Airbus A330-200 restoration 1/144 (was Air Mauritius)

[phil1]

 

This was the first model i ever built (as an adult) about 3 years ago. The kit was the Revell Thai a330-300 kit and although my first model I wanted to do something different and convert it to the shorter 200. The fuselage pieces were cut out and the tail was removed (replaced with the slightly larger braz tail for the 200. Once I had decided on Air Mauritius I purchased the GE engines from Hannants (I still have the PW ones)

 

I made a decent job of the modelling but after a while I realized that the paint job sucks - although initially it looked acceptable. The decals were my own and now look tired and faded.

 

I also committed a faux pas and littered it with every transfer available (i probs only use 25% of the transfers now including the doors) 

 

I also did an awful job of the windows..... using clear glue to form a transparent window (what was I thinking). 

 

Time to restore and save this I reckon. 

 

 

paintwork is awful now. those windows will need filled 

 

 

You can make out the fuselage join from where its been shortened and put back together. I also wouldn't fancy the pilots to see much out the cockpit window 

 

 

the other fuselage join is visible and i also lost part of the undercarriage doors so theyll need scratch built from reference shots. also made a crude attempt to put this on a display stand - that'll need tidied up

 

Stage 1 - remove paint work

 

 

Im using brasso to thin the paint, its a bit time consuming but dont want to weaken the plastic below using paint stripper. Getting there anyway. Cockpit glass removed and some windows. There is glue residue in most of the windows that will take some effort to remove. 

 

[Romeo Alpha Yankee]

I have refurbished a few kits in my time. Watching with interest Phil.

 

I had not heard of using Brasso to thin the paint. Paint stripper would have totally wrecked the paintwork and plastic ( ask me how I know!). I use oven cleaner on models painted in acrylics.

[phil1]

21 minutes ago, TrojanThunder said:

I have refurbished a few kits in my time. Watching with interest Phil.

 

I had not heard of using Brasso to thin the paint. Paint stripper would have totally wrecked the paintwork and plastic ( ask me how I know!). I use oven cleaner on models painted in acrylics.

i can imagine mate I've done it myself!! the paintwork is all enamel and its proving to be time consuming to remove it. In a previous project I experimented with brasso to not remove paint but to flatten it producing a nice shiny effect, providing that theirs plenty of coats it acted as a short cut to achieving a nice even finish without heavy buffing or using micromesh

 

I'm thinking of going back to acrylics however so I will give the oven cleaner a go!

[Alex1978]

Interesting subject.

Always nice to see worn out airliner kits getting new life.

I did this once myself and in time two other airliners are due to be restored. An Airfix A-300 and a Revell Boeing 707.

Those were built by me as a schoolkid and they are in great need of a redo. 

 

So I will follow here with interest

[phil1]

 

this is the original area where the stand was attached. It never sat comfortably so i'm looking to widen this area to improve its stability. A lot of these panels on this kit are separate pieces attached together, after stripping the paint this area on the base of the fuselage has been weakened

 

 

needs a good clean up

 

 

the interior is not a pretty sight but i've strengthened the base with a layer of plastic card and reinforced it with milliput. might have to put a bit weight in the back to counter this

 

 

started etching a bit detail back in as everything has been sanded away in the original job plus the paint stripping

 

 

managed to find this lying in the cupboard...makes life easier!

 

 

cleaned up nicely. etching looks a little rough but once ive completed all the detail i will gently sand down everything 

 

 

connecting the two parts again wont be easy. I originally used pieces of curved plastic (from the removed sections of fuselage) and glued them on the inside of the fuselage to act as a tab . This time Ive found a sellotape holder that is exactly the same size as the fuselage

 

[Jaffajake]

Ingenious!

[Madhatter]

wow - those close up's of the original paint work really show how far your skills have progressed in 3 years! I've been back at for 10 and I still cant achieve the finishes you do.

Great project and one I will be watching

What scheme are you going to do this one in?

[phil1]

On 3/16/2017 at 9:01 AM, Madhatter said:

wow - those close up's of the original paint work really show how far your skills have progressed in 3 years! I've been back at for 10 and I still cant achieve the finishes you do.

Great project and one I will be watching

What scheme are you going to do this one in?

thanks mate, I think that's what persuaded me to start again with this one as i know i can make a worthwhile improvement. I'm sure you can mate - you'd probably be horrified at the amount of time i consume just to get a satisfactory finish! 

I would love to recreate gulf air but I can't find decals anywhere, even if I could find the 787 gulf air decals I'd probs go ahead with that. I'm thinking NWA? the more recent livery with the metal fuselage and the red tail? 

[phil1]

fuselage no longer in 2 bits....it was a tight squeeze but just about managed to get the parts together. like last time there was plenty of work to get them blended together, it this point you must be ready to sacrifice some of the original detail especially the cargo doors which are right next to each fuselage join, if i cant etch them back in i might have to rely on decals. 

 

 

you can see how the windows are slightly lower which is obviously the same on the other side. This is unavoidable but as long as there is no indication of where the windows used to be you shouldnt be able to tell. 

 

the fuselage join looks good here but it takes a layer of paint to highlight how good or bad it actually is. 

 

 

finally cleaned up and nearly ready to put some paint down

 

[Alex1978]

Very nice progress on the A330.Looking forward to the final product.

I just bought another A330 Revell kit which I plan to do in prototype colors.I recently found the original decal set from Revells first issue of the kit.I built it back in the days as a schoolkid.No longer have the model but the decals are still alive and pretty well.

[Romeo Alpha Yankee]

Coming along nicely Phil, I have a -200 on the shelf of doom at the moment, might have to pick it up and finish it.

 

Also saw plenty of -200s on my recent holiday so I will have to convert one of my stash queen -300 kits

[phil1]

had a bit progress on this one, the braz Rolls Royce engines arrived, I now have a spare set of GE resin engines and the original PW ones

 

 

started painting the fuselage. I thought I'd go back to acrylic paint to speed things up a bit but I instantly regretted it. The acrylic primer seems to clog up the airbrush no matter how much i thin it. I then seem to have problems treating the surface of the primer as it tends to peel with even a gentle sanding. once i was happy with the surface i went back to enamel paint on top of the acrylic undercoat

 

 

one think I've stopped doing is immediately polishing after paint application as with previous jobs when masking its tearing the paint off as its a lot thinner and brittle.

 

Ive taped off the area that needs to be gold

 

 

I'd like the metallic gold paint to go on a perfect surface as its more likely to show up any imperfections if I leave it in its current condition so im going to 'buff up' the area thats getting paint

 

 

I almost forgot that the antennas and satcom are left white rather than gold so theyll need masked off

 

 

I did think about getting alclad gold but i just went with a bog standard humbrol 16 metallic gold paint as I'm unsure if alclad would have been right for the job. 

 

put about 7 thin coats on tonight, it's a less than spectacular finish but a few more coats and with a buff and polish it should look good in the end

 

[janneman36]

It looks darn smooth, i love it..

[Romeo Alpha Yankee]

So I assume you have found some Gulf Air decals for this one Phil?

[Alex1978]

13 hours ago, phil1 said:

had a bit progress on this one, the braz Rolls Royce engines arrived, I now have a spare set of GE resin engines and the original PW ones

 

 

started painting the fuselage. I thought I'd go back to acrylic paint to speed things up a bit but I instantly regretted it. The acrylic primer seems to clog up the airbrush no matter how much i thin it. I then seem to have problems treating the surface of the primer as it tends to peel with even a gentle sanding. once i was happy with the surface i went back to enamel paint on top of the acrylic undercoat

 

 

one think I've stopped doing is immediately polishing after paint application as with previous jobs when masking its tearing the paint off as its a lot thinner and brittle.

 

Ive taped off the area that needs to be gold

 

 

I'd like the metallic gold paint to go on a perfect surface as its more likely to show up any imperfections if I leave it in its current condition so im going to 'buff up' the area thats getting paint

 

 

I almost forgot that the antennas and satcom are left white rather than gold so theyll need masked off

 

 

I did think about getting alclad gold but i just went with a bog standard humbrol 16 metallic gold paint as I'm unsure if alclad would have been right for the job. 

 

put about 7 thin coats on tonight, it's a less than spectacular finish but a few more coats and with a buff and polish it should look good in the end

 

Looks great.Top paintwork again.

Have you ever tried Tamyia primer ?

It dries fast,30 mins.approx. if sprayed in light coats,and you can do virtually everything to it without doing any harm.The white primer, if polished up,gives also a very nice white and the grey one is a bit thicker and helps closing small gaps too.I only use Tamyia primer on all my builds with great results.

[phil1]

12 hours ago, TrojanThunder said:

So I assume you have found some Gulf Air decals for this one Phil?

I ordered the dreamliner ones from F-dcal - i'm unaware if anyones used them?? its a slight gamble but with the similar fuselage size I'm hoping for a decent fit. the only snag is that the fuselage titles are the up to date ones with the revised logo (shown on their a320s and a321s) - the a330s have not been updated and may not as they might be planning to phase them out when/if gulf air get their 787s. Its only a slight difference anyway so I'm not overly concerned

[phil1]

1 hour ago, Alex1978 said:

Looks great.Top paintwork again.

Have you ever tried Tamyia primer ?

It dries fast,30 mins.approx. if sprayed in light coats,and you can do virtually everything to it without doing any harm.The white primer, if polished up,gives also a very nice white and the grey one is a bit thicker and helps closing small gaps too.I only use Tamyia primer on all my builds with great results.

cheers alex, its funny you say that as I actually picked up a can of the stuff last week then put it back on the shelf as I wasn't sure. I will definitely give it a go with your approval, what i actually used was that vallejo surface primer stuff (in the first gold pic), now i don't clean my airbush as often as i should but it clogged it again and again 

[Jaffajake]

Vallejo's surface primer is awful stuff. You're right as most people, I and yourself included have experienced it peeling off of the surface when you sand it and it's awful tendency to gum up the airbrush. This is where I recommend Badger's Stynylrez. It is acrylic so dries solid in a very short space of time and sands perfectly. It can be sprayed neat from the bottle but I prefer to thin it 25%. It is self levelling and fills in minor scratches whilst leaving panel detail untouched. It's amazing stuff and well worth a shot!

Edited April 7, 2017 by Jaffajake
Too many ands

[janneman36]

37 minutes ago, Jaffajake said:

Vallejo's surface primer is awful stuff. You're right as most people, I and yourself included have experienced it peeling off of the surface when you sand it and it's awful tendency to gum up the airbrush. This is where I recommend Badger's Stynylrez. It is acrylic so dries solid in a very short space of time and sands perfectly. It can be sprayed neat from the bottle but I prefer to thin it 25%. It is self levelling and fills in minor scratches whilst leaving panel detail untouched. It's amazing stuff and well worth a shot!

I totally agree, Stynylrez for me all the time !!

We can't buy it in the Netherlands but i take the effort of ordering it in the UK.

[phil1]

the gold finish dried faster than anticipated so I give it a good buff and polish and it came out much better than the original finish. also got the 787 decals from fdcal (bottom left) which look very nice. The logo seems gigantic but the revised livery has the logo spread onto the lower part of the fuselage rather than just on the tail, this gives me a problem where the curved reinforced area is at the base of the tail and the stab root - will worry about that later

 

 

in hindsight i think i would have tried alclad gold for a more pleasing finish but this is probably closer to reality. needs a few more coats as its thinned in places

 

 

give it an extra couple of coats, ive lost the glossy finish for now but I'll give it another buff and polish after a few days to let it harden. I've knocked a winglet off removing masking

 

 

when the plane was stripped of its original air mauritius paint job the horizontal stabilizers came off without their tabs to fix them in place. to resolve the problem Ive dug a whole in each stab and slid in a section of plastic card, Ive then filed the new tab to the right size. originally i was going to glue them straight on but not a good idea to glue onto a transfer or metal paint

 

 

 

a canny fit in the end, even if i am propping up the port side with a finger

 

 

tomorrow I'm going to give the wings another couple of coats of revell 371. when dry Im going to mask off and paint the coroguard area. I'm behind with the engines at the min which will need a primer coat and a combo of metallic blue and gold

[Alex1978]

Well that looks to become another winner there Phil.

 

I am surprised that you already received your decals from F-DCAL.

I had my fair share of troubles and issues on almost all my orders from him...maybe he came to senses and rethought his business management...?

 

I stay tuned for more updates

 

Alex

[phil1]

1 hour ago, Alex1978 said:

Well that looks to become another winner there Phil.

 

I am surprised that you already received your decals from F-DCAL.

I had my fair share of troubles and issues on almost all my orders from him...maybe he came to senses and rethought his business management...?

 

I stay tuned for more updates

 

Alex

cheers alex, they took a while to come mind, i ordered some brasil decals from kosciuv from ebay and they actually came quicker. have you lost any money from dealing with him?

 

phil

[Alex1978]

2 hours ago, phil1 said:

cheers alex, they took a while to come mind, i ordered some brasil decals from kosciuv from ebay and they actually came quicker. have you lost any money from dealing with him?

 

phil

I know kosciuv,very reliable.

I did not lose any money from F-DECAL but a few times came the decals in the wrong scale and the replacements took weeks to month until I received them.And mostly no answer to my emails in acceptable time.My last order took over 6 months to arrive.Its not that I am not patient but this was not acceptable.

I actually didnt want to order from him again but I have a defective 1/100 travel agency DC-10-30 model in Finnair colors that I want to repair and repaint.And he is the only one who offers Finnair DC-10 decals.

Edited April 10, 2017 by Alex1978

[phil1]

On 4/10/2017 at 10:09 PM, Alex1978 said:

I know kosciuv,very reliable.

I did not lose any money from F-DECAL but a few times came the decals in the wrong scale and the replacements took weeks to month until I received them.And mostly no answer to my emails in acceptable time.My last order took over 6 months to arrive.Its not that I am not patient but this was not acceptable.

I actually didnt want to order from him again but I have a defective 1/100 travel agency DC-10-30 model in Finnair colors that I want to repair and repaint.And he is the only one who offers Finnair DC-10 decals.

6 months! must be frustrating when you just want to get a project on the shelf. Maybe now would be the best time to order although i wouldn't want to tempt fate. I must say everything looked very professional and neatly packed + with invoice. I hope you get the same level of service

 

Phil

[phil1]

DISASTER!!!! whilst polishing up the fuselage a crack has developed in the joint where the 2 fuselage pieces at the front were moulded together. 

 

 

this fuselage joint was originally put together when doing the conversion for the air mauritius 3 years ago. striping the paint and buffing the gold paint job has obviously weakened the joint. I now wished i had used alclad gold instead of the humbrol bog standard gold as it wouldn't have required any buffing or polishing. man-vegetables!

 

my dad recommended this stuff......

 

 

put a few applications on and I'll see how it looks tomorrow. whatever the results its going to get messy again when I thought I'd finished sanding and milliputting

 

 

also another flaw has emerged, the wings are painted with the corroguard areas but just as i was about to apply alclad to the leading edge flaps the paint came away revealing a rough edge....

 

 

so a canny bit of work to do before adding any decals. anyway heres a few more pics to show some actual progress.....

 

 

and finally a nice winglet reflection in the wing....