Viking

That's a real stunner! Beautifully done. Cheers John

Beautiful build of a fascinating aircraft! Cheers John

Good to see more CRM 727's appearing! That looks stunning, one of my favorite liveries and I've also got this sheet waiting to be applied to my next build. Cheers John

Wow! that's really impressive! Cheers John

That is a thing of great beauty! Cheers John

Thanks Dave, you've reminded me that the etched brake lines for the main undercarriage legs were a pain to fit. Mainly because they are so fine, and working out how they go. But who else has ever given us such fine details, so there is no complaint from me! The legs themselves needed care, but nothing unusual. The other thing I've remembered is that when I cut the 'glazing slots' in the fuselage sides, I did away with leaving a rebate around the inside edge. It was easier to get the glazing strips to lie flush, and there is enough mating area on both parts to get a good join, working along with Tamiya extra thin cement. The base is a vinyl print from Kits-World of Manchester Terminal 2 and I'm really pleased with it, it's a good size and will take a couple of 737/A320 sized aircraft with ease. Maybe even an A330 and A320 size pair. I've got a sheet of 9mm MDF that I'm planning to stick it on (it's not as easy to find any at 700mm x 700mm as I thought!), and start building up some details for it over time. This weekend should see the MDF trimmed to size, primed, and painted ready to stick the vinyl down. It'll represent Manchester in the 2020's, but I dare say it'll stand in for any earlier period if it has to! Thanks for all the comments, John

Boeing 727-200, JAT Counting Rivets Models (CRM) 1/144 This is the new Boeing 727-200 from CRM, and what a superb kit it is! It comes with decals for JAT, which I really like, and it is rare for me build an airliner kit 'straight from the box' as regards markings. It also has a complete flight deck, and clear strips for along the fuselage sides to create the passenger cabin windows. Fit is pretty good, I needed to chamfer the cockpit bulkhead to fit it into the internal grooves, a task of about 2 minutes. Everything else fits really, really well. The kit also provides a full set of pre cut masks and an etched fret of fine detail parts. The decals go on beautifully, with the cheatlines having clear sections that line up perfectly on all the windows. The only oddity was there there is only 1 decal 15, that goes on each nosewheel door. No problem, if you build it as 'KF' just use the 'KE' option and cut the bottom of the 'E' off. Looking at photos of real JAT 727's there is huge variation in the livery. Some have the white top extending all the way down to the lobe crease, other have it ending higher up. I went for the way it is shown on the box art, (fabulous illustration on it!) down to the bottom of the doors and the lobe crease. I'm trying out a new base board to photograph my models on, I intend to scratch build a Terminal frontage and a couple of jetways over the next few months, I'll probably try to source some vehicles and people too, some of the Rocast stuff looks very nice. I put some CRM pilot figures in the cockpit, they can be seen very clearly on the model, but are hard to photograph, but these few photos show them early in construction. To sum up, this is a superb kit, probably the best airliner on the market. I even got a little pack of Haribo sweets with my order! I've already got a second kit lined up with the Lufthansa sheet from 26 Decals. I really hope they might consider a Boeing 737-200 at some point, we really need one to this standard and there is vast range of airline schemes that would apply to it. In the meantime, we can eagerly await their next release of the short body 727-100! Thanks for looking, John

Neat little pair! Cheers John

Beautiful job on a kit that is not easy to build. Cheers John

Hi Andy, I've done a few of the S&M Viscounts, they are a bit chunky but can be made into an acceptable model. The mods I do are listed here: British Midland And another here: Aer Lingus The model is greatly improved using this: 26 Decals detail sheet If you decide to order, do so with 100% confidence, Ray (owner of 26 Decals) offers superb Customer Service and is a member on these forums. HTH, John

That's a lovely model of an unusual subject! Cheers John

Thanks for the comments guys, much appreciated. Thanks George, it's nice to know that some tips are useful, I always like it when others point things out with their builds, so try to do the same myself. There are a couple more I've since remembered. I replaced the struts holding the large external fuel tank with brass wire. There was no way that the flimsy plastic ones were going to hold it. I cyano'd them into drilled holes in the tank, and then into drilled holes in the fuselage. Likewise the side ladder was drilled and pinned. The 'sit' looked too high on other models posted on the internet. I plugged the axle holes inside the spats, and dilled new ones just above them. This put a bit more 'compression' on the undercarriage, It it wasn't obvious from the photos, I left the tubular structure that joins the two wings, off the main structure in the fuselage until the wings were ready. I then joined them to it, and attached the whole unit to the fuselage. Actually, I glued the struts to the wings with Revell Contacta about 10 minutes before, giving them time to grip, but still with a bit of adjustment in them. Finally, the top glazing part was attached with white glue. Cheers John

That is a very smart livery, built to your usual high standards Dave. Having seen this I'm now tempted to take one out of my stash and get on with it! Cheers John

Wow, that looks really impressive. Captures the look of the Viscount to perfection. Cheers John

That's a beauty! Stunning photography as well. Cheers John