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  1. Boeing 707-336C, BOAC - 1/144 Authentic Airliners with 26 Decals I've long wanted a BOAC Boeing 707 in my collection, but the old Airfix kit just doesn't come up to scratch, so I took the plunge and bought the beautiful Authentic Airliners resin kit. It's far and away the best 707 on the market. I've had it a while on the workbench, as I then wanted to also do it in Pan Am colours, the indecision leading to it sitting almost complete in primer for 10 years! It is the early AA release with a 3 part fuselage, but went together beautifully. The decals are from 26Decals and were absolutely superb, a real pleasure to apply to the model. The windows are also from Authentic Airliners decals. It is G-AXGX, a 707-336 Combi with large freight door and Pratt & Whitney JT3D engines as opposed to the RR Conways that powered BOAC's initial 707 deliveries. I remember seeing these at Heathrow back in the day, aahhh nostalgia, nothing today can touch the classy look of these old airline liveries! Now I'll have to crack on with that Roden Super VC-10 in the same livery to park alongside it! Thanks for looking, John
  2. 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
  3. The Boeing 720 was introduced in July 1957 as a derivative of the Boeing 707 for shorter connections and shorter runways. The first 720 flew in November 1959 and it entered service with United Airlines in July,1960. A total of 154 planes were built until 1967. The 720 plane had rather low development costs which allowed profitability despite fewer sales. The 720 was 2.54 metres shorter than the 707, it had a a modified wing and a lightened airframe for a lower maximum takeoff weight. The initial 720’s were powered by P&W JT3C-7 turbojets and the plane would cover a range of 5,200 km with 116 passengers in two classes. I built my 1/144 scale Boeing 720 from a good quality and well detailed Roden kit, The fit of the parts was good and there was only some sanding and filling to be done. Despite the overall positive quality of the kit there was an unfortunate error i.e. the engines were clearly out of scale (the length was 5 mm. longer and the hight some 2 mm. bigger than the correct 1/144 scale dimensions). Therefore I decided to buy the JT3C-7 resin engines from Authentic Airliners, instead. The kit had decals for United Airlines’ livery. However, I decided to get me the more detailed and colourwise better Vintage Flyer Decals for the same scheme. The cockpit windows and the vortex generators are from Authentic Airliner decals. I also added the pitot tubes, the antennas and the beacons that I found from my spares box. I painted the fuselage white with Tamiya Fine Surface primer and sprayed it then with Tamiya rattle can clear gloss varnish. The metal areas were first covered with Tamiya gloss black spray and then airbrushed with Alclad aluminium.
  4. This is the fourth Caravelle I've built and this time around the beauty is in the livery of SAS. It seems that I can't get rid of my love affair with Caravelles. It's possible (or even probable) that this won't be my last Caravelle build. IMHO it's simply the most elegant jet airliner ever built and the nostalgic 1960-70's liveries suit the contours of the plane perfectly. As before I built the model from an Authentic Airliners' excellent resin kit with laser printed SAS decals from F-DCAL. Each SAS Caravelle was christened with a viking name and the decal sheet gave choices for 21 different Swedish, Danish and Norwegian names and registrations. Well I just couldn't resist the temptation and I decided to build LN-KLI or "Einar Viking" 🙂 For the livelier cockpit and cabin windows I ordered decals from AA decals. The assembly of the plane was straightforward without any problems. Detaching some smaller parts from the resin molding blocks can be tricky, though. The most difficult are probably the small and fragile jet intake blades. I primed the model with Mr.Hobby's 1200 surfacer and painted first the wings and stabs with Tamiya gloss black from rattle can. The white areas were then painted with Tamiya's Fine surface primer coated with Tamiya's gloss varnish spray. For the metal areas I used Alclad aluminium. I also added some details of my own to the model.
  5. The plan and goal in developing the Boeing 757 was to replace the already ageing Boeing 727. The new plane type made its maiden flight in 1982 and during the next 12 years some 1.050 pieces of Boeing 757 were built in two different versions. In their fleet Finnair operated seven longer fuselage Boeing 757-200's powered by Pratt & Whitney 2000 engines. These planes were mainly used for chartered holiday flights and I also flew a couple of times with them to Madeira and to the Canary islands. The planes’ seating was normally very cramped and the Finnish holidaymakers gave the Boeing 757 the nasty nickname ”the guinea pig cage 🙂 I built the model from an excellent Authentic Airliners resin kit in 1/144 scale. There were no problems in assembling the model; only a bit of sanding and putty here and there was needed but nothing special worth mentioning. I bought decals for the the Finnair livery from Draw Decal and the cockpit window decals from Authentic Airliners. The corogard and stencil decals are from Flying decals. I painted the white areas of the model with Tamiya Fine surface primer coated with Tamiya gloss varnish spray TS-13. The gray areas in the wings and stabs were paint brushed with Xtracolor X150 (Canadian voodoo grey). I also used various Humbol and Vallejo paints for details.
  6. I built a model of the Finnair DC-10-30 a couple of years ago. The plane has always had a special place in my heart. Many times in the 1980's I flew with the DC-10's to Spain and to the USA . In my opinion it's the meanest and beefiest looking airliner the Finnish flag carrier have operated during their long history. Finnair were also the first airline that started direct flights from Western Europe to Japan via the North Pole. These planes were equipped with additional fuel tanks i.e. DC-10-30 ER (Extended Range) The maiden flight of the DC-10 took place in October,1970 and the manufacture of the plane type ended in 1988. A total of 446 these three-holers were built and some 40 airlines used the plane. The last scheduled flights were flown with it by Bangladesh Biman in 2014. I built the 1/144 scale DC-10-30 model from an excellent Authentic Airliners resin kit. There were no problems in building the model and only a bit of file and putty was needed. Out of the five Finnair's DC-10's I chose the one registered OH-LHB. The decals I used were from F-DCAL. Additionally, I ordered decals for the cockpit and cabin windows from Authentic Airlines. The coroguards, stencils and engine details are from Nazca decals and the turbine hub spirals from Skyline decals. I painted the white fuselage with Tamiya Fine Surface primer coated with Tamiya gloss varnish spray. The multiple shade metal areas were painted with AK Xtreme aluminium and Vallejo metal paints.
  7. Airbus A300 was the first twin-engine wide-body airliner manufactured by the European consortium Airbus Industrie. The plane had its maiden flight in October 1972 and since then a total of 552 units were built. Finnair leased two Airbus A300B4's during 1986-98 and for some time they flew chartered flights to Southern European holiday resorts in the livery of Kar-Air (who were at the time a subsidiary of Finnair). I had always wanted to build an A300B4 in the livery of Kar-Air which IMHO looked much more elegant than the Finnair scheme. Since in the aftermarket there were no decals available for that livery I asked my friend Laurent Herjean of F-RSIN if he could print me the decals. Well, he answered yes and now, in addition to me, there are a dozen of other Finnish modellers who have ordered those decals from him. The kit is from Authentic Airliners in 1/144 scale. It's excellent as usual with perfect details and very good fit and there were no problems in building the model. In addition to the livery decals I ordered the cockpit and cabin decals from Authentic Airliners. I found out one curious thing concerning the cabin widows namely that the window row between the last two rear doors rises slightly upwards. This really beats me but the pictures and the cabin decals confirm this fact. Could somebody tell me the reason for this strange solution. I painted the white fuselage with Tamiya Fine surface primer which I then coated with Tamiya gloss varnish spray TS-13. The wings and stabs were painted with Xtracolor X137 Canadian Voodoo grey and the coroguard with Xtracolor X5 (RAF extra dark sea grey). The metal surface of the engines was painted with Alclad Polished Aluminium.
  8. This is my model of the Dutch manufactured short-range jet airliner Fokker F28-1000 Fellowship. The plane made its maiden flight in May, 1967 and during the next twenty years total of 241 Felloships were built. The first airline to operate the plane was the Norwegian "Braathens S.A.F.E." (= South America and Far East) The company had a total of six Fellowships in their fleet. One of them crashed in December, 1972 near the Fornebu airport (the old airport of Oslo) because of navigational error. Afterwards the company decided to delete the somewhat misleading abbreviation SAFE. I built the model from a 1/144 scale Authentic Airliners resin kit. The Braathens livery decals are from 26Decals and the cockpit/cabin window decals from Authentic Airlines. Building the kit was straightforward without any problems. I sprayed the upper side of the fuselage with Tamiya Fine surface primer which I then covered with Tamiya clear gloss spray. The underside of fuselage and the wings were then painted with Mr. Hobby grey 1000 primer. Since the primer was of the right grey shade I covered it with the Tamiya Clear gloss spray, as well. For the smaller details I also used Humbrol enamels and Vallejo acrylics.
  9. IMHO the most beautiful jet airliner of all times is the Caravelle. In the 1960-80's they were widely used by various airlines, most of them European ones. For instance the Finnish flag carrier, Finnair operated several Caravelles of different types during 23 years. One of the Caravelle operators was Alitalia whose old livery looked very elegant (in my mind very much smarter than the airline's later green, white and red livery). I built the Alitalia Caravelle VI-N from the excellent Authentic Airliners 1/144 resin kit. The decals I ordered from 26Decals. The assembly of the resin kit was, as usual, straightforward and without any problems. However, the same cannot be said about the decals.The problem was the cockpit area where they didn't fit at all. The cheatline namely consists of horizontal white and blue lines that spread wider at the cockpit area. In order to get all the lines horizontal on the convex surface of the fuselage tip I had to cut each and every line off the decal and attach them one by one. In fact, I had to order another decal sheet from 26Decals to get the more material for the job. In the end I think I managed reasonably well. I painted the white areas of the fuselage with Tamiya fine surface primer which I then sprayed with Tamiya gloss varnish TS-13. The metal areas I primed with Tamiya gloss black TS-14 and sprayed with Vallejo metal colour-aluminium shade. For the landing gears, wheels, and smaller details I also used Humbrol enamels and Vallejo acrylics.
  10. Finnair have a history of 35 years in operating various DC-9 to MD-80 variants. The company started to use the short DC-9-14's in 1971 and the last long fuselage MD-82's went out of service in 2006. The growth in the size of the DC-9/MD-80 sub types during those years has been massive. The length grew by 13 metres, the wing span by 6 metres and the passenger capacity by almost 70 seats. In all, Finnair have been a very McDonnell-Douglas oriented airline throughout the years. Their fleet has consisted of DC-3, DC-6, DC-8, DC-9, DC-10, MD-80 and MD-11 planes. The only Boeings have been one 737-200 and seven 757-200's. The Airbusses have started to take over the Finnair fleet from 1999 onwards. I built the 1/144 scale DC-9-14 from an Authentic airliners resin kit with 26Decals livery set. The MD-82 is a Minicraft kit with Draw Decals markings.The both kits were of very good quality and in my opinion the Minicraft MD-82 is one of their best kits. One of the most interesting details I scratch built to the MD-82 was the odd looking splash guard of the front landing gear wheel that prevents foreign articles from flying into the engines. History has it that people have sometimes called the air controllers very worried because they saw that that some rubbish had been stuck to the front wheel of the plane
  11. I decided to model the Authentic Airlines 1/144 Convair CV-440 Metropolitan in the Finnish Karhumäki Airlines' livery. In the early 1950's the three Karhumäki brothers founded an airline called Karhumäki Airlines or Kar-Air. The company first operated four DC-3's followed later by two brand new Convair CV-440 Metropolitans. Kar-Air's operations consisted of chartered holiday flights and scheduled domestic traffic and for a long time they were the biggest competitor of Finnair. Later their fleet further grew with a DC-6B, a DC-8-51, an Airbus A300 and ATR 72s. Eventually, Kar-Air were taken over by Finnair in 1996. BTW, if you ever happen to fly to Málaga airport in Spain you could pop into the next door aviation museum. Among other interesting things there is on display a CV-440 Metropolitan painted in Kar-Air's livery (that's probably because Kar-Air's Convair Metropolitan reg. OH-VKN was the very first airliner to land at the inauguration of the new Málaga civilian airport in October, 1959). There were no difficulties in building the kit. Since AA do not include any instructions in their kits I had to dig up info from the net concerning the positioning of the multiple photoetch details. I also scratch built a lot of additional details to the model. My wife also contributed to the construction by giving me a strand of her hair for the antenna wire I also had to drill a deep hole in the resin tip of the fuselage and fill it with a lot of weight (lead fish sinkers) to prevent the plane from being a tail sitter. The hole was then closed with a separate radar dome. The kit includes long and short domes as separate parts. The excellent Kar-Air decals I ordered from the Finnish company Arctic Decals. As usual, I painted the upper fuselage with white Tamiya Fine Surface Primer which was then sprayed with Tamiya Clear gloss rattle can varnish. The metal parts were covered with Alclad white aluminium. For the smaller details I also used Humbrol enamels and Vallejo acrylic colours. Convair CV-440 Metroplitan in Kar-Air's livery at the Málaga aviation museum. Actually it's not the very plane, reg. OH-VKN that was the first to land at the newly inaugurated civillian airport. Additionally, the radar dome is not of the right shape, it's too pointed. When visiting the museum I was, however, told that a correct shaped long nose is under construction.
  12. I have always liked the Convair 990 Coronado. The big anti-shock bodies in the wings and the long dorsal fin containing avionics gave the Coronado its typical and original looks. In the 1970's I flew a couple of times with the plane in Spantax's colours to the Canary Islands. The flight time was considerably shorter than with other airliners. Coronado was and I understand still is the fastest subsonic jet airliner of the world with a maximum speed of 1000 km/h I built the CV-990 in Swissair's livery from the excellent Authentic Airliners 1/144 resin kit. I ordered the decals from F-RSIN. IMHO this combination is very elegant. As to the modelling of the plane there were no problems and the smaller parts, especially the landing gears were very detailed. I painted the white areas with Tamiya fine surface primer which I then sprayed with Tamiya gloss varnish TS-13. The metal areas I primed with Tamiya gloss black TS-14 and sprayed with Vallejo metal colour-aluminium shade.
  13. This is my Delta Lockheed Tristar L-1011 in 1/144 scale. I have always liked the elegant Tristar in Delta's old livery. Actually, I prefer the elegant contours of this dolphin nosed three holer to its more rugged competitor, the McDonnell Douglas DC-10. I made the model from an Authentic airliners kit and the decals are from 26Decals. The kit is solid resin so it weighs quite a lot. Just in case the beast should kneel down, the main landing gears are of made of white metal
  14. This is my model of Aer Lingus Boeing 737-200. I especially like the Irish airline's colourful livery with the green upper fuselage and the white shamrock on the rudder. In its time this scheme must have been a breath of fresh air amongst the rather conservative white fuselages of the 1970 and 80's I built the model from an Authentic Airliners 1/144 scale kit. The decals I used are from 26Decals, Nazca decals and Authentic Airlines decals.
  15. This is my BAC Super One-Eleven I built some time ago. In my opinion the ”Negus” livery scheme used in British Airways planes in the 80’s was very elegant with the blue underside of the fuselage, the speed bird above cockpit and the Union Jack colours in the tail. I built the model from an Authentic Airliners 1/144 scale resin kit. The British Airways decals are from 26Decals. The cockpit and cabin window decals from Authentic Airliners.
  16. IMHO the Caravelle is the most beautiful airliner of all times. The elegant livery of Swissair suited the Caravelle III perfectly. It's a pity that both the plane and the airline have long ago disappeared from the skies. I built the model from a 1/144 scale Authentic Airliners resin kit with decals from F-DCAL and window decals from Authentic airliners.
  17. I modelled the The Pan Am Boeing 747SP from an Authentic Airliners 1/144 scale resin kit with the billboard decals from 26Decals and the cabin/cockpit windows from Authentic Airliners decals. As always, the quality of the AA kit was excellent and the 26Decals went on very well without difficulties. The white part of the fuselage is Tamiya Fine surface primer covered with Tamiya clear gloss spray. The metal areas were painted with Alclad polished aluminium and the light grey parts with Xtracolor Canadian voodoo grey X150 On October 30, 1977 Pan Am made history when the Boeing 747SP "New Horizons" N533PA completed an amazing around the world flight over both the North and South Pole in a record 54 hours, 7 minutes. Named ‘Pan Am Flight 50’ this amazing flight was a celebration of the 50th anniversary of the airline. The flight started at San Francisco with three stopovers, in London, Cape Town and Auckland. New Horizons is in fact the very same plane (N533PA) that I have modelled. For some curious reason, when painting the plane with the new billboard livery the company also changed the name of the aircraft to "Clipper Young America". However, they kept the image "Flight 50" on the fuselage.
  18. G-BNNL was delivered to Dan-Air (hence the designation 4Q8 rather than 436) in Jan 1989 and acquired by British Airways in Nov 1992. In March 1995 ownership was transferred to BA's franchise partner GB Airways. In the late 1990s it was painted in the "Chelsea Rose" variant of the "World Image" tail designs as seen in this model built from the Daco 737-400 kit. Main paints used are Halfords Appliance White & Fiat Capri Blue, with various metal shades on the engines. Livery decals from F-Dcal, windows from Authentic Airliners and leading edges and coroguard are kit decals. and finally a "tails" shot of my four BA 737s. The other three were built in the STGB last year but unfortunately the Chelsea Rose decals didn't arrive in time - so I was forced to visit Danny Coremans stall at Telford to get another kit for them. Regards Mike
  19. After a long hiatus I’m back. In fairness I started this model well over 12 months ago but due to a recurring loss of mojo, it kept returning to the shelf of doom for what seemed like an eternity! When I did eventually go back to it in earnest I intended to finish it in the PIA delivery scheme, however this scheme proved to be particularly challenging! Unhappy with my efforts I ended up completely stripping the paint off it, not very successfully I may add. I briefly toyed with an doing an Air Florida machine, but quickly moved onto something a little simpler as by this point I just wanted it finished. Anyhow here is the eventual end result, Iberia’s second DC-10 - christened ‘Costa Dorada’ after the north eastern Catalonian costal region. The decals are by 26 decals, with the Authentic Airliner Decals providing the flight deck and cabin windows. The obligatory Halfords Appliance white, and Racking grey were used straight out of the rattle can for the airframe. As a interesting footnote the real aircraft featured paintings by the Spanish surrealist artist Salvador Dali in the passenger cabin!
  20. This is the Authentic Airliners 1/144 scale MD-11. Anyone who has built an AA model can testify that this is not an average model, nor do they take a routine process to finish. The solid resin casts present unique issues that are challenging in their own right, but with patience and persistence return great reward. This is my first AA build. I’ve wanted to build an MD-11, in particular the AA kit, and thoroughly enjoyed learning a “new” process that took me outside of the usual “box” of model airliner building. I decided before beginning that I would finish her in the early Delta Air Lines “widget” livery, choosing in particular N801DE. This MD-11 began her life with Delta in 1992, outfitted with a cheat line stripe on her #2 tail mounted engine, which stood out as “different” than her sisters in the fleet. I am not aware of any subsequent MD-11s at Delta that carried that cheat line. She led a distinguished life at Delta, flying from Atlanta to Osaka, Brussels, London, Frankfurt, among many others, as well as some domestic routes. At some point, she was painted in the newer Delta “stripe” scheme before she was retired and stored for a while at Montreal. She began flying again for World Airways, Ethiopian Airlines, then again for World, and finally ending up at UPS, where she was outfitted in 2008 as an MD-11F. She STILL flies today as a freighter! In fact, as I write this biography, she is actually (in real time) flying as N294UP (under UPS livery) from Dallas-Ft. Worth to Ontario, California! She's painted with Tamiya TS-26 white, Alclad Chrome and Duraluminum, household enamel that was blended especially for the wings and fuselage fairings. I used 26 laser printed decals for the livery and some of the details, Authentic Airliners 3D windows and details, some Nazca decal details, and .06mm red model train lenses for position and navigation lights. Hope you enjoy the pictures! There is detailed post in WIP of the building process of the model…you can access it here:
  21. I have many projects on the go, but at the moment paining is on the back burner as I’m awaiting to finish turning the loft into the shed of the sky, so have nowhere to spray/airbrush. Anywho, I thought I’d try my hand at the world of resin. I ordered a Authentic Airliners 757, with RR engines. I’ve started basic work on the tail. I must say I love the detail of resin. While looking into the scheme I plan on doing, I noticed I needed to change the engines, thankfully braz do the ones I needed, so ordered Braz RR RB211 535c. This may be a slow project as I’m new to resin any tips and advice be grand! and yes in the background is a 1-11 I’m slowly working on, I’m a fan of old airliners and old kits.
  22. I present my Zvezda A321 in the delightful Egyptair livery SU-GBT. It’s a simple, yet sophisticated looking livery that they adopted in 2008. The build was OOB, with the aftermarket decals supplied by Ray at 26Decals and Authentic Airliner Cockpit and Cabin Decals. One thing I do like with the Zvezda Airbus kits is that they have the correct scale for the winglets, which saves having to make your own or purchase some from Braz. As with my other Zvezda kits the fit is excellent and only minimal filling is required, it even comes with the clear windows which are ok, but are incredibly thin. It also, like the A320 kit, has the option to have the flaps/slats extended and also to have the L1 door open with a detailed internal FWD Galley area. There is also a detailed cockpit, but I opted for filling the windscreen and using the AA decals. Being an all over white fuselage and engine nacelles, this was achieved using Halfords White Rattle Can Primer and then brush painted using Humbrol Gloss White. The wings and horizontal stabilisers are Revell Aqua 371 and my own mix of lightened Revell Aqua 374 for the coroguard sections with Revell Aqua 99 leading edges. I initially used the ‘blacked’ out windows, and then went over them with the AA ones after falling in love with them while building my Qatar 787. Luckily they aligned ok over the old ones, to avoid damaging the ‘main’ decals trying to remove them. Hopefully I have managed to bring her to life a little. Right enough waffling on now, as always thank you for taking the time to read and have a look. Any constructive feedback and comments are always welcomed. Regards, Alistair
  23. Finally took the plunge last fall and spent a small fortune on a 1/144 scale Authentic Airliners MD-11, and I am so glad I did...worth every penny! I began the build soon after arrival, and wanted to bring everyone in on the process. This entire build is being chronicled carefully, as I will eventually write a detailed booklet as to "how I built this." So jump in, and here we go..... Upon opening the box, the kit is carefully packed and separated for easy inventory. Though my kit was packed well, it still had a couple of minor "rashes" that required some small repair, but nothing that was a show stopper. I did contact Kurt at AA with the complaints, and he promptly answered with an offer to replace anything that was defective or not to my satisfaction. Much appreciated, and a true demonstration of the quality that the kit represents. The fuselage is one cast piece, and very heavy, with enough nose weight not to cause worry when it sits on the metal main landing gear. The wings and horizontal stabilizer are also one piece, with acute details that are precisely cast. There are a few small parts, such as flap hinge fairings, the hot and fan sections of the engines, all landing gear struts and actuators, and two small clear nav lights for the wings. Not to worry...they ARE different sizes to match the mismatched cuts in each wing. I did not use these, but rather fashioned my own nav light lenses. There are large flashings on the tail piece and the hot and fan sections that need trimming with a sharp cutting tool. Wear a mask when cutting or trimming or sanding! The dust from the resin can be most irritating. She's being finished in the "widget" livery, as one of the earliest MD-11 deliveries to Delta Air Lines. I'm using Tamiya gray surface primer, Tamiya TS-26 white paint, Alclad black primer, Duraluminum and Chrome finishes, 26 Decals, and Authentic Airliners MD-11 detail, 3D windows, raised detail sheets, and high shine metallic decals. At the completion, she'll be posted in the Ready For Inspection forum, with a detailed history of the real airplane. Hope you enjoy..... I began with the trimming and securing of the tail piece. Really a good fit together, after drilling a small trench to hold the epoxy. Then came putty and sanding to make it all flush..... Next the engine work... During the process of working with the hot sections, one of the small tabs broke off, so I had to fashion a new one. Small and tedious work... Once painted and assembled, I did NOT like the result, so I stripped the engines down, and started over.... And the engines finished.... And assembling the tail.... The winglets, wings, and horizontal stabilizers.... Small parts and gear... Fuselage work... Had to paint the nose because I knew for certain that the decal provided would not fit easily without cutting and coaxing, and would probably end up wrinkled anyway.... This weekend I've spent applying decals. I think she looks pretty good with her "clothes" on.... I'll post more soon...she coming along nicely. All that's left at this point is to attach the wings, horizontal stabilizers, gear, engines, then the photo etched parts. I can see the finish line!
  24. This is the last of my built AA models (hopefully more to come...time permitting?!?). For a change I thought I'd do a cargo version of the once ubiquitous 757. It represents an ex passenger model converted to freighter config for Ethiopian Cargo - hence the window outlines, but lack of passenger doors. The Ethiopian Airlines decals are by F-Dcal, with added Flying Colours corogard and leading edge decals. I also used the excellent Authentic Airliner decals flight deck windows. I made a bit of a hash of applying the corogard, as the leading edge decals appeared oversize,which in turn threw everything out. That'll teach me for being lazy and not painting the leading edges! That was the only faux pas in an otherwise pleasurable little build. On with the pics
  25. Here's my first offering for your perusal. To say this model was a disaster from start to finish is an understatement! The build started off well enough, however I made the fatal mistake of taking it with me to a hotel I was staying in with work, so I could to do bits and bobs on it in the evenings. Not sure how, but I lost/mislaid the PE fret, distinctive avionics spine, undercarriage legs, and wheels. Thankfully an Airfix/DACO A300 kindly donated its landing gear and horizontal stabilizers, as the one's supplied by AA appeared to be undersized - more appropriate for an A300-600/A310 (?) The engines that came with the AA offering were the early style GE CF6-50's, so I also used the DACO engines as they were a better representation the latter CF6's that powered the majority of the Alitalia A300 fleet. Unfortunately both wings were quite badly warped, and despite using a hairdryer, hot water,et al, to try and fix the problem - nothing would alter their alarming droop. This was something I was going to have to live with...or so I thought at the time. The next disaster that befell me happened whilst applying the beautifully printed Alitalia 26 Decals. When I tried manoeuvring them into position they disintegrated into numerous pieces, resulting in me having to (not very successfully) patch them up. In fairness I've never previously experienced any problems with 26 Decals. For the engine cowlings I decided I'd try using bright bare metal foil. This was the first time I'd used foil on a curved surface and to be honest it'll probably be my last, as I wasn't particularly happy with my effort. Thank goodness for metalizers! Then my grand finale - I dropped the model, not once, but twice!! At this point I gave serious consideration to binning the thing as it seemed jinxed. However I took a step back, left it for a few days then fixed up poor old 'Tizi' as best I could. As both wings had snapped off at exactly the point, they were reattached which miraculously partially cured the wing droop! Anyhow enough pratling, meet Tizano the terrible (aka the cursed build).
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