Skodadriver

Well that's a new one on me but good luck with the model!

I don't mean to be unfriendly to our military brethren but shouldn't this thread be moved somewhere more appropriate?

Current BA blue is NOT Midnight Blue. It is BA World Scheme Blue which is available from Xtracolor. Midnight Blue (= Humbrol 15) is accurate for the BA Negus scheme from the 1970s but not the current one. If you can't get Xtracolor and you're happy to use automotive paints, Halfords Fiat Capri Blue is a good match for current BA Blue

Another lovely selection Mike. The 720 is particularly nice. I must get around to buying the kit although I'll probably go for the 720B in the classic Lufthansa scheme

Not really - I tend to use a combination of brute force and skulduggery! Refurbishing an old model can sometimes be more work than building a new one although Scale Aircraft Conversions metal undercarriage sets make broken undercarriage parts much less of a problem. I remove everything which can be removed before applying paint stripper usually Fairy Powerspray followed by Biostrip which is very good for removing Halfords primer. Once the paint is off I'll try to get the model as close to new as possible which tends to mean checking and re-finishing the seams, getting any stubborn paint out of the panel lines and so on before applying the new livery. I have discontinued a couple of refurbishments where the amount of work has become excessive but usually it's quite straightforward.

Although I usually have four or five builds on the go at any one time I tend to finish them in pairs. When I posted my Court Line Tristar in RFI I mentioned that it had been finished in parallel with an overall orange Easyjet A320. I would have posted both models at the same time but after I’d applied the decals on the A320 I noticed a problem which needed some attention and a bit of careful re-finishing. Fortunately that worked out OK and here is the result. The kit is Revell (actually an old model which I stripped and re-finished) and decals are by 26. Thanks for looking. Dave ... and the two together

Thanks Ian. The 737-700 is under way. The fuselage is cut down and assembled but I'm going to follow my usual habit of letting it "mature" for a few months in case any of the joints sag, crack or otherwise misbehave. Much easier to sort problems before the paint and decals are on! Incidentally since I took the photos for this thread I've removed the decal "pitots" from both the -600 and the -900. The more I looked at them the less I liked them.

Hi Ian I removed about 1mm. The crude way I did it was to cut away the mounting lug from the undercarriage leg leaving just the tiniest sliver of plastic joining the leg and the two struts. With a little bit of carving it was then possible to superglue the leg directly into the mounting point in the wheel well. More sophisticated modellers will probably want to cut the leg below the longer strut, shorten it and rejoin it but the wheel wells are quite deep and the subterfuge isn't obvious. I've still to work out a way of doing the retrofit but when I was exhibiting at the East of Scotland show a couple of weeks ago the 739 was "parked" alongside an unmodified 738 and the difference was quite noticeable so it's definitely worth the effort.

Another superb model Alex - thanks for sharing. I've also had the disappearing windscreen experience. Your solution has been a great success and the model really captures the character of the aircraft.

Good luck with your project but I really would advise you to buy a cheap kit of some kind, knock it together and practise on it. Once Halfords paint is on it's not easy to get it back off. There is a whole thread on that subject here: http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/234968485-acrylic-remover/ BTW if you're thinking of buying Micromesh the finest grade is 12000 not 120000 as I see I typed in my last post

It's important to say that nobody here will ever tell you that their way of building, painting or whatever is the only way you should do it. We all have our own individual techniques and what works for me won't necessarily work for somebody else. As I've said before there is no right way and no wrong way, only what gives you the result you want and what doesn't. The vast majority of modellers who use Halfords paint spray it straight from the can and get superb results. I'm one of a very small minority who prefer airbrushing, mainly because in the early days my ham-fisted attempts to spray from a can led to a couple of good models being ruined. Having said that, I always spray primer from the can and never have any problems. Personally I prefer grey primer even if the top coat is white because I think the grey shows up flaws and imperfections better than the white. (A wise modeller once said you should think of priming as the last stage of building rather than the first stage of painting). As always, several light coats are better than one heavy one. To decant Halfords paint, take a standard airbrush paint jar and cover the top with a piece of kitchen foil. Shake the can for a couple of minutes then take a plastic drinking straw and sellotape it over the can nozzle. Poke a hole in the foil big enough to take the straw, put the straw through the hole and squirt. Once you have enough paint in the jar remove the foil and put the lid on but don't tighten it. Leave the paint to sit for a good couple of hours to let the gas boil off. Before you actually use it give the jar a gentle shake and if you see any bubbles in the paint leave it a bit longer. There is no need to thin the paint for airbrushing and if you've decanted too much it should still be useable the next day as long as the jar is tightly capped. I'm hopelessly unscientific when it comes to things like airbrush pressures. I don't think I've changed the pressure on my compressor for about five years. I generally go with what feels right which is around 20-25psi on the gauge, however accurate that might be. One downside of airbrushing automotive paint is that overspray can dry in the air and then land on the model giving a rough, pebbledash effect which can be difficult to smooth properly. Areas around wing root fairings and flap fairings are particularly at risk. You can usually avoid it by taking care and sticking to light coats but if it does happen Micromesh polishing cloth is your best friend. I usually start at grade 1800 and work up though the grades to 120000. The problem generally doesn't happen when spraying from the can. I can't stress too much the need to practise and experiment on an old model if you're using techniques which are new to you. I have an ancient Minicraft 707 which I use for this and it has saved several expensive mishaps.

Hi Danyel. I see from your profile that you are in the UK. Are you anywhere near a branch of Halfords? Many airliner modellers use Halfords Appliance White paint either sprayed straight from the can or decanted into an airbrush. Halfords Racking Grey is a good likeness for Boeing Grey - see this thread particularly post 8: http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/234981909-flyglobespan-boeing-737-600-in-1144/ A very eminent modeller on this site recommends Halford Rover Steel Grey for Corogard. Personally I find it too dark but I still have some Xtracolor enamel so I haven't really explored alternatives yet. Halfords paint is usually best applied over their own primer, either grey or white. Tamiya primer is also very good but it's expensive and not always easy to find. If you do decide to follow the Halfords route it's a good idea to practise on an old model first before committing yourself to the real thing. Incidentally, if you do manage to source some Xtracolor Corogard be aware that the tinlets have a nasty tendency to explode when you open them. I'm not the only modeller to fall victim to this but in my case I needed a wall of my dining room repapered and my wife's favourite lampshade re-covered. It's very fortunate that I wear glasses otherwise I'd have got the stuff in my eyes. You should ALWAYS cover a new tinlet of Xtracolor Corogard with a cloth when you open it for the first time. HTH Dave

I've just noticed that Authentic Airliners are planning to release a Tristar 100 at Telford this year so hopefully my wish for a photo-real windscreen for Halcyon Breeze is going to come true.

On the one and only BA Landor model I've done (a 734) I used a paint recipe given to me by a fellow modeller who used to work as a BA dispatcher - 50% Xtracolor X23 Oxford Blue + 50% X357 US Airways Dark Blue. I've no idea how that would match the 1-11 decals but it looked pretty reasonable on my model. I also lightened the Xtracolor Pearl Grey which was far too dark out of the tin. HTH

I'm really looking forward to watching progress on this particularly with the BA livery. Brings back happy memories of flying GLA-BHX-MUC through the Eurohub in the late 1980s.

Lovely build Chris, thanks for sharing. The Hermes is defintely one of Denzil's nicest kits and I thoroughly enjoyed the Silver City one I built a couple of years ago. I'm glad to learn I'm not the only person who gave up on the F-RSIN version!

There are a few pictures in the publication "Early Post-War British Airliners" which is in the Aeroplane Collectors' Archive series. If you don't have a copy pm me and I'll send you a scan. It's only a couple of pages.

Shouldn't this be moved to a more appropriate forum? I don't think many of us would class the Stirling as a civil aircraft! Only one Stirling was actually built as a civil aircraft and it crashed. Airtech modified 12 Stirling Vs for a Belgian airline, 6 as freighters and 6 to carry passengers. One crashed, three ended up in Egypt of all places and most of the others were scrapped without entering service.

Thanks for your kind and encouraging comments everybody. Much appreciated I may be wrong but isn't Modelcraft Canada the same plastic as the Revell kit? You can get the Welsh kit with decals for Halcyon Days (the yellow one) although my kit was originally the TWA twin globe scheme. It would be great to see the two together but I don't think my nerves and blood pressure would stand a re-run in the foreseeable future! I discovered an accuracy issue with the Easyjet A320 after I had applied the decals. If I manage to sort it without ruining the entire model I'll post some pics. I have an Authentic Airliners kit in the stash. 26 used to do Court line 1-11 decals although they're not currently in the catalogue. If I can track down a sheet I might give it a shot.

Here is my representation of Court Line’s second Tristar, G-BAAB. I used the Welsh Models kit with 26 Decals supplemented with bits and pieces from the Nazca detail sheet. The light pink is Tamiya TS-25 and the salmon pink for the lower surfaces was custom mixed to RAL 3017. White is Halfords Appliance White apart from the belly stripe which is a double layer of white decal. Natural metal is various Revell and Tamiya acrylics. Building the kit was easy and straightforward although for some reason I got a bit bored half way through and the partly-built Tristar spent about a year looking sad and forlorn while I got on with other things. Eventually I took pity on it and finished it in parallel with an overall orange Easyjet A320 which made for an interesting clash of colours. The decals were also “interesting” although in a different sense. Applying the pink stripes, particularly around the tail, is an experience I’m in no hurry to repeat. 26 provide a generous amount of spare decal which perhaps should have been a warning. It was one of these jobs which looked simple on paper but in reality was anything but. I had a few “why don’t I take up a sensible hobby like stamp collecting?” moments. Weirdly, the left side which I did first went much better than the right which is the opposite of what I’d normally expect - must have been some kind of beginner’s luck! In addition the decals were rather brittle with a horrible tendency to break into flakes when I tried to trim them despite using a fresh scalpel blade. In a few areas, particularly around the stabilisers, I found myself sticking bits back in place with varnish. Eventually a hair dryer, copious quantities of Daco strong setting solution and a hefty dose of sheer bloody-mindedness got everything more or less in place although at the cost of extensive patching and touching up (Humbrol 200 with a tiny speck of red). Quite honestly it’s a bit of a mess and although the model looks OK from a distance close inspection isn’t encouraged. It’s definitely better viewed from a distance of six feet or more! The 26 windscreen decal was replaced by an old ATP item which I still had in my decal stash. It’s a bit black and monochromatic but it fits the kit far better than the 26 one. I’m sorry that Kurt Lehmann only does window decals for the kits which he produces since the Tristar’s big cockpit windows are crying out for the photo-real treatment. Anyhow, Halcyon Breeze is finally done. For all its flaws the result is definitely eye-catching. Who says airliners are all white and boring? Thanks for looking and constructive criticism is welcome. Dave

Assuming you airbrushed the Revell white, what did you use to thin it? I'd like to try airbrushing Revell myself but some part of me fights shy of just mixing it with water!

I don't think many of us who inhabit this particular forum would consider anything flown by the Red Arrows to be a civil aircraft !

Absolutely outstanding transformation of a not very good kit. If it hadn't been for the heading I would have assumed it was Authentic Airliners. I'm still not sure if the third photo is the real aircraft or your model .

Very, very nice. Beautiful build in attractive markings and lovely subtle weathering The ARJ is one of my favourite Revell airliners and I hope they reissue it before too long

Ray isn't "my friend". I'm sure he's a lovely guy but I've never met him and my only relationship with him is as a paying customer ..... which is precisely why most of us who fill our windows use and recommend products like Milliput or Isopon P38. Normal model filler isn't meant for filling relatively deep sections like windows as I found out many years ago under similar circumstances when I tried Squadron Green Putty.