finished this side of Christmas as well. I will have to do the same with my B747-412F conversion that did not make it to the finish line either.