1/144 Revell Boeing B777-300ER - Cathay Pacific (OOB, Custom decals)

[Columbia20713]

Hello, all! This is my first post in the forums so I hope I'm posting this in the correct section as well as starting WIPs the way they're supposed to..

 

Introduction

 

It's usually formal to introduce the aircraft being modeled in question, so here we go..

 

The B777 family is a series of twin-engined medium-long range widebody 

airliner designed by Boeing. Dubbed the "21st Century Jet", it boasted fly-by-wire, powerful long-range powerplants, and was one of the first aircraft fully designed via CAD. After the B747 and A340 have ended production, the aircraft has started to almost monopolize the market for ultra long-range twinjets.

 

 

Anyways, most hobby shops in my area only sell military, so seeing a Revell 1/144 airliner kit - and a B777 no less - was thrilling. It's probably the only one that exists in the Philippines.. It would probably be an awesome break from tiring 1/48 WW2 subjects.

 

Thing is though, they only came with House Livery decals. Wouldn't have been so bad if a B777-300ER actually existed with this kind of livery.. But it didn't. 

 

 

So I printed my own on a sheet of decal paper, of Cathay Pacific's livery, a personal favorite of mine. I always thought it looked ahead of its time - Pretty stylish for a livery back from the 1980s.

 

 

And.. it starts!

 

Day 1 - 5/11/2017

 

After unbagging the sprues, admiring the parts, I disconnected the sprue gates connected to the fuselage and sprayed with Krylon semiglosss black.

 

 

And.. after that, it was mostly grumbling with attaching the small parts. Fit wasn't exactly good, but alright enough for a semi-beginner to get by.

 

And then came the window strips.

 

 

They attach to the fuselage from the inside, making the effect of clear windows with a shine. But they would be extremely painful to mask - And I honestly don't know how to go about it yet. Most of what I've seen and told me was that I should use white glue, but that would somewhat hurt to remove. Masking tape, unless done really precisely, would be sandwiched in between the fuselage window frame and the window, making it almost impossible to remove. Liquid frisket, the masking fluid I use, pretty much betrayed me. Others have told me to fil in the windows with PVA glue, but on my end the effect wasn't glossy or clear enough to be convincing. So I just dipped them in Alclad Aqua Gloss, let dry and called it a day.

 

Oh well, I'll run more tests on this tomorrow on the bench.

 

And I figured, meanwhile, to test fit the wings to the fuselage and get a feel for how massive it would turn out to be.

 

 

 

Pretty nasty fuselage seams and on the wings. That'll take a while to fill later on..

 

And I also had the opportunity to test the custom decals on it.

 

 

 

The tail decal's a little bit undersized, but otherwise it's not too shabby! It didn't perform as badly as I expected it to. I'll strip it then try more masking methods for the windows tomorrow. 

 

--

 

Edited May 10, 2017 by Columbia20713

[mitchem]

Welcome to Britmodeller and allow me to say great start.

 

 

I'm in the middle of building the Zvezda 777-300 (same kit) and it's been an enjoyable experience, but the way I'm building things these day, you'll probably be finished before me !

 

mike

[BetaSingh]

I'm also new to BritModeller, and I must say, it is a truly great community full of people who give you great advice. Your model looks amazing and I am sure that the finished result is going to be awesome. Good luck, and keep up the top work!

BetaSingh

[Columbia20713]

On 5/11/2017 at 1:40 AM, BetaSingh said:

I'm also new to BritModeller, and I must say, it is a truly great community full of people who give you great advice. Your model looks amazing and I am sure that the finished result is going to be awesome. Good luck, and keep up the top work!

BetaSingh

 

Thank you! It's reassuring to hear that it's a great and helpful community even from someone that's new too. 

On 5/11/2017 at 1:34 AM, mitchem said:

Welcome to Britmodeller and allow me to say great start.

 

 

I'm in the middle of building the Zvezda 777-300 (same kit) and it's been an enjoyable experience, but the way I'm building things these day, you'll probably be finished before me !

 

mike

 

Thank you! Well, modeling isn't a time-based hobby anyway  I'm sure yours will turn out great if not better.

 

Day 2 - 5/11/2017

 

I managed to attach the cockpit area (which, IMO, really needs more detail. It would be a scratchbuilder's wet dream..)

 

 

I also managed to spray the turbofan blades black (though I got way too much overspray on the engines..)

 

 

And I sealed the wings. It made a few gaps but nothing the repetitive process of filling and sanding can't fix.

 

And I then tried to use white glue for the windows. The result wasn't good but mot bad either, although I can't find an alternative. I'd rather have slightly less decent windows rather than a much worse time masking all of them or only filling and sanding and repainting the fuselage seam once painting was done.

 

 

 

Test fitting showed that the underside of the wings and fuselage weren't exactly flush, and also, again, fuselage and wing seams.

 

That's a lot to fill and sand.. yet I have to make sure the surface is almost immaculate for gloss coating.

 

Edited May 12, 2017 by Columbia20713

[FortyEighter]

Welcome and thanks for sharing your model with us.

 

I've got one of these to build at some time in the future (possibly cut down to a 777-200); I prefer to use decals for windows so will be interested to see how your method works out.

[Jessica]

Try running epoxy around the outside edges of the window inserts. Alternatively, you can carefully scrape the paint out of the edges of the window gluing areas, run liquid glue in to seal them in place, then brush paint to cover up the white showing through.

I prefer decal windows, so I don't care whether the windows are clear when I finish gluing them in, because they're getting puttied over anyway

 

There are also special products which you can use to create windows. They come in handy for most Revell kits, because Revell typically doesn't give you anything to fill the window holes with. The best ones are Microscale Krystal Klear and Humbrol Clearfix. Making airliner windows with these products is simplicity in itself. Merely dip a toothpick into the fluid to pick up a drop, apply it to the edges of the window hole, and then "stretch" it across the opening. The fluid will dry absolutely clear. It takes a bit of practise so you don't trap air bubbles in the window, and doing something like an A380 is a bit boringly repetitive, but it works out well.

[Columbia20713]

20 hours ago, Jessica said:

Try running epoxy around the outside edges of the window inserts. Alternatively, you can carefully scrape the paint out of the edges of the window gluing areas, run liquid glue in to seal them in place, then brush paint to cover up the white showing through.

I prefer decal windows, so I don't care whether the windows are clear when I finish gluing them in, because they're getting puttied over anyway

 

There are also special products which you can use to create windows. They come in handy for most Revell kits, because Revell typically doesn't give you anything to fill the window holes with. The best ones are Microscale Krystal Klear and Humbrol Clearfix. Making airliner windows with these products is simplicity in itself. Merely dip a toothpick into the fluid to pick up a drop, apply it to the edges of the window hole, and then "stretch" it across the opening. The fluid will dry absolutely clear. It takes a bit of practise so you don't trap air bubbles in the window, and doing something like an A380 is a bit boringly repetitive, but it works out well.

 

Thanks for all those ideas! I'll try one of those in case.

 

By the way, you mentioned being able to use Humbrol Clearfix - Since it's somewhat similar to Future or Alclad Aqua Gloss in what it does (and chemical composition IIRC,) would it be a decent alternative for making the windows?

 

20 hours ago, FortyEighter said:

Welcome and thanks for sharing your model with us.

 

I've got one of these to build at some time in the future (possibly cut down to a 777-200); I prefer to use decals for windows so will be interested to see how your method works out.

 

Thank you! I'll be interested to see how that would go. A 1/144 B777-200 isn't exactly common, and the trimming of the fuselage would be a nice challenge. 

[Jessica]

Humbrol clearfix is quite thick; almost like a gel, so getting it to stay in place as it dries in the window hole is easy. It's expressly designed for making windows

[Columbia20713]

Ah, good to know. I'll try to pick up some Microscale Kristal Klear the next time I drop by a hobby shop.

 

 

Day 3 - 5/12/2017

I mostly spent all day trying to get the fuselage sealed.. god, the fit was bad. It left a pretty massive trench in its place, and a lot of residue glue. Hence, it was a combination of CA, Tamiya normal "thick" cement and Tamiya Extra Thin for it to budge and stick - even then, I had to use

la lot of rubber bands.

 

 

 

I then started masking the fan blades.

Day 4 - 5/13/2017

After having glued the wing pieces to the fuselage (Honestly, for such big pieces the fit wasn't as bad; wasn't perfect though),

 

I spent the rest of the day puttying, filling and sanding with a combination of Tamiya Epoxy Putty, basic putty and Mr. Surfacer 1000. I pretty much wore out both of my sanding sticks in the process while sanding out quite a lot of surface detail.. 
 

 

[Malair]

Welcome to the forum! I'm pretty new here myself too. 

 

I didn't even know Revell reboxed the Zvezda kit. I'm not surprised though, given the quality of the Zvezda kits. 

 

Good luck with your build! 

Edited May 16, 2017 by Malair

[Avgas]

I love your spray booth - I use one just like it

 

Coming along nicely!

[Romeo Alpha Yankee]

Nice to see some progress, I have this kit in both Revell and Zvezda boxings.

[Columbia20713]

On 5/17/2017 at 9:22 AM, TrojanThunder said:

Nice to see some progress, I have this kit in both Revell and Zvezda boxings.

 

Thank you! Seeing the B777 in both original and current house colors would be an interesting sight, unless you plan to build with different decals. 

 

On 5/16/2017 at 10:14 PM, Malair said:

Welcome to the forum! I'm pretty new here myself too. 

 

I didn't even know Revell reboxed the Zvezda kit. I'm not surprised though, given the quality of the Zvezda kits. 

 

Good luck with your build! 

 

 

Thanks! To be fair, I think the only things Revell changed here was the type of styrene - The Zvezda kit's moulded in traditional gray styrene while Revell's is white.. both still have the signature pebbly texture though, the instructions are changed, as well as the decal choices. I'm not sure if the less than optimal fit is Revell or Zvezda's fault, but.. 

 

On 5/17/2017 at 1:06 AM, Avgas said:

I love your spray booth - I use one just like it

 

Coming along nicely!

 

Thank you! It's actually just a cardboard box which I cleared one side out of, and spray outside with a respirator. It's not exactly glamorous.. but it contains overspray pretty well.

[Columbia20713]

The past two days haven't been much - I continued filling and sanding the fuselage. I think I should be able to prime soon.

 

 

And other than that, I decided to start work on the other subassemblies.

 

I painted the GE90 fan blades silver;

 

 

And added the small.. Whatever you call the small protuberances at the end of the wing.

 

--

[Val]

Looking great

[Romeo Alpha Yankee]

Quote

 

And added the small.. Whatever you call the small protuberances at the end of the wing.
 

 

 

They are the flap track and flap screw jack fairings 

 

Looks like you had fun masking the fan blades, the effect was worth it though.

 

My 2 kits will be in other colours, one will be in the ANA BB8 scheme and I may convert the other back to a -200. Though the Cathay scheme is has been a favourite as well.

 

 

 

 

[buzz]

On 16 May, 2017 at 4:39 AM, Columbia20713 said:

Day 3 - 5/12/2017

I mostly spent all day trying to get the fuselage sealed.. god, the fit was bad. It left a pretty massive trench in its place, and a lot of residue glue. Hence, it was a combination of CA, Tamiya normal "thick" cement and Tamiya Extra Thin for it to budge and stick - even then, I had to use

la lot of rubber bands.

 

 

FWIW, I didn't have any fit issues here.  For your next build, I recommend removing the black paint from the mating surfaces or, better still, avoid getting paint on them in the first place.  It will give you a stronger and cleaner joint.  Looks like you nissed the air intakes which have be be inserted in those oblong holes before the fuselage halves are joined.

[Columbia20713]

3 hours ago, buzz said:

 

FWIW, I didn't have any fit issues here.  For your next build, I recommend removing the black paint from the mating surfaces or, better still, avoid getting paint on them in the first place.  It will give you a stronger and cleaner joint.  Looks like you nissed the air intakes which have be be inserted in those oblong holes before the fuselage halves are joined.

 

I did, I did - By the time I realized, the fuselage was already puttied closed.  I did sand the area where the cement was going to be applied, but I don't think it was enough. I'm not sure if the fit issues were because of the rather small locating pins not all being fit snug, or the cockpit/gear bay assembly being slightly misplaced/slightly too large. Thanks for the feedback, I'll take note of that next time I build something similar.

[Columbia20713]

On 5/19/2017 at 6:33 AM, TrojanThunder said:

 

They are the flap track and flap screw jack fairings 

 

Looks like you had fun masking the fan blades, the effect was worth it though.

 

My 2 kits will be in other colours, one will be in the ANA BB8 scheme and I may convert the other back to a -200. Though the Cathay scheme is has been a favourite as well.

 

 

 

 

 

Masking wasn't actually as bad as I thought it would be - I managed to complete it in two days. Think it turned out alright though. 

 

The BB8 scheme is really one of the kind.. and one that seems pretty difficult. It'll be a great challenge that certainly shows when it comes out the other side!

 

On 5/19/2017 at 1:53 AM, Val said:

Looking great

 

Thank you!

 

Sorry for the lack of recent posts, a 1/48 Bf 109 G-6 has been occupying my bench as well, and the repetitive process of filling and sanding the fuselage can take a toll on my enthusiasm.

 

For the rest of the time I had I started working on the engines. This is where they stand; I need to recoat the right cowling with a lighter color.

 

 

And as the filling and sanding of gaps starts to wrap up, I started to fill in the windows in which B-KPK (The aircraft I'm replicating) didn't have - It's much harder without a styrene strip or anything backing it, which I should have had the foresight to add before sealing the fuselage, but.. didn't.

 

[Columbia20713]

I haven't updated this WIP in a long time since the project slowed down and nearly stopped. Real life and some ridiculously boneheaded mistakes took a toll on the project, and for a second I considered turning it into a crude diorama of Emirates 521's wreck, and purchasing a second one to properly build, learning from the mistakes of this build - My first airliner build thus far.

 

 

But since the purchase was expensive and I'm too far into it to stop now (3 and a half months), I decided to push through with completing it..

 

Here's how it looks as of now.

 

 

After having filled the fuselage seam, I primed with Tamiya Liquid Primer (White) and used it as the paint for the white portion of the Cathay fuselage. The primer kept causing trouble in the course of the build, though - I wouldn't use it unless I really had to ever again other than when filling gaps, as it was scratching off weeks after painting.. Maybe I should've invested in the spray can form of it. 

 

The underside was sprayed with a mix of XF-2: 7 to XF-23: 1, and the cheatline was sprayed with a mix of XF-2: 4 to XF-23: 1. The Boeing Gray, on the other hand, I mixed by eye, starting from XF-2: 4 to XF-19: 1 and lightening or darkening as I saw fit. 

 

And.. In the assembly process I ended up committing a few boneheaded mistakes. The one that irritates me the most until now is.. the engines.

The build process indicates that two sets of blades would be attached onto each other like so:

 

 

Thing is, when I masked and painted the first set of blades, they.. went missing to who knows where. I only managed to find one of them, and it was mangled and half the blades were gone. The other set is still missing. Either way, I decided that I'd have to make a compromise. The mangled pair's remaining blades would be taken out so that only the spinner remains, and then this part would be duplicated using epoxy putty for the second engine. The original spinner would be attached to one of the remaining pairs, then the duplicate would be attached to the second pair. The tradeoff was.. well..

 

 

The GE90s are missing half of its actual blades.

 

Live and learn..

 

By this point, the next thing on the agenda is to glaze the windows and apply major decals. Thing is, the clear decal sheet I ordered behaved like it was the white variety of decal paper. This didn't present a problem with the tail as the white border blended in relatively well, but for the logos on the cheatline such as the "Cathay Pacific" title and the registration under the wing, it is one, as the color under it is a light blue. I guessed that the company may have had a mistake with shipping because the decal paper otherwise had no problems and behaved exactly like the white decals I tested during the start of the build, and so I'll order another set. If that doesn't work out.. I might end up purchasing the expensive 26decals Cathay Pacific B777 set. To spend that much on my first actual airliner build, though..

 

For glazing, my main option is PVA glue but it dries concave and to a somewhat concave matt clear finish. Humbrol Clearfix is near impossible to locate where I live, though my LHS sells Micro Kristal Klear, although for a somewhat high price (At least for something that doesn't exactly have that many uses). Is it a very particularly good of a material for gluing canopies and glazing windows, or is it just a duplicate of what PVA/Elmers can do?

 

Thanks for reading!

 

 

 

 

[Romeo Alpha Yankee]

Looks like you have saved the build Columbia, the paint work is looking good. Too bad about the engine fans. Not that noticeable IMO.

 

Onward and upward!

 

[Columbia20713]

On 9/10/2017 at 6:13 AM, Romeo Alpha Yankee said:

Looks like you have saved the build Columbia, the paint work is looking good. Too bad about the engine fans. Not that noticeable IMO.

 

Onward and upward!

 

Thanks a lot, man! I appreciate the support  

 

After wrapping up the engines, I gloss varnished the fuselage and upper wings with Alclad Aqua Gloss in preparation for the decals. Speaking of which, turns out that water can play havoc with PVA glue (Elmer's Glue-All) glazing, and since Aqua Gloss is, well, water-based, I tested it on an area of the fuselage and, indeed, it dissolved the glazing. And so I removed the glazing before glossing it over and ordered a batch of Micro Kristal Klear which should arrive by tomorrow. The description claims its waterproof once dry, and so I'm hoping it wouldn't dissolve in the way the PVA did. I then (carefully!) polished up some of the dull areas with Novus #2 and #1.

 

 

And then I applied the decal for the windshield (which I sprayed black, deciding the clear part didn't look so good), then the dark blue-green stripe at the nose. Since it was printed on white decal paper, the edges were visible, most notably around the point where the two decals for the stripe met and the borders.

 

 

Given that the only other option is to invest in a relatively expensive decal sheet, though, I decided to live with it.

 

Next, the tail decals came on, as well as the wing decals, which came from the kit decal sheet.

 

 

(You may notice a faint white edge between the end of the Cathay brushmark logo and the rest of the tail.. The white of the decal paper and the pale-ish white of the tail contrast, quite visibly. I'm considering stripping it and applying another decal but printed on the clear decal paper instead.)

 

 

And so here is how it looks as of now. The Micro Kristal Klear should arrive by tomorrow, and I could hopefully start glazing the windows by then. 

 

 

Thanks for reading!

[wanthony]

Hmm it might be a little late for suggestions but I have two for you:

1. To avoid any dissolving issues, you could save glazing the windows with PVA until the very last step. E.g. Spray your clear coat, then glaze the windows. 

2. Regarding the decals, if you have a steady hand, the best thing to do would be cut as close to the decal edge as possible with a fresh blade. In fact, that's what's recommended anyways!

[Columbia20713]

On 9/21/2017 at 2:50 AM, wanthony said:

Hmm it might be a little late for suggestions but I have two for you:

1. To avoid any dissolving issues, you could save glazing the windows with PVA until the very last step. E.g. Spray your clear coat, then glaze the windows. 

2. Regarding the decals, if you have a steady hand, the best thing to do would be cut as close to the decal edge as possible with a fresh blade. In fact, that's what's recommended anyways!

Thing is, though, decals would go over them (which are wet) which seem to dissolve the PVA. The suggestion about the decals is indeed what I planned to do from the outset, though it would be hard for the lettering. Thanks for the suggestions, though!

 

After Micro Kristal Klear reacted similarly to the water (fogging up), I glazed the windows with X-22 which was far harder to work with but did dry to a nice shine while not reacting to water or decals, and so I applied the window strip decals from the kit decal sheet.

 

 

I did not like it as much as I was expecting to, but it was "good enough" as I'll be viewing it from a distance most of the time and so it wouldn't be very visible.

 

I then applied the clear decals I printed out on one side of the model to see how they'd work. 

 

 

While the horror stories I've heard about custom decals (discoloration, ridiculously thick borders, etc.) didn't come into fruition thankfully, the decals, when viewed from certain angles, had a certain degree of thickness visible, especially when viewed at the side.

 

Anyways, I'm soon to apply the rest of the decals then start wrapping up. Thanks for viewing!

 

 

 

[Romeo Alpha Yankee]

Usually, a gloss coat will help blend the decals into the paintwork depending on how thick they are.