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I've got a little bit of a thing for Lockheed aircraft, and especially the twin engined types. Postwar civil conversions are a fascinating topic in their own right and the L12 Super Electra and L18 Lodestar really bridging the jump from single engine 6-seater planes right up to the extraordinary and fabulous Constellation series of airliners. Fantastic bit of aviation history wrapped up here and of course the gamechanging WW2 thrown in to the mix.. I've done L12 Super Electras, even bashed the ancient Airfix Hudson into an example, and L18 Lodestars, and PV1 Venturas, and now I finally have a kit of the ancestor, the first of the twins, the little L10 Electra. Good old Special Hobby Sad to see this little beauty with so much fame and history being marketed in some rediculous military splodge camo livery, an alternative scheme is supplied for the Romania Airforce..... I kid you not A 3rd option is catered for, as the Amelia Earhart Special which was lost without trace over the Pacific Ocean. This tragic loss makes it probably the most famous of the L10s. Amelia had already made some epic flights in the single engined Lockheed Vega, across the American continent and notably from Newfoundland across the Atlantic, landing in Northern Ireland with a few onboard difficulties and 100 gallons still in the tanks. It's reported that the authorities charged her import duty on the 100 gallons. Anyway, the kit is by Special Hobby who have been really raising their game over recent years. This kit has an air of being one of their earlier productions. Still very nicely done and moulded but perhaps a bit more "short run" in style with a number of resin cast pieces and a clear vacform cockpit Canopy. I'll be honest, I've made a start, sorting out the resin cockpit parts, before starting a WIP. Just in case I fell over the first hurdle Not sure that I like resin parts, and I hate working with CA superglue. But I managed. Somehow.... There's no reason they wouldn't produce these items in styrene now, I'm sure, but it probably seemed the way forward at the time. So I'm feeling Good to Go with this one Bare metal foil of course for this, and the final livery to be decided. Not the Amelia plane as I want to have all the windows clear.... I'll just have to bide my time and explore the civil options. I'm well pleased to finally get my hands on one of these for my Lockheed collection

This is my first serious build. Prior to this I'd glued a few kitset models together as a child & did build a 1:200 A320. The kit is a 1:144 scale F-RSIN ATR72, sourced here in New Zealand through OldModelDecals with my choice of decals - https://www.oldmodelsdecals.com/ATR72-DHC7-8-Saab340-CV580.html Originally I wanted to do the Pacific Wave livery, but ended up settling on the Trade Mark White livery.

This is the 1972 NITTO kit of the DC-10. NITTO,later Doyusha produced a range of airliner kits in 1/100 scale,like the 747,TriStar,767,DC-9,707,727,737,DC-3 and Concorde. The quality of those kits is very nice,given the time when they were produced,with resessed panel lines and some fine details. The 747 kit was back then,the largest injection moulded kit ever and is very impressive,both in size and amount of detail. The DC-10 is also quite a good kit,considering its 50 years of age. In some places the fit is tricky and some areas need a bit of improvement/corrections. Things I added/ corrected or improved are Engine inlet on No.2 engine: plastic tube inserted to get a more realistic look and a seamless intake. Intake ring recreated with Evergreen plastic sheet to get a round inlet. Wing engines: Inlet rings recreated like on No.2 engine,top and bottom of the housing flattened to get it more round. Otherwise its egg shaped. Landing gear: Hydraulic cables, disc brakes on the main gear,struts added to the front gear Rudders lowered,these went in down position once the hydraulic pressure was off on the ground Intake on the left side opened up and the flap inserted diagonal as on ground operation Landing lights on the fuselage sides drilled open and recreated with white glue Position lights on the wings:drilled 2 small holes into the clear parts,clear red/green paint inserted and glued on the wings with white glue Cockpit:Front window /nose angle corrected as good as possible,otherwise its shape is like on the Caravelle with no step between window and nose. The decals for the Demonstrator come frome the kit. Despite their age they worked quite well,only the white between the red and blue lines isnt as white as it should be. I had no choice as to keep it as is because the silver framed window openings and cabin doors are printed on the stripes. To get the windows and doors alligned,I cut the decal into 5-6 sections and applied separately to avoid any discrepancies with the fuselage windows and door outlines. The frame for the cockpit was done with silver decal stripes, Paints are Gunze white surface primer 1000 for the upper half,Gunze grey primer 1000 for the wing box and inspar panels. Gunze metallics . Sealed with Gunze Premium Gloss. This DC-10-10 was delivered to United Airlines after completing flight tests on 3 june 1972 and went to FedEx on 22. october 1998.

Back in the year 2000,Revell USA released their ancient Boeing 707 kit as Boeing 720. The first issue dates back to 1964,as they released it as KC-135 Tanker/Transport. Since then the kit appeared in many different airline markings,none of which of course resembled the real thing. Revell's 707 comes, if anything, closest to a 707-120. For this project,I decided to try to modify the kit as good as possible to produce a 720. The fuselage was shortened in front and behind the wings,counting the recessed cabin windows,compared to the real thing. Some slight adjustments were unavoidable to get the fuselage segments seamlessly back together. So there is a 2mm discrepancy in length to its 1/139 scale. But its as close as possible you can get with that kit. The main gear wheels I replaced with wheels from a Revell 747-100. They have the same size to the kit parts but are far more better detailed + the original wheels suffered from poor moulding. The cockpit was replaced with a DACO canopy to correct the front section. The kit features just window holes and looks completely off.Some later releases had a clear window part and there the shape was quite right. The rest of the kit was built OOB. The most challenging part was the painting,esp. the wings. Research on the net showed many different color patterns on the 720,even on United aircrafts,so I picked what I thought looked the most interesting. The silver/white on the fuselage was done with masks.I copied the decals and used the paper copies as layout pattern. The cheatline decal is printed with the blue,white and gold as one unit. I remembered from an earlier attempt to build this kit,that the white is not opaque. So here I decided to trim away the white parts. As I had shortened the fuselage,the decals had to be trimmed as well. I used first the copies to find out where to cut and create the correct layout. That worked out well and only slight touch ups were needed Paints are my usual brands,Gunze,Tamyia,Testors. Its not 100% accurate but I am quite pleased with the outcome. For a more accurate Boeing 720,there is the Roden kit. It was an interesting and fun build,despite its issues I like those Revell 707 wanabees Something new for the photoshoot...the runway is from the Hawk/Round 2 Comet kit Alex

This was an airline that I wanted to have for a long time. I flew with them on one of their A340s from Zurich to Saigon in 2018 and was impressed by their service standard. I planned to make one of my A340 kits with that livery but unfortunately the decal set from 8a decals was out of print. So I looked for the Revell A320 kit with those decals instead. It took a while to find an affordable one but I managed it finally. But I wanted it a bit different,so I used a Zvezda A320 kit,which offers a nice cockpit,options for an open door and lowered flaps. Its depicting something like a maintenance check,but I havent got some ground equipment for it yet. The cockpit is necely detailed but I added arm rests to the seats,thrust levers to the middle console and painted on the display screens. A logbook was placed behind the co-pilots window to add something extra. The entrance was enhanced with detailed painting and the blue carpet was created with Tamyia masking tape. After closing up the fuselage,not much of the work can be seen though.... The flaps and slats construction is a bit complicated explained in the instructions,so some research and photo reference of the real thing was needed. The construction itself is easy as the parts fit very well. Painting and weathering was the most work on this project. Careful masking for the red front to get it symetrically was tricky. Paints are Gunze white primer 1000,clear coated with Gunze Premium Gloss. Gunze gloss red,wings are painted with Testors aircraft grey mixed with white.Coroguard panels are from the Zvezda decal sheet. The "Edelweiss" billboard had no window openings ,no idea why Revell did it this way.Their decal sheet only provides silver frames for the windows. As I opted for open windows, I applied the decals over the windows,then clear coated them.After dry I used a new sharp blade and cut out each window, then filled in the windows with white glue.After that the silver frames were applied. This is one of my most sophisticated models to date,for my first time doing all these things,I am quite pleased with the result. Alex

These two kits were started in early 2021,but just got finished recently. 2020 saw the 50th anniversary of both the Lockheed L-1011 TriStar and the McDonnell Douglas DC-10,so these were built,a bit late I know ,as part of my anniversary builds. The DC-10 Demonstrator is already here on the RFI. This is the original Otaki kit released somewhere around 1970-1972 and is the most accurate TriStar injection moulded kit. They are being sold for silly prices on some well known sites because of their rarity status. I did not mention the Eastern Express kit here,because its more or less a copy of the Otaki kit,with some slight modifications and added parts.The exception is the -500. It features recessed panel lines and lots of details everywhere on the parts. They are a tad too deep,but nothing that sandpaper cant fix and with paint on,its quite ok. A nice feature that comes with the kit are the air stairs.Otaki provides not only one but two ! and also a display stand is included. The decal has options for the TWA twin globe livery and the All Nippon Airways "mohican" livery. They are nicely printed,a bit thick though. Due to their age,the carrier film has a bit yellowed but otherwise they are fine. For my builds I chose the Demonstrator version and the Air Canada delivery scheme. The demonstrator decals are from Classic Airlines by Nick Webb. They are of good quality,durable and fit on the model with just minor adjustments. Some extra parts are included if something goes wrong or does not line up properly. The Air Canada decals are from 26 and are wonderful as well. A big plus there is the detail sheet with everything necessary provided. The windows are from Authentic Airliners. Paints are from Tamyia and Gunze. Cheers Alex

Hello again. Its been a while since my last post and here is the my first airliner model for 2022. Hasegawa 1/144 Embraer E-170 Saudi Arabian Airlines livery. The kit is a generic Hasegawa kit, which is no problem in the building, with very little sanding and filling required. Only addition to kit is navigation lights in the wings. As to decals, it was a complete disaster! I used Gio Decals set which is known to be very brittle and not responsive any decal solution. This one is no exception. During the application cheatline completely destroyed. So I had to make my own cheatline by using decal paper spaying gold and cut it 1mm wide. Other elements of the decal tended to silver after dry. Lots of careful trimming away the clear film took care of the silvering, not perfect but a lot better than without. So, I am not satisfied the finish in term of decaling however, I decided leave as it is. The windows are from Authentic Airliners as usual. Paints used were mixture of Mr. Color C44 and white for the upper fuselage, Mr. Color C316 for the lower fuselage and engine nacelles and MRP Boeing Grey for the wings and stabilisers. Metals are a mix of Alclad. Its in my opinion not quite up to my usual standard due to the problematic decals but it looks good. Hope you like it. Cheers! Berk.

Started somwhere in 2020,I finally managed to get this off my bench. I already built a 747-400F by using a Revell -200 fuselage and the wings of a Revell -400. For this build however,I used the fuselage of an incomplete Airfix 747 kit and the wings of the Revell -400, I had in my spares. Mating these parts was a major task,as the Airfix kit has no wingbox,the wing root had to be built up with sheet styrene and putty. I also tried to correct the front end as good as possible, Many sessions of puttying and sanding were necessary to make everything look smooth. The decal for the Singapore Cargo comes from V1 decals and are very well printed and nice to work with. Painted with Gunze white surface primer 1500 for the entire fuselage,and Gunze enamels for the rest of the model. All in all,I am pleased with the result and happy to have been able to use parts from the spares entirely for this 747. Cheers Alex

I owe the pleasure of this kit to fellow modeler John Eaton, that very kindly let it go so I could have a go at this extremely exciting build. As we corresponded, John commented on what must have been to travel to exotic places on this gentle beast, in absolute luxury that only the well-heeled could afford. As many of you know, there were in fact two of these Handley Page types, the HP42 and HP45, four machines each. One covered the Eastern routes while the other covered the Western ones. They differed on the powerplants, propellers, and seat number and arrangement. Many other external details varied from plane to plane too, so as usual photo references are a must. I have wanted to build this vacuformed kit for a long time. And to think that I believed that I was handling a "big kit" and model when I built this same manufacturer's Blackburn Kangaroo, but this behemoth is far, far bigger, almost 55 ctms. in span (that is for you still leaving in the dark ages about 21 1/2 inches). This design epitomizes "The Beauty in the Beast" character that I so much love about vintage, Golden Age planes: ungainly, preposterous, but ultimately irresistibly charming. Through the years I gathered so much references on this type, that only to go trough the graphic material takes me hours (I just did it, again), not to mention the written portion of it that I leave for a rainy day (or days). The Contrail kit is not state of the art as we all know, but I believe it will provide a decent base for a good model. The kit , reputedly released in 1982 (37 years ago!!!) comes with some goodies in the form of Aeroclub's white metal engines and four-blade props, some airfoiled material, a metal rod for the landing gear, a few molded parts (wheels and such) a cut of clear (now yellowed) plastic and some extra styrene sheet. Accompanying the package are printed instructions, quite clear for what I can tell at a glance, and clearly printed reference photographs, not the fuzzy blackened photos much newer manufacturers some times provide. A big decal sheet is also provided to cater for (I think) every HP42/45. Not sure about how it survived the passage of time, we'll see. This kit also provides a full interior, cockpit and cabin. There is a particular piece of engineering in this kit, as the cabin interior is eventually wrapped within a shell, which sides have the curtains already molded in, and you have to cut off the "window" area. That sub-assembly is later enclosed by the fuselage sides. The monster kit: Some details included, among them Aeroclub white metal engines and props. Notice that the Eastern route machines had different, stacked two-blade props, easier to carry on as replacements: Contents of the box: Interior provided: The cabin "shells": A Parnall Pixie (same scale) could take off... ...and land on this plane's wing: Now, because I am building at the same time seven models (six of which are posted here as ongoing WiPs), this one may have to wait a little.

My scale model airliner build portfolio basically serves as a Cathay Pacific advertisement at this point, and this one is no exception lol. Subject - Cathay Pacific Boeing B777-300ER (B-KQY) The Boeing B777 was designed as a widebody long-haul aircraft designed as a replacement to aging B747s. Having been the first airliner fully designed with CAD, as well as Boeing’s first airliner to fully use fly-by-wire controls, it represented a quantum leap in airliner efficiency. Cathay Pacific Airways is the flag carrier of Hong Kong, offering passenger and cargo flights to international destinations around the world. It is considered one of the world’s largest and most prestigious airlines. The airline was heavily involved in the development of the B777, even becoming the recipient of the first prototype and the launch customer of the -300 variant. Cathay Pacific continues to use the type heavily in medium and long-haul routes, and is one of its largest operators. The aircraft depicted is B-KQY, one of CX's newer 777s that I was on twice, one from an FCO-HKG flight and on another in an HKG-MNL flight. The fact that I've built this same aircraft multiple times before made it easier to make the decals and copy the window layouts. B-KQY now seems to reside in storage along with other CX aircraft at Alice Springs, Australia for obvious pandemic-related reasons. Build I was originally planning to build this as an Emirates bird but a few days into the project made me decide that the CX livery was too good to pass up. I actually built Cathay 777s in the same livery before, one in 1/144 (B-KPK) and one in 1/200 (also B-KQY) but neither project really left me satisfied with the end result. Years after, and having accumulated what I hoped was enough modelling experience, I decided to tackle the 777 again one more time, partly as a gauge for how much I've improved. This was painted with mostly Armored Komodo lacquer paints and the paint mixtures were eyeballed with various so unfortunately I don't have a proper formula to give. Gloss was with GX112 polished with Tamiya and Novus polishing compounds and micromesh. Decals were a combination of 26Decals from the Emirates decal sheet I bought for the initial Emirates livery I wanted to do and Cathay Pacific decals designed and printed by myself with inkjet decal paper. Everything else is out of the box, short of the wi-fi dome I 3d printed. Kit - Zvezda 1/144 Boeing B777-300ER Going into it, I was expecting to be met with fit issues and seams given my experience with the similarly tooled Revell kit, so I was pleasantly surprised that the Zvezda kit went together easily and without too much fuss. If I had to talk about anything that could have been done better, the breakdown of the fuselage and wings makes it so that the belly is attached to the wing assembly. This makes it difficult to assemble and do polishing work on the wings, and also means that if you wanted to leave the wings off until after painting and decaling, you would have to sand, fill and repaint at the seam. I really liked Revell's engineering approach to their A350 and A380 wings wherein the wings can be left off until the end, and it would be nice if Zvezda did the same. It isn't really relevant in my case because 26decals included almost all the decals necessary for a 777, but Zvezda's inclusion of decals in this kit is very lackluster and misses out on a lot of big details. If you are buying an aftermarket set of decals for this kit, better to make sure that the set you buy includes 777 stencils or buy those separately. Decals This is the first time I've used 26decals, and although I had to pay a huge premium for the Emirates decals that I never used anyway, the other decals went down really well and the borders are practically invisible once applied. They're very thin though so extra care needs to be taken in applying them as it is easy to rip or fold them accidentally. - Overall, this build turned out to be a lot more enjoyable than I was expecting, and I'm happy to be able to do justice to this aircraft once and for all, with the end result being a Cathay 777 that I can feel satisfied with. Thanks for looking, feedback and comments are appreciated!

Dear fellow modellers, I would like to show you my latest finished model. The Caravelle III is made from the very challenging Mach 2 kit with the use of Werner Lehmann's excellent Authentic Decals Window set and the Airway Graphics set for the SAS livery. The most visible flaw of the kit is the wrong position of the cockpit windows. This could be mitigated by the use of decals but required a lot of sanding. Other difficulties where the fit of the wings to the fuselage. I opened one engine nacelle and put in an engine. The experts will recognize where it comes from originally. I cut out the flaps and installed them in a lowered position, a state you can often observe on fotos of parked aircraft. The original OY-KRD is preserved in a Danish museum and I used some fotos to work out some details. Enjoy watching the fotos! greetings from Germany, Norbert

Next up in my 767 collection is LTU SÜD Boeing 767-300ER. LTU SÜD was a subsidiary of Dusseldorf based charter airline LTU,and had its base at Munich airport. It operated a fleet of 757-200s and 767-300ER to various holiday destinations. I remember the 767-300 standing next to our DC-8-63 in Mombasa when we were boarding for our return flight to Switzerland back in october 1992. I was still a teenager back then and as soon as we got home,I went to the local modelshop to pick up the Revell 767 kit with these markings. The result of my build was less than stellar,partially to my limited modelling skills and patience back then and also because of the mediocre decal set provided in the kit. Anyway,I had much fun with my model back then. Now,a good 30 years later,I thought it was time to rebuild this aircraft,this time though,I used the Zvezda kit as a base,just because the kit has the correct window and door layout for the LTU version and I also planned on using only the registration and the white LTU and LTU SUD markings from the afforementioned Revell kit. The whole livery was airbrushed and for the details I used parts from the PAS detail set and decals from my spares box. Compared to the Revell 767,the Zvezda kit is mire detailed and also more accurate in some areas. All panel lines are very fine and recessed,same goes for the flaps on the wings. They are a bit too fine for my liking,on the wings I think the Revell kit is better done. The landing gear and wheels are much better and more detailed on the Zvezda kit. Both kits are very nice and considering the fact that the Revell version came out a good 25 years before the Zvezda kit,it still holds up very well.A big bonus is also the engine option. PW or RR engines are provided on some Revell kits,alas Zvezda gives you only PW engines. Paints used are Gunze white primer,gloss coated with Gunze Premium gloss and Revell red 31. Wings are painted with Gunze light grey 315,and my Tamyia mix of 66 and 56 for the corogard. Metallics are from Gunze as well. Apart from the poir decals from the Revell kit,the build was easy and straight forward.The kit goes together really well. Cheers Alex Some photos to compare the Revell (BA) and the Zvezda kit (LTU)

This is the original Revell 767-300 kit that came with Gulf Air and British Airways decals and additional RollsRoyce engines in 1992. The decals were not in the best condition,although I used the Gulf Air decals for an other 767. The BA decals had an error in the tail,so I ordered a set from 26decals that also offered the option to build all BA -300s as well as the -200s that flew in the USA. The windows are from Authentic Airliners,quite an adventure to get the correct layout for each 767... The build was straight forward.Everything fits very well and not a lot of filler was needed. The only thing thats quite annoying,is all those different windows and door layouts the 767-300s have in airline service.I found out about 4 ! different layouts throughout my builds... But thats not the kits fault. I really like the Revell 767,and I recently bought 2 of the Chelsea Rose release as well as another 1991 Lauda kit.I still have some decals for the 767... Painted with Revell,Gunze and Tamyia paints. Revell 371 for the grey upper fuselage,Tamyia Royal blue for the lower part and engines. Gunze 315 for the light grey on the wings and a mix of Tamyia 56 and 66 for the corogard panels.Clear coated with Gunze Premium clear. I am planning on building most of the BA fleet in the Landor livery as I think this was one of the smartest and most elegant liveries ever designed.There are still a few types needed to add,so this will be a story to be continued... Cheers Alex Next up in line in the next days are Gulf Air 767-300 LTU SÜD 767-300ER LAUDA 767-300ER QANTAS 767-300 Special Livery

I started this project in a Group Build of French aircraft in a German Flugzeugforum and today it is finished. The Nord 262 is a small commuter Aircraft which entered service in 1964. The kit is a typical Resin kit by F-RSIN with not much detail and some sanding and filling work required. Antennae, rudder levers and the typical pitot tubes had to be scratch built. Two Decal versions are provided and as I found both of them attractive, I attached both. In reality these are TWO aircraft. I hope you like this little french aircraft in service with a french airline. Thanks for watching! Norbert

Hello everybody. First, many thanks to Brad for organizing this GB . Also, my thanks to TonyW, rob Lyttle and JOCKNEY whose enthusiasm for the Connie "helped" (you know what I mean, guys) me choose between two subjects I'm really fond of. So my entry is Revell's 1/144 Lockheed L.1049G Super Constellation in TWA markings. The most elegant airliner of all times IMHO (the Concorde ranking second). I decided on the TWA markings because they're intended for the "long nose" version I prefer and I will put the plane on a stand, gear up, to emphasize it's sleek silhouette. If I could rename this aircraft, I wouldn't call it Connie but Gal Gadot, that's for sure gentlemen (with all due respect to Mrs. Gadot). It's a time of firsts, as it's my first participation in a GB, first airliner ever and first 1/144 kit. Let's be honest, I chose a simple kit as I intend it to be a mojo restorer. Also, as usual, it shall be done OOB and as per instructions. Now let's have a look at the box and its contents. Side-opening box. One part off the sprues but no damage. I wish every manufacturer would do as Zvezda (recently?) does, meaning a really sturdy cardboard box that slides into a sleeve with the boxart on it. Small parts count, so really not much if the gear isn't attached. Plastic seems quite hard compared to let's say Airfix. No flaws - flash, sink marks - noted until now (moulds dating back to 2006/2007). Fine and consistently engraved panel lines. Clear parts are, well, .. clear. The decals are a bit thick. I told before there was too much carrier film but at second glance, that's not the case. I hope to give it a start as soon as tomorrow. Lots of folk and varied subjects in this GB, so I wish everyone lots of fun whether it be building or watching.

Afternoon all, Here is the Mach 2 1/72nd DC-8-50 that rolled off the production line this very afternoon. Released at the end of last year, I was really keen to get my hands on one of these kits as I love the DC-8 and this is the first injection-moulded kit in 1/72nd scale of an important piece of civil aviation history. Unfortunately Mach 2 kits don't come with the best reputation, but I'd never built one before so threw caution to the wind. I'm used to dealing with 'difficult' kits and I'm pleased to say this one didn't pose too many problems at all - it is just like you'd expect from a short-run injection moulded kit. I thought it might be useful for fellow builders to have a quick summary of my findings below: Cons: Typical short-run kit with no locating tabs and plenty of flash on the smaller parts; I found that the right stabiliser was 3mm too high on the starboard side and needed lowering - a quick an easy fix; The engine pylons were too deep on my example and the inboard engines almost touched the ground - 3mm was removed from each pylon and now the nacelles sit at the correct height; Transparencies needed a lot of work to get them clear; Fit was a bit dodgy in places, and don't expect to build this kit without the use of fillers. Pros: Panel detail appears accurate and well moulded; Shapes seem pretty good to my eye; Nicely detailed landing gear; Overall the build was fairly painless and it went together well; Nicely detailed flightdeck area; Engines are nicely done and look the part once assembled; Plastic is nice and thick and there's no need to additional interior bracing or the like; It's a 1/72nd scale injection-moulded DC-8! I used Halfords' automotive paints and has a custom set of decals printed by 8A decals to complete the build. All in all I really enjoyed this model and am pleased to finally have a decent DC-8 in my civvie collection. All the best, Tom

Here is my first build, the Dassault Mercure. It will be finished in Air Inter colours, who were the only operator of the type. The kit decals don't look to be that good, but I have a new set currently en route from F-DCAL. Dave

Fokker F.32 The Mighty Behemoths (Image from the SDASM photostream) Once in a while, to commemorate the Sanding Festival that was celebrated at the Shaolin Modeling Temple every time someone would complete a model, I build a Vacuformed Gentle Giant. Here you may see the Zeppelin Staaken: The HP42/45: The Blackburn Kangaroo: And the Sikorsky S.43, among others: Execuform subject choices are very exciting, and the Fokker F.32 is no exception. Execuform vacufomed kits are just a starting point for a modeling project. They do not provide details in the form or resin, metal parts or decals, although earlier issues did have white metal parts. They do provide the very basic parts you will need to build a model as clean slate. You may then add surface detail and accessories as much as you please or like. For me, and for many others like me, they provide the opportunity to build a model not represented by mainstream companies, and in doing so Execuform allows you to have in your case or on your shelf a replica of an out of the ordinary plane. I do build from time to time vacuformed kits, and I truly enjoy them. They give you the opportunity to learn, improvise and generally improve your modeling skills, besides the satisfaction of a more involving participation, beyond just gluing parts together. Since when I want a model of an out-of-the-ordinary plane it is more likely that I will have to scratchbuild it, I am grateful I have vacuformed kits around that reduce the building time considerably if the subject coincides with what I am looking for. I also in the process learn a lot about the plane, its history and details, since I have to fabricate many interior parts and exterior details, which I do with satisfaction and pleasure. And even in the case when there is an injected model of the subject, I may go vac, since for me it is far more exciting. Information on the Fokker F.32 is fortunately abundant, but you have to invest the time to find it. As a starting point have a look on the AAHS Journal of Spring 2012 article, the one on the Summer 1966 issue, and the online Flight Magazine archives. But always, always, always, cross-reference: the said AAHS Summer article has a photo of the interior of "Anthony Fokker cabin Air Yacht", that is actually the interior of an HP42, a very serious research blunder. There are photos and even drawings of that specific plane, NC342N. Beware that there were, as it is usually the case, differences between the seven machines built. The first one had only two vertical tails, and the elevator was balanced, plus the wheel pants were much clunkier than on later machines of the series. Following airframes had three vertical tails and an unbalanced elevator, and as said more kindly streamlined wheel pants. Details in the engine gondolas also varied, having different exhaust arrangements and in some cases a sort of Townend ring on the front engines. Back engines also seem to show in some photos some kind of cowling, although unusual and tighter. The Beast had four Pratt & Whitney R-1340 Wasp originally, later P&W R-1690 Hornet. The props of the four engines (two blades in front, three blades pushing in the back) rotated anticlockwise, if you were standing at the front of the respective engines, which means that standing in front of the airplane the back props will be seen rotating clockwise. The windows on top of the cabin were tinted green (according to a Flight magazine article). Wheel pants exhibit slightly different designs and surface patterns, besides the difference stated above. Interior arrangements also varied, depending upon company and service schedule (day or night, the latter offering sleeping bunks). One notorious Fokker F.32, the one used by Tony himself, had a very luxurious, unconventional interior. Wing was plywood-covered. Front tip of fuselage, cockpit sides and roof, engine nacelles and wheel pants were aluminum-covered. Most of the fuselage and tail were fabric-covered. Doors were located on both sides of the fuselage. Landing lights also varied. One was located in the chin of the nose, and two on the wings, although in some planes they are on the leading edges and in some others they are flat under the wing and deploy before landing, as they do nowadays. Why the F. 32 didn’t quite make it? It was born during the depression, had problems with overheating rear engines –a common situation on similar tandem arrangements, like the Farman F3X Jabiru and Farman F.220/2/3- and later suffered the “no wood wings” syndrome catalyzed by the publicized crash of the F.10 where famous coach Knute Rockne and others perished. It was also reportedly a bit tail heavy. But for sure it had other remarkable qualities: the number of passengers it could carry (32) and the comfort of its installations (ventilation, a galley, supple seats, lighting, two restrooms, wardroom, luggage compartment, and more). It was no doubt a precursor, a pioneer in its own right. They served basically for four years, from 1929 to 1932 and one ended up on Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles, as a gas station, but no doubt this 99’ span behemoth was a sight to behold. The F.32 was surely noisy and exposed to the whims of the weather, and yet I would travel on it any time, instead on the intolerably uncomfortable sardine cans of nowadays. In one way or another, the F.32 left its mark on aviation history, being one of the earlier giants of its time. Here are some newsreel clips that would give a good idea of the portly design: https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/video/men-push-airplane-away-from-hangar-pan-row-of-men-news-footage/1130782236 https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/video/fokker-f-32-passenger-plane-is-christened-as-several-news-footage/893312492 https://www.criticalpast.com/video/65675027465_men_F-32-Fokker-airplane_Men-stand_men-watch-the-plane https://www.criticalpast.com/video/65675027464_men_Fokker-stands-at-airport_men-gather_plane-takes-off A PDF in Spanish http://bibliotecavirtualdefensa.es/BVMDefensa/i18n/catalogo_imagenes/grupo.cmd?path=68203 Of the seven machines built, and in order to study my potential choices for a specific scheme, I started to group references for the prototype, NC124M, and the machine furnished in luxury for Fokker, NC342N. A very interesting detail found during research is that one of the prototype's characteristics was a twin vertical tail, whilst the series machines had three. Photos of the prototype show it bare, then with a Universal Air Lines scheme, then with an earlier Western Air Express one, and as it happens, I found an image of the prototype with three vertical tails in a completely different scheme, of which unfortunately not all the lettering can be read, but it states "Inauguration of the N.Y.N.H.& H Through Havan...", "The Everglades" and some obscured additional text. The acronym seems to belong to New York & New Haven & Hartford Railroad Co., perhaps one of those plane-railroad joint ventures. Link to image: https://www.ebay.com/itm/8x10-Print-Fokker-F32-Airliner-1930-Boston-Airport-2203/201080125367?hash=item2ed14f37b7:g:Ec4AAOSwtC1dt2Xy Not sure I would call the F.32 a beauty, as this publicity suggest, but I could call it "interesting": Here is what you get: I would perhaps scratch the vertical stabilizers, as it may take less time than sanding and shaping them: The plastic is thick, something you need for this specific model: Again, you only get the very basic shapes:

(notice that the drawing has the American Airlines legend on the nose, which no photo I have shows for this plane. The instructions and decals have it right, though) The stocky and rather ungainly appearance of the Vultee V-1A is balanced by the impression of power and compactness it gives. Fast and rugged, with a characteristic forward-slanting windshield, its general lines having a portly look. One of the Vultees was modified as a seaplane, and sold to Russia, and I have modeled that plane using the Execuform vacuformed kit, some time ago: The Vultee lines are vaguely similar to other comparable planes of the time, like the Lockheed Orion, Clark GA-43 and Northrop Delta. Capable of carrying two crew members and eight passengers in relative comfort, it was used by airlines as well as private owners, among the latter William Randolph Hearst, the newspaper tycoon, reputedly depicted in Orson Welles' "Citizen Kane". The Special Hobby kit has been in the market for a while, laudably also in a civil guise, which is the one I purchased. The kit decal options are nice: American Airlines, Lady Peace (more like an afterthought since it's not depicted in the instructions) flown by Merrill and Richman over the Atlantic, an oil company executive transport, and one of the American Airlines machines in which Jimmy Doolittle established a record (sponsored by Shell, whose logo was added to the plane). Some of them need a different interior, a fact not contemplated by the kit makers. Lady Peace needs long-range tanks and exterior modifications (window arrangement, RDF antenna, engine, etc.), and others had an executive interior (the oil company hack). Pay attention to the exhaust plumbing which is different in some planes -most likely tied to the type of engine used) and at least one machine had different L.G. doors (Vultee NO A-181). For the adventurous modelers, other possible civil schemes are Alaska Airways, Frank Fuller's plane, one that went to México (only a couple of not very satisfying photos on the Net), United Gas System, Spirit of Pueblo, Sierra Aviation, Canadian Colonial Airways (CF-AWC) (This should be CF-AWQ, as correctly pointed out by Roger Holden below), and some others. All the kit options were considered but discarded since I decided to represent the Hearst machine, which was overall gold with stylized elements in red, plus the logos of the San Francisco and Los Angeles Examiners, owned by him. I became curious about Hearst after watching, more than once, that remarkable movie -cited above- that is Citizen Kane. A few years ago I visited Hearst Castle in the California coast, a perfect example of all the taste money can't buy, a monument to cultural pillage and appropriation rendering a remarkable kitsch result. In any case, the plane landed in Hearst's private airstrip at his property, as well as other of his planes and the planes of notable and famous guests. Do not be tricked by the Lady Peace that is in a museum, which is not the original machine but actually Hearst's. If you are representing Lady Peace, there are contemporary drawings of the different interior, and rather base your model on photos than on the reworked, repainted museum example that is, like some museums examples, an absolutely meritorious effort, but not necessarily accurate. The kit, as many kits, needs some details added, which will be dealt with during the construction stages. Since parts of the kit are shared with the militarized version, unfortunately you have to close with a lid a hole on the spine of the fuselage, that will keep you busy trying that the seam doesn't show on the finished model. Being a luxury model, Hearst's plane had six reclining seats (instead of eight) and a full bathroom (instead of the standard one), as well as better radio and navigation systems. The engine was more powerful too. One Vultee V-1A even participated in the 1936 Transcontinental Air Race (decals in the kit) with number "B3", obtaining a third place, whereas the first and second were obtained by women. Here is the roster, juts for the sake of detail: 1. Thaden and Noyes -Beech C-17R NR-15835 2. Laura Ingalls -Lockheed Orion NR-14222 3. William Gulick -Vultee V-1A NR-14255 The prototype X12293, of smaller airframe, is distinguishable because of its different landing gear covers, rounded rudder where it meets the fuselage tailcone, different exhausts and in most photos a three-blade prop. It went to American Airlines. Many long but fruitful hours of research led me to an article in Air Magazine #18, an old Aero Digest April 1933 article, Aviation April 1933, Popular Aviation August 1934, Air Classics, Paul Matt Scale Airplane Drawing Volume 2, pages on Flight Magazine, and other sources. I would like to commend Special Hobby/Azur/etc. on the release of refreshing civil planes. The kit moldings, though, were meant to cover a number of variants, not all civil. This, we know, helps with the manufacturer's costs and revenue, and provides modelers with more options, but at the cost of a burden put on the modeler to deal with some fixes. As mentioned above, there is an opening on the fuselage spine that doesn't apply to any of the civil versions presented in this boxing. There is a cover to deal with it, and the surrounded area has to be sanded and re-engraved to delete any traces of the paneling of the military version from it. The pesky ejector towers should be removed from wings and fuselage interior. There is some minor thin flash in many parts, mostly easily cleaned, though. As it is the rule with this type of kit there are no locating pins, and the ridges molded to indicate where parts go inside the fuselage are a bit vague. There are some butt-joints that will need securing. The fit of assemblies that come in halves (fuselage, engine cowl) is again imprecise and will need some adjusting and a little persuasion (one half is a tad smaller than the other, creating a ridge). A full interior is provided, although somewhat basic and as said above, not accurate for some of the versions. The drawings in the instructions are not bad, but they sin -yet once again as it is common with this type of kit- of imprecision. Where, exactly, goes the floor? above that faint ridge? below it? against it? and the bulkhead? On that ridge molded on the fuselage sides? behind it? before it? and the cockpit floor? and so forth for other parts. "More or less there" "Try and you will find out" "Oops, may be not there" could be the calls for the drawings. The sprues: Some details: Nice surface detail, more consistent than the general short-run kit: Bagged decals, resin bits, canopy: I was elated that for a change the resin parts did not come pre-broken. I noticed this difference between exhausts:

Hello Everyone; For those of you already follow construction stages on my Instagram account, as of today, I finally finished 1/144 Revell Boeing 767-300 Asiana. Construction adventure took more than 20 weeks but happy with the result. Some scratch built details added like anti collision s, engine vortex generators. For the paints, Xtracolor X309 Asiana buff (which is by far the worst paint ever used in terms of pigmentation) used for upper section. Lower section of the fuselage painted with Mr. Color C316 white, wings and horizontal stabilizers painted with MRP Boeing Grey, coroguard panels painted with Alclad dark aluminium. Model clear coted 4 layers of GX112. Decals from Liveries Unlimited are excellent considering they are 25 years old! Thank you for looking. Any comments and feedback are greatly appreciated. Greetings from Frankfurt Prost!

Maybe I am blind but I don't seem to be able to find any information on making winglets for airliners. I know that I have to start by cutting a triangle of plasticard and filing it into shape but the part evading me is getting the bend in the base of the winglet where it joins the end of the wing. Any ideas, tips, or secrets gratefully received.

Here is the model completed in its National Parks Airways livery, not at all a casual choice. National Parks are not real estate for sale. The model was modified as you can see in the building post here: http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/235026972-modified-boeing-247-williams-bros-172nd/& by the addition of a restroom, cargo area and door, more bulkheads, nose cargo area and hatch, pilots hatch, some cabin detail, and other details, plus of course commissioning a special set of marks from Arctic Decals. I am really fond of the 30´s appearance that the forward-raked windshield provides, so I went for that variant. Many hours were spent searching the Net, reading references, sorting out details and looking at photographs. Modelers should be a bit more skeptic and proactive if they want a more accurate model. The venerable Williams Bros issue is still a workable platform -if of course showing its age-, and again I thank good friend, fellow modeler and ebil genius Sönke Schulz from Volkania* for gifting the kit. *His address: Ze Lair Volcanic Region German Transsylvania Since Sönke gifted the kit, he insisted in having an official "model completed" ceremony with the attendance of the Volkania Sturm und Drang band:

Bristol Britannia/Canadair CP-107/Argus & CC-106 Yukon – Warpaint #125 Guideline Publications The Britannia began development during the final days of WWII in an attempt by the British aero-industry to regain some of the lost experience in building civilian and cargo aircraft, having specialised in fighting aircraft for over 5 years. It was to use Turboprop engine that were in their early days, leading to some delays, but it was also affected by the problems occurring with the De Havilland Comet, that led to the requirement for thorough and lengthy testing of the design to avoid similar issues that otherwise might not show themselves until after entry into service. The end result was the delay of the type reaching service until 1957, by which time the aircraft’s formerly impressive speed and range advantages had been lost to overseas competition. Only 85 Britannias were made, with Canadair adding to the total with the maritime reconnaissance Argus using the wings and some of the other parts, but with a substantial Americanising of the inner workings to facilitate easy maintenance and fulfil their role. The Yukon was also based on the Britannia with lengthened fuselage, cargo doors and hinged tail for easy access for larger loads, and Rolls-Royce engines. This book is by author Charles Starfrace and covers the birth and development of the airframe in much more detail, as well as providing tons of excellent pictures of many airframes both in military and civilian service, some of which are in colour due to their being contemporary shots, plus 1:144 plans of the 300 series and profiles in the centre, penned by John S Fox. There are also profiles showing the Yukon, Argus and Guppy, which was a one-off conversion to increase the cargo load in the same manner as the Super Guppy and Beluga. The book is in the usual Warpaint format of portrait A4(ish) with a soft card cover and 60 pages plus additional content printed on the four glossy pages of the covers. A short introduction details the birth of the type and its subsequent variants and Canadair types. RAF Britannia Tribute Britain and transport aircraft from 1939 The Bristol Aeroplane Company Bristol Type 175 and Proteus Problems at Filton Building the Britannia The Britannia enters service with airlines Britannias for the Royal Air Force Britannias kept busy Post-RAF service The Canadair models Canadair CP-107 Argus RCAF Lancasters and Neptune P2V7s The “All Seeing” Argus Argus Electronics Argus enters service Profiles x 3 Britannia Series 300 1:144 Plans Profiles x 3 Was the Argus nuclear-capable? Operational history of the CP-107 Argus The Argus’s tasks expand Arctic patrols and Exercises The 1970s – the Argus’’s swan song Canadair CC-106 Yukon The civilian “Swingtail” CL-44D-4 Not on Canadian Air Force markings Profiles x 3 The civilian Britannia gallery Bristol Britannia in Detail Profiles x 9 CP-107 Argus detail page The pages include a lot of useful pictures with informative captions of aircraft on the apron, on the runway and even with the tail folded in the middle of swallowing a stripped-down F-104 Starfighter, with appropriate photos and drawings dotted around. In the short "In Detail" section there are many close-up photos with some items numbered that will be a boon to modellers as well as people that like to know what everything does. There are several kits of the Britannia available in the smaller scales due to the overall size of the type, including Roden, 26 Models and F-Resin in 1:144, and Mach 2 in 1:72 for those who dare. Sadly, there are no kits for the Yukon or Argus, so you'd be left to scratchbuild or convert a Britannia, which would be fun! Conclusion The Warpaint series always gets a thumbs-up due to their inability to produce a bad one. This is an excellent book that will see plenty of use by anyone interest in, or building on of these early post-war airliner/cargo aircraft. Very highly recommended. Review sample courtesy of

This small early French airliner is now completed, it was among the firsts to provide restroom facilities for its passengers. It serviced a line that went from France to North Africa stopping on the way in Spain. It shows that undeniable charm of these pioneers, a bit ungainly but well-proportioned, that make them so attractive. Typical of many designs of the time, the cockpit (and pilot) are located in the aft fuselage exposed to the elements, while passengers traveled in relative comfort in an enclosed and fairly well-appointed cabin. It provided service for a time, but did not reach the popularity or production of other later Latécoère designs that will make themselves and their pilots famous, most notably in South America. Nevertheless, and considering that this was 1921, it its no doubt among the harbingers of the typical small airliner designs that would follow. The WiP can be visited here:

I'm not sure if this can fall under the category of scale modelling in the forum since technically this wasn't built from a kit, but I figure it uses the same subset of skills to do. The Airbus A330-300 is a twin-aisle airliner designed and built by Airbus. Having first flown in 1992 and developed in parallel with the longer-range Airbus A340, the A330 is a prominent aircraft model in the widebody short-to-long-haul market, and has recently been updated with a successor model, the A330neo. This model depicts an A330-300 of Cathay Pacific Airways, registration B-HLV, in the older Brushwing livery. It's a snap-fit model by Hogan Wings in 1/200 that used to be in the livery of Saudi Arabian Airlines. Here are the photos: For comparison, here's a Before/After: I detailed some of the processes in making it in the thread here, although I wasn't really able to update it all the way through: This was painted with mostly Tamiya acrylics and MRP lacquers, with Alclad Aqua gloss being the final clearcoat. I designed the decals myself although some of them came from images of decals available online. Various modifications were made like the corrected tail fairing and added antennas and domes. I decided to keep the weathering very light this time around because in my experience it's very easy to overdo it in 1/200 scale. In terms of this kind of restripping work the model itself made the work very straightforward and easy. The breakdown of parts meant that I could easily paint components separately and leave fragile parts off until the end of the build, much like with actual model kits. And because the model is for the most part pre-built and designed to have a snug fit rather than needing glue, there was little to no body work or sanding and filling involved. The most difficult part of the project was mostly the painstaking work involved with sizing and optimizing the decals over and over again to make sure it fit on this specific model, and so I would definitely recommend this kind of work as an in-between in scale model kit assembly and buying a pre-made kit model, and the possibilities are many with the large quantity of available snap-fit models in 1/200 scale. Although not as finely detailed as injection-molded scale model kits, the detail is sufficient in my opinion to fit in a collection of Hasegawa kits, for example. And with the relative rarity of cheap A330 kits available, Hogan Wings' plastic snap-fits are a very reasonable compromise. And another interesting detail to note with Hogan Wings models in particular is that parts are included to display the model with the wheels up or with landing gear. This means that they can be left off from the model until the end of the build or entirely and it makes painting a lot easier. Thanks for reading!