ANDYMO1962

I don't think anyone else has posted one of these on Britmodeller. It's a typical Mach 2: A bit rough around the edges but, with a bit of filler and a fair amount of sanding it comes together ok.

Thanks for taking the plunge on this one- I’m currently wading through the Mach 2 CV-440 and thinking a DC-8 from the same stable would be too big & ugly to work- but this plastic doesn’t look too bad...I might be tempted!

Wow, a B-36- that must have used a lot of foil! And yes, starting in the middle of the panel and working outwards seems to work well

I always think that nothing looks more like polished aluminium than polished aluminium, but it does take time and I often end up with small folds & tears which can be frustrating- especially around the Engine nacelles on this kit. Thicker domestic foil does stretch a bit though to get around a few curves and corners.

Thanks- it’s regular kitchen foil- I use the extra thick stuff as it stretches around the curves better

Hi Moa- Thanks- i tried posting the individual links but the link box just goes red and doesn’t save- any idea what I’m doing wrong?

Hi there- I wondered if there was a metal u/c set available but the plastic with the kit is very detailed and does fit: I just approached it carefully as I’ve had trouble with big kits and delicate gear before: once it’s all superglued in place it’s quite tough. Regarding the Flaps yes I know it’s sloppy procedure to have them still down on the ramp but I couldn’t resist the separate flaps and Actuators, so I’m telling myself they’re down for a maintenance check 😉

Thanks! The kit's definitely worth the investment in time and effort. (I need to work out how to take better photos of models as they don't blow up very well.)

Thanks! The foiling did take a long time but one benefit of lock-down is that I have plenty of that at the moment. The kit's clear panel lines allowed me to trim the foil to match the panels- and it's well worth the effort. (If you haven't got to the undercarriage on your C-54 yet be patient- it's infuriatingly fiddly but does fit together with a little care.)

I made this lovely detailed kit "out of the box" using foil for the natural metal finish and the ICELAND AIRWAYS decals supplied with the kit. The kit includes a finely detailed cockpit with a radio operator's station behind and a complete set of seating- most of which you can't see once the kit is assembled but it's satisfying to know it's there. I think the kit has been extensively reviewed elsewhere so won't go into more detail, suffice to say that it's a great addition to any 1/72 airliner collection. ICELAND AIRWAYS DC-4

Avoid Humbrol Acrylic Gloss varnish like the plague! It's basically a Matt grey coating that will ruin any plane you spray it on, he says,having just trashed months of work on a Revell DC-4

Cheers Tommy- would love to see your stage by stage build on this one

Hi Ross- I'd add a couple of comments to Adrian's reply: I think HP painted the tailplane (gloss) black as it sits right behind the engine exhausts and gets covered in soot anyway- at least a close walk round G-APWA @ Woodley seems to suggest that. You can see the black is duller in the outboard section where it is behind the exhaust; The paler yellow of the two photos looks more like the Brymon yellow- that orangey colour is misleading The underside is all the same grey but since Heralds are not rounded underside but have an angled cross section to the belly they always look like there's a darker grey lower down - that plus the reflection of the aircraft's shadow - it's a trick of the light which you get with almost any grey-bellied Herald!

Hi Tommy here's a rather poor snap of one I made earlier https://www.flickr.com/photos/96171173@N05/25923780030/in/datetaken-public/ I built up the wing/fuselage fillet using filler, and had completely forgotten about the flap track fairings until Jessica mentioned them so they must be home made too; The Lufthansa titles were from the Heller 707 kit as were the nose and engine logos; I can't remember exactly where the tail logo came from but it might have been the Airfix A300 one (I seemed to have a lot of Lufthansa spares in my decal box). The Boeing 737 logo is adapted from the Heller 707 one and the reg and aircraft name were made from Letraset. I chose D-ABEK, Konstanz as the city shield was a simple black cross on a white background with a red top- which was relatively easy to mug up with bits of decal. I think I've seen very early delivery shots of the Lufthansa -100s with the short engines so decided to leave those alone. It's far from a perfect model of a 737-100 but as a half decent representation made from a VERY approximate version of the plane I'm quite pleased with it. The real fun was finding a vintage injection moulded 737 kit in 1/72 in the first place.

Thanks Joachim - hadn't tried that- can you just paste the jpegs into the page?

Lovely. I want one

Recently finished the nice little Williams Brothers 1/72 Kit of the Northrop Gamma converted by Ellsworth for his (ultimately unsuccessful) Antarctic Expedition. It's a fairly simple kit which comes with various versions but, curiously, didn't include the skis which can be seen on the real plane in the Air & Space museum. However, after using few slabs of plasticard to make the leg spats I worked out that the "park bench" style ailerons which come with the kit (but aren't used on this version) were about the right size for the skis, once they'd been bent up a bit. Normally a dedicated foiler, I went with ratllecan chrome silver on this one, partly because there were a lot of compound curves which would have made foiling difficult but mostly because I was feeling lazy. It came together nicely in the end: https://www.flickr.com/photos/96171173@N05/albums/72157665960630706

Hi Drew to echo others' comments, if you want a 1/72 320B/C then the Heller/Airfix one is worth holding out for- it's got of lovely detail and is bascially the right shape. I think the Airfix E3A is the same basic kit but you'd have to find some JT3D engines as I think that one only comes with CFM 56s However, if you are starting from a KC-135, that can be turned into a -720B if you're feeling adventurous: Slight widening of the fuselage at the top, a small plug ahead of the wing and then the main challenge is the extended inboard leading edge. (Nothing that a bunch of plasticard and filler can't fix). Here's one I did while laid up for a month after an op on my foot: https://www.flickr.com/photos/96171173@N05/albums/72157641769194285 Only after finishing did I realise my calculations were out and the whole wing should be one window further back but I think I got away with it. Fiddliest bits were the engine silencers (the KC-135 just didn't have them) but I managed to cobble some together from cotton bud stems.

Just checking- is all that detail out of the box or have you bought/scratched any of it? Looks fantastically detailed for a £25 odd Revell kit!

Thanks for sharing this- was thinking of getting one of these for my eventual Heathrow in 144 collection- I definitely will now I can see how much detail there is to include!

Wow! I hope that'll all be visible once the windows are in! I have two 767-300s I'm planning to turn into a 200 + 400. Haven't done the maths yet but think there should be enough fuselage to go around

The one thing I'd recommend is lining the interior with foil to create a light-tight box: this seems to me to be the only sure fire way to prevent light leaking through plastic. It also makes maximum use of any interior light? Did this fairly successfully on Star Trek Enterprise and Voyager kits ( sorry they are leant out so don't have photos)

Nice stuff- looking forward to seeing the finished versions: it's good to see the etched brass details in use- it's not always easy to see what's included from the details on Hannats website- I think I'll have to spring for a set when I finally get around to making my 144 Alpha Delta in BA/SIA colours

Thanks all for the encouraging feedback! specifically -sorry about the wires, they are driving me nuts too, but they are actually real fine wire and I can't stretch them any further without breaking off the aerials! I'll have to try the stretched spruce thing sometime As for the conversions, i couldn't find any available for sale at the time but, more crucially, they seemed to be solid resin and I like transparent windows, especially ones as big as a 1/72 Electra's. There was also something very satisfying about using the upper rear fuselage of the "donor" kit to form the lower forward fuselage of the final version- it seemed a tidy way to use as much if the plastic as possible Thanks

I've been using foil for preference for ages, using Micro Metal Foil adhesive. It looks particularly good on '50s bare metal airliners, although I tend to resort to chrome silver rattle cans for the fronts of prop engine cowlings. For duller surfaces (e.g. Modern jet wing leading edges) I use the less shiny side. Works a treat