Skyline (Airfix) A300B4-200

[skippiebg]

It is years since I have touched a model. I had to do something to calm the itch! But this thread might drag on and on: I have forgotten much!

 

The aeroplane The docile Airbus A300B does not enthuse me as a modeller. But it has an easy shape and plenty of livery options. From a modelling viewpoint, it has two main iterations. The A300B was made from 1974 until the mid-80s. The rather different A300-600 was made between 1983 and the Noughties.

 

The kits Airfix launched the first 1/144 scale kit of the A300 in 1974. Some 35 years ago, Revell launched a kit of the A310, a type quite close to the A300. A decade later, Revell kitted the A330 and A340, which also share the family nose. Later, Revell also launched a fine kit of the Airbus Beluga. The Beluga is an A300-600 'in drag' and covers some of the same ground as the Airfix A300B. A few years ago, Authentic Airliners kitted the A300B and A300-600. Last year, F-RSIN kitted the A300-600 with Revell Beluga wings, engines, and tailplanes. I find comparing different kits of similar/identical subjects lots of fun. There are also kits of the A300 in 1/200 and 1/125 scales (Hasegawa and Heller).

 

The kit The Airfix kit represents the early A300B with the General Electric CF6-50 engine. It remains widely available at low prices. Crude by current standards, it captures the shape and geometry of the A300B superbly well. I do not want anyone else to do my modelling for me. Doing-up cruder kits can be a therapeutic pleasure!

 

 

 

The Airfix A300B kit: My copy of the kit is a Daco Skyline repack. It has a good workmanlike box, a tiny set of instructions, and no decals

 

The fuselage: critique

 

 

Overall fit: I often start with the fuselage, since it -- and especially the nose with its 'facial features' -- is decisive to a model's appearance. (Sorry about the faux onyx table! I have no 'den,' so when I saw it languishing down the road, I couldn't resist dragging it home. It looks disgusting but has a wonderful, flat and forgiving rubbery top, and nice big castors.)

 

 

Fidelity: Overlaid on a set of dimensionally correct but crude drawing, the fuselage stands up to scrutiny. The fin shows divergence, but the fault is with my 1970s Japanese drawing

 

 

 

Windows debate: Airliner modellers are split on whether to endeavour with clear windows or fill them and cover them with decals. I am out of practice and the latter option ought to appeal. Morevoer, most aftermarket airliner decals feature printed windows (sometimes very lurid!), depriving 'clear-windowers' of choice. Even so, I cannot bring myself to like decal windows. I shall attempt to keep them clear on my A300B, with the filler-and-decal option as a reserve. The photo shows someting rare: windows whose size, shape, pitch, and elevation along the fuselage sides are all correct. Fore-and-aft location is wrong, however

 

 

 

 

Facial features: There is some pleasurable sculpting to do before the A300 emerges from what is a fairly anodyne nose

 

 

Planform fidelity: I sometimes cut out a planview template to check how true the shape is in that aspect. (Such templates are a mixed blessing: the line of maximum protrusion drops towards the nose, and drawings tend to be wrong as far as the rarely-sighted planform aspect is concerned.) The Airfix fuselage nosecone is a tad thick and does not fit the template.

 

 

 

The nose gear well: Too shallow, as usual with Airfix. The angled aft end is wrong. Slight mismatches in length -- and flash -- indicate sloppy manufacturing discipline

 

 

 

The tailcone: Airfix offers us a rather nice tailcone, but some sculpting is needed to bring out the real shape. In particular, the tailplane roots need to be subtly emphasised. The rear pressure dome area needs to be made circular in section (it is oblong on the kit). The tail bumper is in the wrong place for the particular machine I have in mind, though some of the very early A300s had it in the place Airfix indicates (a few even had two tail bumpers!)

 

 

 

 

The fin: Airfix has represented the fin as a rather angular and crude structure with a stubby leading edge. The radius at the foot of the fin trailing edge needs to be deleted. The extreme tailcone and APU are rather sketchy and angular. They repay plenty of sanding

 

 

The fuselage: work commences

 

 

 

 

The face emerges: I sanded the nose until I was happy with the appearance. Two very large flattish surfaces extend aft between the side flightdeck windows and the forward cabin door on the real A300 (and A310, '330 and '340). A tiny and thin (under 0.25mm/10 thou) sliver of plastic card needs to be added to the small flat areas above the two windscreen panes to attain full fidelity with the original. But I am still at the material removal stage -- addition is yet to follow

 

 

In plan?: After sanding, the nosecone fits the template like a glove. These checks, though a bit of a fetish of mine, can show up "handedness" issues that may arise through uneven sanding on both sides

 

 

 

 

The tailcone: I chopped-off the tail bumper. More sanding brings out the roundness of the rear pressure dome area and emphasises the "muscle" at the tailplane root. Sight along a real A300's fuselage, and you cannot fail to see the bulge covering the tailplane's variable incidence mechanisms: see Airliners.net Aviation Photo #2201871 and #2191442

 

 

 

 

The fin: Sanding gives the slabby sides an aerofoil section. I use pencil lines to sight along the fin and check the emerging shape as I sand. The top of the extreme tailcone is sanded-through and will need filler... Please excuse the photo quality. (I use a supposedly super-duper smartphone camera which turns out to have a wideangle lens that distorts quite profusely. Trembly hands don't help, either!)

 

 

 

 

 

The window 'belt': I have marked fore-and-aft adjustments. The foremost window is set at a closer pitch. In addition, I shall reduce the slope of the aftmost (angled) part of the window belt. The top of the three photos shows a pencil mark indicating where the wing-fuselage fairing has to be extended aft

 

Just half an hour into the job, and the siren call of SWMBO interrupts the session... See you all anon!

 

(Note: Can't seem to get rid of this underlining... Help!)

Edited April 20, 2017 by skippiebg
tride to get rid of underlining

[pinky coffeeboat]

Great choice Peter!!

One of my all time favourite aircraft and models - I've got double figures of the Airfix and Skyline kits stashed away somewhere. Recently I considered buidling a few in 70's colours and spent a fair amount of time researching all the little nuances of the early A300.

What I wanted was a someone who could etch me a set of aerials and wing fences by the dozen as the thought of hacking away at plastic card made me hesitate. Also the underfuselage ECS packs need to be added too. They're different on the A300-600 and A310 as these two aircraft have slope sided fairings whereas the A300B has straight sided fairings.

Also the tail bumper is too far aft on the Airfix kit and should be added to the centreline roughly in line with the aft passenger door.

The wing undersides in the area of the flaps has small fairings covering the flap mechanism (quite small tear drop (ish) shaped fairings about a couple between each set of flap mechanism covers).

Depending on time frame, the main wheel doors need to have a couple of blisters added to cover the main wheel tyres when all retracted and closed up. I think the early A300B had slightly narrower main wheels and the later heavier versions introduced wider tyres that required the door blisters.

Additionally, aft of the rudder the kit fuselage does a crazy step that's not on the actual aircraft - this requires smoothing over. 

The engines represent the early GE CF6 with the Long Core Fixed Exhaust Nozzle. This was later changed to the Short CFEN. The P&W version is larger overall and is quite a different shapes too, and it's mounting point is slightly altered if I recall correctly?

 

Hope you don't mind my comments above and I imagine you already know all this but I love the A300 and have a 15 page word document typed up that was (is?) going to introduce my multi model A300 build thread that at some point I was going to do as a WiP.

 

I shall follow your build closely.

 

Jeff 

Edited April 7, 2017 by pinky coffeeboat

[pinky coffeeboat]

If you really want a challenge, seek out the Heller 1/125 A300B kit. I've got one and although overall it won't be mistaken for a 737, it does require a little bit of work to make it truly an A300!!

 

Jeff 

[skippiebg]

Hi Jeff -- yes, had the Heller A300 some years ago, passed it on. Least said, soonest mended

 

You are right on all the other points. I did a fair amount of research yesterday on the A300B and yes -- plenty of humps-and-dumps to add. I have them sketched out on a set of crisp-looking but not-too-precise Japanese drawings from a 1970s magazine. The build should be fun! I just hope it doesn't take an age, what with domestic chores...

Edited April 7, 2017 by skippiebg

[pinky coffeeboat]

Oh forgot to include the Hasegawa 1/200 A300 - I've got nearly double figures of that too! Just missed a couple on eBay recently. For its size, it's not too bad. 

[skippiebg]

You must be psychic! I just sold a Hasegawa SIA A300B... A cracker, as are all Hasegawa LoveLiners! I did photograph it to death before parting with it as part of my research for this project. Much of my Airfix work will involve recreating the Hasegawa in 1/144 scale

Edited April 7, 2017 by skippiebg