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1:144 Revel Virgin A340-300


tom271282

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Thanks Bexy. It is the Austrian Orchestra kit and I have found the fit to be OK. Have recently become a bit of a seam line Nazi, and seem to spend increasing hours sanding and filling any kit I make nowadays! I thought it especially important on a kit like this where to me the finish is all important. To have any visible seam lines would spoil it. But generally it goes together without too much hassle.

Thanks Tom, thats put mind at rest a bit, makes a change for a Revell airliner to go together nicely :yahoo:

Bexy

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Bugger!! Just when I thought it was going well, I started spraying the Alclad and then it began lifting right in front of my eyes!! Will try and lift off the loose paint once dry with tape, then give it a quick coat of primer and try again. Damn!

DSC00140.jpg

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Bugger....... always something will go wrong and guarenteed never to be simple :banghead::sorry: to hear that Tom.

Fingers crossed ya beat her into submission :pray:

Bexy

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  • 3 weeks later...

Its been a little while since my last update... progress has been mixed to say the least!

After rescuing the peeling paint on the leading edges, I moved on to masking off the wings in preparation for the fuselage painting. This was going well, until I dropped the model on the kitchen worktop. This had 2 effects! Firstly, the nose weight that I attached came loose inside the fuselage. No chance of fixing that. Secondly, the main wheel well popped back inside the fuselage, and had to be rescued along with the landing gear strut, and then re-fixed from inside. Annoying, but not project ending. I continued with painting, and applied the pearlescent top coat, which looks great. Not my best airbrush work, sprayed a bit too thick in some areas, but it looks ok overall. I removed the masking, and the lines are clean so I am happy with that.

Then began the decalling. The 2six decals went on superbly to begin with however, when I got to the tail decals, they just crumbled and fell apart. Damn... no completed airliner for me! So I emailed Ray at 2six and he replied instantly, and sent me a spare replacement set the next day. Superb customer service! So now I have the prospect of completing this project. The observant amongst you will notice that I glued the horizontal stabilisers on. That was a mistake! So I had to break them off in order to apply the wrap around decals in this area. Not too much of a problem, only now, the fit is poor so i will have to do alot of sanding to get a neat join between the stabs and the fuse. The wrap around decals are some of the hardest I have ever applied, and there is a lot of work to do to get them right.

Finally, the engines are being built and they are a pain in the a**e!! I have been close to smashing this kit into smithereens on several occasions, but I shall persist and post some new pics soon.

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Hi Tom, your in the same boat as me, after I finished painting my 340 it started lifting all over so had to wet and dry it all down and start again.... And the same thing happened AGAIN :( what should I do???? And then I see a post from Bexx about tesco all purpose cleaner. So down to tesco it was and ten bottles and a big plastic tub later I was home. I filled the tub up and sunk the airbus into and left it there all night. I pulled it out and just rubbed all the paint off :) I let it dry and gave her a coat of halfords primer and White top coat and she is fine, just waiting for my air jamacia decals to turn up then I can finish her AT LAST.... Thanks Chris

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The observant amongst you will notice that I glued the horizontal stabilisers on. That was a mistake! So I had to break them off in order to apply the wrap around decals in this area. Not too much of a problem, only now, the fit is poor so i will have to do alot of sanding to get a neat join between the stabs and the fuse. The wrap around decals are some of the hardest I have ever applied, and there is a lot of work to do to get them right.

Finally, the engines are being built and they are a pain in the a**e!! I have been close to smashing this kit into smithereens on several occasions, but I shall persist and post some new pics soon.

There are some people - not all only some - who dont build airliners and who have never built airliners and have a tendency to dismiss airliner models as not being "real" modelling

(whatever that means) and say that airliner models are just travel agents models...

However you decide to build one, an airliner model is still a model and has all the tricky parts you will find in those "real" models....as you obviously found out !!! :)

The stabs is really just a question of knowing your subject and colour scheme - what seems obvious now, wasnt when you put them on. Otherwise you would have waited....

One of those tricky parts that is often not thought about is how you get a good join betwen stabs and fuselage AFTER you have painted and decalled it - its usual for wings and things to be put on first, check the joins. fill and sand as needed. Then decal....but you cant with a wraparound decal.....

so airliners arent quite as easy as some people think :)

You mentioned fiddling around with cockpits earlier......mmmmmm....I do it all the time.

And add interiors....but hey thats just me, I like doing that kind of thing

when you build your next airliner, try adding all the extra bits n pieces....it's fun :):):)

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Hi Tom, your in the same boat as me, after I finished painting my 340 it started lifting all over so had to wet and dry it all down and start again.... And the same thing happened AGAIN :( what should I do???? And then I see a post from Bexx about tesco all purpose cleaner. So down to tesco it was and ten bottles and a big plastic tub later I was home. I filled the tub up and sunk the airbus into and left it there all night. I pulled it out and just rubbed all the paint off :) I let it dry and gave her a coat of halfords primer and White top coat and she is fine, just waiting for my air jamacia decals to turn up then I can finish her AT LAST.... Thanks Chris

Chris, I have a feeling the paint lifting sometimes is a result of using a cellulose or acrylic based paint over an enamel or white spirit based paint, or vice versa. I've not quite worked it out, but when using paints of the same type, it shouldn't happen!

There are some people - not all only some - who dont build airliners and who have never built airliners and have a tendency to dismiss airliner models as not being "real" modelling

(whatever that means) and say that airliner models are just travel agents models...

However you decide to build one, an airliner model is still a model and has all the tricky parts you will find in those "real" models....as you obviously found out !!! :)

The stabs is really just a question of knowing your subject and colour scheme - what seems obvious now, wasnt when you put them on. Otherwise you would have waited....

One of those tricky parts that is often not thought about is how you get a good join betwen stabs and fuselage AFTER you have painted and decalled it - its usual for wings and things to be put on first, check the joins. fill and sand as needed. Then decal....but you cant with a wraparound decal.....

so airliners arent quite as easy as some people think :)

You mentioned fiddling around with cockpits earlier......mmmmmm....I do it all the time.

And add interiors....but hey thats just me, I like doing that kind of thing

when you build your next airliner, try adding all the extra bits n pieces....it's fun :):):)

Kev, they're definitely a different kettle of fish to what I am used to. I think next time I'll have a much better idea of what to do. For the time being, I am giving this one a rest for a couple of weeks while I work on my other project!!

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Kev, they're definitely a different kettle of fish to what I am used to. I think next time I'll have a much better idea of what to do.

Think of it as you would any other model....dont treat it any differently

I'm guessing you probably do some research into your subjects, unless you like just building something as it comes from the box

...nothing wrong with that, I have loads of OOB models

but if you do look things up, then you'll know that many kits need some fixing here n there, a bit adding here n there,

a lil' tweak here n there, and maybe a hatch or door opening and something putting inside

Most modellers I know do *something* like that, maybe not the whole sp and the superdetailing thing, tho' some do, but a little extra helps

make the finished model a bit more real.

Why is an airliner any different?

Have a good break from it - always helps

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  • 3 months later...

Hi Tom!

Looking great so far!! Regarding the coroguard, I've seen so many variations in colour and metallic sheen that the TLAR principle is good to use.

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  • 2 months later...

Hello All,

Well, talk about grave digging a topic. I have finally finished the A340-300! Its taken a while and I haven't posted any WIP pics, but here is the finished thing. Basically, I made a complete horlicks of this one, so I'm calling it done. Too many errors to mention really, resulting in the thing being almost thrown in the bin many times, however I'm actually reasonably happy with the end result. I'll post more pics in RFI when the light is better. Hope you enjoy. PS I must have enjoyed it somewhat as I've just started a Concorde/A319 BA dual build. Must be a glutton for punishment. PPS, Antony, sorry I missed your question, I dont think Ray at two six produces the A340-300 Virgin decals any more, though may be worth asking if he'd do you a set.

DSC00274.jpg

DSC00273.jpg

DSC00271.jpg

Edited by tom271282
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I made a complete horlicks of this one,

DSC00273.jpg

no you didnt - it's a nicely finished model....a bit of constructive criticism tho;

the cabin wndows look a little bit high, which then means the Virgin titles are as well, the reason for it is that airbus widebody airliners have a very distinctive feature -

the rear part of the cabin slopes upwards and this shows in the cabin windows...

check this pic out -

http://www.airplane-pictures.net/images/up...-5/17/46295.jpg

thats what seems to be missing from your model.

But I still dont think you made as horlicks of it - actually I think you did pretty good

HTH

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  • 2 weeks later...
no you didnt - it's a nicely finished model....a bit of constructive criticism tho;

the cabin wndows look a little bit high, which then means the Virgin titles are as well, the reason for it is that airbus widebody airliners have a very distinctive feature -

the rear part of the cabin slopes upwards and this shows in the cabin windows...

check this pic out -

http://www.airplane-pictures.net/images/up...-5/17/46295.jpg

thats what seems to be missing from your model.

But I still dont think you made as horlicks of it - actually I think you did pretty good

HTH

I never noticed that myself!!!!

Looking at the pic in your link, though is it me but is the Airbus name sloping upto the cockpit ?

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possibly - most modellers, me included, tend to place the decals so they are neat and symmetrical....not always so on the real ones tho :)

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I never noticed that myself!!!!

Looking at the pic in your link, though is it me but is the Airbus name sloping upto the cockpit ?

Doesn't look straight does it? I think the reason being that the A340 sits on the ground in a way that makes the fuselage point down at a certain small angle, so when the A/C is in the paint bay and the man is spraying on the airbus logo, he does it straight and level with his paint stand, therefore when its done, its on an apparent angle. Thats my guess, but stand to be corrected.

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