Alex1978

Thank you very much Ian. Thats very true. I had a lot of joy building this model and recall all those nice memories. I saw your build of the AA kit,and its a very nice one,despite the old AHS decals but I will stay tuned for your second😉😊 Alex

Thank you very much. Pleasure that you enjoyed it. Thank you very much

Thank you very much Vince Thank you very much Michael

Thank you very much Thank you very much. Always glad to bring back memories

Thank you very much Mike. Yes,its always nice to build something as a reminder of fond memories Thank you very much Dave

As a 12 year old,my grand parents took me with them to Kenya for hollidays. That was back in september 1990...how the time flies... We should have had a flight from Zurich to Mombasa on the Balair DC-10-30,but for some reasons this was changed,and instead Caledonian Airways took us to our destination on a Boeing 757-200. Due to the limited range of the 757,we had to make a tank stop in Athens. I always had a latent interest in airplanes but this flight actually started it all,my passion for airliners and modelling. In fact,my very first kit that I bought was a Hasegawa 747 in 1/200 soon after our return. But I always wanted to build the aircraft that started it all. Unfortunately back then,no 757 kit was available or none that I was aware of nor could I find decals for the Caledonian version,no internet back then,so tracing such items was rather difficult and one had to rely on the local hobbyshops to stock the latest kits. Anyone remember ? Some good 25 years ago I came across the AHS decal set but was still missing a 757 kit... Some years later Minicraft released a 757 kit that was average at least. I bought some of them but for some reason I never actually built one with the Caledonian decals that I had.Maybe the reason was that the AHS sheet had white parts that needed to be applied first before the yellow decals and also a lack of detail on it. Many years later,in 2021 Zvezda released a bew 757 kit which beats the Minicraft version in every aspect. 26decals released also many decals for the new kit,offering countless airlines,amongst them British Airways/Caledonian. So finally this year I came around building the very 757 that I had flown on back in 1990. The Zvezda kit is superb with almost perfect fit and only a minimum of filler needed. I built it straight out of the box The windows are open,no decals used,so also a bit of the cockpit can be seen. To get the correct windows/doors layout,I had to close 4 windows as Caledonian,as well as many other airlines,have/had an additional door aft of the wings. The last row of windows consists of 13 windows,so just need to count from the back forward and then close 4 windows in a row. The additional door is provided with the decals. The emergency exits on the wings need to be filled and sanded and one window between the former exits added. Yep,I still have the onboard magazine from that flight... Paints used,Tamyia Royal blue with a few drops black for the belly and engines,Gunze light grey 315 for the upper fuselage,Testors Voodoo grey on the wings,the corogard is a mix of dark grey mixed with aluminium. Othe metallic parts are painted with Gunze metallics. As mentioned,the decals are from 26 and are absolutely wonderful. The fit is perfect and the carrier film is almost invisible. The window frames are from the kit decal sheet Caledonian Airways was founded in 1988,emerging from British Airtours In 1999 it merged with Flying Colours Airlines to become JMC,which went to become Thomas Cook Airlines in 2003. Unfortunately,this company went into bankruptcy in 2019. The Boeing 757 G-BPEA was delivered factory new in march 1989 to British Airways and came to Caledonian in april 1989. It was frequently leased out during its service with Caledonian and after being sold in 2001 it remained in service with different airlines until its retirement in may 2018,aged 29. Sadly it was scrapped in 2019. I have still vivid and fond memories of that flight and those wonderful hollidays in Kenya and because of that,this model has a special meaning in my collection. Hence the slighly longer than usual thread... Here some pics from my grand parents photo album,of the 757 upon our arrival in Mombasa I hope you enjoyed my walk down memory lane cheers Alex

Superb build John. The AA decals sure look great and those pilots give it something extra. The Zvezda Airbus is a great kit. I did an A320 a while ago and was very pleased with the quality. The Revell NEO kit has some flaws,I still think the cockpit windows are too narrow,so I keep to Zvezda for my future A320/321 builds Alex

Wonderful build Dave. The Viscount is a really nice looking aircraft and the GB Airways livery suits it wonderfully.👍 I have a FROG and a Glencoe Viscount in my stash,I hope they will turn out as nice as yours...should I ever come around building them...😊😉

Superb build and in one of the most outstanding liveries too. I built a Revell DC-8-33 about 12 years ago in these colours. The black stripes hand painted on as no decal set was available back then. As of yet,I managed to build almost every ASA aircraft in every livery,except the DC-8-63 in their last livery.No one makes the decals for it😳 I have many fond memories on African Safari Airways as I had a few flights with them when going on holliday in Kenya with my grand parents. My first trip was on the DC-8-53,in the same livery,the next was on the DC-8-63 in 1992 and the last was in 1995 on the DC-10-30 with extensive visits to the cockpit on the DC-8 and DC-10. I really miss those days. Thanks for sharing and bringing back many happy memories. Alex

Hell, The modelshop is in Basel. Here the link,there you can also find the adress https://www.modellshop.ch/home.aspx

Great to see a refurbishment on the 767. I did a few refurbishments myself and find them very enjoyable,giving new life to an old kit. 👍

Looks promising that Zvezda plans a new A330 kit. So far,I had no problems with getting new Zvezda kits here in Switzerland. In the local hobbyshop,i had been told that there had been no problems for getting them. The kits are considered something as play tools and so dont fall under the sactions. Well...at least thats what the owner of the hobbyshop told me. And they were imported through the usual German or Austrian importer. I dont know how that applies to other countries though.

Another very fine build Einar. The first time I see one of those built. I always struggled with the veeery old Airfix and Revell -100s Always nice to see a 727,I surely miss them. It was always a pleasure seeing and hearing them on our airports back in the days. Thanks for sharing Alex

Very fine build of this classic Airfix kit. I built several of them in recent years and they sure are a bit tricky in some parts. The strange wing bend that seems to plague only the Airfix 727 and the fiddly engines are the most problematic areas. For the engines,to get a round in/outlet,I glued a piece of Evergreen plastic sheet at the fron and end,let it harden and the drilled it open and sanded it to shape. The wings were strengthend inside with self made liquid plastic and thin wire. Once completely cured,the wings become rock hard and wont bend down. Thanks for sharing Alex

Thank you all. I am surprised that this build reappeared after all these years. The scale differences and accuracy issues if this kit are probably due to the lack of real possibilities to measure the real thing.It was still cold war time back then. The kit is quite old and simple but i liked it somehow. I also have the Nitto Concorde in my stash with the same ,at least on the box,mentioned 1/132 scale. I have not yet measured it to confirm it,but it also represents something near the prototype Concorde like Airfix's first Concord kit. I have not found the time yet to start building it but I might tackle it now that the TU144 has come up again to interest.

Superb build of the good old Revell kit. I remember the United 767s being ,still, regular visitors in Zurich. Always loved the design of the 767,esp. I like the winglet retrofitted ones. Thanks for sharing. Alex

Hi Dave, You might try him. I ordered my DC-8 kit from Eugene. Superb service and very well packaged at reasonable price. https://www.ebay.ch/itm/295943303687?hash=item44e7987207:g:dPYAAOSw2c9lDXG8&amdata=enc%3AAQAIAAAA4KNib9wqSotMMwCMeRRZ1YsUwW0avZ2wEX0iMJzFRhT97RujwVbbkKECrAXsYOGE9xcgjb6X%2FgvOlMOcP%2BbVl52fscKrx7TEMQVlqSBVHWoWvG1I42cnHrOCY7LNc9xurChJhLyVr2TAvrcN9otNse8rqCWlxxC8l%2F2dsMUiVOFxkK8ZBlGezGsO%2FFpD6IhHoi5L43Iku4Rl1ZrEeGf6WyP8qpKd7s3evAp0n5Io%2F1Nl1o4DE0GAlFRWS7e6%2BUsu02COin8O6K29mp6vQYEtl1dDAsC1qD4olK7qzil2Uryn|tkp%3ABFBMnMeU2eBi

😂 Thank you very much

Thank you very much. If you are able to get hold of a release from the 70s or 80s,go for it. They are worth building,of course no comparison to actual 747 kits but still worth building. The 2019 release with the demonstrator markings is another matter,the moulds were too worn out which resulted in terrible moulded parts and lots of flash. The Revell -400 kit is no longer available but it also suffers from poor moulding and shape issues. Alex

Thank you very much Dave. Yes,I had a "run" the past months with bringing builds over the finishing line😊 The 747 was completed in slightly more than 2 weeks...a new record for me and for the kit. I tried to include the cats to my postings again but rather than relaxing on the balcony,they dont show the same interest in photo shoots as before...😉

Thank you very much Miguel. Thank you very much Carlo. Thank you very much Mike. The 727 was always one of my faves on the airports. The Nigeria Airways livery is one of the smartest liveries and this Airfix 727 came out,to my surprise, as my best result of any of my Airfix 727 kits I had built.

Thank you very much Dave. A bit late my reply,I somehow missed your comment😊 The kit is really a pain to build.I have 2 more in the painting stage but hadnt got the motivation to continue work on them. Thank you very much Mike.

Thank you very much David. My usual conversion refers to another A340 thread I made on BM at the same time. It involves the correction/upgrading of the engines of the Revell kit. - shortening the mounts of the inner engines by about 1mm ,so these engines will sit a bit higher and in about the same hight as the outer engines. - adding the little fences on all 4 engines With the AA kit,these corrections are of course not necessary. Great picture of the SIA A340 by the way. I always wanted to do an A340 in this livery but there seems to be no decal set available for it. Alex

Thank you very much Vincent

Very very nice build