eng

Decals were from the kit for all the stencilling, silver leading edge strips and overwing inspar panels, and the RAF titles, roundels, registrations and cheatlines were from the Airfix VC-10 kit. The cargo door was scribed using scraps of etched brass for the rounded corners and the straight edges for the rest of it. I thought the scheme looked very smart and didn't want to spoil the clean lines with a refuel probe in the end! Thank's for looking and comments so far, Eng

Firstly, I didn’t know where best to post a modern military, civil airliner in a “what-if” scheme, so Mod’s feel free to move this if you need to. The kit is DACO Skyline’s 737-400 which comes as a “white tail” i.e. all (and there’s ton’s!) of the stencilling, but no airline markings. The kit has to be the most accurate 737 available in 1/144 (-300 and -500 versions are also available). There were no major problems with the build, a bit of filler around the wing to fuselage join, and that was about all. There are only main gear doors modelled in the extended position in the kit so some scratchbuilding would be required to model it in flight. I added a few bits from the spares box for ECM housings, and stopped short of a refuel probe although was very tempted! Here’s a wee bit of a background to my build - “After reviewing the somewhat overstretched RAF transport fleet it was deemed necessary to find a suitable transport aircraft to help maintain the U.K’s support in numerous global conflicts. The MoD issued a request for a cheap and rapidly available short to medium range aircraft capable of carrying troops and/or cargo. At the time British Airway’s happened to be slowly reducing the size of their 737 fleet as new Airbus aircraft were brought in. As with some of the Tristars flown by the RAF, BA offered the MoD a pick of the 737-400 aircraft as an option, this option was quickly taken up as no other suitable alternative could be found. The aircraft were initially routed back to Boeing for conversion to combi freighters with a large forward cargo door, this was deemed essential to allow carriage of palletised freight on the upper deck. The remaining modifications to the aircraft were carried out by Marshall’s in the UK, with winglet kits from Aviation Partners being retro-fitted to allow a better range/fuel burn performance, additional communications and navigation systems, and finally a self defence protection suite including chaff and IR protection systems completed the primary modifications. Consideration of in-flight refuelling capability was deemed to be unnecessary, and too complex to embody. The first aircraft (as modelled below) was in service within 6 months of receipt from BA, such was the urgency of the requirement. The aircraft have not yet been allocated to any squadron, and carry no specific markings other than a registration and tail number. The aircraft has been used on routes including Afghanistan and Iraq as part of a route-proving program to determine the best possible load/range combination, and are proving popular with crews and passengers alike. Being introduced so rapidly the ground crews have been keeping a close eye on how hard the aircraft is being worked and this aircraft even carries a “tally” of operational missions flown so far under the captains DV window. The current requirement is for 6 aircraft and the remaining 5 will be in service by the end of 2009.” All comment's, good and bad, appreciated, Rgds, Eng

Whoaa! Damn nice collection of 'Kitty's' ......love the VF-31 and VF-2 machines best, but all are stunning! Nice one. Eng

Flippin eck matey, that is one hell of a paint job - put that into a pic with a sky background and you'll be hard pushed to tell it's a kit! Really looking forward to seeing the finished article, very nice indeed! Eng

That's positively stunning Mike, every time I've seen a build of this kit it's absolutely beautiful. Love the colour scheme and the overall finish looks very tidy indeed. Great job, Eng

Don't much fancy my chances of straightening out the front end of that pylon either! Eng

Probably thinking to himself "sh*t, if only I could build diorama's as good as the one I'm starring in!!!" This is freakin amazing, the recce pod on its own is unbelieveable, Eng

"Ladies and Gentlemen, if you look out the right of the aircraft you can see the city of Noodlesville, and if you look out the left you might want to close the blind!!" http://www.micom.net/oops/AirtranAir.jpg (Copy & paste that link into your browser, as it doesn't work if you click on it) Eng

Kinda thought that might have had something to do with it, Al, should have seen that coming!!! LOL Eng

A wee update this evening! I haven't been back to my project til tonight as I was off work for 5 days last week with a sinus infection and the mother of all head colds which left me feeling like , to the point where modelling wasn't even an option! Anyhow, feel much better and sadly back at work. Done a wee bit of work tonight on my first of 2. Started by noticing my first c*ck-up from last week in that I've placed the refuel probe spot on at the aft end but the front end is too low on the fuselage side. It should sit more along the level of the canopy rail. I thought, VERY briefly albeit, about trying to hack it off, and scratch build.......NAH, I'll live with it this time :shithappens: I have fitted the vertical and horizontal stabilizers tonight and aligned everything by eye til I was happy,..... that was quite a while spent balancing it, eyeball it from the front, then the rear, tweak it, eyeball it.....you get the picture. Anyway it's done and looks OK I decided after slaving the wings into place tonight that I wasn't happy with the swing mechanism being left on and it seemed to be part of a problem that was causing one wing to sit high at the tip and the other too low. The other problem I think is the left wing pivot pin being moulded at an angle causing the wing to droop rather badly, and requiring to be pushed back up, something that superglue wasn't going to sort out. Off came the offending pivot pins (both in the end) and the interlocking fingers of the swing mechanism - Now that the wings will be able to be slid into position when ready to be glued in, I have secured the front end of the fuselage halves together and fitted the outer part of the intake trunking (the part with the nav light). These and the inner wall of the intake are rather thick and very overscale, but I figured it will be easier to gently thin them at the leading edge with a needle file after they are fitted and secure, rather than try to hold these tiny parts and sand them. A wee touch of filler will be reqd, and a gentle clean up - That's all for tonight folk's off to my bed shortly as a weekend of early shift commences at 0540 tomorrow..........but Monday is my last day til 3rd Jan 2009 Hopefully get plenty modelling done over the festive period too! Keep those GB entries going folks, Eng

Found this in the model shop the other week and bought some. It's water based and basically appears to be a thicker white paint but is lovely for filling very fine gaps as it can be brush painted in and is very easy to clean up afterwards, and takes paint on top with no probs'. Be interested to hear if anyone else uses it and what you think. Eng

I think it's just a caution to highlight the raised edge of the waterproof "sea floor" to ensure it's not trampled flat thus allowing any water into the area's it's designed to protect. I could be wrong though. Eng

Is this a possible acknowledgement that the airframes are gettin a bit tired, but they know they're going to take a hammering out in Kandahar? I'm assuming it's only maybe 6 aircraft going out, but I dare say they'll be rotated back to the UK fairly regularly to even out the fatigue life across the fleet. Or is going to be a case of sent out the youngest jets and let them take whats coming regardless. Thom, quick and stupid question - whats ML? Mach Limit or Medium level, or neither? CheersEng

That blue beastie looks sweet as...... Nice work, looking forward to the final pic's, and thank's for your pic's. Rgds Eng

GA.11 and the Nimrod are my fave's but a superb years work there Paul, brilliant. Eng

Lovely job squire!! Paint job does look rather beautiful to me. Why does the sun always shine where you are?? Can't remember the last time I'd even considered photographing something outside!!!!! Eng

Very, very nice indeed........and brush painted!! I'd have said airbrushed had you not said so. Beautiful job. Eng

Mr Dolphin, thank you sir, I have been trawling the t'internet for many moons for a glimpse of the interior of one of these things, also for a 1/72 build of an HMS Gannet machine, you have answered my prayers. One question though about the observers station, is the large scope display still common fit? I've caught a couple of episodes of Highland Emergency on Ch5 and the obs seems to have a large rectangular display as well for FLIR/LLTV image display, has this superceded the circular display. Thank's for posting pic's As an addition I came across these pic's as well whilst looking at one of the other links above - http://flickr.com/photos/alancaldwell/tags/seaking/ Eng

OH YEEEAAAHH!!! Nice build, I remember my Dad building this when I was a kid, and I think that started my appreciation of the Tristar, a very beautiful airliner and still going strong. It provided a very smooth ride as it was one if the first aircraft fitted with a Load Alleviation Function which damped out alot of the bumps during turbulence. I remember flying on a BA Tristar to Larnaca in 1987 and it was so spacious and comfy. Ironically when I was in the 2nd year of my apprenticeship with BA in 1995 I worked on several of the ex-BA Tristars that were flying with Caledonian Airways!! A nice machine to work on too and still never found an aircraft with a bigger hydraulic bay! I'd be very surprised if it was a cracked airframe, at FL350 any airframe crack is likely to, or certainly will eventually result in an explosive decompression. More likely to have been close to a cabin air outlet or possibly a damaged cold air duct which would supply the "gasper fans" in the overhead passenger service units. Agree with above posts about RAF Tristars being -500's. Nice to see a nicely finished Tristar, great job and top choice of colur scheme! Eng

Jet pipes mod's look superb now - nice bit of work mate. Eng

Thank's for all the positive encouragement folks! Bex you are so right......There's a twisted little bit of me that likes the idea of scarlet coloured Imperial Guards!!!! BigReg, thank's for the info, now you mention it I recall seeing those when I was on there site the other day. Nose weight ain't so much of an issue as both will be in flight, but the info has been saved to my somewhat tempremental grey storage device!! See y'all later, Eng

Interesting choice of colour! What does the final article look like? Certainly beats grey and ......well grey! Looks lovely, Eng

Beautiful build and something you should be proud of, what a great tribute to your Dad. Interesting to see how you attached the upper wings.....I've just done the same with my Airfix Nimrod!! Eng

Looking good Windy, got one in the stash and I just can't bring myself to build it yet, so you're one up on me. Was just looking at the depth of the airbrake bays - the damn engines would need flat spots on the turbine stages to get by those!!! You could hide a couple of Special forces guy's in there and fly them into the action at 100ft, 600mph then pop the brakes to let them out!!!!! Just like they tie them on to the outside of helo's - I reckon the Armed forces have been watching to much of Michael Palin travelling on the outside of trains in India and Pakistan! Sorry, got caught up in a different wee world there for a mo, won't happen again Will keep watching your build, might inspire a change of heart in my Airfix Tonka. Rgds, Eng

Damn fine collection there Mish, some wee crackers, "you're gonna need a bigger shelf!!" Eng