neilg

Where have you been I've got the two BA ones side by side on the table in the living room - the AF one is in my office upstairs. But I still have the Negus one to build too and wondering where I can put him when he's done! I'm getting a display case on Friday for my smaller 1:72 builds, so I might have to spend some time at the weeekend rejiggling my models... How far have you got with yours?

He is a big boy for sure. Here he is next to my 777-300ER: Its size does make it cumbersome to move around, especially while sanding the wing roots. But, its size is also what makes it stand out from all the others, and everyone always comments when they see it.

I would be most interested if you have a set of gear legs and wheels!

My parents have the first DC-10 in Scandinavian colours. It has yellowed badly over the years, so I will probably give it to them as a replacement.

I haven't learned the skill of weathering - I am not brave enough to risk ruining the finish if it all goes wrong!

The DC-10 is one of my favourite airliners, but unfortunately, I've never been able to fly on one. My first exposure to the DC-10 was a Thai Airways Matchbox toy that I played with so much the paint came off. I've already built the Airfix DC-10 in SAS colours, but as you may know by now, I really like the British Airways Landor livery. I really wanted to have a DC-10 in my collection in this livery, and I'm glad to say that now I have one. There were no issues with the kit, except I bought it some years ago second hand - and discovered only after I started to build it that the landing gear was missing. And so was one of the flap actuator fairings, which on the same sprue as the landing gear, and I had to recreate one from plasticard. I really wanted to have the landing gear down (as is the case on my other airliners), so I ended up buying another kit (sealed, this time) just to get the landing gear. As was the case on the other DC-10 that I built, the only modifications were filing away the engine mounting points on the wings (which would have made the engines sit too close to the ground), and the center landing gear is repositioned to be in the correct place. The kit has mounting holes too far forward, and the landing gear doors are two pieces - they should be four, like the nose landing gear. I used Humbrol 15 gloss midnight blue spray, and Revel 371 light grey spray. The decals were 26 Decals, and were great to use. Being from Gloucestershire, I chose to make this G-BEBL Forest of Dean:

Still room for more

I remember your Air France build - I think it looked really smart! Do you remember how the decals were? I really struggled to apply the tail decals that came with the Heller kit. They weren't sticky enough, and would not conform around the curves of the rudder actuator fairings. I may try an Air France one again some day...

I really like that subtle shift in silver shades - and the exhaust stains are spot-on!

I built this model for display on the window sill in my office. This is the second Heller 1:125 Concorde that I made; the first one I gave to a coworker several years ago. No real issues with the kit, but it's in Air France only. I bought the British Airways decals from F-DCAL, and they went on without any problems. The gaps under the wings needed some work, and there were no decals for the heated leading edges on either the Heller decal sheet, or the F-DCAL sheet. I wasn't even going to try to paint them by hand... This kit offers a positionable nose, but it has no mechanisms in it to connect the visor to the nose like the 1:72 has. Instead, Heller offers two visors to build the kit either in the raised position, or for lowered position. It's not entirely accurate in that with the second option, the visor sits on the nose, rather than inside it - it's just that the second visor is shorter to look like it has been retracted. For the Revell kit, I put the visor inside the nose, where it slides when the nose is lowered. I did try to mount the visor in the same place for the Heller build, but it's too large to fit inside the nose. In any case, the Heller kit has an accurate flight deck windows, in contrast to the flat-faced single-piece representation in the Revell kit (which I corrected with a resin replacement). And with its 1:144 cousins from Revell (left), Airfix (right), and the Airfix/Heller/Revell kit in 1:72 (back): You may also see the other 1:72 just off to the left...

What is it about yellow that is so hard to paint! My Airfix F-15 has yellow vertical stabilizers that don't look any better. I used Humbrol acrylic, but it was so thin, it was like water - it had no coverage whatsoever. No idea if airbrushing yellow is any easier - I've not really seen many yellow colours on models (perhaps there's a reason for it!) I stopped building my Revell Twin Otter because I have no confidence in getting the yellow right. But your build looks great! The Gnat is really fiddly, but it looks like you did a great job with it. Have a look for the Red Arrows Gnat - red is a lot easier to paint.

Bonjour Maxime, et bienvenue chez Britmodeller! It's nice to see a Parisian here - I lived in Le Plessis-Robinson for six years, and I loved it there! I'm looking forward to seeing your models!

It turned out beautifully! It's a smart looking 727 in those colours.

Thank very much! I used to really dislike painting around curves - I dreaded peeling back the masking tape to find the paint bled underneath it. Then, I'd have to touch up the paint by hand and the result was always unsatisfactory. That was the case until recently, where I read on this forum that people use Tamiya curved masking tape. I found it in my local hobby store, so I was pleased to find it, and I have discovered it gives great results. I still have loooots of kits to finish too, but I also have the ceiling upstairs that I can use

The one thing I'm concerned about is if I move home... I already lost many models during my move back from France, and I've spent the best part of 3 years rebuilding. I wanted to take this one to show my parents, but I don't have any special boxes (or coffins) for my models. When I went to Telford, I was surprised to see no-one had suffered any damage during transport! I say give it a go!