New Connie cowls

[Admiral Puff]

Oh happy day! Paul Fisher has released two sets of early (L-049 style) Connie engine cowls - see http://www.fishermodels.com/product/l649-749-cowls-engines-and-hamilton-standard-props-172?tid=3. Also available with Curtiss Electric props. Now I can finish my BOAC L-049!

[Tzulscha]

Must be the Heller Connie yes?

Ooh, those ARE sweet.

So easy to excite a modeler...

Always happy to see that the madness is shared.

[Admiral Puff]

Can only be the Heller Connie, but these new releases will make a big improvement to the L-749 kit. Mind you, there's a lot more needs doing to it, but it's a start - and Paul has said he'll be producing some of the L-749 cowls soon. Another thing that's going to cost me ...

[stevehnz]

Oh gawd, the sort of eye candy which makes me NEED stuff. Look away quickly Stephen, NOW!

Steve.

[Admiral Puff]

My order arrived yesterday, and they're every bit as good as the online photos promised. Can't post pictures because Photo#$%&it isn't playing ball - hopefully I'll be able to post an RFI when the L-049 is finished.

[Admiral Puff]

Still working on this. It keeps reminding me what an unforgiving finish silver is - the slightest glitch in the surface stands out like the proverbial dog's whatsits on a cat! Even areas I thought were like glass have come up looking horrible! Lots of spray, curse, sand, spray, curse, sand ...

[pinky coffeeboat]

Any pictures of progress so far and the new resin cowels?

[Admiral Puff]

For pictures of the resin bits, go to the link in my first post. I'm away from home for the next few days, but will try to post some build photos when I get back.

[Admiral Puff]

Photos taken - if Photowhatsit ever comes back on line I might even be able to post them ... Time to find another photo host, methinks! Meanwhile, back to spray, curse, sand ...

[Admiral Puff]

Ok, this is what the cowl looks like on the model:

http://

 

I've redone the wingtips in card to try to get the "undercamber" of which Lockheed was so fond at the time:

[Admiral Puff]

For some reason I wasn't able to add more pics to the previous post, so:

Some of the fun I've been having correcting glitches:

 

And how she looks overall:

[pinky coffeeboat]

Thanks for the pictures. You're building a nice model. 

 

One question, are the  resin  nacelles a drop in replacement for the removed plastic? I really hope you don't mind me saying but they look wrong at the joint. I can't understand the rings at the rear of the engine where it joins to the kit plastic and that seems to give it a tapered look - almost as if the new resin bits are a smaller diameter compared to the plastic wing where they join.

In these photos below, hopefully it can be seen that the cowling/ wing fairings are the same diameter and those three concentric rings at the rear aren't there. I was hoping to buy a set but I'll hold off.

 

 

http://www.airliners.net/photo/Panair-do-Brasil/Lockheed-L-1049-Super-Constellation/1532340/L

 

http://www.airliners.net/photo/American-Overseas-Airlines/Lockheed-L-049-Constellation/2214764/L

 

http://www.airliners.net/photo/Pan-American-World-Airways-PAA/Lockheed-L-049-Constellation/2071881/L

 

I love the wingtip correction you've made. That is such a nice reature of the aircraft.

 

Jeff

[Admiral Puff]

Thanks - nice of you to say so!

 

The cowls are a drop-in fit - it's probably my cack-handedness that makes them look out. They are a perfect match for the kit mountings.I take your point about the rings at the rear - from your pics they clearly aren't there, and I will fill them on the model. More sanding and cursing ...

 

I've a way to go with this job yet. The u/c wells still have to be detailed, but I'm not inspired to start that job at present. The silver is Tamiya AS-12 from a rattle can, mainly to see what nasties came to light. The final finish will be Alclad, but I don't want to break that out until I know that the surface is perfect.

 

Thanks for the pics - whoever labelled that first one as an L-1049 needs a lesson in Connie identification!

[TonyTiger66]

Hello Admiral,

Your Connie is coming along very nicely. I pulled a very crushed one out of the stash last weekend with the help of Mrs. T.

 

I wonder if I could ask your advice as I'm no expert:

 

I would like (one day) to make mine into Eisenhower's 'Columbine II', the first aircraft to use the 'Air Force One' callsign:

 

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Columbine_II

 

Earlier this year she was flown to Texas, there for a long restoration project to commence. I want to build her looking quite rough, as she does now in some magazine articles I have.

 

I know I sound stupid, but is a VC-121A basically a modified 749?

 

In that case, would a set of resin 749 engines get me started? Any particular propellers for the VC-121A?

 

I've done some Googling and YouTubeing:

 

 

I'm basically a bit of an old fashioned book person; any advice most gratefully received.

 

One thing that does strike me is that the rudders and tail will need thinning greatly on the kit, and that the high shine finish is going to be tricky. Alclad sounds a good way to go Admiral; I could even be tempted to go for Chrome Alclad, or for real masochism, Bare Metal Foil. I suspect (my) life may be too short for the latter  !

 

All best regards

TonyT

[Admiral Puff]

Thanks, Tony. There's a lot of work to do yet!

 

You're right in saying that the VC-121A is basically a modified L-749. Most of the mods were within the cabin, to suit the President, so unless you want to spend a lot of time adding detail that will eventually be out of sight you needn't worry about it. The pics you have should be enough to cover the external detail.

 

At the moment you're on your own with the cowls. The kit ones are awful and will need modification - shorten slightly and rework the exhaust areas. Pm me your email and I'll send some drawings. Alternatively, you can wait until Paul Fisher releases his '749 cowls - he has said that they are on the "to do" list, but no indication so far of when we might see them (not too far off, I hope, as I have a couple of Qantas ones I want to do!). Other than that, the Heller kit will need all trailing edges thinned down and the surface detail removed and rescribed. This is especially true of the edges of the de-icing boots, which are way over scale. The Heller cabin windows are too big, and need sleeving down. Fortunately there's an Evergreen tube that's just right for the job. I can't call its stock number to mind at present, but I have some here and will dig it out and let you know. The props are clunky and poorly shaped, and are the wrong ones for Columbine 2 - she looks to have had Curtiss Electrics, whereas the kit ones are a poor representation of Ham Standards. You may be able to get replacements from Fishers - it looks to me as though the props with the Curtiss -equipped '049 set will do the trick. The wheel wells, as you will have noted, are completely devoid of any of the vast amount of gubbins that the real thing had in there, but I can share some pics of the wheel wells of the Pima '049 which should get you over that. Some say the kit undercarriage is not strong enough and should be replaced with metal, but I've had no trouble from it so far.

 

I decided on Alclad after considering foil, which I came down against because I've never had much joy in getting the stuff to go down without an abundance of wrinkles.

 

Edit: The Evergreen tube required for the windows is no. 229 (9/16", 7.1mm).

[kapam]

Really liking the look of your build there. 

You appear to have corrected some of the more prominent issues with the accuracy of the kit.

I have the L749 in my stash, which I started, but put aside for a long while; to consider what amount of upgrade work I'm prepared to put into it.

IMHO the nose doesn't look bulbous enough (though I have only eyeballing of photos as my "proof") - it looks like you have corrected that on your Connie. 

I would be prepared to let the u/c bays go as-is, on the basis that they will be invisible to the casual viewer who will see the model in my display case.  Definitely a QANTAS Empire Airways livery is my intent for the kit.

Excellent work on yours - keep it up!

[Admiral Puff]

The nose on my model is straight from the box, apart from having the localiser (?) aerial filed off the front. The kit's actually not all that bad - let's face it, it's all there is in 1:72 - but suffers from Heller's lack of attention to detail and tendency to cut corners. It is based on the ex-Air France one at Le Bourget, and so some of it doesn't reflect what a "standard" L-749 looks like. The most glaring problems are with the engines and props, which really do need replacement.

 

And decent props are available from Fishers - $US20, with a 15% discount if you buy before the end of the month. (Not connected, by the way - just a happy customer who's just spent far too much on his L-1049 upgrades ...)

[kapam]

On ‎21‎/‎11‎/‎2016 at 1:53 PM, Admiral Puff said:

The kit's actually not all that bad - let's face it, it's all there is in 1:72 - but suffers from Heller's lack of attention to detail and tendency to cut corners.

Yes, I agree, the basics are there and it is really the builder's choice about how far to go with upgrades and details.

Wouldn't it be great if Revell AG went at the Connie for a new kit, to stand alongside their C-54/DC-4 kit released last year!

[Admiral Puff]

1 hour ago, kapam said:

 

Wouldn't it be great if Revell AG went at the Connie for a new kit, to stand alongside their C-54/DC-4 kit released last year!

Dribble, dribble, drool, drool!

 

Problem is, they'd probably do an L-1049, because I don't think that Lufthansa operated any of the short-fuselaged variants. It would be a big step up from the Heller offering, but would leave us still short of a decent L-049/649/749. Converting the long one to the short one involves a bit more than just hacking sections out of the fuselage ...