Timo

I've had a crack at doing this livery, so here's my experience. As per Skodadriver's post, I followed the AirlinerCafe suggestion to overcoat Boeing Grey with Clear Mica, and here is the result. It looks OK, but it isn't quite right. The actual aircraft (in my pic below) has a definite tint to the Mica finish on the fuselage and engines. With hindsight, I might have achieved a closer match by overcoating Boeing Grey with a tinted mica like Xtracolor X369 Mica2. Hope this helps anybody contemplating this project. Cheers Tim

Hi There are quite a few decal producers who provide a 're-scale' service for their 1/144 scale laser printed decals. 8A Decs do a 1/144 scale China Southern A320 - see here 8A Decs A320 China Southern You could e-mail John at 8A Decs to see if he could re-scale it to 1/200 for you. I have used 8A Decs and they are very good if you are happy using laser printed decals. And his service from Mexico is good too. Hope this helps Tim

Masking and painting the red part of the fuselage needs a bit of care and planning. The curve down from the tail, under the wings and on towards the nose is quite a complex shape to mask on a round fuselage. The kit's decal sheet contains red/grey curved lines that go between the red and white parts of the fuselage - you could photocopy the decal sheet and then tape these lines to the model as a guide to positioning the masking tape in the right place. There is also an error on the kit's wings which you'll need to rectify. The A320 doesn't have the small flap fairings in between the 4 main flap fairings on each wing, you should remove all these small fairings. Overall it should be an enjoyable build for a new modeller. Best of luck to you and your friend. Cheers Tim

Hi John That's a really fantastic finish - please, please share your secrets for painting the yellow to white fade. Cheers Tim

Hi Mac I have an unwanted complete set of the kit's decals which I can send you if you are interested. Cheers Tim

Hi Ray Thanks for your great feedback. You're right. Contrails make a very expensive conversion kit, but I honestly didn't think it was worth it as the conversion is so straightforward. I crafted the hump using an Airbus drawing as a template (see below) and from pics on Airliners.net. I just scaled the drawing to the kit's fuselage size and used it to position the kit's nose gear box in the right place (on the blue lines). Add some Milliput, job done and a small fortune saved. Thanks again Tim

Thanks everyone for your great comments, much appreciated. I used the cut out fuselage to make the cargo door and crew door. Unfortunately the largest (forward) fuselage cut was 21mm whereas the cargo door is 26mm wide, but nothing a bit of glue and sandpaper couldn't fix. Thanks again Tim

Something a bit different – an Airbus A330-200F, the cargo version of the A330-200 passenger aircraft. It’s quite rare to see an A330-200F as only 36 have been built to date. Apart from the main deck cargo door, the most visible difference from the passenger version is the distinctive hump under the nose. The passenger variant has a marked nose down attitude while on the ground, so the freighter’s nose gear has been lowered into a fairing beneath the front fuselage to lift the nose so that the main cargo deck is level when on the ground to help loading/unloading. I’ve converted Revell's 1/144 scale Airbus A330-300 into an A330-200F. This is quite a straightforward conversion – the front and rear fuselage shortened, all windows filled, together with fitting a new shorter tail fin and RR Trent engines (both from Braz Models). The nose gear fairing was made by mounting the kit’s nose gear bay in the lower position and sculpting the fairing using Milliput. The open main deck cargo door and crew door are scratch built. The Turkish Cargo decals were home made inkjet printed, with some of the kit’s original decals being used for the detail. I thought that this cargo version would look far better with doors open, so I’ve included some ground crew and equipment: > the cargo loader and pallets were scratch built > the passenger steps are from a Dragon 747 kit > the aircraft tug and towbar are from an Eastern Express aircraft tugs set > the people and transit van are N-scale railway accessories A few more pics below. Hope you like this conversion and cargo apron scene. Thanks for looking Tim

I wouldn't get too excited yet. If you take a look at The Rumourmonger thread here Revell 2017, the news release in German says that, while both are new kits with new engines and sharklets, the A320neo at skill level 3 will be a 'display only kit with no undercarriage' - the A321neo is skill level 4 including undercarriage. I only hope that for the A320neo somebody will produce an aftermarket landing gear conversion.

Hi Mate There's another thread about Virgin's new colours here Virgin Atlantic Colour Guidance It might be worth trying some of the suggested ways of achieving the mica light grey for the fuselage - gloss white I don't think will look right. Hope this helps Tim

Hi Niki Just seen your post. Here is a link to my build of 'Hong Kong Trader' which I think you are referring to - http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/234969458-boeing-747-8f-cathay-hong-kong-trader/ I used Nazca decals which are good. The white Hong Kong Trader lettering is a screen printed decal which goes over the green/blue paint no problem. The only issue with the decals is the Hong Kong skyline which has been printed exactly the same for both sides but it is actually slightly different on each side around the Hong Kong Trader lettering. However it is an easy fix by cutting and moving a bit of the skyline. The upper deck door decal is also totally wrong - use the one from the kit decal instead. The diamond shapes in the green/blue paint aren't provided in the decal - these have to be masked. I made a photocopy of the decal and used the decal's diamond shapes as the basis for making paint masks. Hope this helps. Best of luck with your build Tim

Hi Dave That is an amazing -700 build, especially considering that the Revell kit has a host of issues. The whole finish is quite superb. As a matter of interest, did you lift the cabin window line as part of your conversion? Great job Tim

Hi Drew Those of us who work in the aircraft industry probably just know lots of stuff. The beauty of Britmodeller is that if you're struggling with something you can pick the brains of others to get answers. Just keep posting - always happy to help. Cheers Tim

Hi John Yet another fantastic build. I'm always totally amazed at the level of detail you are able to achieve at 144 scale with the doors, interiors, etc. That takes serious skill. Altogether a superb job. Cheers Tim

That's an amazing model. Not only have you achieved a top notch conversion, the paint finish and decals are absolutely superb. A job extremely well done. Tim

Hi Drew The AA 757 is a great kit, I've built a couple and was very pleased with the end result - looking forward to seeing your progress. Re the decals, you could e-mail Ray at 2-6 Decals who I'm sure would answer your queries - he is always very helpful. What I can tell you is: A23 - are the fuselage fire rescue 'cut in area' markings - see Boeing's fire & rescue guide for their location http://www.boeing.com/assets/pdf/commercial/airports/arff/arff757.pdf A25 - is the ram air turbine door on the lower fuselage behind the starboard main landing gear fuselage door - can be seen in this pic http://www.jetphotos.net/photo/8284964 A26 - look like the towing limit lines on the nose gear doors Not sure about A27-29. Regarding cutting, I used a very fine razor saw to remove the resin blocks as close as possible to the part and then finished with some careful sanding on a flat surface to achieve a good join. I also drilled in a couple of small locating pins into each part to help precise positioning when gluing together with CA (just like in an injection kit). Hope this helps Tim

Hi Drew 737-500 fuselage length = 29.79m, 737-300 = 32.18m, difference is +2.39m of which +1.38m is ahead of the wing, +1.01m aft. At 144 scale you would need to add 9.5mm ahead of the wing and 7mm aft. If you want to get all the data yourself you can download the 737 planning manual from Boeing's website http://www.boeing.com/assets/pdf/commercial/airports/acaps/737.pdf Hope this helps Tim

Hi Mike - we're straying off topic but the slabs are 2 inch 50mm squares - which represents 24ft squares at 144 scale. Apparently airport concrete slabs are in the range 20-25ft square for optimum load bearing performance. Cheers, Tim

Hi Adam During my build of a BA 747-400 I felt that the fuselage was pretty flimsy considering the weight of the wings and that it was flexing too much. So I made a set of thick plastic discs to use as fuselage strengtheners, a bit like a vacform model. They definitely made the fuselage feel much stronger. Here is a copy of the template I made, sorry I don't have the scale dimensions but it can be simply scaled to the fuselage inside diameter. Also is a pic of the finished build in the BA OneWorld scheme - in my view when built OOB its unmistakeably a 747-400. Hope this helps Tim

You can download Embraer Airport Planning Manuals for each aircraft type from Embraer's website - http://www.embraercommercialaviation.com/Pages/Apms.aspx These give you the precise dimensions you'll need. Hope this helps Tim

Thanks for the comments - much appreciated. Engines and sharklets were Revell gloss yellow #12, wings were Xtracolor Airbus Grey #X359. Cheers Tim

You've made an excellent 737NG out of a kit with known "issues" - very well done In particular, your decals are superb. Also the Jet2 mica silver is difficult to re-create but you've positively cracked it. A great job all round Tim

Another fantastic build John. The Zvezda 777 is a joy to build, but the quality of your finish is truly amazing. Well done Tim

Great build, paintwork, detailing and decals - in particular the fern leaf paintwork is quite amazing. Like you and others, I've got a Zvezda 777-300 on the bench to be in Air New Zealand colours using the F-DCAL set. I'll be over the moon if I can complete mine anywhere near as good as your build. Well done Cheers Tim

Hi Drew I've got the EE aircraft tugs set. They are typical EE - by this I mean not good quality, poor fitting and in my view over-priced. But, like all other EE kits I've experienced, with a bit of effort they can be turned into something reasonably presentable. There are very few options for 144 scale ground equipment for creating a diorama. There has been a previous thread on this: http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/234952857-airport-gse/?hl=airport EE is therefore probably a reasonable route to go for buses, tugs, etc. I'm building a large tug to go with my Zvezda 777-300ER and will post some pics when its done. Hope this helps Tim