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  1. My latest build is the 1:144 Authentic Airliners A340-600 kit in Iberia colours. I made the sister of the A340, the A330, a few years ago and I didn't want to simply create an "A330 but with four engines." I didn't want to use Bra.Z's conversion (it has quite a few issues), so I was waiting for a new kit. Fortunately, Authentic Airliners came out with one, so I jumped on it right away when that one became available. Took me several years to finally complete it though. The Airbus A340-600 is a wide-body, four-engine commercial passenger aircraft developed in the late 1990s by the European aircraft manufacturer Airbus. It is the largest variant of the A340 family and is designed for long-haul flights, with a range of up to 14,600 km. The A340-600 can accommodate up to 475 passengers in a typical three-class configuration. The A340-600 was designed to compete with other long-haul aircraft such as the Boeing 777 and 747, as well as the McDonnell Douglas MD-11. At the time, the aircraft featured several innovations, including a new wing design with a higher aspect ratio and larger wing area for improved lift, as well as more powerful engines. It also incorporates modern avionics and a fly-by-wire control system for enhanced safety and efficiency. The first A340-600 was delivered to launch customer Virgin Atlantic in July 2002 and entered into service the same year. Other major users of the A340-600 include Lufthansa, Emirates, Qatar Airways, South African Airways and of course Ibera. Despite its advanced features, the A340-600 has faced challenges in the modern aviation market. Due to its four-engine design and higher operating costs, it is less popular than twin-engine aircraft like the Boeing 777, which offer similar performance and lower fuel consumption. Airbus ceased production of the A340-600 in 2011 after delivering a total of just 97 aircraft. In recent years, some airlines have retired their A340-600 aircraft or converted them into freighters. However, the A340-600 continues to operate with several major airlines and is known for its spacious cabin, comfortable seats, and pleasant flying experience. Overall, the A340-600 remains a remarkable aircraft in the history of commercial aviation. As said before, the kit is from Authentic Airliners and is truly fantastic. It captures the essence of the real thing perfectly (as usual). It’s quite a heavy kit though (0,7 kg) and as such metal undercarriage is supplied with the kit. Decals are from 8a Decs. Cockpit windows are from Authentic Airliner decals, as are some of the details. I’ve also used some details from various spare decals that I had laying around. The “metal” parts of the engine pylons are also decals, that I made and printed myself. The red navigation light on top of the fuselage is from Counting Rivets Models. At any rate the pictures (The display bases are made by me): All in all this was a very pleasant build and the largest kit I've ever build. The only problem I had was with the 8a Decs decal set. The decals are very thin and have a tendency to crumple. Also they didn’t line up at the top of the fuselage, so I had to cut them several times to get it just right. With six completed models, this will be the last one of the year to be finished by me. Next in line is the Zvezda 1:144 Il-62 Aeroflot (with the KLM logo) , but that one will most likely be completed next year. Thanks for reading and see you next time!
  2. Latest addition to my collection of 1/144 rockets: the New Ware Atlas Centaur SLV-3D Pioneer 10 Launch Vehicle. All-resin, 14-piece kit, crisply molded. Metallics with Alclad, and a couple spare decals to supplement. Sparingly applied enamel and clay washes. Scratch-built magnetic stand. Complete model is around 11". Thanks for looking!
  3. PLAN Wuhan project 33G, 1/144 bit of a beast, the flood holes just had to be opened out, or did they LOL. Still going, one hull half done, half the other, mid casing started on one side other to do. Opened and glazed with kristal clear wheelhouse in the sail. Missile tubes done, building OOB with the exception of flood holes etc. All the best Chris
  4. Been busy with Dads DIY for my daughters new home the last couple of month so not much time for modelling but we got rid of her yesterday she finally moved in yesterday. So should have more time now to relax and build again I built the 1/350 scale version of this back in May and then got the bigger version a couple of weeks ago at Scale Scotland show Started it at the club on Thursday night and got this far great kits and good value hopefully gives me some inspiration to get back to building again I had gone to the dark side with a Sherman build on the kitchen table. Stay Safe beefy
  5. This is the ICM kit of Aeroflots TU144 in 1/144 scale. I have not done any research into the kits history, if the mouldings belong to a previous vendor or if they relate in anyway to Revell's version of the same - enlighten me please... At face value, the kit looks OK for the price paid (£20). There are the normal delta wing join issues (if you have built Revells 1/144 Concorde or 1/72 monster you will know what I mean) and there are some nasty sink dips. The surface is finely scribed with crisp surface detail and the kit offers a nose up or nose down with canards extended option. The 2 fuselage halves are particularly flimsy and needed tubing added in between them stop them falling in on themselves while assembling. My pictures highlight the wing join issues; I have inserted some internal plasticard stripping where the fuel would have been stored to pack this out and have almost eradicated the problem. I am not going to bust a blood vessel on this as the subject is not too much of an interest to me (we got it right with Concorde didn't we) and I am enjoying other civil things in 1/200 scale, however it is a nice distraction from my norm and the first Russian subject I have ever built. It is different and not often seen as a completed model. The subject really lacks the majestic curves of Concorde, and I get the feeling I am modelling an ugly troll who had a beautiful British (& part French)sister. Intended to be modelled posed touching down with canards extended, I have made appropriate alterations to the wing ailerons.
  6. Good evening Fellow Modellers Aged 11 this was the first aircraft I flew, all the way from Newcastle to Belfast Aldergrove, back in 1975 for my first day at school. I was on my own but accompanied by my own stewardess so felt suitably important. This is the beautiful resin kit from Authentic Airliners with their window decals and markings from 26 decals. Local flying around the UK was often by Viscount in those days and I remember with fondness watching the world go by from those huge windows The Mammoth Major refueller and Sherpa van are from the excellent Ray Rimes Designs (3-D printed) Does it bring back any memories for some of you? Regards Andrew
  7. The kit. Shelf space is a premium so for bigger subjects I usually go for 1/144. I paid a little bit more than that The kit has no interior and pretty low parts count so goes together pretty quickly. Will need a little sanding and filling. I’ll let the adhesive set overnight first.
  8. Hello all Another brail scale completed today....the really nice Saab Draken from Platz in 1/144. Super simple construction made this a breeze of a build. Nothing added apart from a brass wire pitot tube. Paints were Mr Hobby, Xtracrylix and Vallejo. I looked at various photos to try and match the camo colours but every photo seemed to be different, so I used the Scandinavian Historic Flight machine as an example of what the paint colours would have been when factory fresh. Interestingly the blue grey ended up being close to EDSG so I chose that. Hope you like. Comments much appreciated IMG_20230911_190028 by Gray-1969, on Flickr IMG_20230911_190105 by Gray-1969, on Flickr IMG_20230911_190042 by Gray-1969, on Flickr IMG_20230911_190115 by Gray-1969, on Flickr IMG_20230911_190137 by Gray-1969, on Flickr IMG_20230911_185927 by Gray-1969, on Flickr IMG_20230911_185940 by Gray-1969, on Flickr IMG_20230911_190012 by Gray-1969, on Flickr
  9. Being a long time fan of the Hawker Sea Fury, I couldn't resist one of Mark I Models more recent kits. Two Sea Furies in one box! And for me, it had to be Korea where they distinguished themselves on interdiction operations from Royal Australian Navy and Royal Navy carriers. Hawker Sea Fury FB.11 VX764 / 134-K of No.805 NAS flown by Lt Cdr (P) W.P. Bowles (OC 805 NAS), HMAS Sydney, Korea. Autumn 1951 Hawker Sea Fury FB.11, WJ223/106-O No.802 NAS flown by Sub Lt. Brian 'Schmoo' Ellis (who shot down the MiG-15) HMS Ocean, Korea. Summer 1952 A few modelling details; Paint - Xtracolor X5 EDSG, X7 Sky and X814 Deep Bronze Green for the bombs, Humbrol 74 Linen for the Hawker primer yellow. Final coat of Winsor & Newton Artists' Acrylic Matt UV Varnish. Decals - Mark 1 and home produced. Scratched - Canopies and RAN rocket rails. Nice kits, built mostly OOB and not without the odd challenge. Took a bit longer than I'd planned. For those who might want more details of the builds, here's a link to the WIP; Thanks for looking.
  10. I built three 1/144 Hawker Hurricanes in other GBs this year, and while they aren't what I'm used to, I did enjoy them. From left to right, these are a Sweet fabric wing Hurricane in Belgian markings; a Zvezda Hurricane in an Egypt-based RAF night fighter scheme (kit was kindly given to me by @Mjwomack); and a Sweet metal wing Hurricane in Australian markings. The Sweet boxes include two kits, so I have a leftover set of metal wing sprues from this kit . . . . . . which I will use with these decals . . . . . . to model an FAA Hurricane for this GB! These are the sprues in the Sweet box: I'll be working with the clear ones, which is a bit different isn't it!?
  11. Boeing KC-135E Stratotanker 314th ARS, Air Force Reserve Command, Mather AFB, California Seen at Mildenhall, May 1989 It was the 'Foxy Lady' nose art that caught my attention during a visit to Mildenhall in May 1989 (probably the arrivals day for Air Fete 89 but can't quite remember!). This KC-135 was sitting in a good position for photography. It wasn't until 2001 that I got around to building the model, and at the time had my own photos as reference. I also had a very informative article from Scale Models magazine on the subject of 707 and derivatives fuselage lengths and wing types, including suggested methods of shortening the old Revell 707 kit. Time has moved on and as I brought the model down from it's attic resting place I was unable to locate neither my photos nor the article, which I had intended to scan and post here. However, to my surprise a simple Google search on 'Foxy Lady KC-135' came up with a photo of that aircraft on that day, which I have now included here! One day maybe I will find the magazine article and will scan and post it if/when I do. Meanwhile on with the pics. The Foxy Lady nose art was hand painted by the way and I haven't included a close up of it because it becomes too obvious that it was! The real thing on that day in 1989:
  12. The Boeing XB-47D Stratojet in 1/144th. The Boeing Stratojet is probably one of the nicest looking jets of the early jet age. In 1/72nd scale the Stratojet is very large model, and I have built two or three in the past. So, for a more manageable scale, I decided to use the Academy offering in 1/144th scale( Kit no 4443). The kit has been issued in differing guises over the years from the Hobbycraft variants B-47B, B-47E, and RB-47H issues, to the Academy B-47B variant boxing , and latterly offering by Academy which contains parts and decal options for all three that the separate Hobbycraft boxing's offered. So, for this particular build I wanted to replicate the XB-47D experimental version of which there were two airframes. These were conversions of the B-47B airframes each with two enormous Curtiss-Wright WT49 W-1 Turboprops driving 15ft 'Paddle Type' propellers in place of the twin podded jets under the inner wing. Two airframes were 51-2103 and 51-2046 with the former first flying on 26th August, 1955. Each Wright WT49 Turboprop developed 9710 horsepower and each 15' Curtiss Electric propeller had automatic feathering and also provided some ground reversing propulsion. My start point was an Academy B-47B/E boxing pictured, and the RetroWings XB-47D conversion set (RW44092), also pictured. I would probably need to rob my decal bank to make up the serials. My aim is to create something a little different than the normal B-47's seen on club tables or at shows. Anyway, onto the build......... The parts are crisply moulded and well detailed for this scale. After a little cleaning up the cockpit and undercarriage bays were painted in a Zinc Chromate Green type of colour, my mix is Tamiya Yellow Green XF-4 and Olive Green XF-58 roughly at a ratio of 3:1. Once dry the seats were painted up using various blacks, greys, greens, reds. To create a representation of seat belts I painted some thin paper pale brown, attached with PVA glue and some dots of black and silver to suggest buckles. I plan to add two instrument panels from thin plasticard and to be painted up to suggest instruments as the build enters its final stage. The XB-47D was converted from B-47 airframes so the panels in the fuselage were removed by gently scoring along the indicated lines and the early type RATO panels supplied in the kit installed. Some trimming and shims were needed to get a nice finish. I also found it helpful to add a brace behind the RATO panel to prevent distortion when filling/sanding. This meant that the rear wheel bay needed to have some plastic removed from either side to allow fuselage to fit correctly, luckily the plastic is thick enough to be adjusted without affecting the bay detail. Once done the cockpit was attached, wheel bays inserted into fuselage and once set the halves will be joined ensuring as good as a match as possible to minimise any filling. I will also attach the clear nose part for this version, the XB-47D was based on the B-47E, but the airframe retained the early more glazed nose of the B-47B rather than the solid of the B-47E, also the early internal RATO fitment of the B-47B. The wings were next up, and the outer engine positions cleaned up as there was a small gap at the rear of the fairings. This still needs a little more attention and some rescribing the lost/filled panel lines. Whilst on with the wings, I modified the flap layout and re-scribed the new altered flap using the resin flap inserts in the conversion set as a guide, rather than cutting the flaps out an the inserting the resin supplied flaps as indicated in the set. As for the new engines and pylons, I'm still mulling over the best way to tackle these.
  13. This model is in my collection for a very long time. I built it somewhere back in 1991/1993,not exactly sure what year in Lufthansa livery using the kits decals with punched through windows as per instructions. All was handpainted and of course looked less than perfect,but I had great fun back then in building this Airbus. Now a good 25+ years later this Airbus was still sitting in my vitrine,looking very worn out and dirty. I thought for sometime to keep it that way as a reminder of my childhood modelling skills,or throw it away in order to make some space for newer models but I couldn't get over it. So I decided to redo the model and give it some new life. Carefully remove all the parts,strip off the old paint with Revell's paint remover....a tedious task...but in the end the model was clean enough to start repair and enhancement work. All cracks and seams were refilled and sanded,the wing leading edges got their little fences,as Airfix does not provide them,they were made out of plasticcard. The landing gear was replaced by a new complete set that I had in my spares box. The decals are from Flight Path,pretty old but still in perfect condition. The windows come from the Revell A330 kit as well as some details and the coroguard panels are from DACO. Paints are from Revell (enamels) and Tamyia (acrylics) as I had to patch up some places around the nose and the Tamyia paints had been a perfect match. Aerocondor Colombia was the first Airbus operator in latin america and received their first A300 in 1977. It was planned to aquire a 2. A300 but due to some financial issues which lead to bankruptcy,only the "Ciudad de Barranquilla" flew in the colourful scheme of Aerocondor. Here she is now in resplended shape. Thats what she looked like before.Sorry for the picture quality but I took them on a short notice...
  14. Another one from my production line. Revell's 2013 re-release of their vintage 1993 A330 kit. It sat in my stash for the past 10 years before I finally got around building it. Qualitywise,its the same as the A340. Everything fits quite well and detail is nicely done. The highlight of this boxing is clearly the decal sheet,courtesy of NAZCA. There are countless detail markings that cover probably every detail of the original. The most tricky part to do was the masking/painting of the purple parts. The tail has to be painted as for the stripe,the violet part is on the decal. But matching the colors is very difficult,so I decided to paint on all purple parts. Revell gives a helping hand on the instruction sheet,although there are some serious errors in their measurements for the windowstripe. In the end I made a copy of the decal stripe and used it as a template. The purple paint is from Gunze Aqueous H39. It was the closest match I could find. Depending on the pictures on the net,the purple looks different from pic to pic.Some show a very faded out purple,others even a bit metallic. The rest is Gunze white primer for the white parts,Testors aircraft grey mixed with white for the wings and Revell 374 mixed with Revell aluminium 99. On a forum I once read that Revell has the wrong engines for the Thai version. Thai uses RollsRoyce engines on their A330s. I got a set of BRAZ RR engines,that were included on another A330 kit,that I got 2nd hand. Research on the net later showed unfortunately the opposite... Thais earlier batch of A330s from 1994 to 97 had PW engines as depicted in the Revell boxing. As Thai Airways has named all of tjeir aircrafts,I had to "cheat"a bit... The superb Authentic Airliners detail set came to the rescue. There are "open" door decals included. So I used them on both sides.As the doors swing open outside/forward,they hide the name on both sides,which saved me a lot of trouble.😊 Cheers
  15. Boeing 720-048 Aer Lingus early 1960s Roden 1/144 kit with Welsh Models resin engines (kit engines are far too big - a shame because they are nicely moulde Twosix decals Paint finish - Halford's Appliance White + AK Polished Aluminium with Xtracrylic grey panels
  16. It has been quite a while sice I posted something. I had a busy time,and also the weather here was not the best to make pictures on the balcony. Modelling was very busy though and a lot of airliners got finished since last summer.Some had been pre-started and finally finished,others were built from scratch. So,here are the first of a larger batch of kits that I will post in the comming days. I had the rather crazy idea of building my 8 A330/A340 kits ,I had in my stash for some years,more or less simultaneously. Had I known what a task that would be beforehand,I would not have gotten me into this mega-project.🤪 For my A340s I decided to correct the inner engines as good as possible. Revell's A340 was first released in early 1991 and has a few accuracy issues as it seems based on earlier drawings. The most obvious are the engines.They miss the little fences and the inner engines hang low due to the too high engine mounts. The outer engines look fine though and compared with the real thing,the inner engines should be at the same hight as the outer ones. To correct this as good as possible,I cut off the mounts from the nacelles and shortened them about 1mm.Then I reattached them on the nacelles using liquid plasic and a bit of superglue. The inlet rings on all engines were recreated with pieces of plasticard ,to avoid a seam. The rest of the build was by the book. The kit is very nicely detailed,esp. the landing gear,which makes it a bit fiddly to install though. Paints used are Gunze white primer for the white parts,Revell red 31 ,Testors aircraft grey mixed with white for all the grey areas and Revell grey 374 mixed with a few drops Revell aluminium 99 for the inspar panels. The decals for the Edelweiss livery come from DRAW decal and are of great quality with a very thin carrierfilm.Application requires some attention. I chose HB-JMD because that was the Airbus I flew on in 2018 from Zurich to Ho Chi Minh City on my way to Manila. It was a very comfortable flight with a great service. Edelweiss is the charter subsidiary of Swiss and has 5 A340s in service,all former Swiss aircrafts. The A340 was delivered factory new in December 2003 and changed to Edelweiss in September 2018. I actually wanted to photograph the A340 on my regular "apron" but I must have misplaced it😳 now a piece of runway has to do for the moment... Cheers
  17. Hello, First try at aircraft since I was a kid (a long time ago!) I usually do ships, but came across some 1/144 resin British aircraft at Telford last year from https://www.144th.co.uk/ Picked up a Buccaneer and a Lightning. Lovely kits, great quality and very nicely detailed. Only extra bits I added were ejection seat handles, seat belts from odd bits of etch, a piece of acetate sheet to represent the 'hood' over the navigators position s the kit part is necessarily quite heavy, and some bits of etch and wire to replicate the wing folding mechanism. I need to work on my aircraft weathering!! This is the Buccaneer ready for inspection; Ejector seat handles from 0.2mm copper wire; Wing fold mechanism from spare etch and wire; Thanks for looking and any feedback gratefully received. Cheers Nick
  18. A build I recently finished as part of a Minicraft RIP Group Build over on KG144. This is the first boxing of this kit that Minicraft released, no less, from 1998. I reckon the second half of the 1990s was the golden age for Minicraft, being when they were producing their own new moulds with the DC-3, DC-4 and Catalina also dating from this period. The kit is quite basic in many respects, but Cobra company came along with a very good resin update set that included props, radar domes and jet engines. I've used one of the Blackbird Models re-issues of this set. I also used the sublime Caracal Decals set for the C-97, which includes decals for this rather unusual HC-97G from the 305th Aerospace Rescue and Recovery Squadron based at Selfridge AFB in Michigan. The 305th operated the HC-97G for seven years from 1965 in first aluminium and latterly overall gray schemes with yellow bands. During this time it undertook Air Sea Rescue missions across the upper and mid-western US but also around the globe in support of both NASA and US military operations, including in Southeast Asia. You may well wonder what use a lumbering great transport like this could possibly have in an air rescue mission, where at least some emergencies would not have taken place adjacent to a convenient 3000yrd runway. Well, the HC-97Gs were converted to both drop parachute rescue teams but also serve as airborne command posts for managing large-scale rescues (serving as a comms relay, directing in helicopters etc., classic pre-satellite era stuff). Only ever a temporary fix, they served to bridge the gap between the ageing HC-54s (Cargomasters) and the HC-130 (Hercules), which filled a similar role until the 1990s ushered in a new era and approach to air rescue. Source - Global Aviation Resource The USAF contracted Fairchild-Stratos to convert 29 KC-97G tankers, then low-hours airframes being phased out of service for the KC-135. My research suggests that for my 1:144 scale purposes the conversion consisted of omitting the flying boom, adding some bonus aerials and ensuring that the rear cargo doors were scribed on. Most of the other changes being internal relating to plumbing the HC-97 for extra-long endurance flights. I've built 5 of these kits before and they go together well. So there were no great surprises. The canopy needed some fairing in to avoid a gap at the rear. This was my first time using the resin engines but they worked fine and are a big improvement on the blank engine faces and toylike props in the kit. Overall a nice kit - but the Cobra/Blackbird engines and props make a big difference I think. Here she is on some remote dusty station assisting in a rescue effort. Not the most exciting scheme but unusual and interesting nonetheless I think. I confined my weathering to the engines as that's all I could see in photos - otherwise these were kept really very clean. There's something very impressive about the C-97 I think. And finally with a fellow rescue aircraft that has spent far too long on the bench...longer than it spent in service actually. Thanks very much for looking. Angus
  19. Some pictures of a Hawker Sea Hawk I finished. It is a relatively new styrene kit from the small Czech company Miniwing and I haven’t seen one built up elsewhere yet. It’s a nice kit overall. Very gratifying to build. It does benefit from a bit of refining here and there. For instance I bored out the exhausts which were q thick. I also rebuilt a tail hook from scratch. I think the hook bit is still a bit too large but then the kit one is elephantine. The resin Miniwing kit one was etch I recall. Apart from all the antenna which were obviously scratch built, I also added in the spent casing dispensers and the catapult hook under the nose from plasticard. I think the intakes I substituted (wedges of .5mm plasticard glued in place then trimmed) worked better than the kit parts which don't fit at all and mess up the upper/lower fuselage fit. That's the only change I'd positively recommend anyone attempting this kit do. I'm pleased with how transparent the cockpit is. Miniwing get good marks for that! I also think this largely captures the look of the Sea Hawk, and the stance on the ground. I thinned the undercarriage doors and glued the wheels in their characteristic 'instep' - though one is looking a bit too cock-eyed in this picture. I was pleased with my painting and weathering - I'm always amazed at how the matt coat knocks back the oils post-shading. I quite like the effect here. Thanks very much for looking. Angus
  20. A Rafale An F1 And an extremely ropey Mirage IIIR Sunce they’re all small I’ll group them in the one thread. The first two should be very straightforward but the Heller kit has raised panel lines and wings professor Junkets would have been proud of…
  21. I couldn't wait until I'd finished the Viggen before I started this one, so I cut parts from the sprue last night. I haven't seen one of these on here so here the obligatory sprue shots. Lots of plastic in the box. A tiny Cewbacca Cockpit painted up.
  22. This is the 1/144-scale Revell Ariane 4 kit from 1985. The kit includes the rocket and launch tower, complete with badly yellowed decals. There are some inaccuracies owing I believe to the fact that the kit predated the rocket's maiden launch in 1988; for one, the Viking rocket motors are totally the wrong shape. The launch tower, though inaccurate, adds some nice framing to the finished model. Even though I was able to mostly bleach out the yellowing on the decals (by taping the decals to my window and giving them a few months of sun), they still weren't quite clear enough against the white finish of the rocket. Luckily I had on hand the decals from the 1/125 Heller kit, which, surprisingly and happily, were about the same size. Finished she stands just under 17" tall. Painted with Tamiya, Mr. Color, and Alclad paints. Some wash and pigment on the tower, some light wash on the rocket body to add some contrast. Thanks for looking!
  23. Hi All, Edit: Having written all of this it seems like I've done a mini kit review as we go as such so feel free to read or just skip to the photos. I couldn't resist picking up a boxing of Karaya's (Hasegawa Re-Box) Embraer 170 when I saw that they were going to release it. As I'm sure you will all agree the cost of some 'rare' kits on Ebay is quite ludicrous these days (I genuinely saw the Hasegawa 1/48 Sea King HAR MK.3 fetch £250) back in November and more recently some British Sea King decals go for £56) and anytime I saw the E170 get listed it would likewise reach bidding prices I felt outweighed what you were getting for the kit. In any case, I picked up the kit from Hannant's for a fairly reasonable price of £28.99, this still seems a touch steep in price when you consider how much you get for you money (especially when comparing the prices of Revell's recently released A300 Beluga at £36 or their A330 which according to Hannants will be even cheaper than the A300 Beluga.) But I think it's really important to support the smaller companies like Karaya who I admittedly don't know much about but if they keep on producing and re-boxing kits that you might deem a bit more on the unusual side then I'm all for paying a bit extra. Karaya have so far released 4 boxings of the E170 with a variety of markings 1) LOT 2) US Airways and United Express 3) Alitalia and Finnair 4) Limited Edition LOT Special Livery. I wouldn't be surprised if they released more in future such as HOP, Jet Blue, American Eagle, Delta, etc as the appeal to the American market might be fairly large. Bra.Z Models also produce the alternate wingtips not provided in the kit and a resin fuselage to convert the kit to the E175 which I might consider at some point in the future. In any case onto the kit: The kit is rather small in both size and parts so good for someone after a relatively quick build and or limited by storage capacity (for me both kind of apply!). Nevertheless I'm afraid this won't be an in-and-out job as I'm renting a small place with no real space for an airbrush, and certainly whilst I am finishing my training I don't have much time for anything other than basic construction on models. Also if you're a fan of having a 1/144 cockpit and clear windshield this isn't the kit for you! The fuselage is your standard plastic halves without any cut-out or separate piece for glass. I'm sure there's an expert caster and 3D printer out there who could make me very happy and make a cockpit and glass hint hint.....! Construction is relatively simple as you would expect although there are a few minor areas to watch out for which I'll attempt to highlight along the way. As you can see below I love how Hasegawa designed the kit to include a clever nose weight system involving a bolt which you glue into the nose. For some reason, the nut and bolt didn't tighten up properly (nothing that a few drops of super glue didn't solve) but you might be able to consider it an advantage as I was able to get more weight further forward and over the nose to ensure the model won't be a tail sitter. As I'm writing this I've realised that I am posing the aircraft on the stand that comes in the kit or I'll make my own making the nose weight redundant but it's still nice to have it in just in case I ever need to display the aircraft on it's wheels. The details on the kit are, on the whole, good although perhaps a touch uneven and soft in some areas so these areas were deepened with a razor saw or scribing needle where needed. The plastic isn't nearly as soft as Zvezda's kits which I like and makes scribing easier. The fuselage however is a touch disappointing in my opinion, fine panel lines are limited to the area around the wing root, tail, nose, windscreen and doors. The Karaya painting instructions clearly indicate the locations of all the panel lines that should be there on the fuselage but referring back to the Hasegawa instructions they aren't there. I'm rather confused as to why Hasegawa decided to omit them from the moulding process as the wings and fuselage look very odd paired up together, the wings having such good fine detail and the fuselage being so bare and boring. I may end up attempting to scribe them in but I hate scribing and am a touch afraid of getting it all badly wrong and the kit looking horribly asymmetrical as a result. On the subject of the cockpit windscreen panel lines, try as I might they wouldn't line up. Either the top or bottom lines remain offset by a minute amount. As you can see in the photo the area ringed in red is nicely aligned whereas the lower region ringed in black is offset by a tiny amount (zoom in to see this properly as I admit the photo doesn't make it obvious). Also I had to be really careful when sanding the seam line ringed in green to avoid wrecking the raised surface detail which could be considered to be a touch overscaled for a 1/144 model, however I know I'm being super picky and I don't mind at all (just letting you rivet counters out there know for future reference!) The instructions tell you to assemble the wings first before attaching them, the system is, in some way, similar to the Zvezda method rather than the older Revell system of building both wings and then glueing them into slots in the fuselage. Here I opted to ignore the instructions and put in the underside of the fuselage/wing-root piece which assisted the fitting and sanding process. Any gaps were large enough to fill with sprue-goo (see yellow arrows in the photo) rather than needing any plasticard, I could have used epoxy putty which might have made the smoothing process easier but on previous builds epoxy-putty has messed up and rescribing so this kit is a but if an exploratory project for me because I don't claim to be a pro by any means. I forgot to take a photo of this part but I have outlined the shape of the part in red in the photo below. When it came to fitting the upper wings the dry fit revealed that there was a slight gap between the wing root and where it met the fuselage part. I opted to place small pieces of plasticard on the wing parts instead of epoxy putty or sprue-goo as I wasn't too sow how much surface detail I'd lose in the clean-up and sanding. In hindsight, I'm not too sure if it was the best option as when I sanded them down to fit the profile of the wing and slightly back to make sure they weren't too thick but it has created a slight problem of the wing profile not matching up to the wing root but this should (hopefully) be solved with some sprue-goo and intricate sanding. Many thanks for taking the time to have a look and please let me know if you'd rather just see the photos and have a bit less of the explanation. Only thought was as this is a kit some people might not have made and might consider making having some reference material might be an idea. Cheers, Mark
  24. Hello all, I have just completed this kit. A very easy build with some minor fixes only. Movability isn't ideal due to the heavy armour, joints are solid without using PC parts. You can find the WIP here :
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